Sundance Winner `High Art' Returns

"My movies are all about unfortunate moments in relationships," said Lisa Cholodenko. "That seems to be where I go."

That's how the young writer-director describes her shorts, "Souvenir" and "Dinner Party," and one prize-winning feature, "High Art," which played the Seattle International Film Festival earlier this month. It opens for a regular run Friday.

"They're all in the same vein: ironic, wry, sort of diminutive character studies," she said. She could just as easily be commenting on her own manner, which is self-deprecating and larky, especially at an early-morning interview before she's had her coffee.

The stars of "High Art" are Ally Sheedy, the 1980s "Breakfast Club" star, who gives a much-praised comeback performance as Lucy, a retired, drugged-out lesbian photographer, and Radha Mitchell, an Australian actress ("Love and Other Catastrophes") who turned up in another American film at the festival ("Cleopatra's Second Husband").

"After `Love,' I stayed in the States and got an agent," said Mitchell, who accompanied her director to the festival. "Then I went to Mexico and my passport was confiscated. I was stuck in the States, and I kind of ran out of money."

She filmed "Cleo," she said, "during this period of non-existence." She almost didn't do "High Art" because she was ready to sign for another project.

"We had her fired from this other film," joked Cholodenko, who then amended that description: "We convinced her that this other film just wasn't worth her effort."

She turned to her star, then added: "But I wanted to deck you a few times."

In "High Art," Mitchell plays Syd, a young gofer at Frame magazine who abandons her boyfriend (Gabriel Mann) to pursue a relationship with Lucy that turns sexual. She's also attempting to revive Lucy's career and further her own.

The story has parallels with Sheedy's life because she was once a member of the Hollywood "brat pack," appearing in such mid-1980s youth movies as "Short Circuit," "WarGames" and "St. Elmo's Fire."

Following a high-profile 1989 flop ("Heart of Dixie") and a 1993 horror movie ("Man's Best Friend") that gets her the most street recognition, Sheedy hadn't done much of interest for the past decade. When she heard about "High Art," she went after Cholodenko.

"Ally kind of found me," said Cholodenko, who asked Sheedy to audition for "High Art" after listening to her message on her answering machine. "She had such veracity. She just needed a director who could harness it."

"She's kind of sexy in a practical kind of way," said Mitchell, who grew up watching Sheedy's teen epics. Cholodenko, who had never heard of Sheedy before she recorded that message, wondered what that might mean. "You know, without accessories," Mitchell said.

Cholodenko's longtime photographer friend, Jojo Whilden, inspired the script and took "Lucy's" photographs; she also acted as technical adviser. Also offering advice on the set were former drug addicts.

"It was important to me because I'm not a heroin addict or a photographer," said Cholondenko.

At the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, "High Art" won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, which is known as "the longevity award" because it's often awarded to films that last.

"I was surprised," said Cholodenko. "I heard Owen Gleiberman (one of the jurors) describing this film that had won, using words like `dark' and `decadent,' and it sounded like it might be `High Art.' I felt a white heat coming over me."

She felt especially honored because one of the jurors was Paul Schrader, who had been a mentor of several of her fellow film students at Columbia University.

At Columbia, Cholodenko was advised by another prominent filmmaker, Milos Forman, who was working on "The People vs. Larry Flynt" at the time. He was supportive of her script and helped get it made.

"I came to filmmaking kind of late, at 25," said Cholodenko. "At 28, I graduated from film school. You could say I've always wanted to make films - since I was 25."