The Desert Sun from Palm Springs, California • Page 37

BESTBETS Jv "Mr ITJL -4t hill sti- mi ri Can :1 FILM FEST ONLINE Film database: Search films by title, country, location, date and time. Backstage pass: Check out our behind-the-scenes portraits of stars like Clint Eastwood and Dustin Hoffman. Your guide: Find out where to eat, stay, play and shop in the desert. asm. ALISSA SIMON PROGRAMMER DARRYL MACDONALD FESTIVAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR MAGGIE DOWNS THE DESERT SUN Two couples one from the city and one from the country are bound together by fate in this "Moscow, Winner of Best Film at the Denver Film Festival and three awards at Cannes, this highly enjoyable This heartwarming comedy touches on the topic of tolerance with heavy TWENTIETH ANNUAL PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL FILM r- I taut, austere thriller, brimming with provocative themes.

Winner of three awards at the Berlin Film Festival, one caution: the film contains scenes of graphic sexuality. The Austrian cast includes Johannes Krisch, Ursula Strauss, Irina Potapenko and Andrea Lust Screening: 11:30 a.m. today, Regal Palm Springs. doses of fun and humor. The story centers around 18-year-old best friends, Dunya 8c Desie, as they grow up and try to meet family expectations while remaining true to themselves.

Directed by Dana Nechustan, the cast includes Maryam Hassouni, Eva van de Wijdeven. Screenings: 2:30 p.m. today, 10 a.m. Tuesday, Regal Palm Springs. Belgian rom-com, about the budding relationship between a rangy truck driver and a fortysomething just-separated mother of three, hits all the right notes, offering up both laughs and unexpected twists and turns on the road to its sublimely satisfying conclusion.

The lead performance by Flemish actress Babara Sarafian is particularly terrific. Screening: Noon today, Annenberg Theater. FEST All this and more at mydesert.com TODAY'S SCHEDULE Theaters 0 cjf yfl Attics PALM SPRINGS "7" 2 A SONY PICTURE CLASSICS Anne Hathaway appears in "Rachel Getting Married." She was honored with a Desert Palm Achievement Award for her performance. Hathaway grows up with 'Rachel' role "Every once in a while creativity is sacred, and I am so grateful I have this character and this film in my life to prove that when creativity is good, it's divine." ANNE HATHAWAY Actress accepting the Desert Palm Achievement Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. BY ANTHONY BREZNICAN Special to The Desert Sun Anne Hathaway looks at the article about herself from early 2002 and doesn't say anything right away except "Oh my word The image of her 19-year-old self, sporting a baggy shirt and jeans, with her knees pulled up to her chest, grins up from the page, and eventually becomes infectious.

Hathaway finally starts to laugh. "It's like a time capsule," the Palm Springs International Film Festival Desert Palm honoree says, reading on. "All these things you forget just come rushing back to the surface." Back then she'd been promoting the little-seen religious drama "The Other Side of Heaven," her first movie. Her big break, the 2001 Disney comedy CAMELOT THEATRES 2300 E. Baristo Road 10 am: "Last Stop 174" 10:30 a.m.: "The Black Balloon" 11 a.m.: "Tengri: Blue Heavens" 1 p.m.: "Em" 1:30 p.m.: "Gomorrah" 2 p.m.: "Dog Eat Dog" 4 p.m.: "No One's Son" 4:30 p.m.: "Revanche" 5 p.m.: "The Least Among You" 7 p.m.: "Rain" 7:30 p.m.: "Ready? OK!" 8 p.m.: "Infinite Space: The Architecture of John Lautner" 0 PALM SPRINGS HIGH SCHOOL Ramon Road at Farrell Drive 4 p.m.: "Passchendaele" 7 p.m.: "Firaaq" 0 ANNENBERG THEATER Palm Springs Art Museum, 101 Museum Drive 9 a.m.: "Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman" Noon: "Moscow, Belgium" 4 p.m.: "Leaving Barstow" 7 p.m.: "Blue Gold: World Water Wars" REGAL PALM SPRINGS 9 789 Tahquitz Canyon Way 9:30 a.m.: "Giving It Up" 10 a.m.: "Ploning" 10:30 a.m.: "Small Crime" 11 am: "The Shaft" 11:30 a.m.: 'The Friend" 12:30 p.m.: "Bedford: The Town They Left Behind" 1 p.m.: "Among the Clouds" 2 p.m.: "Skin" 2:30 p.m.: "Dunya Desie" 3 pm: "Like Dandelion Dust" 4 p.m.: "Grown Ups" 4:30 p.m.: "The Desert Within" 5 pm: "Unspoken" 6 p.m.: "The Blue Tooth Virgin" 7 p.m.: "Four Nights with Anna" 7:30 p.m.: "Tokyo Sonata" 8 p.m.: "The Seven Days" 8:15 p.m.: "Painted Skin" 8:30 pm: "The Kautokeino Rebellion" Going to the festival? Share your thoughts, write your own review at mydesertcomfilmblog Welcome to the Coachella Valley! Looking for something to do while in the valley? Where to eat? Where to play? What to see? Check out mydesert.comguide.

