Evil is perhaps not the first word that springs to mind when you think about Hollywood. Nonetheless, director George Hickenlooper ("Hearts of Darkness") spoke about the Faustian bargain he entered when he moved to Los Angeles. He was also referring to Rodney Bingenheimer, the subject of "Mayor of Sunset Strip."
For decades, Bingenheimer was at the center of the L.A. music scene, as hanger-on, radio DJ, and owner of club. Bingenheimer's unthreatening demeanor allowed him to come close to everybody with a name, from Elvis to David Bowie, Nancy Sinatra to Kurt Cobain. His list of famous friends is impressive, at least to those impressed by fame. But as the movie reveals, Bingenheimer's connections ultimately let him down, and the film does an exceptional job at tenderly delineating the loneliness at the center of the glam bustle.
Alejandro González Iñárritu's "21 Grams," starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio Del Toro, ended the festival on an appropriately somber note. To quote Errol Morris again: "If killing all the bad people was the solution, we'd be in great shape." While I applaud the selection committee's principled and austere tastes--their seriousness is certainly appropriate to the times--would be too much to ask for a comedy or two next year?
Ozu Retrospective and Shorts
Notable short films included the stunning Walt Disney/Salvador Dali collaboration "Destino," Martin Bell's hilarious and insightful portraits of identicals in "Twins," Rachel Johnson's animated "The Toll Collector" and the French confection "From Head to Toe," the true story of a cooking contest under German occupation that is so well cast it seemed like a shame when it ended after only eighteen minutes.
The festival also features a special Yasujiro Ozu retrospective in celebration of the director's 100th birthday. All of the Japanese director's extant works are being shown. The Ozu retrospective continues until November 5. More info at the official site.
