Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt on the Red Carpet

“I think this is the most important role of my life,” Angelina Jolie remarked upon playing Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart. Pearl is the famous widow of fellow Wall Street Journal journalist Daniel Pearl, who was killed by terrorists in Pakistan. Pearl’s heart is mighty indeed, as the clips shown in Jolie’s conversation with film critic Pete Hammond reveal.

She graciously accepted the award presented by renowned actor and director Clint Eastwood. The two praised each other. Jolie raved about working with the veteran Eastwood in the upcoming thriller The Changeling. “He made everything easy,” she commented upon the sense of camaraderie in the set. In turn, Eastwood said that he was lucky, to be editing her work every day. “The camera loves Angela.”

And from the moment Pitt and Jolie exited their black limo on State Street in Santa Barbara, hundreds of cameras were loving them. They strolled around to sign autographs and pose with fans before practically sprinting down the red carpet. The two did stop to talk to the cadre of young reporters from the Santa Barbara Middle School press.

While on stage, Jolie was composed, graceful, talking about how much she loves being a mother, how being an actor can be strange work. “You just emote,” and why she became a pilot, “I wanted a real skill,” she said. As opposed to just emoting. And she loves the freedom of being in the air. She links her passion for motherhood with her passion for humanitarian causes, and the importance of films like A Mighty Heart, which tell the story of a woman, Mariane Pearl, who could be seen as a victim of terrorism, but refused to be terrorized.

by Felicia Tomasko

  To see a photo gallery with more photos, visit: http://www.independent.com/photos/galleries/2008/feb/02/sbiff-2008-outstanding-jolie/ 

Tommy Lee Jones being Interviewed on the Red Carpet 

Prolific actor Tommy Lee Jones can't name his favorite film role. “I don't think that way,” he answered while he strolled down the evening's red carpet with a bit of a grin. He's a professional, he states, working at whatever role he finds himself in. During the discussion and movie clip viewing, Jones was intense. He leaned forward to raptly watch the film clips and sat on the edge of his seat to dicuss reading every written work describing Howard Hughes for one of his film roles. Jones learned how to drive a bulldozer before The Coal Miner's Daughter. He read Cormac McCarthy's book before filming No Country for Old Men, and commented on the sensitivity of the adaptation used for the film.

And he's no stranger to Santa Barbara, having first come to the town around 30 years ago to play polo, a sport in which he's still active. What he doesn't actively do, though, is conjecture as to what makes a a good Western. In any case, Jones is being recognized this year with an Oscar nomination for his role in In the Valley of Elah and awarded with one of the festival's esteemed accolades, presented by Fugitive Director Andrew Davis.

by Felicia Tomasko

Chance and Happenstance, the World Premiere of the Spanish Film 3:19 
by Felicia Tomasko
On a whim, we walked into one of the screenings of the world premiere of 3:19. The danger is that this story could be depressing. After all, it takes its title from the Genesis passage ending “for dust you are and to dust you will return.” One 26-year-old member of a trio of friends is dying of terminal cancer. While this story of friendship, love and loss could conceivably be dark and mournful, director Dany Saadia has created a film with a delightful message. He asks: What happens when a series of circumstances, based on chance, manage to meet someone. When a cascade of events must all happen simultaneously for something to occur, the event must be significant. This is premise on which the story is based. And there is the question: is chance really chance?

In an effective unfolding of the narrative story interspersed with animated digressions into mathematics (the story of mathematician Galois, for instance) and random events, we are completely won over by the story. In the detail of both the animated segments (Saadia reported that he chose contemporary classical music to accompany the scientists' stories) and the dramatic narrative, Saadia's attention to detail creates an exquisite mood. In one of the film's most poignant scenes, one in which there is a direct return of dust to dust, the red flags embossed with the Hebrew names of the characters flutter in the wind.

A recurring theme in the film is this meditation on chance, with different characters reading the same passage in The Unbearable Lightness of Being, about the coming together of two characters, unexpectedly. This is the genesis of the love story at the height of 3:19, the love story that we nearly stumble upon.

3:19, the first feature by Saadia, deserves to be seen. My viewing was during the film's third public showing, where the enraptured audience kept asking questions after the screening. Look for it as it plays in Europe and (hopefully) enjoys a greater release.

Javier Bardem on the Red Carpet at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

After Javier Bardem received the Montecito Award, a long-time Santa Barbara tradition. Montecito is the town just south of Santa Barbara on the 101, most of it tucked within hills and behind trees, a playground with class.

Javier Bardem has class and piercing eyes, and good looks that often get masked behind the intense roles he plays, and the dizzying variety in his body of work. He’s Spanish, from Madrid (where he walks everywhere and doesn’t have to drive a car—so he doesn’t drive), and from a family of actors. His family has been on stage so long that Bardem recounted the time that “actors couldn’t be buried on sacred ground as they were associated with prostitutes.” Times have changed, certainly, not only for Bardem.

