2011 Sedona Film Fest Preview

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Tell us why we’re starting with North By Northwest.
It’s a great Hitchcock film. No matter how many times you see it, you like it. I pick things occasionally like that that will pull people into the theater until they get the idea that no matter what we show, they should see it because it’s going to be a good movie. It’s not just about bringing the films to the festival but how different the films are when you see them on the big screen with an audience. Until you’ve seen North By Northwest on the big screen in the theater with an audience, you haven’t seen it. You see elements you haven’t seen before, and you enjoy it in a totally different way.

And The Third Man?
The Third Man is just one of the great movies of all time – a very powerful film. It has people like Orson Welles in it. It has great cinematography and a terrific mood. It was filmed in black-and-white in Vienna. It’s just kind of an awesome film. In selecting these, I wanted three different films. North By Northwest is a thriller, and it’s in Technicolor with glamorous stars like Cary Grant and James Mason. The Third Man is a black-and-white thriller filmed on location. It has a whole different mood. Then the third film, The Heiress, was done on a Hollywood soundstage by a master director, William Wyler. It basically all takes place indoors, and it’s a more intimate, romantic drama. The Heiress I particularly like because it’s one of those movies not a lot of people know that well. Once they see it, they never forget it. Olivia de Havilland is in it, and her performance earned her an Academy Award. So here you have three films with three notable directors – Alfred Hitchcock, Sir Carol Reed and William Wyler – and you have movies with great stars. The mix is a great mix. No matter how many times I’ve seen them, I’d like to see them again, and I wish I was going to see them in Sedona.

Any current movies on your radar?
Definitely The Social Network and Clint Eastwood’s film, Hereafter. I also liked Woody Allen’s film – it’s not a great movie but it’s a good one – called You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.