Telluride Film Festival

The 39th Telluride Film Festival Calls for Entries

Maggie Lange — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:19:20 GMT

The Telluride Film Festival (August 31 – September 3, 2012) is calling for entries in all categories including student, short and feature length films. Each year the must-attend four-day Telluride Film Festival hosts an average of 24 feature films as well as 25 shorts and student films.

Their submission period begins April 15, 2012; the film entry form is available for download at www.telluridefilmfestival.org. Deadlines? Shorts and student film submissions must be received no later than 5:00 pm, July 1, 2012. Feature film submissions must be received no later than 5:00 pm, July 15, 2012. Feature-length films (60 minutes or longer) will only be considered if they are to have their first North American screening at Telluride Film Festival. Final program determinations will be made by August 1, 2012.

How Glenn Close's Cross-Dressing Performance In "Albert Nobbs" Makes the Movie

Eric Kohn — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:15:36 GMT

"Albert Nobbs" was a longtime passion project for Glenn Close, and it's easy to see why. Adapting George Moore's 1927 short story "The Singular Life of Albert Nobbs," about a Victorian-era Dublin woman who spends decades disguised as a man to find work, Close--co-producer, co-screenwriter and star--portrays the lead character with a conviction best described as chameleonesque. With her trim, masculine hair cut and robotic gaze, Close inhabits Nobbs' paranoid existence with the full weight of women's oppression bearing down on her. She is the movie.

The rest of the material simply can't keep up. Director Rodrigo García capably guides a mannered screenplay with extreme restraint, sometimes to the detriment of the immensely sad plot at its center. As with his previous film, "Mother and Child," García holds fast to the story's tragic, morose aspect from start to finish; it simply explores the main scenario without following through on it.

As the movie begins, Nobbs has spent some 30 years working as a butler for Irish aristocracy, dutifully keeping her employers' happy during the day and counting pennies after dark. She shows no outward dissatisfaction with her state, instead displaying a cold matter-of-factness that makes Close's performance off-putting from the outset. Into her world arrives a traveling painter named Hubert Page (Janet McTeer), a gruff, manly caller at the house where Nobbs works, and whose actual identity as a woman might only seem obvious to contemporary eyes. (We'll allow it.)

Forced to share a bed with the stranger, Nobbs struggles to hide her secret and fails, causing her to freak out until Page shares her own hidden gender. Their ensuing friendship forms the backbone of the narrative, with the confident, settled Page helping Nobbs construct a strategy for improving her ruse. She takes a series of cues from Page, who manages to maintain the appearance of a happily married man without living in servitude. By comparison, Nobbs' world has her petrified at every waking moment. Her dreams of asserting authority over her situation provide "Albert Nobbs" with intrigue, but it's short-lived.

Needless to say, her attempts at wooing a fellow houseworker (Mia Wasikowska) trapped in a relationship with a disgruntled young man (Aaron Johnson) prove more difficult than Nobbs' fantasies led her to believe. With these flawed shots at seduction, "Albert Nobbs" opens up to explore other problematic temperaments of the era, particularly the way ageism and disdain for the working class stymied attempts to rise up the ranks. However, no matter how fascinating these issues get, Close's screenplay (co-written by John Banville) provides little in the way of backstory for its troubled protagonist, causing the symbolic nature of the performance to overwhelm the prospects of investing too heavily in her predicament.

Still, it's a radical enough maneuver for a long-established actress like Close to take on this role that it generally dominates the experience. In another movie, McTeer would steal the show with her proto-feminist exuberance, but Close exists in a class of her own. It's no less of an accomplished performance than Hilary Swank's similar turn in "Boys Don't Cry" or newcomer Zoé Herán's delicate achievement as the lead in "Tomboy." Unfortunately, "Albert Nobbs" traps Close's sizable talent in a simplistic drama--not unlike Nobbs herself who winds up trapped in a restrictive period. While the storytelling lags, "Albert Nobbs" nevertheless succeeds as a profound chronicle of hardship. At least Close gets that much right.

Criticwire grade: B

HOW WILL IT PLAY? Since it first screened at Telluride and Toronto earlier this year, "Albert Nobbs" has received mixed reactions due to its combination of an underwhelming plot and top-notch performance. As a result, the film seems unlikely to perform especially strong when Roadside Attractions opens it in limited release this Friday, but it may gain some awards season traction for Close herself.

Awards Season Backlash—Already!

Leonard Maltin — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 19:25:19 GMT

Every year, it seems, some good movies suffer from what I call Awards Season Backlash. Because the season started earlier than usual this year—and intensified when the New York Film Critics decided to vote right after Thanksgiving—the bounce-back has already begun, I’m sorry to say.

For instance, I’m very fond of The Artist, but I saw it several months ago, having heard just a little about it from friends who attended the Cannes Film Festival. I avoided reading reviews or learning too much about the picture, so I was able to form my own opinion of it…and I enjoyed it very much. (Watching it for a second time a few weeks ago, with my class at USC, I focused less on the story than on the craftsmanship of the piece: the production design, location work, camera placement and editing are simply flawless. They provide the perfect showcase for Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo’s winning performances.)

Since then, I’ve spoken to several film-buff friends who came away from the film feeling disappointed. I can understand why: at this point it’s been praised to the skies, and people—especially old-movie aficionados—are going to see it with outsized expectations. The Artist isn’t the Second Coming, or a reinvention of silent-film techniques: it’s a charming story that successfully emulates the look and feel of the late 1920s. I don’t think filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius has any pretensions about his work: he just wanted to make an entertaining movie that paid homage to the silent era.

