THE MAINE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
2004 DIARY

By Laurie Meunier Graves

DAY 1

“Overture, curtains, lights
This is it, we’ll hit the heights
And oh what heights we’ll hit
On with the show this is it”
—Bugs Bunny Show 1960-1962

As King Theoden says in the movie The Two Towers, “So it begins.” Yes, it does, and like every year, I start the film festival with energy and excitement. I see old friends and new friends, and the large cardboard figure of Asoka, the Indian king, stands sternly in the lobby of Railroad Square Cinema, the epicenter of culture in Waterville, fair city of my birth. I have chosen thirty-six films to see in ten days, and tonight it all seems possible. Oh, the popcorn and the Ben & Jerry's Peace Pops! The long days and nights of watching movies. I look forward to it all. Best of all are the new candy bars—Seattle Chocolates—that Hillary, one of the workers at Railroad Square, recommends. I buy one that is a combination of smooth white chocolate and tangy lemon, and it is absolutely delicious. There are several other flavors with different types of chocolates, and I look forward to trying them all.

Tonight, both movies I have chosen to see are at the Opera House, with its plush red seats, gold gilding, and curving balcony. I sit next to a man who tells me he used to come to the Opera House as a child to see movies. He would sit in the balcony and throw gumdrops at the people below him. “What a mess this place was when the movie was over,” he says, shaking his head. I’m sure it was. Nowadays, the Opera House is a popcorn- and candy-free zone, and although I understand why this is so, it will nonetheless be hard to bear. This year, more movies are being shown at the Opera House, and more of my time will be spent here sans popcorn and candy to sustain me. Ah, well! Sacrifices must be made in the name of art.

As usual, there’s an opening ceremony. Governor Baldacci, tan and trim, expresses his enthusiasm and support for the arts. Sponsors are thanked, the film is introduced in both English and French, and the house grows dark. The film festival begins.

SEDUCING DOCTOR LEWIS
Canada, 2003; 109 minutes; 35mm; in French with English subtitles



Seducing Doctor Lewis is a lighthearted film about a serious subject, indeed one of the great challenges of our times. What does a community do when, for various reasons, the jobs go away? Maine has certainly been grappling with this problem for many years, as has the rest of the United States. It seems that this is an issue in Canada, too, at least as portrayed in this movie. The village struggling with job loss is the small island of Ste. Marie-la-Mauderne in northern Québec. Once upon a time, it was a bustling community where the men fished for fourteen hours a day and still had enough energy to make love to their wives at night. However, those days are long gone, and so it seems are the fish. Now, the men collect welfare checks and are too dispirited to make love to their wives. (At least some of them are. Since there are children running around the island, one can assume that at least a few of the men occasionally make an effort.) The movie begins with talk of luring a factory to the island, but in the middle of these plans, the mayor deserts the island to take a job as a policeman in Montreal. Germain Lesage, the island’s patriarch, decides to take matters into his own hands, and he appoints himself mayor. Germain, along with his friends Yvon and Henri, carries on with the plans, which include luring a doctor to the island. Without a doctor, there will be no factory.

Needless to say, the island gets its doctor, Christopher Lewis, but only for a month instead of the necessary five years that the factory requires. Germain and company set out to make life as pleasant as possible for the handsome new doctor, and they do this through an increasingly elaborate series of lies and deceptions, one of which includes tapping the doctor’s phone. They anticipate his every whim and turn themselves inside out trying to make the young man happy. “But oh what tangled lives we lead when we practice to deceive.” Complications ensue, and there are some genuinely funny scenes as the villagers try to woo and outsmart the doctor.

The film is carried primarily by Raymond Bouchard, who plays Germain. As he vigilantly patrols the island, he reminds me of a Gallic Carroll O’Connor. Bouchard has the same kind of heft and the same kind of gleam in his eye. The rest of the cast, including David Boutin who plays the young doctor, is also engaging. And a good thing, too! Because despite the serious subject, the plot is so thin that it wouldn’t be enough to hold the viewer’s attention. Seducing Doctor Lewis is clearly a case of characters triumphing over plot. In fact, I like the characters so much that I wouldn’t mind seeing them in a weekly television show. All Fish Great and Small?


DANNY DECKCHAIR
Australia, 2003; 90 minutes; 35mm; in English



"Greenland’s icy; Iceland’s green."
—Danny Morgan, from Danny Deckchair

Poor Danny Morgan! All he wants to do is take a vacation from his job as a construction worker and fly far away from his home in Sydney, Australia. When Trudy, his duplicitous, ambitious girlfriend ruins his plans, the shaggy, henpecked Danny (Rhys Ifans) at first mopes around the house. But then he overhears Trudy calling him “one of the little people,” and he catches her driving around with a handsome sportscaster. Danny, who is known for coming up with “stupid ideas,” decides to rig himself up a lawn chair and balloons, and, if you’ll pardon the pun, rise above it all.

Much to the astonishment of his friends, who have come over for a “barbie,” Danny’s scheme works. Up, up, up he goes, over his house, his girlfriend, and his friends. The problem is, he has no way of getting down, and he becomes a sort of male version of Dorothy Gale (without Toto) as the chair carries him far away from home, through a menacing storm, and to a green, green place with a small town called Clarence. He conveniently crashes into the yard of lovely Miranda Otto, who calmly comes to his aid. And as soon as you see their two blond heads together, you know they are meant for each other.

Not surprisingly, the town of Clarence turns out to be just right for Danny. Away from the city and his domineering girlfriend, Danny begins to bloom. He cuts his hair, falls promptly in love with Miranda Otto, who plays Glenda (the good witch?), and goes to work for a local politician. In the process, Danny discovers the value of “little people” and, of course, himself. What starts out as a rather goofy story settles into a romantic comedy as Danny deals with the various obstacles (including his old girlfriend) that such stories always have.

But like Seducing Doctor Lewis, the characters in Danny Deckchair are so engaging that they carry this fluff of a movie. I really was with them all the way and wanted nothing more than to see Danny and Glenda get together. Rhys Ifans brings such longing, wistfulness, and gentleness to his part that when Danny does begin to grow, it is completely believable. Miranda Otto has such sparkle and spunk that she could play almost any part and make it shine. I must admit I am not a fan of romantic comedies. I must also admit I did not have high hopes for a movie where the hero takes off in a lawn chair attached to helium balloons. However, I did like this movie and can honestly say it’s the best romantic comedy I’ve seen in a long time.  

Day 2 >>

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