The first-stage calls are the most exciting because you're looking at the whole magilla all at once and making snap judgements based on (a) descriptions of each film's story and presumed theme (which are always glowingly complimentary and highly suspect), (b) the heat and intrigue levels of the actors in the cast, (c) the caliber of the director and screenwriter(s), and (d) when and where it's showing.

Yeah, positioning counts. I've always felt that festival programmers tend to tip their hand by giving prime-time screening slots to their favorites, or to films with the highest heat readings.

There are 227 films listed in the index -- 200 features and 27 shorts. Using every smarty-pants prejudicial twitch in my book, I've winnowed my "interested" list down to 48 films.

That's 11 Premiere's, 2 from Special Screenings, 7 from Dramatic Competition, 6 from American Spectrum, 9 from the Docs, 4 from the Midnight section, and 9 from World Cinema. Of these, I'll probably wind up seeing a little more than half, and perhaps 30 if I really wail.

This list of 48 excludes some good films I saw at the '03 Cannes, Locarno and Toronto film festivals (like Lars von Trier's DOGVILLE and THE FIVE OBSTRUCTIONS or Chris Smith, Dan Ollman and Sarah Price's THE YES MEN) that I'd otherwise be seeing, etc.

PREMIERES: Unqualified enthusiasm for Bernardo Bertolucci's THE DREAMERS (for obvious reasons, not the least of which is Bertolucci's knack for evoking sensuality); Guy Maddin's THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (missed it at Toronto, where it was very enthusiastically received by some); Stacy Peralta's RIDING GIANTS (a history-of-surfing movie that opens the festival); Pieter Jan Brugge's THE CLEARING (you have to figure any Sundance flick that stars Robert Redford is probably exceptional, or else everyone would cry favoritism); and Walter Salles' THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES (a road movie about the young Che Guevara -- played by Gael Garcia Bernal -- and another dude taking a nine-month motorcyle trip through South America in 1952).

Qualified enthusiasm for Katja Von Garner's IRON-JAWED ANGELS (suffragettes fighting for the vote in the era of John Reid, costarring Hilary Swank, Frances O'Connor and Julia Ormond... and made for HBO); Mitch Rouse's EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH (comedy about secure vs. disenfranchised middle Americans, with Matt Dillon and Steve Zahn...looks smallish); and Eric Breiss and J. Mackye Gruber's THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT (for the undeniable reason that anything with Ashton Kutcher has to be regarded with caution).

And also for MARIE AND BRUCE (based on an extremely toxic marital-discord play written by co-scripter Wallace Shawn, costarring Julianne Moore and Matthew Broderick); Brian Dannelly's SAVED (a comic satire about a Bible camp with Jena Malone, Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin...an obvious potential to get very old very quickly, but let's see); and Takeshi Kitano's ZATOICHI (which everyone loved at Toronto, but it's not showing publicly in Park City until Saturday the 24th at 3 pm...what's that about?).

I'm scratching for the time being Angela Robinson's D.E.B.S. (some kind of high-school-level CHARLIE'S ANGELS romp with lesbian seasonings); Stephen Fry's BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS (I love Fry's wit and personality, but hated this ersatz period piece when I saw it in Toronto); Michael Clancy's EULOGY (an eccentric family convenes for a father's funeral, foreshadowing Cameron Crowe's ELIZABETHTOWN in the process); and Matthew Bright's TIPTOES (CGI stunt casting of Gary Oldman as a dwarf gets an immediate thumbs-down).

SPECIAL SCREENINGS: The keepers are Orlando Bagwell and Noland Walker's CITIZEN KING, a 107-minute exploration of the struggle of Martin Luther King, and Harry Thomason and Nick Perry's THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT, an anti-right payback doc that'll fit neatly into next year's Presidential campaign, focusing on the frenzied efforts by conservatives to flagellate Bill Clinton during his eight-year term.

No time to see Thom Anderson's 169-minute LOS ANGELES PLAYS ITSELF (it doesn't show until Saturday, 1.24 at 8 pm -- smack dab in the middle of the awards ceremony), but anyone who hasn't seen this brilliant take on the celluloid mythologies of Los Angeles should make an effort. (I caught it in Toronto.)

DRAMATIC COMPETITION: Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE, an allegedly Woody Allen-esque romantic comedy with a soupcon of deep feelings about human frailty (according to Sundance honcho Geoffrey Gilmore) looks like a stand-out. (Wait a minute...it's about another parent's funeral. Cameron, are you reading this?)

