Palm Springs Film Festival rivals Sundance, warms many hearts

PALM SPRINGS, Calif. — Film-festival afficionados looking for a warmer climate than snowy Park City each January need look no farther than sunny Palm Springs, Calif.

As Sundance begins each year, the 11-day Palm Springs International Film Festival is usually just winding up.

And how do they compare?

The total number of films exhibited is just about the same, although Palm Springs has always prided itself on not only bringing in more foreign films than most U.S. festivals, but it also attempts to book all 50 or 60 films from around the world that are being submitted to the U.S. Oscar competition for Best Foreign Film.

It also attracts an older audience, so Sundance films are likely to be more edgy and quirky.

Sundance also focuses on new and younger directors, while Palm Springs welcomes new talent while also acknowledging films by the masters of world cinema.

This winter the highlights of Palm Springs 2009 were new films from major directors in Sweden, Norway, Italy, Japan, Turkey, Iran, Argentina and England.

The latest work of Sweden's Jan Troell (primarily known for his 1971 film, "The Emigrants," with Max von Sydow and Liv Ullmann) is a beautiful film with subdued (mainly sepia-toned) colors called "Everlasting Moments."

It tells the poignant story of Maria Larsson, who was not only a mother of seven but also became one of the pioneers of Swedish photography around the turn of the 20th century.

Another famous Scandinavian director, Norway's Bent Hamer, was represented by his newest film, "O'Horten," about the shenanigans that befall an elderly locomotive engineer on the night of his retirement. It features much of the same droll, off-beat, and surprising humor that delighted audiences in Hamer's clever and well-loved "Kitchen Stories."

Italy's young Paolo Sorrentino quickly rose to the rank of a "major director to watch for" when his brilliantly directed 2004 film, "The Consequences of Love," followed by "The Family Friend" in 2006, were praised at Cannes by critics and audiences alike.

His newest and most ambitious film to date, "Il Divo" (which he both wrote and directed), won the Jury Prize at Cannes 2008.

Based on the scandals and rumored Mafia connections of Giulio Andreotti, the seven-time prime minister of Italy, Sorrentino wittily and cleverly creates a complex film that can't help but leave you in awe of his ambitions and talents.