There are a lot of great things about the Dallas International Film Festival. Most significantly there are still plenty of good movies to see between now and Sunday, some of which you may never again have the chance to view on the big screen.
But there’s one major flaw that’s become the bane of festival-goers. His name is Vittorio Vere.
He’s a character in the DIFF’s own promotional spot that plays before every film. I didn’t particularly find the ad funny the first time, but some other audience members chuckled, so fine. By my seventh screening of the festival (check out our team coverage on FrontRow), last night at 10:30 pm, I and much of the rest of the audience were ready to rush the projection booth to make it stop. There are other ads we’ve been forced to watch before every screening. It’s just that “Vittorio Vere” outdoes them all by its excruciating length. It’s too late for this year, but a much shorter cut or having a few different promos running on various screenings is the answer.
Meanwhile, I have a solution for right now. Before the aforementioned screening of the film Apart last night, a mesmerizing and hypnotic animated short called “Take Your Medicine,” featuring a song by the band Transfer, played. It practically upstaged the feature that followed. Â Plead with the makers of that short to let you scroll your festival sponsors’ names on the bottom of their film (since that’s the true purpose of “Vittorio Vere.”) And make “Take Your Medicine” the ad which you’re asking us to sit through over and over.
I realize the makers of “Take Your Medicine” (you can see some of their storyboards here) may not be agreeable, but a man can dream of a day without a Vittorio Vere.
