by Boyd van Hoeij (October 31, 2008)

The Rome International Film Festival (RIFF) is drawing to a close in the Italian capital, with only a day to go until the fest's Marc'Aurelio awards, decided on by the audience, will be handed out. This year's highlight in terms of press and audience attention - as well as sheer number of decibels produced by the teens lining the red carpet before the premiere - was the Italian premiere of "High School Musical 3." The US box-office champ is typical of the fest's desire to please the general public rather than arthouse fanatics, film critics and buyers and is emblematic of what works and doesn't work at the festival.

Though well-made, the film is decidedly frothy for a festival entry, and humor, fluff or indeed both are ingredients that ha

When the AMC Studio 30 Fork & Screen opens Friday in suburban Kansas City, moviegoers will get to sample a lush life not normally associated with a megaplex.

Most of the 30-screen complex still features popcorn, to be washed down with soda in theaters with masses of stadium seats. But 11 renovated and redesigned auditoriums offer for a premium padded recliners, alcoholic drinks and a full kitchen making Parmesan fries, Thai coconut chicken and Darkiccino chocolate brownies.

"This will be a great draw for customers who want an upscale experience," said Andy DiOrio, a spokesman for Kansas City-based AMC Entertainment Inc., which plans eventually to include elements of Fork & Screen in many of its more than 350 theaters.

So-called cinema eateries have been

"Of All the Things," an affectionate but sharp-eyed documentary, takes its name from a track on songwriter Dennis Lambert's only solo album, "Bags & Things." The 1972 release went unnoticed stateside but made him a hero in the Philippines, where the love tune "Of All the Things" became a kind of anthem for a nation of sentimental romantics.

With intimacy and a gentle sense of irony, the film chronicles a brief and unlikely return to showbiz. A selection of AFI Fest's Documentary Competition, "Things" has an irresistible, down-to-earth charm and should find welcoming audiences on the festival circuit and the small screen.

In 2007, encouraged by his family, Lambert gave in to a persistent Philippine promoter's requests and em

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Lindsay-Abaire got out of a rabbit hole, only to be ensnared by a spider's web.

Lindsay-Abaire, who won a Pulitzer in 2007 for his drama "Rabbit Hole," is in final negotiations to write "Spider-Man 4" for Columbia.

Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire are back as director and star, respectively. Kirsten Dunst also is expected to return for the latest movie featuring the Marvel Comics character.

Plot details are under lock and key. Producer Laura Ziskin had said she would like to aim for a May 2011 release for "Spider-Man 4," nine years after the original movie's debut.

Columbia always has gone off the beaten path during the development process when hiring writers for the "Spide

Bettina Goering ran away from home at 13, lived on a promiscuous commune in India and later fled to the U.S. and had herself sterilized. It was all part of an attempt to escape the legacy of her last name.

Her great-uncle was the infamous Nazi leader Hermann Goering. Adolf Hitler's second-in-command, he headed the vaunted Luftwaffe airforce and was a leading architect of the "Final Solution" to exterminate Europe's Jews.

His grandniece's odyssey to cleanse herself of the family's tarnished past has brought her to Israel, where a documentary about her relationship with a child of Holocaust survivors is being featured at the Jewish Eye film festival in this southern Israeli city.

"Bloodlines" records Goering's emotional encounters with Ruth Rich, an Austr