Choose from dozens ot restaurants, local festivals, casinos, and shopping venues! "The Princess Diaries," had come out a year earlier. She was just a novice then, saying things like: "It's going to sound so cheesy, but I just love acting. I love learning about new parts of myself through characters." 'Beautiful, talented, and Hathaway recites, quoting a particularly amateurish description written by the reporter interviewing her now. "This is unbelievable. It's very funny to read this now." A lot has changed in six years.

Her work in the drama "Rachel Getting Married," as a young woman with a tragic history who feels abandoned amid the happiness of her sister's wedding, has made her a best-actress front-runner this awards season. That's one of four movies released within a year's time, including the hit Please see HATHAWAY, F2 al," he said after the session. "People ask about technology. Here, I would say very deep questions. They understand how difficult it is to create this simplicity." "Tulpan," which screens again at 5:30 p.m.

today at the Regal, is the story of Nomadic shepherds in the deserted steppe south of Kazakhstan, where life is so brutal, one guy walking out of the theater said, "I'll never complain about our economy again." This may not sound like award-winning cinematic fodder, but Dvortsevoy adds human drama to the battle with the environment with a touching love story between two kids from shepherd families. And that brings us back to Director fields tough questions from crowd Sergey Dvortsevoy has taken his film about his native Kazakhstan to festivals from Cannes to Tokyo. But he's never fielded questions like those he got at Friday's screening of "Tulpan" at the Regal Palm Springs 9. "These questions like dust for me," he said with a strong accent "Difficult questions." Palm Springs has a growing international reputation for interesting sessions with filmmakers. Dvortsevoy actually appreciated those questions in retrospect.

"Here, questions very profession Dvortsevoy's remark about the dust Conditions were so harsh during the one-year shoot, they had to put plastic around the cameras to protect them. The cast included many amateur actors, including a toddler Dvortsevoy called "a monster." He tried to destroy cameras with a stick. But Dvortsevoy loved that kid, just as he loves his native country. He's found a U.S. distributor for his film, but he doesn't believe he'll ever make money from it.

He made the film, he said, for love. And speaking of love of Kazakhstan, Dvortsevoy said his countrymen still don't get "Borat." "Thev sav. 'Whv have to tell them, 'It's a 12m For more Fessier film related stories go to mydesertcoin 0 WW- indianVwells Theiesrt5un 'JiJS myceserr.com CALIFORNIA Mercedes-Benz CJROC 0 REGAL CINEMAS Bank Of America Anurtlinnrncivri A s.Ri:wwtcvvsin UJESSmaR ftilm Snrinns Stadium 9 TITLE SPONSOR VvlrKlcTmere Real Estate OCEAN PROPFRTIES PDNH sp tm bti rWurt Mafiml link ffrt bn DtMrt National tank ChiUrir An Glm LHVElorM! NTlAJKIH RAI ION GUTHY RENKER- JN I xTtcRATtD Wealth anagement aWi.