From Factory Work To Films: Purdy's New `Reflections'

Just five months ago, Seattle native Jon Purdy was working in a California factory.

In March, he found himself directing Mimi Rogers and Billy Zane in his first feature-length film, which was originally titled "Regina."

At 7:15 tonight, fresh from the lab and sporting a fresh title, "Reflections on a Crime," the movie has its world premiere at the Neptune.

Provocative, well-cast and economically directed, it turns out to be a solid writing-directing debut, as well as proof that Rogers' distinctive performance in "The Rapture" was no fluke. She's taking a lot of interesting chances with her career right now, most of them involving first-time directors such as Purdy who have gained her trust.

"It's been a long and bumpy road," said Purdy, who grew up on Whidbey Island, studied literature at the University of Washington and wrote film criticism for the Seattle Film Society's publication, Movietone News.

Fifteen years ago, around the time his Northwest short "Sammie's Bicycle" played the Seattle festival, Purdy headed for California with dreams of making features. He operated a screening room, sold half a dozen screenplays (one of which got made as a 1992 Mark Hamill flop called "The Guyver") but decided to hold out for directing credit on this script.

"I was reasonably well-paid for `The Guyver,' but the film was a disaster," he said. "The directors didn't know what they were doing." He ended up writing 11 different scripts, most of them dictated by storyboarded special effects. Narrative logic was an early casualty.

"I insisted I get to direct `Regina,' " he said. "I wrote it for that purpose. It was pretty singular and distinctive, and I was offered a fair amount of money to step aside for another director. I didn't."

Roger Corman, who is best-known for producing exploitation pictures such as "Carnosaur," got the project going with a can't-lose budget that will guarantee video success. Purdy designed it that way.

"The genesis of the script was somewhat mechanical," he said. "I knew I needed to have very few locations, few speaking roles and a woman in the lead. Women get so few good roles, I knew I could attract an actress better than I could afford."

He's hoping to get the picture into theaters before it goes to tape; audience response at Seattle and other festivals will be important in that effort. He attributes tonight's showing to the enthusiasm of Seattle festival co-founder Dan Ireland, who saw it in rough-cut form several weeks ago.

It's too bad "Reflections on a Crime" wasn't entered in the festival's New Directors' Showcase, which is singling out 12 first-time efforts this year. It's a much stronger debut film than a couple of the official contestants.

Also at the festival today through Sunday:

Today

Egyptian

5 p.m. - "Talk." Australian comedy about two friends who work together on adult comic books.

7:15 p.m. - "Eat Drink Man Woman." Taiwan-based writer-director Ang Lee, winner of last year's top awards for "The Wedding Banquet," is back with the North American premiere of this comedy about family ties.

9:30 p.m. - Sneak preview. No title has been announced. Someone usually starts a rumor around this time that the Grand Prize winner from Cannes will turn up in this slot, but Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" is reportedly not available for American festival showings.

Midnight - "Erotique." Disappointing collection of short films by women filmmakers: Lizzie Borden's phone-sex story, "Let's Talk About Sex"; Monika Treut's lesbian tale, "Taboo Parlor," featuring a cameo appearance by Marianne Sagebrecht; and Clara Law's acrobatic Hong Kong short, "Wonton Soup."

Neptune

5 p.m. - "Stefano!" Anarchic Italian comedy starring and directed by Maurizio Nichetti, who made "The Icicle Thief."

7:15 p.m. - "Reflections on a Crime." World premiere of a capital-punishment drama that turns into an intriguing dissection of a dead-end marriage. Mimi Rogers, fulfilling the promise she showed in "The Rapture," gives another of her smart, edgy performances as the wife, while John Terry is perfectly cast as the husband.

9:30 p.m. - "Bad Boy Bubby." Ambitious, original, sometimes explosively funny Australian comedy that won the special grand jury prize at last fall's Venice Film Festival. The title character is a Kaspar Hauser type who has been locked away from the world for 35 years. He may also remind you, at various times, of Dustin Hoffman's autistic genius in "Rain Man," Peter Sellers' blank-slate gardener in "Being There" and the damaged but resourceful hero of The Who's "Tommy." In other words, a hero for our times.

Tomorrow

Broadway Performance Hall

11:00 a.m. - Critics' Seminar. An all-star critics' panel that's shaping up as one of the festival's main events. Scheduled to discuss the influence of film criticism are reviewers from Time magazine (Richard Schickel), The Boston Globe (Jay Carr), Entertainment Weekly (Owen Gleiberman), Variety (Leonard Klady) and The Los Angeles Times (Peter Rainer). KING-TV's Lucy Mohl organized the panel and will act as moderator.

