With a Focus on Comedy

Any modern film festival worth its salt needs to take in the broad sweep of cinema, from its loftier aspirations to its potential for just plain fun. The truism is part of the philosophy of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, a well-rounded affair that kicks off its 15th annual event tonight. Culturally, it looks high, and lower, from a strong contingent of foreign films and a retrospective tribute to Chinese director Zhang Yimou to an eye on “the Art of Comedy.”

Rim shots, please. In its celebration of comedy, the festival will toast established figures, with a Friday evening lifetime achievement award honoring Richard Pryor, a tribute to Whoopi Goldberg on March 9 and a March 11 tribute to producer-director Ivan Reitman.

The 11-day festival will unreel more than 100 films, including documentaries, shorts and world premieres. The festival also will host several industry-oriented seminars and present a Modern Master Award to Sir Anthony Hopkins on Saturday night at the Arlington Theater.

The Arlington is also the venue for tonight’s gala opening film, “The Big Kahuna,” with Kevin Spacey and Danny DeVito.

Whatever more esoteric avenues the festival traces, one message is clear: Hollywood is welcome here. Reitman, whose quarter-century directing filmography includes comic hits like “Meatballs,” “Stripes” and “Ghostbusters” (I and II), will be the subject of a this-is-your-life evening on March 11, including film clips; an interview led by longtime collaborator, screenwriter Len Blum; and a screening of Reitman’s 1993 film “Dave.”

Reitman Says He’s Going Back to Roots

Reitman has enough of a track record by now that tributes are starting to catch up to him, including fetes at the Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen and the Montreal Film Festival. “If you keep doing the same thing long enough, people sort of catch up to you,” Reitman, an amiable sort, reasons. Last week, Reitman spoke from the editing room, finishing up a new comedy he is producing, “Road Kill,” featuring young irreverent Canadian Tom Green and “American Pie’s” Seann Scott. “It’s college-based comedy,” says Reitman, whose producing resume also includes the Howard Stern film “Private Parts.” “I’m going back to my roots.”

There is a local angle to the Reitman tribute, as well. The Czech-born, Canada-raised producer-director has lived in Santa Barbara for several years and plans to build a post-production facility in nearby Carpinteria. The festival has an extra, coincidental familial connection in that his son, Jason, is also screening his short film “In God We Trust,” recently well received at Sundance. “He wrote that, financed it himself, made it, and I was very proud of him,” Reitman says.

In preparing a collection of film clips for the tribute, Reitman recently went over his old work, including “Stripes” (one of his personal favorites), “Legal Eagles” and “Kindergarten Cop,” some of which he hadn’t looked at in years. “I did it one night and stayed up until about 3 o’clock in the morning, going through all these films on DVD. It was actually a lot of fun, and I felt pretty good. I thought, ‘Hey, these movies are all right.’ I have nothing to be ashamed of in life,” he says with a laugh.

This year’s is the third festival programmed by Rene Missell, the film producer who became the festival’s second artistic director, taking over from founding director Phyllis De Piccioto.

Does festival programming get easier with practice? “It doesn’t get harder or easier, until you have money,” Missell says. “I think I’ve grown it as far as I can without the cash influx that we need. That would mean a presenting sponsor for half a million dollars.” She also said it wouldn’t hurt to have a distributor pick up one of the festival entries. “That would help to put it more securely on the map.”

Busy Schedule of Screenings, Seminars

Highlighted films this year include “Le Createur,” by French director Albert Dupontel, who will be in attendance, and “Steal This Movie,” a feature film about radical “yippie” Abbie Hoffman. The four-film Zhang Yimou series is curated by Rose Kuo, who previously organized the retrospective for Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, one of the most memorable facets of the 1999 festival. The festival closes March 12, with the premiere of “Price of Glory,” starring Jimmy Smits and directed by Carlos Avila.

The list of industry seminars includes two Saturday afternoon with an indie film focus, “Has Indiewood Taken Over Hollywood?” and “Independent Filmmaking--Planning the End Game.”

A popular returning feature among the seminars, which has sold out in recent years, is “It Starts With the Script,” this Sunday at 11 a.m. at the Riviera Theater. Included on the panel are screenwriters Alan Ball (“American Beauty”), Charlie Kaufman (“Being John Malkovich”), Eric Roth (“The Insider”) and Kimberly Peirce (“Boys Don’t Cry”).

Missell, pragmatic but idealistic about the future, noted an increase in the caliber of submissions to the festival in her tenure so far. “We still go after about 400 films on our own, but the ones that were submitted without our going after them were definitely of a better quality this year.”

BE THERE

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival, at various venues in Santa Barbara, today-March 12. Individual tickets are $7.50. Film Pass $225, all regular film screenings plus opening and closing night films. Gold Pass $400, an all-inclusive non-transferable photo ID pass. Platinum Pass $750, all-inclusive transferable pass. Passes are available only through the film festival office, 1216 State St., Suite 710, Santa Barbara, 93101. (805) 963-4408.