Jeff Daniels, Ryan Reynolds in Paper Man (top); Nahid Persson Sarvestani, Empress Farah Diba in The Queen and I (middle); AnneBruce Falconer in Danse Macabre (bottom)
Los Angeles Film Festival, Monday, June 21, highlights:
- Michele Mulroney and Kieran Mulroney's Paper Man (Landmark 4, 2 pm) stars Jeff Daniels as a middle-aged teacher who goes through growing pains after befriending a teenage girl. Also in the cast: Ryan Reynolds, Emma Stone, Kieran Culkin, Hunter Parrish, Lisa Kudrow.
- Academy Award-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim's documentary It Might Get Loud (Landmark 8, 2 pm) depicts the meeting of three generations of guitar musicians: Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, U2's The Edge, and the White Stripes' Jack White. Both Page and White are expected to attend the screening.
- A second screening of Lynn Shelton's Sundance 2009 hit Humpday will take place at the Landmark 8 at 4:45 pm.
- Nahid Persson Sarvestani's The Queen and I (Landmark 8, 7:15 pm). The "queen" of the title is actually 70-year-old Empress Farah Diba, the third wife of deposed Shah Reza Pahlavi; the “I” is Persson Sarvestani herself, a teen member of the Communist faction of Khomeini supporters who helped to depose the shah. Reading the LAFF's synopsis, The Queen and I seems to be as much about personal politics as it is about Iranian politics. Either way, considering what's been happening in Iran, Persson Sarvestani's documentary sounds like a must.
- Set in Argentina, actor-writer-director Mariano Llinás' 245-minute Extraordinary Stories (Landmark 4, 7 pm) revolves around three main storylines focusing on assorted crimes, ranging from murder to corruption.
- Shorts Program 2 (Majestic Crest, 9:45 pm) includes Jenni Olson's 575 Castro St., about Harvey Milk's legacy; Pedro Pires' Danse Macabre, in which a corpse shakes, rattles, and rolls; and Claire Burger's Forbach, the tale of an up-and-coming actor who returns to his village in the Lorraine region where he encounters much praise for his success and nasty secrets come to the fore.
The text has been amended.
Thank you.
"Historias Extraordinarias" is not set in Patagonia. Is set in Buenos Aires Province, the Pampas of Argentina.
The text has been amended. Thank you for the correction. I got the erroneous (second wife) info from the LAFF website.
HIM Farah Pahlavi is the third wife of the late Shah.
She is still, after all these years, held in high respect by the peoples of Iran.