Greetings! Having recently seen The Notorious Bettie Page, I find myself in agreement with a majority of the reviews I've read about it (for a change); interesting film, good performances, but decidedly a surface look at the famed pin-up queen. One would like to get more of an idea of what made Bettie tick. As played by Gretchen Mol, Bettie's free spirit comes through however; ironically, this "notorious" gal readily found the purity in nudity (and it doesn't hurt that she had a nice body). Worth seeing, but given the cost of a movie ticket these days, you can wait to see it on DVD.

May promises to be a big month for studio flicks-Mission: Impossible 3, Poseidon, The Da Vinci Code, etc. But for true film buffs, it's more notable for the return of the Seattle International Film Festival, which runs May 25-June 18. I have a brief preview for you, courtesy of the fest's artistic director Carl Spence, taking a break from "trying to get everything nailed down," he said. SIFF's valiant programmers considered some 2,000 feature films for around 270 slots. "It can be pretty hard to wade through all of that," says Carl with a note of understatement. "I think we're at the point where this is as big as we want to get."

Instead of discussing the big-ticket films that will go on to general release, I asked Carl to talk about some of the films that might get overlooked. Here's an overview.

From Hong Kong comes Perhaps Love (Ru guo Ai), about the making of a musical in mainland China, complicated by a love triangle; it's a film that has some of Asia's biggest stars, and has won awards in its native land.

Then there's The Iceberg (L'Iceberg), from Belgium. "It's almost in the tradition of slapstick silent films, the comedy is so physical," says Carl. "It's about a housewife's search for an iceberg! She gets stuck in the freezer at work, and no one really misses her, and that's where her obsessions with icebergs develops-because she's stuck in the freezer at her work overnight." Despite its name, Kamataki is a Canadian film, though set in Japan. The story concerns a young man who's attempted suicide, and is then sent to live with his uncle, a master potter, in rural Japan.

"It's very complex and erotic," says Carl, "and it delves into the whole art of making this kamataki stoneware; it has a little bit of drama interwoven with the painstaking marathon creation process of making this pottery." Whole New Thing is another Canadian film, which Carl describes as "somewhat quirky, sort of a dramedy, about a precocious teenager raised by hippie-era parents in rural Nova Scotia. He's been home-schooled until his teen years, and once he starts going to the public school, his sexuality starts burgeoning, and he develops a crush for his English teacher that causes a few problems."

There are also a number of films set in Seattle, such as Expiration Date. "It revolves around this guy that whose father and grandfather were killed by milk trucks at age 25. And he's about to turn 25, so he's preparing for his tragic fate. And one day he's picking out caskets, and he meets this woman who becomes a love interest at the casket shop. It's a bizarre but funny comedy."

We Go Way Back, produced by the Seattle-based Film Company, "is about a woman who encounters her younger self as she navigates through her disconnected life as an actress and the passing relationships she has with men."

The Standard, shot on Whidbey Island, "has some similarities to Gus Van Sant's Elephant; it's another work that takes place in a high school and a violent act that happens there, though it's told in a completely different way." The Heart of the Game, a documentary about the girls' basketball team at Seattle's Roosevelt High, played SIFF as a work-in-progress last year; the final version will have its premiere in Seattle prior to national release.

Dealing with the timely subject of immigration, Sentence Home "is about permanent resident aliens being deported from America after being convicted of a crime, people who have lived here their entire life-in this case, a Cambodian man who's been living in Seattle since he was a child."

And then there's Boy Culture, which explores the life of a Seattle hustler, that will be followed by a post-screening "Gay-la" at Chop Suey.

And that's all we've got space for! The full schedule will be released May 11, and tickets go on sale to the general public May 14. Most screenings will be held on Capitol Hill (The Egyptian, Broadway Performance Hall, Harvard Exit) and downtown at the Pacific Place Cinemas; the Neptune in the U-District and the Lincoln Square Cinemas in lovely Bellevue will also host screenings. More info: www.seattlefilm.org. See you there!

© 2006 Belltown Messenger