Filmmaking And Fraternit* On the Charles

"Balls," Samuel Fuller snarled as he explained the problems of today's movie industry, "It takes balls to make a good film." The octogenarian Hollywood legend was speaking in the basement of Sever Hall as part of the Avignon/Cambridge '93 film workshop. Though the panel included three other directors and two actors, Fuller managed to dominate the discussion in his characteristically brash yet lovable style.

For years, French and American filmmakers and enthusiasts have come together in France for the annual Rencontres cin*matographiques franco-am*ricaines festival. This year, the French-American Film Workshop of Avignon brought a smaller, similar event to Cambridge. For four days directors and actors from both countries participated in discussions and film screenings in the Cambridge area, mostly at the Harvard Film Archive.

As honorary president of The French-American Film Workshop, Fuller opened the ceremonies with a screening at the Brattle Theatre of his controversial film "White Dog" (1982), about a dog trained to attack Black people (1982). Following the screening, Fuller engaged in a question and answer session with the audience.

Six directors participated in the workshop; from the U.S.: Budd Boetticher, Robert Gardner, Fuller, Ross McElwee, and Alexandre Rockwell. From France: Jean-Charles Tacchella, and Val*rie Stroh. The panelists were selected to represent both young, independent filmmakers, and more established directors from the two countries.

Starting Friday, each day included screenings of at least two films by workshop filmmakers, a series of seminars and dinner at Adams House, which was suitably adorned with miniature French flags. On one occasion, several students at Adams House mistook the jeune Val*rie Stroh for a foreign exchange student. Stroh screened her most recent film, "Un homme et deux femmes" (1992) at the Film Archive on Friday night. After midnight each night, workshop participants and filmmakers retired to John Harvard's Brew House for conversation and libation.

Stroh, along with Rockwell and McElwee led the first luncheon discussion, "The Young Lions," talking about independent film. "What I consider independent is getting in debt," said Rockwell, whose Sundance Festival award-winning film, "In The Soup" (1992) premiered in Boston the following night.

Among the highlights of the workshop was a discussion with Seymour Cassel. In his energetic, irreverent manner, Cassel, who most recently appeared in "Indecent Proposal" (1993), spoke about acting, film, his experiences working with director John Cassavetes and his starring role in Rockwell's new film.

One of the most talked-up events was a luncheon discussion with Fuller and Boetticher, both survivors of the so-called "Golden Age of Hollywood." The two told anecdotes about what they called the "the rough and tumble school" of movie-making. Boetticher described his most difficult project, his documentary on Carlos Arruza, a Mexican bullfighter. The picture took ten years to make, during which time his crew was nearly killed, his subject died, his wife left him and he was imprisoned in a Mexican mental institution.

Other events included a discussion on documentary filmmaking, an homage to French director Ren* Clair and a seminar on film exposure given by Eastman Kodak. The Boston premiere of "In the Soup" at Coolidge Corner's antique theatre closed the festivites. As the antic story of an aspiring independent filmmaker driven to crime to fund his work, Rockwell's film proved a fitting close to a work-shop. Cassel, Rockwell, and his wife, actress Jennifer Beals, afterwards answered questions on the film, made on a minuscule budget of $800,000. Rockwell, a Harvard Square native, belongs to a rare species of directors who are independent by choice; he has been offered studio deals, but has chosen to remain in debt and free of studio interference.

Though most of the events took place on Harvard's campus, the majority of participants were adults from the Boston area. Organizers expressed enthusiasm at the overall success of the festival, but hoped that future workshops would attract more students.

The Avignon-Cambridge program provided a unique opportunity for people interested in cinema to speak with filmmakers on a personal basis, and to see films ordinarily unavailable to American audiences. While the scale of the work-shop is much smaller than that of the annual French Rencontres, those who participated in the festival hope that like the French program, it too may become a tradition.