Maine Int'l Film Festival showed "Easy Rider" tonite!!!

[quispquake]

Yes, the Maine Int'l Film Festival (www.miff.org) featured the classic "Easy Rider"! Peter Fonda is the special guest of the festival (having been presented with the "Mid-Life Achievement Award" on Sunday), and was present for the showing, and even answered questions afterwards! He seemed awfully happy! He also presented a lucky winner (not me unfortunately!) with a signed motorcycle helmet! Very cool...

The movie was shown at the Waterville Opera House, a beautiful place for a movie. Although wonderful to see on the big screen, to be honest, the print was VERY scratchy (and a bit jumpy too). Peter Fonda later told us that this was the best print that Columbia had of the movie...pretty sad...he did say that the DVD was from the negative & best sources available, and that was the cleanest way to see the movie now.

BUT, a live audience is a great thing...and the audience loved it! It was very cool to see people laughing, gasping, and just plain freaking on Easy Rider, definitely one of my all time favorite movies...Peter Fonda actually watched the film from the audience, which I thought was cool (since he's probably seen it a million times!!!). I'm not going to get into details of the movie, as I'm sure most of you have seen it...suffice to say, it's a great document of the latter days of the hippies, with beautiful scenery, an amazing soundtrack, and a knock out performance by Jack Nicholson. I loved it!!!

After the movie, the audience gave Peter Fonda a well-deserved standing ovation. He got up on stage, and took questions from the audience for a half hour. He was very forthcoming, and brutally honest. He talked about how Dennis Hopper got him to think about his mother (who had committed suicide) when he was talking to the statue during the trip in New Orleans. He said it was an incredibly painful scene to do (he was pretty choked up talking about it).

Fonda also said, yes, the grass was real (and had some funny Jack Nicholson stories to tell). He also mentioned how the rights were grabbed from him & Hopper by Columbia. And he mentioned some of the fun and hardships as the producer and writer of the film. Finally, he gave away the motorcycle helmet (still wishing it was me!). A great night!!!

[BurtWorm]

1. Hey, perkypat! Did you see the festival got a mention

on Salon.com today? It's in the newswire section.

[quispquake]

2. Yeah!

...the AP wire even picked it up (and ran a great picture of Peter Fonda at the Opera House!!!). Very cool...I really had a good time tonite (and Peter Fonda was just great...super nice, but really together and on top of things...was good to see!).