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Startling 'Maxwell Bright' headlines Scottsdale Film Festival
By CRAIG OUTHIER
GET OUT

It isn't often that Amy Ettinger, wily film-programming baroness and all-around tough chick, gets spooked by one of her own festival selections. But then, “The Civilization of Maxwell Bright” isn't the sort of movie that comes along very often.

“I spent the whole next week wrestling with it, and everybody who watches it has same reaction,” Ettinger says. “You want to look away, but you can't. It stays with you and resonates.”

Starring Patrick Warburton (Puddy from “Seinfeld”) as a misogynistic clod who undergoes a startling spiritual transformation, “Maxwell Bright” is one of 20 full-length features — and dozens of short-form films — that Ettinger selected for this year's Scottsdale Film Festival.

Now in its fifth year, the festival opens with a Friday screening of the Giovanni Ribisi black comedy “I Love Your Work,” followed by an opening-night gala at Z Tejas at Scottsdale Fashion Square.

Over the weekend, there are Chilean class struggles, Chinese coming-of-age dramas, French love triangles and Czechoslovakian brainwashing camps.

The festival concludes with a screening of the zany dinner-table comedy “When Do We Eat?” followed by a discussion led by star Leslie Ann Warren.

Ettinger scaled down the number of feature films this year, primarily to make it easier for festival attendees to see more of them.

“Last year, we had audiences peeved that they had to choose between the movies,” Ettinger says. “This time, everything screens twice.”

This year's films

'A SILENT LOVE'
Country: Canada/Mexico
Synopsis: Interracial romance about a lonely Canadian man who finds an Internet bride in Mexico, only to fall in love with her mother.
Screenings: 7:45 p.m. Saturday, 1:45 p.m. Sunday

'AFTER MIDNIGHT'
Country: Italy
Synopsis: After attacking her boss, a hot-tempered fry cook (Francesca Inaudi) takes refuge in a Turin movie theater and falls in love with a handsome night watchman.
Screenings: 10 a.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Tuesday

'ARTIST OF RESISTANCE'/
'WALKING THE LINE'
Country: United States
Synopsis: Double bill featuring two documentaries about violence in Latin America. Scottsdale film professor Penelope Price directed “Artist in Residence.”
Screening: 6:25 p.m. Monday

'BALZAC AND THE
LITTLE CHINESE SEAMSTRESS'
Country: China
Synopsis: Golden Globe nominee tells the true story of two teenage boys whose desire for the same village girl is stoked by subversive Western literature.
Screenings: 12:55 p.m. Saturday, 4 p.m. Monday

'BORDERS'
Country: Algeria/France
Synopsis: A small band of pilgrims embarks on a perilous journey through the Sahara in search of a better life in Europe.
Screenings: 11:15 a.m. Saturday, 11:45 a.m. Sunday

'CAMPFIRE'
Country: Israel
Synopsis: A widowed mother lobbies to join a newly created Israeli settlement in this allegory of conservative Zionist politics from director Joseph Cedar.
Screenings: 2 p.m. Sunday, 5:45 p.m. Tuesday

'THE CIVILIZATION OF
MAXWELL BRIGHT'
Country: United States
Synopsis: A chauvinistic lout (Patrick Warburton) turns a new leaf after a compliant lady friend (Mai Ling) gives him a taste of Buddhist scripture.
Screenings: 7:25 p.m. Saturday, 8:20 p.m. Monday

'THE GREAT WATER'
Country: Macedonia
Synopsis: Grimly haunting drama about a post-World War II Czechoslovakian orphanage in which children are brainwashed to revere communism.
Screenings: 1:15 p.m. Saturday, 6:05 p.m. Sunday

'HAPPILY EVER AFTER'
Country: France
Synopsis: Married men lament their passing youths in this sprightly comedy from “My Wife Is an Actress” director Yvan Attal.
Screenings: TBD

'HARI OM'
Country: India
Synopsis: A rickshaw driver (Vijay Raaz) leads a French tourist (Camille Natta) on a tour of friendship and romance.
Screenings: 3:30 p.m. Saturday, 8:10 p.m. Tuesday

'I LOVE YOUR WORK'
Country: United States
Synopsis: Consumed by his own celebrity, a delusional movie star (Giovanni Ribisi) tries to get real. With Vince Vaughn.
Screening: 8 p.m. Friday

'INTIMATE STORIES'
Country: Argentina
Synopsis: Three small-town misfits embark on a road trip to the big city in this celebrated slice-of-life comedy.
Screenings: 5:50 p.m. Saturday, 6:20 p.m. Tuesday

'THE LAST MOGUL'
Country: Canada
Synopsis: Documentary filmmaker Barry Avrich takes a look atand the life and times of legendary Hollywood producer Lew Wasserman.
Screenings: 11 a.m. Saturday, 8:20 p.m. Sunday

'LES AIMENTS'
Country: Canada
Synopsis: Disillusioned bride-to-be Jeanne throws a wrench into her own wedding plans to spice up her bland betrothal.
Screenings: 9:45 p.m. Saturday, 8:25 p.m. Sunday

'MACHUCA'
Country: Chile
Synopsis: Political upheaval in 1970s-era Chile tests the friendship of two boys from opposite sides of the track. A 2004 Oscar nominee.
Screenings: 3:45 p.m. Sunday, 4 p.m. Tuesday

'THE NINTH DAY'
Country: Germany
Synopsis: Volker Schlöndorff (“The Tin Drum”) explores the rise of Nazism through the eyes of a Catholic priest (Ulrich Matthes).
Screenings: 3:15 p.m. Saturday, 6 p.m. Sunday

'WHEN DO WE EAT?'
Country: United States
Synopsis: An illicit hit of LSD turns a strict Jewish patriarch (Michael Lerner) into a delusional prophet eager to reconcile with his combative family. Director Salvador Litvak's dark comedy closes the festival.
Screening: 7:35 p.m Tuesday