The Three Rivers Film Festival opened last night and your faithful correspondent was there, at the Concept Art Gallery in Edgewood, sipping the wine, nibbling the warm artichoke heart dip and having a great time mingling with film buffs who had filed in to have a little fun before heading off to Regent Square Theatre next door to see Tamas, actor David Conrad's paean to his former prep school teacher, Tamas Szilagyi, a transplanted Hungarian who escaped the his homeland after the failed 1956 revolution, or My Tale of Two Cities, a documentary from another Pittsburgh native, Carl Kurlander, at the Melwood Screening Room.
In Conrad's documentary, which he kicked off with a brief talk, eighty-year-old Szilagyi returns to Budapest to see his hometown one last time, with Conrad at his side to prompt recollections of the revolution and Szilagyi's youth. It was a sweet and interesting story, lovingly crafted, and I think the self-deprecating Conrad has a future as a filmmaker in front of him.
I was personally gratified to meet Conrad before the screening, as he's an actor I've admired since seeing his Septimus Hodge in my favorite play, Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, twelve years ago at Pittsburgh Public Theatre. Since then Conrad has gone on to star in "Relativity," "Roswell," and "Miss Match" on TV as well as the films, Men of Honor, Return to Paradise, and The Wedding Crashers, among others. For the last three years he's starred as Jim on "The Ghost Whisperer." And he was quite funny in pointing out that everyone attending his documentary last night was missing the death of his character on TV.
I used to think anyone playing Septimus Hodge would be great, since Stoppard is such a witty, creative writer--a genius from my point of view--and Hodge, the ideal romantic lead. Then, after seeing three different productions of Arcadia in the last ten years with Hodges so painful to watch I thought I might have to leave the theatre, I realized how truly exceptional Conrad had been in that role.
If you've never seen Arcadia, do it. It's the funniest, smartest play I ever seen and extraordinarily romantic.
So it was great to finally get to thank Conrad for his performance. The only thing that would have been better--and, yes, I'll come clean, I do have a crush on him--is if he had waltzed me off in a slow circle, as Hodge does with Thomasina, Arcadia's ingenue heroine, near the end of the play. But I suppose that those sorts of things only happen in romance novels : )
In any case, I was happy to be a part of the Three Rivers Film Festival. It's a great event, a Pittsburgh tradition and the place to be for anyone who cares about film. Find out more at http://3rff.com/.
Gwyn
www.cready.com
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