In the same vein, I’ve talked to other savvy moviegoers who haven’t been won over by Hugo and The Descendants. They’re perfectly entitled to their opinions, but I fear they have gone to see these films all too aware of the awards and lavish praise they’ve received.

I’m told that Harvey Weinstein, who acquired The Artist this spring, understands that this French import works best if an audience feels as if they’ve “discovered” it. That’s a smart evaluation of the film’s appeal, but it’s also tough to maintain, especially during awards season.

Even I have fallen victim to this disease. I missed Steve McQueen’s Shame at the Telluride Film Festival, and because of juggling deadlines I wasn’t able to see it in time to write a review for its opening day. I almost never watch trailers and try not to read reviews before I see a film, but I couldn’t avoid the advertising that repeatedly hailed it as “brilliant.” I’m afraid I may have adopted a show-me attitude toward the film when I finally got to see it this weekend. I do admire Michael Fassbender’s extraordinary performance, and McQueen’s bold approach to the challenging subject of a man undone by his addiction to sex. But I feel the film’s deliberate absence of backstory or context presents its story in a vacuum. Not only does it give us no understanding of its central character (or his equally troubled sister, well played by Carey Mulligan) but it offers us nothing to take away when the emotionally draining drama is over. What have we learned? What insights can we bring to our judgment of people who suffer from obsessive behavior?

Perhaps, if I’d seen Shame when it was unveiled at Cannes or Telluride, I would have been so overtaken by the shock value of its subject matter, and McQueen’s unblinking treatment of it—or knocked out by the virtuosity of Fassbender’s fearless performance—to overlook those shortcomings. But this weekend, fully expecting to see a masterpiece, I was—yes—slightly disappointed. This can happen any time of year, but the problem becomes acute, if not rampant, during year-end awards season, and that’s a shame.

All This And George Clooney, Too!

Leonard Maltin — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 10:31:41 GMT

George Clooney poses with his director, Alexander Payne, at the world premiere of The Descendants.

The Telluride Film Festival has hosted many famous people over the past 38 years, including celebrated filmmakers and actors. But there’s something about George Clooney that makes women swoon and men want to hang out with him. He’s a Movie Star, and while he wears other hats (and wears them well) there’s no getting around his personal magnetism. He charmed everyone he met this past weekend, graciously posed for pictures, and reaffirmed his reputation as—

Director Allan Arkush agonizes over the Telluride schedule.

—an all-around good guy.

He also happens to be the star of an exceptionally fine film which made its world premiere at Telluride: The Descendants, directed and co-written by Alexander Payne. It won’t reach theaters until just before Thanksgiving, but I have no problem calling it one of the year’s best films—an encomium I doubt I’ll have to revoke at the end of December. After its first screening, when Todd McCarthy asked him about playing some highly emotional scenes, Clooney modestly replied that all he did was take his cues from Payne. The director in turn said he casts his movies well.

Like so many great films, this one is difficult to pigeonhole: it’s about a man facing a family crisis (as a husband and father) along with a daunting business decision that involves his many cousins, who all live in Hawaii. It’s sprawling and continually surprising, infused with high drama and well-calculated humor. In short, it’s about the absurdity and unpredictability of life. I loved it.

World-class director Agnieszka Holland poses with her screenwriter, David Shamoon, after a screening of In Darkness.

But then, this year’s festival was overflowing with excellent films—and as always, too little time to take them all in. Festival directors Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy, and Gary Meyer outdid themselves with a wide array of movies old and new. A number of them sounded harsh or punishing, but two reliable friends called Agnieszka Holland’s In Darkness a masterpiece, so in spite of its tough subject matter and two-and-a-half-hour running time, I gave it a try. I’m so glad I did. A movie never seems long when it refuses to loosen its grip on you, and this is such a film. It dramatizes a real-life story about a Polish sewer inspector who helps a small group of Jews hide out during World War Two. David Shamoon based his screenplay on a book written by one of the survivors of the ordeal, and the result is quite extraordinary. I was choked up by the end and could barely stop crying.

The Dardenne brothers’ The Kid With a Bike was one of the best-received films of the weekend.

Then I had what I can only call a Telluride experience. There was no time in the schedule for a formal q&a session, but Holland and Shamoon were standing outside the Nugget Theater on Colorado Avenue, receiving compliments and answering questions from anyone who cared to ask. I had an interesting conversation with Holland and asked if directing such high-end American television series as Treme and The Killing had any effect on her more personal film work. She told me that while she enjoyed the TV gigs, she feels she has to limit the number of episodes she does or “I will lose my fingerprints.” Spoken like a true artist. She also told me that along with her sister and daughter she launched a TV series in Poland, inspired by The West Wing. She is hoping to raise the level of Polish television and bring audiences along with her.

Glenn Close and her Albert Nobbs director Rodrigo Garcia.

I was delighted to moderate a more official question-and-answer session with the wonderful Glenn Close and director Rodrigo Garcia, whose work I so admire, following a screening of their terrific new film Albert Nobbs. Close won an Obie award playing the title character—a woman who lives her life as a man, working as a Victorian hotel servant in Dublin—off-Broadway back in 1982, and has been actively trying to get this movie made for the past fifteen years. (She is a co-producer and co-screenwriter, and even contributed lyrics to a song sung over the closing credits by Sinéad O’Connor.) It was fascinating hearing their stories of near-misses and last-minute casting changes. My favorite: Orlando Bloom was set to play the young male lead, following The Lord of the Rings, and his involvement helped the producers secure financing. Then he had to drop out at the last minute because his wife was going to give birth to their first child, in Los Angeles, in the middle of their shooting in Dublin. So while he isn’t in the finished film, he helped get Albert Nobbs on its feet. (Aaron Johnson, star of Nowhere Boy and Kick-Ass, took his place in the picture.)

