Short film’s revival

As a film student 15 years ago, Randall Miller made a short film about a boy and girl who fall in love while attending charm school. The short, called “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing and Charm School,” won several awards, and people often asked him if he planned to develop it into a longer work.

Now they have their answer. Miller has directed a feature-length movie with the same title, starring Robert Carlyle and Marisa Tomei, that incorporates parts of the earlier film as flashback sequences.

The film had its American premiere Tuesday night at Newport’s Regency Lido Theater. It was the first offering of the new Orange County Film Society, which was launched by the organizers of the Newport Film Festival to keep the local Hollywood spirit alive year-round.

Jody Savin, Miller’s wife as well as producer and co-writer of the film, joined actor Elden Henson for a question-and-answer session following the screening.

Savin said that in the years between the short and the feature, both she and Miller lost several close family members. As they thought about death and the necessity of accepting loss, they realized how they could reshape the student film into a feature-length work.

In the new film, Steve (John Goodman) crashes his car into the center divider on the way to a charm school class to meet a childhood sweetheart he has not seen in more than 40 years. Before he dies, he asks a good Samaritan, Frank (Carlyle), to go to the class and meet the girl for him.

Frank, whose wife recently committed suicide, does not find the accident victim’s childhood sweetheart, but he begins to attend the class regularly anyway, and there he meets and falls in love with Meredith (Tomei).

“We were dreaming Robert Carlyle would do this part for us, and Tomei,” Savin said. “After we got them we just cast the rest with our friends.”

One of those friends was Henson, who as a 12-year-old played the John Goodman character in the original short film. Now 28, Henson appears in the new film both as a friend of Frank and as a child in the flashback sequences.

Henson saw his own dual role as a parallel to the movie’s themes of fate and the need to revisit the past.

“It sort of made sense, the whole process. Things kind of came full circle,” he said Tuesday.

“It was a really special time,” Henson said of the first shooting. “Girls were kissing you, you got to smoke cigarettes?. It was nice to revisit that.”

Savin hailed Tuesday’s screening in Newport as the best audience response she has seen the film receive.

“The audience was laughing at all the right places and responded the way I hoped they would,” she said.

The $2.5-million film premiered at Sundance in January. It was purchased by Samuel Goldwyn, which has scheduled it for national release at the end of this month.

The organizers of the new Orange County Film Society were also pleased with the event, especially the participation by Savin and Heldon.

“Part of the film society experience is getting to engage with the people involved in making the film,” said Meghan McGarvey, general manager of the society.

McGarvey and Gregg Schwenk, executive director of the Newport Beach Film Festival, decided to form the society after hearing from festival-goers who wanted to experience the festival excitement more often.

“We have the highest movie-going population in the country,” McGarvey said. “The community loved the festival and wanted to have the festival experience throughout the year.”

The society will offer its next event in May, although the film has not yet been decided upon.

McGarvey, who also works as events coordinator for the Newport Beach Film Festival, said for now she is focusing on the upcoming festival in April.

“Crash,” which recently won an Oscar for best picture, had its U.S. premiere at the festival last year.

For more information about the society, visit www.newport beachfilmfest.com.dpt.23-ocfilmsociety-1--CPhotoInfo2C1P7NGU20060323iwk4fbknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Jody Savin, the producer of “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School,” talks with the audience before Tuesday’s showing at the Lido Theater. The film was the first offering of the Orange County Film Society.dpt.23-ocfilmsociety-2--BPhotoInfo2C1P7NJN20060323iwk4g3knDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Members and friends of the Orange County Film Society stand outside the Lido Theater before the showing of the movie “Marilyn Hotchkiss’ Ballroom Dancing & Charm School” on Tuesday.