The other harrowing documentary I saw, Amy Berg's Deliver Us From Evil, recounts the astonishing story of Father Olivier O'Grady, the Roman Catholic priest and self-described pedophile who sexually molested and raped what may be hundreds of children - including a nine-month old baby - over the span of 20 years.
Berg's main theme in the film is to show how the Catholic Church continually ignored the mounting evidence against O'Grady and essentially pretended nothing had happened, the way any major corporation would hide the wrongdoings of one of its executives to avoid public scrutiny and criticism. But the key to the film's success are the plentiful interviews with O'Grady, who currently lives in Ireland, has the manner and tenor of a kind-hearted, friendly man, and speaks so calmly and clinically about his crimes and why he did them, he becomes as frightening and monstrous as Hannibal Lecter.
Lionsgate Films plans to release Deliver Us From Evil in theaters next month. Sitting in the row in front of me at the screening was director Brian De Palma, who often attends the festival as a fan, just to gorge on movies. Being a huge fan of his films, I was tempted to lean forward and ask him a couple of questions about The Black Dahlia, which opened in theaters yesterday. But I had a feeling that most reviews were probably going to be a lot like my own, so I didn't bother him.
From the looks of it, "Deliver Us From Evil" appears to be more of a horror movie than "Black Sheep."
Let me ask, did you attend mainly press and industry screenings or the public ones? If the latter, did you vote for the People's Choice Award?
Had I been seated near De Palma, I'd have offered him some M&M's® and Dr. Pepper®.
Posted by: Brian Feldman | September 20, 2006 at 01:27 AM
I attended mostly press/industry screenings, although I did catch a few public ones (like the already infamous Borat midnight screening).
Posted by: Rene Rodriguez | September 21, 2006 at 07:47 PM
Thanks for clarifying. I mainly was just curious as to whether or not the press pass allowed entrance into the public screenings, which would seem to me more fun to attend. With that in mind, did Mr. De Palma go for the public ones since he was just there as a fan? But how would you know that?
Posted by: Brian Feldman | September 22, 2006 at 12:43 AM