Michel Hazanavicius posed in the lobby of the Galaxy Theater—in real life a school gymnasium—following a screening of The Artist.

I also chatted with writer-director Michel Hazanavicius and costar Penelope Ann Miller following a showing of The Artist, the highly appealing black & white film that takes place in 1927 Hollywood. I can’t wait for my film-buff friends to see it when the Weinstein Company releases it in November. Hazanavicius used his clout from the box-office success of two OSS 117 comedies to make this dream project, and cast the star of those James Bond parodies, Jean Dujardin, in the lead. He has just the right look, attitude, and charisma to be persuasive as a 1920s star. In fact, he looks like a cross between John Gilbert and Douglas Fairbanks. This film was no mere stunt: Hazanavicius loves silent films and wanted to make a sincere homage, which is precisely what he’s done…with his wife, Bérénice Bejo, as his perky leading lady. When I asked Miller about embracing the style of silent film acting, she reminded me that she played Edna Purviance opposite Robert Downey, Jr. in Chaplin!

Telluride stalwart Ken Burns poses with one of this year’s tributees, Tilda Swinton.

That splendid actress Tilda Swinton was given a Telluride tribute, and proved to be a delightful guest. She was featured in Lynne Ramsey’s controversial film, We Need to Talk About Kevin, which provoked much discussion.

And Telluride did what it does best, under the heading of rediscovery, by introducing Americans to the unjustly forgotten Pierre Étaix. His films have been out of circulation for decades and are just now enjoying a revival in Europe, with the U.S. to follow. He embraces qualities of Charlie Chaplin and other great silent clowns in his work, but as a director and screenwriter (partnered with the great Jean-Claude Carrière, who went on to collaborate with Luis Buñuel) he is his own man. I had the privilege of previewing his entire body of work on dvd and writing program notes for his tribute, as well as introducing his two finest films, the 1962 short Happy Anniversary (which won an Oscar) and his 1965 feature Yoyo. I will be writing about him more extensively as those films become available in this country. Needless to say, it was a thrill to meet Étaix, who is a delight.

After being charmed by Le Havre I was delighted to meet its star, André Wilms.

On Sunday morning I set my alarm to see Le Havre, a charming fable from Aki Kaurismäki that resembles nothing so much as a Frank Capra film—think Lady for a Day or its remake, Pocketful of Miracles—in which a handful of people come together to help an immigrant African boy, out of a sense of community, and just because they think it’s the right thing to do. (Kaurismäki also cast two French icons in small roles, Pierre Étaix and Jean-Pierre Léaud.) André Wilms, who plays the leading role of a genteel fellow who ekes out a living shining shoes, provided an engaging introduction. The feature was preceded by Carroll Ballard’s bracing cinema verité short from 1968, Rodeo, digitally rescued after many years of dormancy.

French auteur and self-described clown Pierre Etaix toasts his rediscovery at Telluride.

That night a packed crowd was treated to a program hosted by that unique archivist and showman, Serge Bromberg, highlighting rare and fascinating footage from the early 20th century—with the host himself providing piano accompaniment—and the U.S. premiere of the hand-colored restoration of George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon (1902), which features an atmospheric soundtrack by Air.

With the clock ticking and so many films to see, I’m glad I heard the growing buzz about two foreign films I managed to catch on Monday morning before departing Telluride. I’m happy to report that Sony Pictures Classics has acquired them both, so moviegoers everywhere will be able to see them, in the course of time.

Carroll Ballard was about to introduce a screening of his long-unseen 1968 short Rodeo when I snapped this outside the Nugget Theater.

Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation, from Iran, is a devastating drama about a family torn apart by societal pressures, stubbornness, circumstance, and chance. Famed opera director Peter Sellars, a Telluride regular, gave an eloquent introduction to the Monday screening, saying that the film has been a box-office hit overseas and sparked dinner-table conversation everywhere it’s played.

I’m so grateful we got to see the stunning Iranian film A Separation on our last day in town, and meet its gracious writer-director, Asghar Farhadi.

He said, quite rightly, that it manages to erase a feeling of Iran as “the Other” by focusing on people we can all relate to. It’s a superlative piece of work that had the audience reeling.

I also enjoyed Joseph Cedar’s Footnote, from Israel, which won the Best Screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. This intriguing story works on both a cerebral and gut level, as it depicts the rivalry between a father and son who are both Talmudic scholars.

With so much to see, so many people to meet, and so many choices to make, one could chart an entirely different course at Telluride and wind up with a vastly dissimilar list of films and encounters. I can only relate my own.

I always take the same shot of the festival banner unfurled across Colorado Avenue—but I can’t resist. The beauty of Telluride is a key reason I look forward to returning every year.

I wish I could have seen more, but I felt extremely grateful to be there at all, given my recent eye surgery.

A World War Two poster is cleverly repurposed to warn people not to use cell phones during screenings.

There was a rare, perhaps unprecedented, ventilation problem at the Galaxy Theater (in real life a gymnasium) that made it difficult to enjoy some of the screenings there. I think it hurt some films that have already gotten middling or negative reviews. No one can be faulted; it’s just the way things played out.

On the other hand, Telluride has led the way towards sanity with a green initiative one can only admire. The disbursement of refillable bottles, and free filtered-water stations around town, means that a literal mountain of empty plastic water bottles is a thing of the past. Separation of waste and compostable materials takes the program one step further. It’s heartening to see.

