24 Seattle International Film Festival -- Film Titles S Through T

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`SAFE' U.S., 1995. Director: Todd Haynes. Cast: Juliane Moore, Peter Friedman. 123 minutes.

Following up on his iconoclastic critical hits "Poison" and the still-banned "Close to You: The Karen Carpenter Story," Todd Haynes has created a highly stylized rumination on life in the late 20th century. Julianne Moore ("Short Cuts") is a suburban housewife who suddenly finds herself afflicted with a set of inexplicable symptoms. June 3, 6:30 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 8, 9:30 p.m., Varsity, $7.

`THE SEARCHERS' U.S., 1956. Director: John Ford. Cast: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood. 119 minutes.

A brooding, emotionally complex masterpiece fueled by John Wayne's terrible, terribly lonely rider, Ethan Edwards. "The Searchers" is classic John Ford. June 10, 12:30 p.m., Harvard Exit, free.

`SECOND SIGHT' Norway, 1994. Director: Ola Solum. Cast: Julia Onsager Steen, Live Bernhoft Osa, Bjorn Willberg Andersen. U.S. premiere, 93 minutes.

Set during the Middle Ages, "Second Sight" chronicles the devastating effect of the Bubonic Plague on the people of Norway and their culture , and tells the legend of a little girl whose survival held the Norwegian national spirit together. May 30, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7; June 2, 5 p.m., Seven Gables, $5.

`SENZA PELLE (NO SKIN)' Italy, 1994. Director: Alessandro D'Alatri. Cast: Anna Galiena, Massimo Ghini. U.S. premiere, 90 minutes.

Gina leads a perfectly ordinary existence. Ordinary as in boring. Gina's husband may take no notice of her, but a timid young man apparently does. Saverio is too shy to speak, and can only express his love from afar with gifts and notes. June 1, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7; June 6, 5 p.m., Egyptian, $5.

`THE SERIOUSLY ILL' Japan, 1994. Director: Juzo Itami. Cast: Rentaro Mikuni, Masahiko Tsugawa, Nobuko Miyamoto. U.S. premiere, 116 minutes.

Comic master Juzo Itami takes a scathing look at the Japanese medical system in this movie-within-a-movie, about an egocentric director who is making a film about a couple dying of cancer. What he does not realize is that his recently diagnosed ulcer is actually cancer. As his illness progresses, his doctor, family and friends become more and more inventive to keep the truth from him. June 7, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian, $7; June 10, 9:15 p.m., Haravrd Exit II, $7.

`SEVEN CHANCES' U.S., 1925. Director: Buster Keaton. Cast: Buster Keaton, Ruth Dwyer. 58 minutes.

Born the same year as the cinema, Buster Keaton grew up to be one of the new medium's first and brightest stars. In "Seven Chances," he plays a shy young man who finds he must marry that day in order to inherit a fortune. This program includes two earlier shorts, "One Week" (1920) and "The Goat" (1921). All three are beautiful 35mm prints. June 5, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian, $7.

`71 FRAGMENTS OF A CHRONOLOGY OF CHANCE' Austria, 1994. Director: Michael Haneke. Cast: Gabriel Cosmin Urdes, Lukas Miko, Otto Grunmandl, Anne Bennet.

The final, chilling installment of Michael Haneke's cutting-edge trilogy, which included "Benny's Video" (SIFF, '94), takes a look at gratuitous violence. On Christmas Eve in 1993, a 19-year-old student kills several people. He neither knew them nor had a clear motive. May 30, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $7; June 4, 3:30 p.m., Seven Gables, $5.

`THE SEXUAL LIFE OF BELGIANS' Belgium, 1994. Director: Jan Bucquoy. Cast: Jean-Henri Compere, Noe Francq. 85 minutes.

This semi-autobiographical recounting of the changing sexual mores of a nation - as seen through the eyes of one befuddled, hapless man over the course of three decades - was created by Belgian writer, designer, conceptual artist and first-time film director Jan Bucquoy. May 26, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7; May 28, 3:30 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $5.

`A SHADOW YOU SOON WILL BE' Argentina, 1994. Director: Hector Olivera. Cast: Miguel Angel Sola, Pepe Soriano. 105 minutes.