Ditto John Curran's WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, a marital infidelity-and-discord drama written by Larry Gross, based on the short stories of Andre Dubus, and said to be reminiscent of Edward Albee's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOLFF. Braff, Natalie Portman and Peter Sarsgaard costar in the former; ANYMORE features a sturdy quartet -- Naomi Watts, Mark Ruffalo, Laura Dern and Peter Krause.

I'm feeling mezzo-mezzo interest in Alan Brown's THE BOOK OF LOVE (complacent married couple challenged by wife's brief infidelity, with Frances O'Connor, Simon Baker and Gregory Smith); Ray McKinnon's CHRYSTAL (a guilt-and-redemption piece with Billy Bob Thornton and Lisa Blount, allegedly containing a great fight scene); Jane Weinstock's EASY (an "earthy" single-girl-lookin'-for-love story...I'm getting' queasy); Jared Hess's NAPOLEON DYNAMITE (quirky, character-driven comedy about an oddball kid, with Jon Heder allegedly giving a "truly awe-inspiring" performance as the titular lead character); and, last but not least, Nicole Kassell's THE WOODSMAN (about a recently-freed molester of young girls -- played by Kevin Bacon -- trying to start a new life, and costarring Kyra Sedgwick, Mos Def and Benjamin Bratt).

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION: Four definites, five possibles. The leading lights are Barak Goodman's THE FIGHT (about the 1938 Joe Louis-Max Schmelling heavyweight championship bout); Ivy Meeropol's HEIR TO AN EXECUTION (an invesigation by the granddaughter of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg into their 1953 execution), Ramona Diaz's IMELDA (a story about imperial Philippine corruption that tries to "get beyond the shoes"); and Robert Stone's NEVERLAND: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY (the content pretty much indicated by the title).

The who-knows? roster includes Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson's DEADLINE (about a recent decision by a conservative Illinois governor to spare 142 prisoners from execution); Ondi Timoner's DIG! (a seven-year-in-the-making doc about a rivalry-fed feud between two musician pals, Brian Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcombe and the Dandy Warhol's Courtney Taylor); Matt Mahurin's I LIKE KILLING FLIES (about a colorful chef named Kenny who works -- worked? -- for a Greenwich Village eatery called Shopsin's); Morgan Spurlock's SUPER SIZE ME (about the American penchant for fast food); and Eric Chaikin and Julian Petrillo's WORD WARS (concerning scrabble enthusiasts).

AMERICAN SPECTRUM: At the top of the intrigue list are Kevin Willmott's C.S.A.: THE CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA (a faux-documentary about what American culture and values would be like if the men in gray tunics had won the Civil War), and Jehane Noujaim's THE CONTROL ROOM (a portrait of the contrarian, pro-Islamic TV news channel Al Jezeera).

Then comes David Sampliner and Tim Nackashi's DIRTY WORK (a doc about guys doing three gross-sounding jobs -- bull-semen extractor, septic tank pumper, and dead-body makeup artist); Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofksy's METTALICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER (a look at the soft underbellies of members of the famed macho metal group); Chris Kentis' OPEN WATER (a drama about a couple stranded in the open sea, floating and fending off sharks); and Christian Johnson's SEPTEMBER TAPES (a timely action thriller about U.S. journalists poking around Afghanistan in the wake of 9.11 and dodging bullets in the bargain).

WORLD CINEMA: The leaders of the pack all opened at previous festivals, and one --GOODBYE, LENIN! -- played commercially all across Europe last winter, spring and summer.

Andrey Zvyagintsev's THE RETURN, about a long-gone father's relationship with his sons, has been nominated for a Best Foreign Film Golden Globe and was also up for a Golden Leopard at last summer's Locarno Film Festival. Kim Ki-duk's SPRING, SUMMER, AUTUMN, WINTER AND...SPRING AGAIN, a South Korean film about the cycles of life, won no less than four prizes at Locarno and the audience award at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Set during the time of the fall of East Germany, Wolfgang Becker's GOODBYE, LENIN! is a comedy about a family going to great lengths to minimize the shock that their die-hard commie mother, just out of a coma, is sure to feel when she realizes socialism is dead in Eastern Europe and that Germany has been unified.

Mike Hodges' I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD is a solemn, meditative crime film (comparisons to CROUPIER and GET CARTER are not the point) about solitude and revenge. Baram-nan Gajak's A GOOD LAWYER'S WIFE perks my interest because of what the program notes call "refreshingly candid sex scenes"...it goes no deeper than that. I'm feeling attracted to Alberto Durant's CON GAME, a Chilean film with political undertones about a sting operation, because the program description makes it sound vaguely similar to NINE QUEENS.