The friendliness, physical beauty, and shared love of film that permeate Telluride make it unique among festivals. My family and I eagerly await our next visit.

Five Films to Watch from Telluride

Eugene Hernandez — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:19:01 GMT

There's a camaraderie that makes the Telluride Film Festival like few others you'll ever attend. Sitting alone at a picnic table while taking in a beautiful Colorado landscape the other morning, I was approached by Jon Busch. The Telluride tech director was looking for a place to eat his colorful plate of brunch. Within minutes we were having a terrific chat about the history of the festival. He's been attending since year two and now, after 37 festivals, he's retiring.

What is it about this festival, I wondered aloud during our chat. A few thousand folks travel hours, sometimes via harrowing flights or long winding mountain roads.

"It's a festival for people who love movies," Busch said simply. A few other solo folks parked next to us with their own plates of locally sourced fruits, greens and meats and the conversation expanded. Before too long we'd opened our pocket schedules to compare notes and plan a weekend of moviegoing.

"People form new relationships in the Telluride lines," former festival co-director Bill Pence told me back in 2004 when I attended the festival for the first time, "People say, one of the things they like most is talking about the films."

Talk fuels the Telluride Film Festival: What did you see? What did you like? What should I skip?

New and old films alike compete for attention on eight screens from about 8:30AM until well after midnight for three and a half days each Labor Day weekend. Some will go on to win Academy Awards, while others may be as many as 100 years old by a filmmaker no one has ever heard of.

Of the more than 15 films I saw in Telluride, here are the five that really stuck with me this weekend.

"The Descendants"

Of the big names in Telluride this year, George Clooney was clearly one to watch. Even without a film in the festival his friend Alexander Payne has been coming to this festival in recent years. But this weekend they were here together to unveil "The Descendants," a movie that is sure to gain major momentum when it screens for hundreds of journalists and movie fans at the Toronto film fest this coming weekend.

Clooney, an honoree at this year's fest, stars as a Hawaiian businessman whose wife has just had a terrible jet ski accident. With his wife in a coma, he's left to reconnect with his two daughters. Eliciting laughter and tears alike, the storyline follows the trio as they learn more about mom's life while coming to terms with her diminishing chances of survival. Aimed at a wide audience, "The Descendants" strikes the right balance in its portrayal of a contemporary American family facing both internal and external challenges. George Clooney anchors the film and Shailene Woodley shines as his eldest daughter. All weekend, festival goers wondered why it took seven years for Alexander Payne to make another movie after "Sideways."

"I would like to be making more films more quickly," he laughed, during a Saturday morning Q & A. "I wish I'd been a Warner Bros director in the ', '40s or '50s," Payne quipped, adding later, "I'm interested in making movies that are about our own lives."

"Goodbye First Love"

The same can probably be said for French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love, as is underscored by her new film, "Goodbye First Love."

But, don't introduce her as Olivier Assayas girlfriend. Sure, they're a couple but it's really not fair to her as a director.

WIth her third film under her belt, Hansen-Love is setting out on her own path as a filmmaker. "Goodbye First Love" delivered on the buzz generated during last month's Locarno festival. Tracking a young and beautiful French couple as they connect and reconnect over the course of nearly a decade, Hansen-Love offers rich examination of a terrific and tortured relationship.

The film follows their seemingly never ending youthful romance that matures and remains just as potent as when it began.

"I'm trying to do very personal films," Mia Hansen-Love told a Telluride crowd the other day. While the movie may not be a portrait of specific people in her own life, she admitted, "It has to do with the feelings."

Charming and inquisitive during one-on-one conversations throughout the weekend, Hansen-Love laughed at the idea that she's still introduced at Mrs. Olivier Assayas, as she was at a screening in Telluride. But, she seems too excited to share her new film to let the link bother her.

"This is one thing I can be proud of in my life," she said of the film, before pausing. She added that she was even more proud to have survived the scary small plane flight into Telluride's mountain airport.

Seriously, though. Hansen-Love asked anyone who would listen, "Is there another way to get in or out of this town?"

"Bonsai"

Another story of young and challenged love, this one set in Chile, seemed to stir a bit of a generational divide among some festival attendees in Telluride. Christian Jimenez's adaptation of Alejandro Zambra novel is a look at a pair of 20-somethings, bound by their love of books, who fall for each other and then drift apart.

I saw the movie and immediately fell for it in Cannes and was invited to conduct a Q & A with Jimenez and actor Diego Noguera here in Telluride. It's a movie about words, Jimenez reiterated during our chat this weekend. Remember that song by Depeche Mode, "Enjoy The Silence," he asked the audience? This is the opposite, he explained, "Words are meaningful and not forgettable." Some in the crowd got the reference, others didn't.

Even more clearly, back in Cannes, Jimenez told me that with "Bonsai" he's exploring a sense of loneliness that is something not only he can relate to personally, but is unique to a generation of Chileans.

"It has to do with a certain kind of loneliness that was (specific) to our generation," Jimenez told me during a podcast interview in Cannes. "People of our generation in Chile experienced a certain kind of loneliness that was new, it was not just new to us but it was new to our society in a way. It was something that our parents could not help us deal with because they did not go through it."

Strand plans to release the movie next year. Up next it's heading to Toronto and then San Sebastian.

Jon Busch in Telluride. Photo by Eugene Hernandez.

"Shame"

There's also a distinct sense of loneliness at the core of "Shame," the explicit new movie by "Hunger" diretor Steve McQueen. Michael Fassbender stars as a sex addict in modern day New York City and the movie pulls no punches in its depiction of his character's secret life. McQueen uses long takes and swelling music to punctuate Fassbender's descent into dark areas of the city and his own life.

