By Maureen Inouye
Parlez-vous français? Sprechen Sie deutsch? No? That's ok - the movies at the Portland International Film Festival have subtitles.
The 31st Annual Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) started last week and will run through Feb. 23. The festival is sponsored by the Northwest Film Center and the Portland Art Museum.
If you've seen all the movies at the theater, or are feeling especially culture-deprived, this festival is for you. During the weeks of the festival, movies from more than 40 different countries will be playing downtown.
The schedule of the movies is online at www.nwfilm.org, and you can search by the movie's country of origin or by the date. Each day, there are several movies playing - one movie every 15 minutes or so, from about 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tickets for each movie cost $9. The festival is using five different venues, all on Southwest Park Avenue or Southwest Broadway and very accessible by MAX.
Try to buy tickets in advance, the day before you plan to see the film. If you simply show up at the theater, you run the risk it has already been sold out.
Same-day tickets go on sale 30 minutes before the show starts, but for some movies they will let all advance ticket holders in first - and not sell other tickets until about 10 minutes before show time.
On Monday, the Swedish film "You, the Living" was presented at the Regal Broadway Metroplex. This short, 92 minute, film was the most satisfying movie I have seen in months.
Like "Love Actually," the movie begins with short vignettes of seemingly unrelated characters. The movie lacks any linear plot, but instead shows more than 50 short scenes, each shot with a still camera so that the imagery and symbolism of the small moments in people's lives take on tremendous import.
Despite some heavy themes, like the Holocaust, this film is full of wit and irony - and great music. It makes you feel that everyone is connected, somehow, and we are all good people. In a world of chaos, this emotional sense of well-being is worth the $9 and hour and a half.
Many of the films at the festival are more experimental than the ones you can see at mainstream theaters, which is awesome for viewers who are tired of the same old thing. If you like the same old thing, check out the PIFF movies anyway - some of them are classic crime stories or sappy romantic comedies. The only difference is that you'll get to feel especially sophisticated after viewing one of them.
If you have time, plan to attend several of the films while the PIFF continues. UP has been focusing on global warming, but now let's focus on the arts and support independent filmmakers by viewing their creations. How many films from Kazakhstan do you think you'll have the opportunity to view?
So visit the Web site, www.nwfilm.org, choose your movie, and buy your tickets. Have an "International Night" with your friends with dinner at some new ethnic restaurant before the film - food makes every event remarkable.
