Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • 49

a Austin May 10, 1996 Marlene Dietrich lives on. Page E8 DD GQ DUD SO (3D IP (S 1996 looking like 'year of director' at Cannes festival By Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times CANNES, France If you're fed up with the auteur theory and its facile glorification of a film's director at the expense of everyone else, this is not the place to go to complain. Not to France itself, which takes prides in originating the idea, and definitely not to this year's edition of the Cannes International Film Festival, which is devoted body and soul to celebrated names on the world directing circuit. From usual suspects like Robert Altman and Bernardo Bertoluc-ci to cult favorites on the order of Aki Kourismaki Clouds and Hou Hsiao-Hsien South, what Variety cal's "heavyweight helmers" dominate both the official competition and parallel events like Un Certain Regard and the Directors Fortnight. The festival opened Thursday night with "Ridicule," a pointed period comedy set in the court of Louis XVI and directed by Patrice Leconte Hire," "The Hairdresser's Other well-regarded French directors with films somewhere in the madness include "Wild Reeds'" Andre Techine, whose new film is "Les Voleurs," and the veteran Eric Rohmer, whose "Conte d'Ete" will close Un Certain Regard.

Closing the festival itself will be David Russell's "Flirting With Disaster," one of several American films already known to domestic audiences that have traveled over here. Other familiar faces are the See Cannes '96, Ell (mm, 'nit1 i ft- if N3, i -( 0 9 4 f- 1 At 'Lone featuring Kris Kristofferson and directed by John Sayles, is on the Cannes roster. The film previewed in Austin this year. -s -r-a. 'f WIST.

--4, '1'' 'vt -i fe ir-x- w-. opening today "Twister" k-k-k reviewed this page "Stalingrad" 54 E4 buzz By Ann Hornaday American-Statesman Film Critic ments in place, "Twister" is surprisingly unremarkable for all of its grand sweep and digital matting techniques. Instead, it's what it presumably set out to be: a solid man vs. nature ac- tion drama studded ith he first salvo to be fired in the battle of LJ Filmmakers, insitu and the Chi-canoLatino Film Forum, a calendar of local events and resource listings, as well as a mail-order form for rare and never-before-seen Film Society T-shirts. To get a copy, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: AFS, 3109 N.

1-35, Austin, Texas, 78722. Gala: For 25 years, the Texas Film Commission has been turning Hollywood on to the Lone Star State, pulling in more than $1 billion over the past 10 years alone. Next week it's time to celebrate, starting with screenings on Thursday and Friday of the director's cut of Peter Bog-danovich's "The Last Picture Show," which was filmed in Texas in 1970, double-billed with 'The Trip to Bountiful," at the Paramount Theatre. On Saturday, a Texas-sized gala will be thrown at Doug Foreman's Ranch Studios, Austin's newest soundstage. Music by Joe Ely and Storyville, food by the Salt Lick and others, and a silent auction of movie memoribilia and other items will round out the hoedown.

Because the Texas Film Commission regularly pulls jackalopes out of its hat on a shoestring budget of less than $500,000 a year (by way of comparison, they brought more than $298 million worth of movie and television business into the state last year), a charitable foundation has been set up to raise extra funds for their budget. To help out by volunteering at the party or buying a few tickets, which range from $50 to $1,000, call Michael Kar-dos at the Ranch: 323-0280. the summer behemoths is 'Twister' ITr V. f3 Voila, les auteurs de demain: Saturday should be a banner day for watching new works on film. First, the students in Steve Mims' Austin Filmworks production classes will show the fruits of their labor at the Dobie Theatre at 11 a.m.

Later that afternoon, their counterparts from UT's graduate and undergraduate radio-television-film program will show off their wares at Studio 4D in the CMB Building, by the intersection of 26th and Guadalupe streets. Graduate students will show their work from 1 p.m. until 4 p.m.; undergrads from 6 p.m. until 9:15 p.m. (The UT program will be repeated on Sunday in reverse order).

Read all about it: The second Austin Film Society newsletter is now available, and features some very hot news, including an application for the Texas Filmmakers' Production Fund and an article about the how-to's of distribution. As usual, the newsletter features updates from the Asso-ciatftn of Independent Video and some smartly hip cultural references, which will provide a tonic couple of hours of air-conditioned diversion within summer's early torpor. In other words, "Twister" is a hit. Bill Harding (Paxton) is a former tornado chaser who has given up his days of living on the edge: Having divorced Jo (Hunt), who has been obsessed with tornadoes since she saw her father the second directorial effort from action-master Jan De Bont, who made city buses so sexy in the 1994 summer hit, "Speed." Anyone who has been to the movies in the past year has seen one of the various trailers for "Twister," which stars Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as two storm-trackers in Oklahoma. And anyone who has seen the trailer knows Starring: Helen Hunt, Biil Paxton Director: Jan De Bont MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather Theaters: Arbor 7, Highland 10, Movies 12, Northcross 6, Riverside 8, Round Rock 8, Starport, Westgate 8 11 starring Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt as an estranged husband and wife tracking tornadoes, embodies all the icons of the typical American summer from the cornfields to the drive-in theater to the "motel where the couple and storm team take shelter.

Two reporters wonder: Could we survive 'Twister' while sitting in the front row? E10 disappear into one a year ago, Bill has settled into the sedentary life of a weathercaster and proposed to Melis- pretty much what to expect: The storms are breathtaking, the action pulse-quickening and the two leads smart and likable. Still, even with these auspicious ele- See Back page Cm.