In an interview with Festival Executive Director Roger Durling, Bardem mused on his acting career. He really doesn’t drive, so the scene in No Country for Old Men in which he had to drive…well, he was reportedly terrified. 
 

Speaking of No Country, Bardem’s role in which has earned him his most recent Oscar nomination (he was also nominated for his lead role in Before Night Falls), it was the Coen Brothers who reportedly decided on the haircut for his character, the sinister Anton Chigurh. After the haircut, Bardem said, he was able to inhabit the character. But the haircut was a tough thing to wear. “Going to the supermarket with that haircut was weird.” Maybe weird, but certainly effective. 
 

To read more about what Felicia wrote about the Javier Bardem tribute, visit:  http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=2103

Javier Bardem Receives the Montecito Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

By Felicia

I have to blog and write reviews and festival experiences so my way of making it through the theaters, award ceremonies and parties is by not drinking at the festival parties. Well, some people are a bad influence. Take blogger Craig Smith for example, now he’s a bad influence. Both of us were at the intimate, post-Javier Bardem tribute party at the Sacks Fifth Avenue Store. No red wine was served, but there was plenty of white, along with vodka-enhanced mixed drinks. There was no shopping to be had, but security guards, a DJ spinning in the corner (even a bit of a dance floor), and even Woody Harrelson and Javier Bardem came to chat up the room. 
 

Back to the bad influence, So, at Sacks I indulged in a glass of white, upon Craig’s encouragement. After all, how often does a person get to drink in the men’s department at Sacks with Javier Bardem? 
 

Check out Craig Smith's blog at: http://craigsmithsblog.blogspot.com/

The next day, Craig and I visited the hospitality suite at the Hotel Santa Barbara, the festival hub, where  we met Karoliina Tuovinen. Karoliina is one of the editors, working with tribute director Paul Fagen, who puts together the video clips shown during the award ceremonies and Question and Answer sessions with the stars. Editors are the often-unsung heroes of the film world. As a festival screener, I know this first-hand. I stopped counting how many times I wanted to see a film find a new editor, or have a director actually listen to their editor, or to have the film go back to the editor. In any case, Karoliina described watching 20+ hours of film to select clippings to represent the actors’ bodies of work. They did a great job.

Craig Smith and Karoliina

By Felicia

Cate Blanchett can only be described as gorgeous, gracious, well, really a host of other adjectives. And she's funny, and smart. And stunning when pregnant.
When she sat on stage to review and discuss the body of work that has given her the title of Modern Master, it was a chance for the hundreds in attendance, braving the Saturday night rain, to sit with Cate for two hours and get a glimpse of the person behind the on-screen persona, or the plethora of compelling characters. One of the remarkable things about Cate's career is how prolific it has been, in 11 years, with a long list of film titles, most recently as an incarnation of Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. When interviewer Leonard Maltin asked her how motherhood (her new arrival will be her third), she commented that she has to be more efficient with her time, and she's noticed that what she used to think was preparation was really anxiety.

Her body language betrayed a bit of anxiety as she watched each clip before quickly regaing her exposure to talk, for instance, about what it was like to have to shove Dame Judi Dench into a bookshelf in a pivotal scene in Notes on a Scandal. Intimidating, to be sure. Fortunately, Dench was wearing a "Ninja Turtle" on her back. All the better to shove her into the bookshelf.

Upon receiving her award, Cate paid a moving tribute to the recently-deceased Heath Ledger, thanked those that believed in her, and left us all with a bit of that regal magic she so easily displays. Cate Blanchett on the Red CarpetI'm Not There Director Todd Haynes being interviewed at the Cate Blanchett Modern Master Award Ceremony

Crowding the Red Carpet for Ryan GoslingRyan Gosling being interviewed on the red carpetRyan Gosling Accepting the Independent Award 

Before screen actor and Indie film favorite Ryan Gosling even got out of the black car delivering him to the Lobero Theatre, the girls were outside waiting. With DVD cases in hand (many from The Notebook), other paraphernalia to collect a signature, and cameras overhead to snap an image as the heartthrob exited to step onto the red carpet.

to see a gallery of images from the red carpet, view:

http://www.edhat.com/site/tidbit.cfm?id=847&event=08SBIFF_gosling

It was a night of screams, of “I love you,” of flashes flickering, but when Gosling spoke, he revealed a sense of humor about it all. When asked by a journalist where he tapped in the depth of the emotion in his roles, he turned away, “Come on,” he said, “You've got to be kidding me.” And then he walked away to enter the theater.

Once on stage, he remarked: “If I could have imagined my worst nightmare, this would be it. Sitting on