World Films Visit Monterey
Articles / Online
Date: November 28, 2007  

Suzanne Connolly, Staff Reporter

The International Monterey Film Festival is at the Golden State Theater in Monterey. This year’s film festival features films from 13 countries including England, Mexico, India, Germany and many more. The festival will be showing two movies nightly from Nov.23 to Dec. 2 starting at 7 p.m.

Before each movie begins an organist will be playing a Wurlitzer organ playing the music from the upcoming movie. “This organ mimics various instruments and sounds like a full orchestra. It is absolutely incredible to hear,” said Anthony Liddle, the talent coordinator at Golden State Theater.

On Nov 29 “City of God” will be playing. This movie is rated R and has a running time of 130 minutes. This movie is from Brazil and directed by Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund. City of God is the name of a city slum full of violence in Rio de Janiero. According to the website Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) this movie is the story of children growing up in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s in the slums and how many of them took the path of drugs, violence and crime. Although the children were desperate few tried to escape this life style. This movie is told through the eyes of one of these children Buscape a young man who becomes a photographer for a newspaper and reports on what is happening in his hometown. Buscape tells the story through his experience growing up and his eyes.

Another movie that will be playing on Dec 1 is “Beauty and the Beast.” This movie gained popularity after being made into a cartoon by Disney. This is the original French version directed Jean Cocteau in 1946. This film has a running time of 93min and is not rated. This is the story of a poor merchant and his three daughters. One day the merchant wonders into the woods and stumbles upon a castle. The merchant believes that the castle is empty and finds a beautiful rose that he wants to give to his daughter Belle. As he picks up the rose, the half-human, half-beast owner of the castle appears and sentences him to death unless he gives up one of his daughters. When Belle hears of this she decides to sacrifice herself for her beloved father and go to live with the beast.

These are just previews of two of the outstanding films that will be showing. Closing night a silent film Metropolis will be playing and will be accompanied by an organist. This evening’s event will be $20 unless a series pass was purchased. Tickets to this event are $10 per night or a series pass for $45 and $25 for students. For more information on this event call 372-3800.