This delirious road movie by one of Argentina's best-known directors has a stranded computer programmer encounter a former circus acrobat, a lovelorn banker and a con man. May 31, 7:15 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 5, 5 p.m., Seven Gables, $5.

`THE SILENCE OF NETO' Guatemala, 1994. Director: Luis Argueta. Cast: Oscar Javier Almengror, Herbert Meneses. 106 minutes.

This film explores the political upheaval of 1954 Guatemala, when the U.S. backed a successful presidential coup, through the eyes of the chubby adolescent, Neto. May 29, 6:30 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 3, 12:30 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $5.

`SISTER, MY SISTER' Great Britain. Director: Nancy Meckler. Cast: Julie Walters, Joely Richardson, Jodhi May. 89 minutes.

This strange tale, taken from a true case that formed the basis of Jean Genet's "The Maids," tells the story of two women who one day chop up the family they serve. May 28, 9:15 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7; May 31, 5 p.m., Egyptian, $5.

`SIX DAYS, SIX NIGHTS' France, 1994. Director: Diane Kurys. Cast: Anne Parillaud, Beatrice Dalle, Patrick Aurignac, Bernard Verley. 96 minutes.

Diane Kurys, best known for the Oscar-nominated "Entre Nous," has made a disturbing film about the dark side of intimacy and the pitfalls of mutual dependency between sisters, friends, lovers, husbands and wives. Featuring Anne Parillaud ("La Femme Nikita") and Beatrice Dalle ("Betty Blue"). June 2, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian, $7; June 4, 3:30 p.m., Egyptian, $5.

`SMOKE' U.S., 1995. Director: Wayne Wang. Cast: William Hurt, Harvey Keitel, Stockard Channing, Forest Whitaker. 108 minutes.

Constructed like an emotional jigsaw puzzle, "Smoke" has short cuts of a paper bag containing $5,000 in cash passed from person to person; a cigar store manager who takes photographs in front of his store at the same hour everyday; a novelist who is unable to write after his wife is killed; and a black teenager who changes his identity for everyone he meets. May 19, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian, $7; May 22, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7.

`SONG OF THE SIREN' Israel, 1994. Director: Eytan Fox. Cast: Dalit Kahn, Boaz Gur-Lavi. U.S. premiere. 91 minutes.

This sassy "romancing-the-Scud" comedy is set in Tel Aviv during the 1991 Gulf War. Along with its willful heroine, the film blithely disregards the threats of Scud missile assaults and poison-gas attacks to concentrate on matters of the heart. June 8, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7; June 11, 12:30 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $5.

`SPIDER AND ROSE' Australia, 1994. Director: Bill Bennett. Cast: Ruth Cracknell, Simon Bossell. 94 minutes

After losing her husband in a terrible car accident, the tart-tongued Rose has spent a year recuperating in the hospital. Anxious to return to the family farm she shares with her son and detested daughter-in-law, she is assigned a young, punkish ambulance driver who is marking his last day on the job. May 19, 9:30 p.m., Varsity, $7; May 21, 12:30 p.m., Varsity, $5.

`SQUADRON' Poland, 1994. Director: Juliusz Machulski. Cast: Radoslaw Pazura, Janusz Gajos, Siergei Szakurov, Ian Machulski. U.S. premiere, 100 minutes.

Set during an insurrection of Polish peasants in 1863, "Squadron" focuses on Fyodor, a naive young Russian aristocrat initially drawn to war by the promise of romance and glory. As the brutal realities of combat are revealed to him, Fyodor questions his role in the war and the ethical position of his regiment. His perspective is widened by his feelings for a young Polish peasant woman. June 5, 9:30 p.m., Varsity, $7; June 7, 7:15 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $7.

`THE STAIRWAY TO THE DISTANT PAST' Japan, 1995. Director: Kaizo Hayashi. Cast: Masatoshi Nagase, Joe Shishido, Haruko Shirakawa, Sumiko Sakamoto. 101 minutes.