Nobody seemed to be very excited at last September's Toronto Film Festival about Penny Woolcock's THE PRINCIPLES OF LUST, but hey, the Sundancers like it. Gabriele Muccino's REMEMBER ME is said to be as good as his last film, THE LAST KISS, and that's a closer in itself. (It played last June in a dinky little theatre in San Donato, the little Tuscan village I stayed in just after the Cannes Film Festival.)

Bronwen Hughes' STANDER, a fairly novel-sounding piece about a pro-apartheid South African cop who became a nutball bank robber, is said to feature a "riveting, hypnotic" lead performance from Thomas Jane, a.k.a. THE PUNISHER.

Rodrigo Rey Rosa's WHAT SEBASTIAN DREAMT sounds like the most visually arresting of the bunch. A political murder mystery set in the Guatemalan rain forest, the conflict is between a young Spanish land owner and an organized crime family...but you've gotta figure the jungle- scapes alone will be worth the ride.

PARK CITY AT MIDNIGHT: Two keepers, two titillators. First in line has to be Mark Brian Smith's OVERNIGHT, a documentary about Troy Duffy, a bartender who almost made it big as a screenwriter after Miramax bought/optioned his script, but who then blew himself up by alienating everyone he met. Another film that took seven years to shoot, it captures "a new breed of monster -- the indie-film director," sez Sundance programmer Trevor Groth. (What about those two asshole directors portrayed during the second Project Greenlight season?)

The other hummer, it seems to me, is David Caffrey's GRAND THEFT PARSONS, about how Graham Parsons' road manager and a friend named Larry abscond with the body of the dead folk singer after his death in 1973. It stars Johnny Knoxville, Christina Applegate and Robert Forster.

The other two are Alexandre Aja's HAUTE TENSION, an allegedly gruesome horror-thriller, and Bruce LaBruce's RASPBERRY REICH, about sexual experimentation inside a group of antiwar, anti-capitalist German outlaws (modeled on the infamous Baader Meinhoff gang).

If anyone has heard anything substantial about these films, yea or nay, please write in and I'll run some kind of follow-up. Somewhere in this list of 48 is a tighter, more vital list of 25 or 30.

Stuff I'm Hearing

This is pretty scattered, but I got some responses back from some of my buyer pals about the Sundance lineup after sending them a draft of today's lead piece.

Various distributors are chasing Zac Braff's GARDEN STATE. The rumor is that an early acquisition interest on the part of Focus Features either "fell out or never was," according to a producer's rep. OPEN WATER, which picked up some heat earlier this year (at Toronto, was it?) is also the object of buyer interest.

Jean Francois Pouliot's SEDUCING DR. LEWIS, a LOCAL HERO-ish sounding comedy that didn't seem like an ideal HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE pick at first glance, "has an excellent producer, Roger Frappier, and it could have indie appeal," says one veteran player. The source adds that he's "very interested in THE CONTROL ROOM and "the Clinton pic," i.e., THE HUNTING OF THE PRESIDENT.

A well-connected buyer says that although he "loves" Bernardo Bertolucci, he's been told that THE DREAMERS is "a snore." He reports he saw THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD in Venice and that it's "horrific." He's also seen the promo reel for RIDING GIANTS and that it "looks good, even though it [seems to be just] another surfing movie."

He hears THE CLEARING "is a mess [although] I've not seen it myself, so what I'm hearing may be vicious lies."

He says he's also hearing that THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES "is really, really, really bad. This would kill me as Walter Salles last movie, BEHIND THE SUN, was much admired."

He says he loves the trailer for THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT, "although trailers can and will be deceptive." He hears that EULOGY is "a stiff," and says that a colleague saw TIPTOES in Toronto and didn't like it.

John Curran's WE DON'T LIVE HERE ANYMORE, he hears, "will be really tough. Very good, I'm sure, but I don't know if it will sell...dark, dark." He knows nothing about CHRYSTAL, but says Ray Mckinnon "can direct, so he might pull this one out of the bag. The script wasn't great. but he can direct!"

Nicole Kassell's THE WOODSMAN comes from "an amazing script and the promo kicks butt! Dark, darker, darkest...but a damn good script."

A source I'll call "New York guy" says that Marc Evans' TRAUMA, which I didn't include on my list, "looks interesting. Evans' last film, MY LITTLE EYE, was pretty scary and well done for what it was."

IRON-JAWED ANGELS "sounds pretty terrible to me," he comments. "Politically correct up the wazoo, and an 'effusive contemporary pop score' to boot."

He "saw a trailer for EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH and [thinks] it might have a shot. It looked appealing and commercial, but it could also turn out to be too broad."