Fassbender is drawing praise in Venice where the film premiered about an hour ahead of its Telluride screening. Buyers are reportedly bidding to acquire the provocative new film.

Because he's in Venice, Steve McQueen sent along a taped message to Telluride. "'Shame' is indicative of so much of what's going on right now," he explained in the brief introduction, adding that the film should be familiar and recognizable. "It is about how we communicate today."

The Manhattan seen in Steve McQueen's "Shame" is more menacing and mysterious than the island gets credit for these days. A rich single white man has moved into a gleaming Midtown high rise and displaced old sleaze for new. Carey Mulligan stars as the lead character's tormented sister and the two siblings are headed towards their breaking points in the West 30s.

When Mulligan sings an extended rendition of "New York, New York," the NYC anthem made famous by Frank Sinatra, the film literally stops, offering a viewer the chance to take stock of the city and these people's troubled lives. And maybe it's fact that I saw the film just one week before the 10th anniversary of 9/11, but it's hard not to reflect on life in the city today and how much has changed.

"The Turin Horse"

On the opening afternoon of the Telluride Film Festival, some attendees (patrons, press and friends of the event) were offered a choice, a surprise advance screening of Payne's "The Descendants" (one day ahead of its scheduled fest showing) or a showing of what may be Bela Tarr last film, "The Turin Horse."

Knowing I'd get to the Alexander Payne movie the next morning, I opted for Tarr "Horse." As I wrote in a brief blog post over the weekend, the film is a slow, 2 1/2 hour, black-and-white movie by a master of challenging cinema.

Introducing the movie, the fest’s Jason Silverman warned the audience that after seeing “The Turin Horse,” they’d view the rest of the Telluride Film Festival through an entirely new set of eyes. Up to the challenge, just a couple of people walked out during the film.

Save for the howling sound of a treacherous wind, the “The Turin Horse” (Hungary’s contender for the foreign language Oscar) is essentially a silent movie. It unfolds over six days inside a modest rural farm house that protects a monstrous carriage driver and his dutiful daughter from what is described as “an apocalyptic windstorm.”

The script for for Tarr Berlin Silver Bear winner (co-directed with Agnes Hranitzky), was 35 pages long and 10 of those were about wind, explained one of the film's producers just ahead of the screening.

“The Turin Horse” will test cinematic patience and, for some, challenge the way you define movies.

Cultural Vegetables

At dinner last night, a couple of friends were telling me about a family that attended the Telluride Film Festival this year. In town from Philadelphia, two parents brought their 15-year old-son to the festival for his birthday. Hearing that the kid has an affinity for Bela Tarr -- he was apparently thrilled to see "The Turin Horse" here this weekend -- gave me a glimmer of hope even as it reminded me that the tug-of-war between and art and commercial cinema is quite pronounced right now. Look no further than Telluride for that proof.

Or look back at a recent debate. Earlier this summer, a New York Times Magazine column sparked heated exchange about eating your 'cultural vegetables'. That is, watching movies that may be good for you even if you don't really enjoy them. Grit your teeth and swallow that art film when you'd rather be watching a movie that's a bit more satisfying?

Over the course of just a few days, Telluride reminds us that so-called cultural vegetables are satisfying. And they can enrich our experience watching fast-food films.

As Telluride veteran Jon Busch told me at brunch, this is a fest for movie lovers. That's what makes it so exciting and lends an almost cult-like fondness for this festival among its fans.

"Movies may be the only art form whose core audience is widely believed to be actively hostile to ambition, difficulty or anything that seems to demand too much work on their part," AO Scott wrote over the summer, responding to the NY Times Magazine column. He was at the fest this year with his own son. "In other words, there is, at every level of the culture — among studio executives, entertainment reporters, fans and quite a few critics — a lingering bias against the notion that movies should aspire to the highest levels of artistic accomplishment."

[Eugene Hernandez, Director of Digital Strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, is a co-founder and former Editor-in-Chief of indieWIRE.]

The Full 2011 Lineup for the Telluride Film Festival: Tilda, Clooney and More

Eugene Hernandez — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 09:58:40 GMT

Take a close look at the Telluride Film Festival lineup: These are films you'll be hearing a lot about over the next few weeks during a fall festival swing that begins in Venice, travels to Telluride and continues through to big-city fests in Toronto and then New York. For many movies on the roster, the journey even dates back to Cannes in May.

Saving its lineup announcement for just 24 hours before the festival begins, today Telluride organizers unveiled its plans for the 38th edition of their annual cinematic summer camp over Labor Day weekend. Among the highlights: George Clooney and Tilda Swinton will be honored with in-person tributes, Glenn Close's passion project "Albert Nobbs" will debut and audiences will be the first to see new works from Alexander Payne and Werner Herzog, with David Cronenberg's and Steve McQueen's latest films screening minutes after their Venice Film Festival premieres.

Telluride programmers have been hoping to bring Swinton to the fest for years and she will be saluted alongside Lynne Ramsay's latest, "We Need To Talk About Kevin," a provocative adaptation of Lionel Shriver's acclaimed novel. The film debuted this spring in Cannes, where it stirred early awards season talk for Swinton.

"People will want to talk about it and talk to her about it," said Telluride's Gary Meyer, who shares Telluride's director title with Tom Luddy and Julie Huntsinger.

Clooney will wing his way to the festival from Venice, where his own "The Ides of March" opened the festival last night. At Telluride, he'll be in Colorado with Payne's "The Descendants" before that movie heads to Toronto next week.

