It was East meets West at Hollywood Nov. 5-12 as AFI Fest presented 130 studio features, indies, documentaries, shorts, animation, world cinema and live appearances by movie stars. The film festival screened world premieres of Angelina Jolie’s “By the Sea, co-starring husband Brad Pitt, football drama “Concussion” with Will Smith and the financial crash saga “The Big Short.” International offerings included Marco Bellocchio’s “Blood of My Blood,” Jonas Carpignano’s “Mediterranea” and Ankara-born co-writer/director Deniz Gamze Erguven’s Mustang, a Turkey-set ode to female rebellion against religious repression, which won AFI Fest’s New Auteurs Audience Award.
At the 1920s-built Egyptian Theatre, Michael Caine, star of the ’60s classics “Zulu,” “The Ipcress File” and “Alfie,” spoke following a screening of “Youth.” The film was written and directed by Naples-born writer-director, Paolo Sorrentino, whose “The Great Beauty” nabbed the best foreign film Oscar in 2013.
Mr. Caine joked this was the first time he’d “set foot in the Egyptian since the premiere of Doctor Zhivago” in 1965, which co-starred his friend Julie Christie.
The two-time Oscar winner compared portraying Alfred in big-budget Batman movies to depicting a composer in “Youth,” a musical drama co-starring Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano and Jane Fonda. “For starters, in [2008’s] ’The Dark Knight’ I’m not the star. I played a butler to the best of my ability. … [Alfred Pennyworth is] a Cockney, older man and a butler — which I am now to my grandchildren,” the 82-year-old quipped.
On the other hand, in “Youth,” Mr. Caine is the main character.
“Two conductors taught me how to conduct. Conducting is not as easy as it looks,” he said of preparing for his role.
A key scene was filmed in a Jacuzzi with Mr. Caine joined by Harvey Keitel and Romanian actress Madalina Ghenea.
“Paolo said, ’Get into the pool. There’s no dialogue, just enjoy the warmth,’” Mr. Caine explained. “Madalena came in with no clothes on. She’s stunning with clothes on. Our reactions are real, we didn’t know” Mr. Caine related to a chuckling full house. “Fortunately, I’m married to a very beautiful woman too.”
Lefty documentarian Michael Moore also made a personal appearance at the Egyptian for a screening of “Where to Invade Next.” In his first new film in six years, the globetrotting director “invades” various European countries and Tunisia in order to bring what he views as their various good ideas — including Italy’s generous workers’ benefits, Norway’s humane prison system, Slovenia’s free university education, Portugal’s drug legalization and Germany’s Holocaust atonement — back to America for implementation here.
In front of about 1,000 fans Johnny Depp held court with “Black Mass” helmer Scott Cooper at the Dolby Theatre, where the Academy Awards telecast occurs. Praising Mr. Cooper, who’d directed Jeff Bridges to an Oscar in 2009’s “Crazy Heart,” Mr. Depp discussed that when he looks for a director, he is seeking “something simpatico” and “doesn’t shout directions across the room.”
The three-time Oscar nominee known for his interior, intuitively intense acting, said that his preparation for a role involves “blacking out” screen directions and often comes up with something in moment. He related a scene in “Black Mass” wherein Mr. Depp as mobster James “Whitey” Bulger caresses the face of a terrified Julianne Nicholson.
“Going into that scene was a mystery. I was cheering for Julianne,” who had no idea Mr. Depp would touch her in such an intimate — and in-character — threatening manner.
Others making personal appearances included British thespians Tom Courtenay (1962’s “The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner”) and Charlotte Rampling (1974’s “The Night Porter”) at a TCL Chinese Theatre screening of their latest movie, “45 Years.”
Devoted to movie heritage, AFI Fest saluted stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age, including the late Dolores del Rio, the first major crossover Latina leading lady, and Ronald Reagan, with shorts featuring the actor-turned-president pardoning a turkey and turning on the national Christmas tree’s lights.
L.A.-based reviewer Ed Rampell co-authored “The Hawaii Movie and Television Book.”
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