This is the second film in a trilogy about Maiku Hama, the cool-looking but klutzy private detective who this time is drawn into the orbit of a mysterious waterfront kingpin, the White Man. His search for the White Man's true identity is complicated by the resurfacing of his mother, who he thought had abandoned him, and his kid sister, who is employed as the exotic dancer Dynamite Sexy Lady. May 30, 5 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $5; June 4, 6:30 p.m., Seven Gables, $7.

`THE STARS FELL ON HENRIETTA' U.S., 1995. Director: James Keach. Cast: Robert Duvall, Frances Fisher, Aidan Quinn, Brian Dennehy. 110 minutes.

The time is the 1930s, the place is the small town of Henrietta, Texas. Aidan Quinn and Frances Fisher are barely eking out a living from their barren farm when a mysterious stranger appears on their doorstep one night and tries to convince them that a fortune in oil lies just below their obviously worthless soil. May 20, 9:15 p.m., Egyptian, $7; May 22, 9:30 p.m., Varsity, $7.

`STRANGE ENCOUNTERS' 128 minutes.

This collection of bizarre, adventurous and audacious short films

takes a look at the happenstance meetings of an assortment of odd characters. May 20, 12:30 p.m., Egyptian, $5; June 5, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7.

`SWEET NOTHING' U.S., 1995. Director: Gary Winick. Cast: Michael Imperioli, Mira Sorvino, Paul Calderon. World premiere. 90 minutes.

Based on the found diaries of a New York City crack addict, "Sweet Nothing" centers on the story of an average guy and his family caught in a steady downward spiral. June 8, 9:30 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 10, 6:30 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $7..

`SWIMMING WITH SHARKS' U.S., 1994. Director: George Huang. Cast: Frank Whaley, Kevin Spacey. 94 minutes.

This black comic nightmare lays bare the hideous truth behind surviving in Hollywood: You're required to have the ego of a large doormat. That's what sweet film school grad Guy (Frank Whaley) learns at the hands of his monstrous boss Buddy Ackerman (Kevin Spacey in the role of a lifetime). May 27, 9:15 p.m., Egyptian, $7; May 29, 9:15 p.m., Seven Gables, $7.

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`THE TAEBAEK MOUNTAINS' South Korea, 1994. Director: Im Kwon-Taek. Cast: An Sung-Kee, Kim Myung-Kon. U.S. premiere, 168 minutes.

This historical drama thrusts us into the lives of a group of South Korean villagers during the years leading up to the war between North and South. Combining sweeping set pieces with intimate personal drama, the film demonstrates how political struggle tears apart the fabric of society. May 21, 12:30 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $5; May 23, 7:15 p.m., Egyptian, $7.

`TALES FROM DOWN UNDER' 117 minutes.

Nine provocative Australian short films give a well-rounded and insightful look at the nitty-gritty of life Down Under. June 6, 9:30 p.m., Varsity, $7; June 8, 5 p.m., Egyptian, $5.

`TARANTELLA' U.S., 1995 Director: Helen de Michiel . Cast: Mira Sorvino, Rose Gregorio, Matthew Lilliard, Stephen Spinella. World premiere. 90 minutes.

This evocative film tells the story of a young woman coming to grips with her mother's death and her own ethnic heritage. June 7, 7:15 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 8, 5 p.m., Seven Gables, $5.

`THAT EYE, THE SKY' Australia, 1994. Director: John Ruane. Cast: Peter Coyote, Lisa Harrow. U.S. premiere, 105 minutes .

This film, about a small, troubled community visited by a stranger who promises help and salvation but who may well be a phony, is full of mysticism and miracles that are handled in a realistic style. Warburton (Coyote) arrives on the doorstep of the Flack family, offering assistance to Alice, whose husband is in a deep coma - but it is his relationship with 12-year-old Ort that confounds and challenges the young boy's thoughts of life and death. May 28, 6:30 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 1, 5 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $5.

`THEREMIN: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY' U.S., 1994. Director: Steven A. Martin. Cast: Leon Theremin, Clara Rockmore. 83 minutes.

This documentary explores the life of Leon Theremin, the Russian inventor who revolutionized music with his creation of the world's first electronic instrument. June 1, 7:15 p.m., Varsity, $7; June 6, 5 p.m., Varsity, $5.

