For a true movie fan there's nothing quite like a film festival. I can honestly say that there's no better way to spend, oh, I don't know, ten hours in the dark everyday for eleven days at a time. Every fall St. Louis is taken over by an orgy of the artistic, obscure, beautiful, odd, enlightened, and star-filled films of the St. Louis International Film Festival.

Two main themes emerge when looking at the films scheduled for this year's festival, and one certainly surrounds people trying to break free of their monotonous lives. Films like American Fork (Tivoli, 11/13, 7 p.m.), the St. Louis filmed Bill (Tivoli, 11/15, 7 p.m.), and Fresh Air (Plaza Frontenac, 11/15, 9:30 p.m. and 11/16, 2:30 p.m.) all feature main characters dealing with an overload of their usual stimulus...And desperately wanting to change things for the better.

Family struggles are also a large part of the festival this year. Orphans (Tivoli, 11/10, 5 p.m.) takes a drug and alcohol fueled look at the estrangement of two sisters.  Aviva My Love (Plaza Frontenac, 11/18, 1 p.m. and 3:30pm) and Beauty in Trouble (Plaza Frontenac, 11/16, 4:45 p.m. and 11/18, 3:45 p.m.) both examine how our heart's desire can impact the way we care for our families. Meanwhile, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (Plaza Frontenac, 11/11, 7 p.m.) and Dam Street (Tivoli, 11/12, 5 p.m. and 11/15, 5 p.m.) promise to take family dysfunction to the hilt.

One film that should go over well with lovers of unusual love stories is Emma's Bliss (Plaza Frontenac, 11/16, 7:15 p.m. and 11/17, 5 p.m.). This movie shows that sometimes the circumstances that force two people together are for our own good.│Adrienne Jones