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Millennium Mambo (Qianxi manbo)
Monday, Nov. 18, 9:30 p.m., Tivoli Theatre*
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 9:30 p.m., Tivoli Theatre*
France/Taiwan, 2001, 119 min.
Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou
Main Cast: Qi Shu, Jack Kao, Chun-hao Tuan, Yi-Hsuan Chen, Jun Takeuchi, Niu Chen-er
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles
The lastest from modern master Hou (whose Flowers of Shanghai is also featured in the festival), Millennium Mambo tells the story of a beautiful, slumming club kid who struggles to escape the suffocating possessiveness of her boyfriend. The Village Voice writes, "This shimmering excursion through Taipei nightlife ?scored to a ghostly, faraway electro throb and coated in a neon glaze by cinematographer Mark Lee ?is a slow burn of profound sadness salved by some of Hou's most breath-catchingly beautiful passages to date." Millennium Mambo was awarded the Silver Hugo at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Flowers of Shanghai (Hai shang hua)
Wednesday, Nov. 20, 6:30 p.m., Tivoli Theatre*
Taiwan, 1998, 130 min.
Director: Hsiao-hsien Hou
Main Cast: Tony Leung, Michiko Hada, Carina Lau, Michele Monique Reis, Jack Kao
Language: Shanghainese with English subtitles
The elegant brothels of late-19th-century Shanghai are a hermetic world with highly ritualized codes of behavior. The film traces the destinies of the beautiful flower girls, whose lives depend on their ability to win and hold wealthy callers. With the more recent Millennium Mambo, which also plays at the fest, Flowers of Shanghai provides St. Louisans with an introduction to the work of one of the world's most lauded filmmakers. In the most recent Sight & Sound 10-greatest-films-of-all-time poll of filmmakers and critics, four of Hou's films received votes, including Flowers of Shanghai. Following the film is a discussion led by Washington University professor Jeff Smith.
A Great Deal!
St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase Comedy
Saturday, Nov. 16, 11 a.m., Tivoli Theatre*
Debbie Lum, 2001, 18 min.
To break out of her shell, an agoraphobic girl overcomes an overbearing mother and constipated father with the help of a charming telemarketer.
Debbie Lum
Debbie Lum, a native of St. Louis, now living in California, the world's
film-making capital, will have the second St. Louis screening of her film, "A
Great Deal!" "A Great Deal!" is showing at the Tivoli in the St. Louis
International Film Festival, Saturday, November 16, 11:00 am. The film tells
the story of an agoraphobic woman and her dominating Chinese mother, played
by Laureen Chew ("Chan Is Missing", "Dim Sum"). Lonely and overly manipulated
by her mother, she gets an opportunity to try something new from a strange
source-a wily telemarketer with a seductive charm. Set in San Francisco, Lum
uses lush visuals and black comedy to explore Chinese American cultural
questions, and the competing demands of manipulation, obedience and desire.
"A Great Deal!" has screened in film festivals across the country from
Washington DC to Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. She returned to St.
Louis last summer for the first screening at the St. Louis Filmmakers
Showcase. Her film has also been selected for the Hawaii Film Festival, and
she has chosen to travel to Hawaii instead of St. Louis for the screening.
This year the St. Louis International Film Festival has achieved an official
designation from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a
sanctioned short subject qualification event. Debbie Lum's "A Great Deal!" is
an 18 minute film and could qualify through their juried panel. Audiences at
the St. Louis International Film Festival have the opportunity to vote on
their favorite feature, documentary and international films. All winners
will be announced at the Closing-Night Awards Party on Sunday, Nov. 24, 9:30
pm at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza.
Lum's video work in Florence, Italy was shown the past two weeks at Elliot
Smith Gallery and Des Lee Gallery as part of Bill Kohn's MultiMedia
Performance "Brunnelleschi e noi" which also featured the music of composer
Rich O'Donnell, and Dale Dufer as photographer and editor.
Lum first broke into the film business as an editor on "The Joy Luck Club."
She had a successful career as an editor and producer of critically acclaimed
documentaries, including the Emmy award wining "A.K.A. Don Bonus" and "Kelly
Loves Tony." Learning from eminent directors such as Wayne Wang, Philip
Kaufman and Spencer Nakasako, Lum was inspired and encouraged to create her
own work. She wrote and directed "One April Morning", an idyllic story about
the pitfalls of ideal love that played in numerous film festivals, and she
has more screenplays coming down the pipe. Her current work entitled,
"Gentlemen Don't Always Prefer Blondes" is a black comedy about a Caucasian
man who only dates Chinese women. Lum's stories speak to the Asian American
condition with clarity, humor and aesthetic sensitivity. And like all
independent filmmakers, she is looking for investors and new talent for her
next major project.
Suburban St. Louis, where Lum grew up, gave her an unlikely mix of influences
that have infused her films with a unique perspective. Living a stone's throw
from the Creve Coeur Cinema, she remembers summer-long traffic jams from the
nation's first blockbuster STAR WARS. By contrast, her father, a
third-generation Chinese American transplant from Hawaii, would drive her
family to the Tivoli to watch all the latest art films. Her mother, a New
Yorker, originally Chongqing, Siquan, likewise, would drive her to north St.
Louis, where she trained at a top gymnastics club. She attended John
Burroughs High School, graduating in the top of her class. She holds a B.A.
from Brown University and will receive her M.F.A. in film from San Francisco
State University.
Ticket Sales:
Advance tickets for all films and passes will be on sale exclusively at the Tivoli box office (4-10 p.m. weekdays; 1:30-10 p.m. Saturday-Sunday), beginning Nov. 4. After the fest begins on Friday, Nov. 15, advance tickets will be sold only at the theater where a film will be shown. Passes will be available at all theaters. Individual tickets (excepting the special events noted below) are $8 each ($7 for students with valid ID and Cinema St. Louis members). Passes good for six admissions are $45 ($40 for Cinema St. Louis members). The pass must be redeemed for individual tickets at the theater box office. A hole will be punched in the pass for each ticket redeemed. A separate box-office line will be available for passholders at the Tivoli. The Tivoli Theatre is located at 6350 Delmar Blvd. in the University City Loop area, two blocks west of Skinker.
Tel: 314/862-1100.
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