`THIS WINDOW IS YOURS' Japan, 1994. Director: Tomoyuki Furumaya. Cast: Yukako Shimuzo, Hideo Sakai, Toshio Kamiaki. 95 minutes.

First-time director Furumaya's story centers on six youngsters who spend their last summer together in rural northeastern Japan before heading off in separate directions. June 6, 7:15 p.m., Varsity, $7; June 9, 5 p.m., Varsity, $5.

`THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES' Iran, 1994. Director: Abbas Kiarostami. Cast: Hossein Rezai, Taherah Ladanian. 103 minutes.

Set in northern Iran, "Through the Olive Trees" deals with the overlap between reality and the world of cinema as it follows a film crew making a fictional motion picture about the inhabitants of a small town. May 27, 6:30 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; May 29, 12:30 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $5.

`TIE-DIED: ROCK 'N' ROLL'S MOST DEADICATED FANS' U.S., 1994. Director: Andrew Behar. Cast: Touring Deadheads. 80 minutes.

Through interviews and footage of life on the road, "Tie-Died" explores the unique bond that forges between aging hippies and yuppies, college students and homeless youth as they follow The Grateful Dead around the country and the world. May 20, midnight, Egyptian, $5; May 23, 9:30 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7.

`TIN SOLDIER' U.S., 1995. Director: Jon Voight. Cast: Trenton Knight, Jon Voight, Ally Sheedy, Dom DeLuise, Bethany Richards. 110 minutes.

Based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale "The Steadfast Tin Soldier," and adapted to modern times in L.A., this directorial debut from Jon Voight is a touching portrait of a 10-year-old boy trying to cope with a new town, gang pressures and the loneliness of growing up with a single parent. Stepping into the breach is a 10-inch silver knight who helps the boy. May 20, 12:30 p.m., Varsity, $5.

`TO DIE FOR' U.S., 1995. Director: Gus Van Sant. Cast: Nicole Kidman. U.S. premiere. 100 minutes.

A dark comedy of murderous intentions from director Gus Van Sant ("Drugstore Cowboy," "My Own Private Idaho"). Kidman stars as an ambitious but slightly deranged journalist who convinces her teenage lover and his friends to do away with her husband, who she believes is hindering her television career. May 26, 9:30 p.m., Egyptian, $7; May 28, 3:30 p.m., Egyptian, $5.

`TOKYO COWBOY' Canada, 1994. Director: Kathy Garneau. Cast: Hiromoto Ida, Christianne Hirt. 94 minutes.

A Tokyo burger-flipper with a mildly mad dream of frontier fame, fed by Western movie lore, takes off to find a Canadian cowgirl with whom he exchanged letters when they were both schoolchildren. She, however, has blues of her own as an artist and semi-open lesbian. May 29, 9:15 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $7; May 31, 5 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $5.

`TRES IRMAOS' Portugal, 1994. Director: Teresa Villaverde. Cast: Maria de Medeiros, Marcello Urgeghe. 110 minutes.

Maria de Medeiros ("Henry and June," "Pulp Fiction") plays the tormented heroine of this gripping psychological thriller. Her bond with her brothers is so tight that when they separate, her life scarcely seems to make sense. May 28, 9:15 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 1, 5 p.m., Harvard Exit I, $5.

`TWO CRIMES' Mexico, 1994. Director: Roberto Sneider. Cast: Damian Alcazar, Jose Carlos Ruiz. 105 minutes.

Marcos (Alcazar), on the lam for a crime he did not commit, seeks refuge at the provincial dwelling of his wealthy uncle. From the start, Marcos is perceived as a gold digger by his extended family, all of whom are trying to charm their way into the old man's will. May 25, 7:15 p.m., Varsity, $7; May 27, 3:30 p.m., Egyptian, $5.

`TWO ON A COUCH' Denmark, 1994. Director: Amir Rezazadeh. Cast: Andres Hove, Peter Hesse Overgaard. 104 minutes.

The title does not lie. Two men sitting side by side on a couch - eating, watching television, quarreling or just sulking - set the scene for first-time feature director Amir Rezazadeh to deal with alienation and emotional impotence in the modern world. June 6, 7:15 p.m., Seven Gables, $7; June 8, 5 p.m., Harvard Exit II, $5.