Every winter eagles (bald and golden) roost in a certain valley above Park
City, but a festival veteran warns me that the Robert Redford press conference
is de rigueur. So I shelve my plans to watch the eagles soar and head for
the Sundance Institute, where I won't need binoculars.
Driving across the bridal white landscape, I trade latest impressions with
fellow travelers: a writer at Elle who partied late and a writer for Vogue
Australia who's writing a book about Australian directors. In addition to
"Love Serenade," four other Australian features have been picked
this year: "Love & Other Catastrophes", "A Fistful of
Flies", and "Children of the Revolution", starring Judy Davis.
The makers of the fifth, "Black Rock", the most talked about film
here, have stirred tremendous interest in their "product" by refusing
to screen it to buyers before its premiere next week.
After a while, the broad-shouldered, scrub-covered slopes give way to
steeper, more rugged terrain. Following a river bed, the road twists and
turns like the best of plots. We are deep into the Provo Canyon. The sides
close in on us and pretty soon we alight at the Sundance complex beneath
a towering, scalloped mountain.
Brightly-clad young skiers huddle together excitedly awaiting the ski lift,
but we head over to the screening room to grab our seats among the 100
other journalists. At the back of the space, 14 cameras, aligned like a
firing squad, are trained on the festival organizers. More cameras line
the path from the door as far as the bridge over the waterfall gurgling
outside the windows where, sooner or later, Redford will make his entrance.
Copyright 1994-2008 Film Scouts LLC
Created, produced, and published by Film Scouts LLC
Film Scouts® is a registered trademark of Film Scouts LLC
All rights reserved.