Brad Anderson's THE MACHINIST, a Kafka-esque nightmare trip with Christian Bale, "sounds like it will be terrific or laughable. Brad Anderson with Spanish producers?"

"Unless the script and filmmaking chops in Brian Dannelly's SAVED are really inspired," he declares, "this sounds like tired satire."

Regarding TIPTOES, "I don't get [director] Matthew Bright and couldn't understand the furor over FREEWAY, a heavy-handed so what." He suspects that the fact that Achim von Borries' LOVE IN THOUGHTS isn't playing until the second Friday night (1.23), "when a ton of people are gone," is a verdict in itself.

He calls the Dramatic Competition lineup "the dysfunctional family category...really, check out how many fit that bill."

He says he "really looking forward" to Christopher Munch's HARRY AND MAX, a relationship piece about two brothers. "This is fertile ground for exploring and Munch's sober style might be a perfect fit."

Jane Weinstock's EASY " was in Toronto and completely overlooked, and yet it's unusual for a competition film to have been in a previous major fest."

He knows zip about Greg Harrison's NOVEMBER, but finds the program description "a bit over the top... reminiscent of BLOW UP and LOST HIGHWAY? And Harrison's 'importance as one of the best of emerging generation'...this about the director of GROOVE?"

He says he's hearing "really good things" about HEIR TO AN EXECUTION, and that DIG! "could be good. I like the Brian Jonestown Massacre a lot and their leader is truly out there. His legendary onstage meltdowns could make this riveting."

He says METALLICA: SOME KIND OF MONSTER is "pretty great, walking a line between uncomfortably and admirably 'real' personal examination and spinal tap buffoonery. People who have no interest in heavy metal will probably get this."

He says he'd "love to be proven wrong, but the World Cinema looks like a weak program again this year. Considering the array of choices available, I don't understand how a lot of these films -- which aren't terrible, just unexceptional -- make it in.

He says that Mark Brian Smith's OVERNIGHT " is truly a spectacle...really, really entertaining bad behavior all around...a great display of the narcissistic, fawning, heat-seeking grotesqueries of the biz we all love. As enormously assholic as Troy Duffy is, he has what seems like a whole industry to keep him company. And as outrageous and over-the-top as this story seems, there are different versions of it playing out everyday in player land."

Where's Abel?

For some reason, a first-rate doc I saw last August about wild-man director Abel Ferrara (BAD LIEUTENANT, THE KING OF NEW YORK) wasn't even submitted to Sundance, according to a festival spokesperson. It hasn't shown up at any other U.S. film festival, either. It's not a magnificent ground-breaker, but it's definitely alert, spunky and "different." Why hide it?

Anticipating it would be difficult to reach the European-based Rafi Pitts, the director of ABEL FERRARA: NOT GUILTY, I tried reaching Ferrara to see what the story might be, but it was no-go from the get-go. The guy doesn't want to be contacted.

I called every friend or colleague I could think of (including Harvey Keitel, who's about to star in Ferrara's next film, GO GO TALES, described by VARIETY as "a screwball comedy about a Manhattan lap dance club"), and they all passed along defunct numbers, or said they weren't in touch with Ferrara and couldn't help, or just blew me off.

An editor who worked with Ferrara on his last film, R' CHRISTMAS, said he never gives out a number and always tell people he's working with, "I'll call you."

I also e-mailed Doc & Co., the French distributor that owns the rights to NOT GUILTY, and like all French movie companies they haven't gotten back with any haste.

Anyway, here's a review of NOT GUILTY that I ran four months ago. Sundance '04 will be a tiny bit poorer this year for having not chased this thing. I'm sure there's a story about why it was never submitted (if that is in fact true), or why Doc & Co. isn't trying harder to get it seen. Perhaps someone reading this will write and clue us all in.

The doc "doesn't attempt an in-depth probing of a filmmaker's career and aesthetics by the usual means," I wrote. "Probing questions put to the director, a comprehensive array of clips, talking heads offering insightful assessments, etc....none of that.

"Instead, Pitts just follows Ferrara all around Manhattan -- shooting the shit with people on the street, filming some kind of music video, visiting and hosting friends, talking to women, tossing off anecdotes about Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe (the stars of Ferrara's BAD LIEUTENANT, KING OF NEW YORK and NEW ROSE HOTEL) -- and just lets him be himself.

"'I knew that an interview situation wasn't going to give us any new information about Abel,' Pitts told the PARDO NEWS, the local festival rag. 'The best way to portray him was to show him how he is. The film is always from his point of view. He's always in the shot.' And a cool thing it turns out to be -- a wonderfully messy and slipshod New York experience.