Organizers noted that Clooney's "Ides of March" won't be one of the two surprise screenings that they have planned for attendees in the coming days.

During the conversation with indieWIRE earlier this week, Meyer echoed his excitement at being able to include Steve McQueen's anticipated "Shame" in this year's festival. Starring Michael Fassbender as a sex addict, Meyer said the film is a last-minute entry that will show in Telluride Sunday afternoon, just an hour after its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Cronenberg's adaptation of John Kerr's novel "A Dangerous Method," also starring Fassbender (as well as Keira Knightley and Viggo Mortensen), will travel the exact same route, starting in Venice before hitting the Telluride, Toronto and then New York fests this month.

Rodrigo Garcia's "Albert Nobbs" will bring additional star power to the mountain town. Close bends her gender as an Irish hotel butler, reprising the award-winning role she performed for the stage. She'll be at the festival this weekend and will talk about her turn as a man during one of the many free Q&As at the local County Courthouse.

A number of new films are arriving in Telluride with heat generated by recent festival appearances: Among them is Mia Hansen-Love's "Goodbye First Love," which drew strong buzz at the recent film festival in Locarno.

From Cannes, there's Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's "The Kid With A Bike" (winner of the Grand Prix prize), as well as Joseph Cedar's best screenplay award-winner "Footnote" and acting award winner "The Artist," directed by Michel Hazanavicius and starring Jean Dujardin. Also on tap from the French fest are Aki Kaurismaki's "Le Havre," and Christian Jimenez' "Bonsai," a discovery from Chile.

Many of the biggest films from the Berlinale will also be in Telluride. Asghar Farhadi's "A Separation," winner of the Golden Bear best picture prize, also won both acting awards honoring the male ensemble and the female ensemble from the acclaimed Iranian. There's also Bela Tarr's "The Turin Horse," winner of the Silver Bear, and Joshua Marston's screenplay award-winner, "The Forgiveness of Blood."

Meanwhile, a Berlin fest discovery that Gary Meyer touted during the conversation earlier this week was Alexander Zeldovich's "Target." He highlighted it as a film that may not easily secure U.S. distribution, but praised the filmmaker for his resourcefulness. "[He is] someone that doesn't have money, but has a vision."

Among the non-fiction films are Martin Scorsese's look at the life of George Harrison, "Living in the Material World," as well as Micha Peled's "Bitter Seeds," about biotechnology in the food industry and its impact on a village in India as well as Jon Shenk's "The Island President," following the rise of The Maldives charismatic leader Mohamed Nasheed.

Also on tap is Werner Herzog's "Into The Abyss: A Tale of Death, a Tale of Life," a look at a small-town triple murder case in Texas. And sure to be popular are the screenings of Wim Wender's 3-D film, "Pina," a performance driven movie about the late dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch.

Eryk Rocha's "Passerby" is a new film that blurs the line between fact and fiction. "It's a film that cannot be categorized," said Meyer. He also singled out Viviana Garcia Besne's "Perdida," a look at the Calderon family, a cinema dynasty in Mexico.

The festival will also showcase Mark Cousin's "The Story of Film" and offer a branded "Spotlight on Style" with two new documentaries, Shannah Laumeister's "Becoming Bert Stern," about the famed photographer and Lisa Immordino-Vreeland's "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel," about the late fashion editor.

Of course, Telluride wouldn't be what it is without a sizable program cinema's past. The festival will welcome Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso and his program of six classics. And Telluride will salute Pierre Etaix, a screen star once praised as "the French Buster Keaton." An assistant director to Jacques Tati, Etaix won the Oscar for best short for "Happy Anniversary" in 1962. That film, as well as his movies "The Suitor" (1963) and "Yo Yo" (1970) will also screen. Etaix will be on hand to receive a medal and participate in an on-stage conversation.

Among the other cinematic classics are Karl-Heinz Martin's "From Morning to Midnight" from 1920. The Alloy Orchestra will perform a live score for the German Expressionist film. "It includes imagery that I've never seen before," said Meyer, strongly urging that attendees put the film on their schedule. "You are in for something that is unlike anything you've seen before."

Photo by Eugene Hernandez

The 38th Telluride Film Festival opens tomorrow, September 2, and will continue through Labor Day. indieWIRE will report from the festival this weekend.

[Eugene Hernandez, director of digital strategy at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, is a co-founder and former editor-in-chief of indieWIRE.]

For the full list of the 2011 Telluride Film Festival lineup, please go to page 2.

The list of new films screening at the 38th Telluride Film Festival (credits provided by the festival):

