Rifkin’s Festival

Film studies prof Mort Rifkin (Wallace Shawn) accompanies his publicity-agent wife, Sue (Gina Gershon), to the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain, partly because he loves art cinema but mostly because he suspects that Sue’s interest in her young client, pretentious young film director Philippe (Louis Garrel), goes beyond the professional. Given to dreams wherein he stars in beloved art-film classics—Bergman’s ‘The Seventh Seal’, Fellini’s ‘8 1/2’, and ‘Welles’ ‘Citizen Kane’ among them, all lovingly filmed in black and white by legendary cinematographer Vittorio Storaro—Mort is, of course, a stand-in for director Woody Allen, who makes the most of gorgeous San Sebastián locations and a fine cast while casting a comedic eye on marital angst.

‘[In the dream sequences] there are some choice tweaks: a take on Bergman’s “Persona” with Gershon and [co-star Elena] Anaya discussing God and death in Swedish with subtitles, and a very Jewish “Citizen Kane”, with the sledge renamed Rose Budnick… The reliably cranky Shawn and a stately, vampish Gershon are clearly having a good time and letting us in on it.’—Jonathan Romney, Guardian