"The festival program notes on this film describe Ferrara as 'deranged,' which I think is a little harsh. He comes off as a nutter, okay, but one deserving of respect. He comes off as an anarchic, creative teenager with the soul and finesse of a 51 year-old.

"A gnomish, stooped-over figure with longish graying hair in a leather jacket and a pink New York Yankees baseball cap, Ferrara is full of hyper, rambunctious energy. He plays guitar and piano (not too badly) and he loves to tell stories in one of those fuck-this, fuck-that Manhattan street voices we're all familiar with.

"An actor friend observes at one point Ferrara tends to do four or five things at the same time, and each one with distinction. It's clear he likes to solve creative problems by immersing himself in chaos and sorting things out as he goes along.

"It's also clear he knows from movies, and precisely what's good and what's not. He's goes into a kind of frenzy when he's working, and you can see why certain films of his (BAD LIEUTENANT and KING OF NEW YORK, certainly) work as well as they do. You can also understand why, at the same time, constipated producer types might feel a little intimidated by him.

"But he's great with actors and catching excitement on the fly. Bronx-born and quick with a quip, Ferrara loves taking cabs all over town and talking shit at every pit stop. There's a great moment when he spots a long-legged brunette strolling nearby and starts walking after her, making cracks like 'tall...and that's not all!' and 'those boots were made for walkin'!'

"I have one beef about the film. Ferrara was one of the eleven filmmakers hired by Canal Plus to shoot a short film for 11.9.01, the compilation piece about reactions to the World Trade Center attacks, but was fired, he says, because the producers 'thought my ideas about the piece were dangerous.' He doesn't explain what these ideas were, and I think Pitts should have gotten him to cough up.

"Ferrara is a funny, charismatic, fascinating guy. He doesn't hide his tendency to drink beer all the time from the camera, and he's probably going to have a lot of friends tell him he should invest in some dental work after this film gets around. But that's the honesty of this thing. This is who I am, exuberance and all, and fuck it if it's not what you'd prefer.

"Ferrara tells a woman he meets on the street he's being followed around by a video crew because it's his last day on earth, and it occurred to me this is precisely the attitude he seems to bring to living his life each day."

Woo Blues

"It's a shame you didn't see PAYCHECK before assembling your top-ten worst films list. Because, oh sweet Moses, this is truly the worst thing since GODZILLA. I don't know what bothered me more: the ludicrously schizophrenic script, or that director John Woo actually seems to take it seriously.

Like any ready-to-assemble John Woo flick, this baby comes replete a white bird flying in slow motion, symbolizing....what? Hope? I guess sticking his favorite aviary motif in both FACE/ OFF and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 2 wasn't enough.

"Woo has now solidified his status as the most stomach-wrenchingly saccharine A-list director of all time. I wouldn't have thought it possible to wrest the reigns away from Michael Bay, but Woo has done it.

"Ben Affleck, who seems wise to the portentousness of the movie, remains on cruise control through the entire affair. One wonders how many bad movies Affleck can get away with before he starts heading towards Travolta territory. Although, I must say -- and I can't stress this enough -- PAYCHECK makes GIGLI look good." -- Bryan Kopta, Oklahoma City, OK.

Wells to Kopta: I've asked a couple of major film critics -- both were early champions of Woo -- to respond to a note I wrote them about what's happened to this once-admired auteur over the last few years. I haven't heard back, so maybe they don't have too much to say. I don't know what any Woo admirer could say, really.

"Woo was elevated to the rank of a major auteur-level director by [certain critics] based on the calibre of his Hong Kong work (extreme action choreography, ballet-like depictions of violence, etc.)," I wrote in my letter. "And he obviously enjoyed the respect of the community all through the '90s, but things have gotten to the point now where I find myself reacting to the news of another John Woo film like it's another piece of shite by Jan De Bont or Michael Bay or McG.

"What happened? Well, we know what happened. The Hollywood filmmaking machine doesn't allow action directors to inject much in the way of personality or particularity in cranking out these $75 million action behemoths. There's too much at stake. All it wants is the same old high-tech, attitude-heavy machismo, and Woo, no purist at his age, wants to go with the flow and stay flush.

"Woo's high-flying action chops were more of a novel thing when people first started digging his Hong Kong films in the late '80s and early '90s, but now they've been absorbed (i.e., imitated ad infinitum) by the system, and the poor guy (how old is he?) doesn't seem to have anything new to say or add to the style and/or language of action films. Sucked in by the bucks and ground up into hamburger, Woo has sadly become just another rotely efficient, hack-level whore."