ALBERT NOBBS (d. Rodrigo Garcia, U.S., 2011)
THE ARTIST (d. Michel Hazanavicius, France, 2011)
BECOMING BERT STERN (d. Shannah Laumeister, U.S., 2011)
BITTER SEEDS (d. Micha X. Peled, U.S., 2011)
BONSÁI (d. Cristián Jiménez, Chile, 2011)
A DANGEROUS METHOD (d. David Cronenberg, U.K.-Switzerland-U.S.-Canada, 2011)
THE DESCENDANTS (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2011)
DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL (d. Lisa Immordino-Vreeland, U.S., 2011)
FOOTNOTE (d. Joseph Cedar, Israel, 2011)
THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (d. Joshua Marston, U.S.-Albania-Denmark-Italy, 2011)
GOODBYE FIRST LOVE (d. Mia Hansen-Løve, France, 2011)
LE HAVRE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2011)
HOLLYWOOD DON’T SURF (d. Greg Macgillivray, Sam George, U.S., 2011)
IN DARKNESS (d. Agnieszka Holland, Poland, 2011)
INTO THE ABYSS: A TALE OF DEATH, A TALE OF LIFE (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2011)
THE ISLAND PRESIDENT (d. Jon Shenk, U.S., 2011)
THE KID WITH A BIKE (d. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium, 2011)
LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD (d. Martin Scorsese, U.S., 2011)
PASSERBY (d. Eryk Rocha, Brazil, 2011)
PERDIDA (d. Viviana García Besné, Mexico, 2011)
PINA (d. Wim Wenders, Germany, 2011)
A SEPARATION (d. Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2011)
SHAME (d. Steve McQueen, U.K., 2011)
THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2011)
TARGET (d. Alexander Zeldovich, Russia, 2011)
THE TURIN HORSE (d. Béla Tarr, Hungary, 2011)
THE WAY HOME (d. Dr. Biju, India, 2010)
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (d. Lynne Ramsey, U.K., 2011)

Director Caetano Veloso's 'Guest Director Program':

ANICETO (d. Leonardo Favio, Argentina, 2008)
THE APARTMENT (d. Billy Wilder, U.S., 1960)
BLACK GOD, WHITE DEVIL (d. Glauber Rocha, Brazil, 1964)
LE GRANDES MANOEUVRES (d. René Clair, France, 1955)
NORDESTE: CORDEL, REPENTE E CANÇÃO (d. Tânia Quaresma, Brazil, 1975)
VIVRE SA VIE (d. Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1962)

Additional Film Revivals:

FROM MORNING TO MIDNIGHT (d. Karl-Heinz Martin, Germany, 1920) – Brand new original score performed live by the Alloy Orchestra.
HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (d. Vasili Shukshin, Russia, 1972)
THE HOUSE ON TRUBNAYA SQUARE – (d. Boris Barnet, USSR, 1928) – A score by Dennis James, commissioned by the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley for its 25th Anniversary, will be performed by its composer and his Filmharmonia Ensemble.
SPOTLIGHT ON MARCEL PAGNOL – Two films will screen in celebration of the great French filmmaker: HARVEST (France, 1939) and MERLUSSE (France, 1938) introduced by Nicolas Pagnol and Alice Waters.
A TRIP TO THE MOON AND BEYOND – Serge Bromberg returns to Telluride with Georges Méliès’s famous 1902 “moon with a rocket in the eye” completely restored by Lobster Films and the Groupama Gan and Technicolor Foundation. Along with other surprises from attics and flea markets, Bromberg accompanies it all with live piano and stories.

Backlot program:

AVENTURERA (d. Alberto Gout, Mexico, 1950)
DOCUMENTARY REVOLUTIONS: featuring two hour-long documentaries THE DOCUMENTARY FILM MOB (d. Chris Durlacher, U.K., 2011) and THE CAMERA THAT CHANGED THE WORLD (d. Mandy Chang, U.K., 2011)
I AM MY FILMS, PART 2… 30 YEARS LATER (d. Christian Weisenborn, Germany, 2011)
IN THE TRACKS OF GEORGE DELERUE (d.Pascale Cuenot, France, 2011)
MONDO LUX – DIE BILDERWELTEN DES WERNER SCHROETER (d. Elfi Mikesch, Germany, 2011)
NOTES FOR AN IMAGINARY BIOGRAPHY (d. Edgardo Cozarinsky, France, 2011)
SARRIS, SILENTS AND SOUNDS: a collection of short films including ANDREW SARRIS: CRITIC IN FOCUS (d. Casimir Nozkowski, U.S., 2011); SERGEI PROKOFIEV (d. Julia Titova, Russia, 2011); NIGHT HUNTER (d. Stacy Steers, U.S., 2011); and ODE TO THE DAWN OF MAN (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2011)
SODANKYLÄ FOREVER (d. Peter von Bagh, Finland, 2011)
TROPICÁLIA (d. Marcelo Machado, Brazil, 2011)

Upcoming Telluride Festival Gets $50K AMPAS Grant; Lineup Set for Thursday

Brian Brooks — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 10:44:29 GMT

The Academy of Motion Pictuers Arts and Sciences has given $50,000 to underwrite the 2011 Telluride Film Festival's Guest Director program. This is the fourth year the festival has underwritten the program, which this year features musicial Caetaon Veloso. Veloso has over 100 film and television credits, but is best known for his performance of "Cucurrucucú Paloma" ("Cucurrucucu Dove") in Pedro Almodóvar’s Academy Award-winning film, "Talk to Her."
indieWIRE will post the festival's lineup Thursday afternoon Eastern Time and will cover the event on the scene Labor Day weekend. Unique among festivals, Telluride traditionally unveils its lineup only 48 hours before their event begins in the Colorado mountain resort town.
Full AMPAS release follows:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has awarded a $50,000 grant to underwrite the 2011 Telluride Film Festival’s Guest Director program, this year featuring musician Caetano Veloso. Veloso has over 100 film and television credits, but may be best known to moviegoers for his performance of "Cucurrucucú Paloma" ("Cucurrucucu Dove") in Pedro Almodóvar’s Academy Award®-winning film, "Talk to Her."
This is the fourth consecutive year that the Academy has funded the program. In 2010 the festival’s guest director was writer Michael Ondaatje; in 2009, it was Alexander Payne, the director and Oscar®-winning screenwriter of "Sideways;" and in 2008, it was Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian political philosopher and cultural critic.
"The Guest Director Program brings added depth and a rare variety of films to the Festival that we consider an integral part of our program's success," said Telluride Film Festival Co-Director Julie Huntsinger. "The generous support from The Academy and our ongoing partnership allows us to continue working with brilliant artists, whose film selections are sourced from film vaults across the globe, and put together a program our audience expects and deserves."
For more than two decades, Telluride has welcomed numerous prominent filmmakers and personalities to help select and present each year’s films. Previous guest directors include Academy Award-nominated writer-director Peter Bogdanovich, director Jean-Pierre Gorin, film curator and archivist Edith Kramer, Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris, author Salman Rushdie, Oscar-winning composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, and filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier.
The Academy Foundation – the Academy’s cultural and educational wing – annually distributes more than $1 million to film scholars, cultural organizations and film festivals throughout the U.S. and abroad. The Foundation also presents the Academy’s rich assortment of screenings and other public programs each year.