Harvard Exit

12:30 p.m. - "Digger." The festival's children's series concludes with this story of a reluctant summer visitor to Vancouver Island. The role is played by Adam Hann-Byrd, who had the title role in Jodie Foster's "Little Man Tate." Also in the cast are Olympia Dukakis, Timothy Bottoms, Leslie Nielsen and Barbara Williams. It's not recommended for very young children.

Egyptian

12:30 p.m. - "The Last Emperor." Free 70mm presentation of Bernardo Bertolucci's epic of 20th Century China, which won nine Academy Awards, including best picture and director of 1987.

3:30 p.m. - "Inside the Goldmine." Josh Evans, son of Ali MacGraw and Robert Evans, makes his directing debut with this pointless, self-consciously arty story about a Hollywood producer's son and his best friend (played by the director, who seems to be doing a Dennis Hopper impersonation).

6:30 p.m. - "Sleep With Me." Rory Kelly's uneven romantic comedy about a couple (Meg Tilly, Eric Stoltz) and their best friend (Craig Sheffer). The supporting actors and cameo-role performers are more compelling than the leads, especially Adrienne Shelly, who identifies herself as Demi Moore's body double, and Quentin Tarantino as a motormouth whose rabid monologue about the homoerotic subtext of "Top Gun" is worth the price of admission.

9:30 p.m. - "Love and Human Remains." Denys Arcand, winner of the 1990 Golden Space Needle for best director (for "Jesus of Montreal"), returns with this mishmash about a bisexual actor (Thomas Gibson) and his randy friends. It starts out like a Canadian "Tales of the City" (in which Gibson also played a bisexual cad), then degenerates into an unwieldy mixture of door-slamming farce and serial-killer thriller.

Midnight - "Love and a .45." Writer-director C.W. Talkington's violent black comedy about a 1990s Texas couple who take the Bonnie-and-Clyde route. Fans of "Dazed and Confused" will be delighted to see three of that film's young stars reunited (Rory Cochrane gets the juiciest role), but there's too much blood and not enough laughs.

Neptune

12:30 p.m. - "Reflections on a Crime." See above.

3:30 p.m. - "Eat Drink Man Woman." See above.

6:30 p.m. - "The Beans of Egypt, Maine." Filmed partly in the Seattle area last year, this entertaining adaptation of Carolyn Chute's family saga stars Martha Plimpton, Kelly Lynch, scene-stealing Patrick McGaw (star of last year's festival film, "Amongst Friends") and Rutger Hauer, who is in town this weekend to promote it. So are producer Roz Heller and director Jennifer Warren.

9:30 p.m. - "Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker." North American premiere of a China/Hong Kong production about a thwarted love affair. Directed by He Ping, who made "Swordsman in Double-Flag Town."

Sunday Egyptian

12:30 p.m. - "The Secret Festival." Sold-out series made up entirely of surprises.

2:30 p.m. - Poster Auction. Gary Tucker is the master auctioneer for this annual movie-poster auction, which will be held in the Egyptian Ballroom.

3:30 p.m. - "The Beans of Egypt, Maine." See above.

6:30 p.m. - "Barcelona." One of the few independent filmmakers to achieve Academy Award recognition his first time out (he was a 1990 Oscar candidate for best original screenplay for "Metropolitan"), writer-director Whit Stillman is back with a witty and substantial sophomore effort about Americans in Spain during the late 1970s. Stillman will attend the premiere and the closing-night party; three of the cast members are also in town. The program will begin with the annual presentation of the Golden Space Needle awards.

9:15 p.m. - "Golden Balls." The festival's last TBA slot will be filled by a repeat of this Spanish comedy from the creators of last year's popular sex comedy, "Jamon Jamon." The story of an abusive construction worker who eventually gets his comeuppance, it's heavier and less satisfying.

Neptune

12:30 p.m. - "Sleep With Me." See above.

3:30 p.m. - "Strange Trips." Two hours of short films exploring the line between fantasy and reality.

6:30 p.m. - "Three Colors: White." The second and decidedly more accessible portion of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's French trilogy, which began with the irritatingly vague "Blue." This one is a delightfully ironic comedy starring Zbigniew Zamachowski as a Polish Everyman who is going through an especially disorienting divorce.

9:15 p.m. - "Love and Human Remains." See above.

Festival schedule

A listing of Seattle Film Festival events appears daily in the Scene section and Sundays in the Arts Alive section.