Tonight I attended the opening night of the Seattle International Film Festival. The opening gala film was "The Illusionist" which is based on the award winning short story Esienheim the Illusionist by Steven Millhauser. Before the film at the Paramount Theatre the writer/director Neil Burger was in attendance to say a few words. Also from the film was Jessica Biel who just waved to the crowd.
The film itself was great and it will be out in the theatres in August. You should go and check it out. Along with Biel it stars Edward Norton and Paul Giamatti (who had spent a few years living in Seattle). The story is about Norton as the illusionist who has fallen in love with Biel’s character in the 1800s in Venice. The evil crown prince kills Biel’s character and the police inspector, played by Giamatti, has to investigate the "murder". The movie is full of magic as you would expect and in the end it is a lot like Usual Suspects when it just wraps itself all up and has a few quick plot twists that I would suspect that most will not see coming.
In the pre and post parties there were a few interesting celeberties. Tom Skerritt is on the SIFF board and he was in attendance. My friend noticed the lady that was in all of the Snapple ads. The funny thing was that she had an umbrella with the Snapple logo on it when we walked from the pre-party at the Chapel down to the Paramount.
A digital recording of my life 