I have a soft spot in my heart for the opening night of AFI Fest. Many years ago, I attended my first ever opening night when I attended the U.S. premiere of Life Is Beautiful. It was in the Grauman's Chinese, and Roberto Benigni spoke beforehand, doing all the shtick that, because no one was that familiar with it, was actually immensely charming. (That feeling would change as it was repeated ad nauseum during that Oscar season.) Regardless, the oh-wow excitement of a big premiere has always stayed with me, even if now I tend to look at them as a lot of talk talk talk until we can finally get to the movie.
This year's AFI Fest opening night film was Hitchcock, and I confess that I was somewhat optimistic going on. Anthony Hopkins seemed to have Hitchcock down cold, and I'm a sucker for behind-the-scenes stories of how classic movies are made -- in this case, Psycho. Alas, the film is defiantly mediocre. My review is up at Screen International.
