"Doors" Open at Sundance

by Ken Neville
Jan 15, 1998, 6:15 PM PT


And they're off. After a year of planning, extensive renovations
to Park City theaters and a new-and-improved transportation
system, the 1998 Sundance Film Festival opens tonight when
Sliding Doors unspools in Salt Lake City.

Film stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeanne Tripplehorn and John Hannah
(Four Weddings and a Funeral) are expected to be on hand with
festival pioneer Robert Redford for the premiere of the film, an
exploration of how seemingly minute choices in a person's life
can have great consequences.

Following last year's feeding frenzy, which saw distributors
paying $1 million and more for the rights to untested films, this
year's festival is expected to be much lower key, with many
distributors coming in with wait-and-see attitudes and leaving
their checkbooks back at the hotel.

Nevertheless, a record number of entries were received for the 16
slots in each of the dramatic and documentary competitions, and
attendance is expected to increase over last year's historical
peak.

To better accommodate the masses, festival headquarters have
moved off of Main Street to a spacious resort near the Park City
ski area, and screenings will start earlier in the day, with more
time in between, and new audio-visual equipment has been
purchased to replace the scratchy projectors of years past.

While the festival offically begins tonight, the action actually
started yesterday, with the first purchase of rights to a film
and the first controversey.

For an undisclosed sum, Sony Pictures Classics bought the rights
to Central Station, about a Brazilian woman and her relationship
with an orphan boy. The film is in the World Premiere section and
is not in competition.

And the documentary Kurt and Courtney, about the events
surrounding grunge rocker Kurt Cobain's suicide, was yanked from
the festival because of a legal technicality--or due to the
backdoor workings of Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, according to
some.