Drivein ‘Blithe Spirit’ to open Mill Valley festival
When’s the last time a big film made its world premiere at a drivein?
“Blithe Spirit,” a new adaptation of Noel Coward’s 1941 play starring Judi Dench, Leslie Mann, Isla Fisher and Dan Stevens, is slated to open the 43rd Mill Valley Film Festival, which is ready to roll despite the coronavirus pandemic.
“Blithe Spirit,” an IFC Films release, kicks off 10 nights of drivein screenings at a specially constructed studiograde facility at the Lagoon ParkMarin Center in San Rafael, the California Film Institute announced Sept. 10.
The event runs Oct. 818, and opening night includes five films screening virtually. MVFF43 will run in tandem with CFI’s DocLands Documentary Film Festival, which was postponed from May because of the pandemic.
“Although MVFF43 will not look the same as in previous years, what initially seemed like a challenge now feels like an opportunity to bring us together in an unexpected way, during an unprecedented time,” Mark Fishkin, the Mill Valley Film Festival director and founder, said in a statement. “We will continue to boast the year’s best films from all corners of the globe.”
Films screening virtually on opening night are “Sweet Thing,” the latest from longtime American indie director Alexandre Rockwell (“In the Soup”); “The Heist of the Century” (“El Robo del Siglo”), about one of the most notorious bank heists in Argentina; “Veins of the World,” in which a young Mongolian boy turns grief into a source of power after the death of his father; Bay Area filmmaker Judith Ehrlich’s documentary of antiVietnam War activism, “The Boys Who Said No!”; and “Public Trust,” the DocLands opening night film about conflict over public lands in the United States.
The full schedule will be announced at a later date.
Tickets can be purchased online only, available now for California Film Institute members, and starting at noon Sunday, Sept. 27, for the general public.