Lead actress Leslie Kendall on the red carpet in Montreal

I'm noticing that there are two kinds of audiences for Body/Antibody. The first kind (as in our Long Island screening) doesn't expect it to be funny. They're thinking thriller maybe -- something dark. When the laughs start, they come to them tentatively. Titters at first, unsure of themselves, until a couple of straight-out gag lines give them a clear green light to unleash the merriment.

Now, the second kind of audience (we had them in Rhode Island) knows it's a comedy from the get-go. They're chuckling, then guffawing, from nearly the first scene. Their enthusiasm is infectious, until the whole audience is a quivering mass of hilarity.

You'd think I'd prefer the second kind of audience. But I'm not so sure.

In Montreal, actress Leslie Kendall and I attended two of the four scheduled screenings. At the first we had the cautious, tentative audience. At the second, we had the guffawers. And I gotta tell you, sitting in the audience with that second happy group, listening to their giggling with delight through the first half hour of the movie, I thought to myself, "crap. When this movie turns dark, they're really in for a shock."

Sure enough, it's that second kind of audience where we have the walkouts. In Montreal, when the crazy sex came at about the 45 minute mark, we lost 4 or 5. When it turned bloody in the third act, another half dozen bolted. Two of those people were sitting right next to me ... they laughed enthusiastically for over an hour and then when things got violent had to embarrassedly climb over the man they knew to be the writer/director to get out of the theatre. I actually felt bad for them.

Anyway, the intention was always to pull the rug out from under people and take them on an unpredictable, disturbing ride, so I shouldn't feel bad for succeeding. And certainly the 85% of the audience who stayed until the end appeared thoroughly satisfied, and roundly complimented us on the experience. In short, Body/Antibody does translate into French-Canandian, and I feel confident that we can hold our own on the international festival scene (hear that, Asia, South America and mainland Europe??)

Montreal was a fun town and a fun, hospitable fest (picked up at the airport and greeted by name at the hotel ... swanky!) We made some good networking contacts, including some that could help with distribution, and we saw some good movies.

What we didn't get, apparently, was a review in Variety (damn. They covered like 40 movies, but not ours.)

Anyway, as Hoffman is fond of saying, onward and upward. My next trips are to Edmonton and Fort Lauderdale in October, and presumably the U.K. in November (awaiting the exact schedule and keeping an eye out for conflicts). Leslie will be in Kansas next week, and appearing on "Kansas City Live" around 9:30am the morning of September 19th (cool!)

Here's to more travel, more fun, more awards, and more more.