Telluride Diary: Best of the Fest

Eugene Hernandez — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 08:48:46 GMT

Offering just two dozen new feature films over five days, the Telluride Film Festival is a carefully curated event. Which is another way of saying that its programmers have idiosyncratic taste. Fest heads Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger clearly have favorite filmmakers who seem to return to the festival with each new movie. But that's part of the festival's charm.
To find the small crop of new films that will screen, each year Telluride's leaders -- and their array of advisers -- scour festivals, drawing heavily from Cannes and then hand-picking a small roster of brand new movies that screen either the same week they are also in Venice or just ahead of the Toronto and New York fests.
Whether screening movies that are brand-new or showcasing favorites from the festival circuit, the annual Telluride lineup offers a compact weekend preview of some of the best to come from the fall movie season.
"Incendies"
Piecing together a Telluride Film Festival screening schedule is a constant task throughout the brief weekend festival. It's always in flux. Long lines can form unexpectedly, forcing an alternate choice. TBA slots are filled at the last minute with a surprise sneak preview or planners add one more showing of a popular film from the previous day.
Of the dozen movies I saw in Telluride this weekend, the last one I saw was the best. Late Monday night I squeezed into to the tiny Nugget theater for the final TBA showing of "Incendies," a film that folks were buzzing about in line all weekend. What's so exciting is that I not only saw an incredible new film, but have been introduced to an established director whose work I'm anxious to explore.
Quebec filmmaker Denis Villenueve has been making movies for years and is popular in Telluride. His new film, "Incendies," unfolds like a great novel. It's a true page-turner that explores a brother and sister who, in the wake of their mother's death, embark on a revelatory journey to the Middle East to unearth their family tree. It's a journey marked by tenderness and horror as the siblings follow the roots of their family to unexpected (and at times unbelievable) places.
Geoffrey Rush at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend. Photo © Pamela Gentile, courtesy Telluride Film Festival.
"'Incendies' is a painfully topical and relevant work," wrote Villenueve, in notes on his movie in Telluride's 'Film Watch' program. "With a mixture of sadness and happiness, I'm able to see profound meaning in it that helps me maintain a glimmer of hope. How can we break the cycle of anger that has sparked endless violence? How can we make peace among feuding peoples, inhabitants of a region, or relatives?"
Brand new on the festival circuit, "Incendies" remains without U.S. distribution. A standing ovation in Venice and strong reactions in Telluride ahead of its Toronto debut next week will surely change that. The parlor game in Telluride among industry insiders was whether Sony Classics or IFC would make the deal. But, might some other company step up to the plate to release this film that is sure to stick with those who see it?
"Black Swan"
Hardly subtle, Darren Aronofsky films often provoke. His latest, "Black Swan," is no exception. For some 10 years the American director pursued an adaptation of "Swan Lake." His take transposes the dance's storyline to that of an obsessed young woman whose sole life ambition is to play the lead stage role, starring as two diametrically opposed characters, one black and one white. But, her nightmares infect her dream as opening night approaches.
Black and white, often reflected in mirrors, mark scene after scene in Aronofsky's latest, which he says is a companion piece to his previous film, "The Wrestler." Natalie Portman, 20 pounds lighter for the part, plays the agitated dancer who is driven by a desire for perfection in a fading art form. Among her antagonists are three over-the-top women, played by Barbara Hershey (controlling mom), Winona Ryder (fading star) and Mila Kunis (ambitious understudy), not to mention a very hard to please dance company head (Vincent Cassel).

Charles Ferguson at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend. Photo © Pamela Gentile, courtesy Telluride Film Festiva
Sound and image collide wonderfully in "Black Swan." The continuously moving handheld camera work (cinematography by Matthew Libatique) matched with swelling music from Tchaikovsky and a complementary original score (by Clint Mansell).
Aronofsky's gritty and sometimes in-your-face approach may not be for everyone. This is not a quiet observational character study, but it was a hell of a ride. "Go in expecting Ken Russell," advised one Telluride attendee. I'd offer that the film is something closer to Lee Daniels' "Precious" than Frederick Wiseman's "La Danse."
A top exec from a rival distributor told me that the film was playing better with European film critics than American ones, while others said that the film would turn off older audiences and Academy members. For what it's worth, I sat next to an older Telluride tourist who loved the movie and later witnessed firsthand some very high profile members of the Academy praising the picture.
Calling "Black Swan," "virtuosic filmmaking," Shane Danielsen at the Venice fest soaked it all in, raving, "The result was overblown, melodramatic, faintly ludicrous – and as such, perfectly congruent with the milieu it was depicting."
At a Fox Searchlight dinner on Sunday night inside Telluride's popular Chop House, Aronofsky talked about opening the Venice fest just days before. Earlier in the day he'd characterized the Italian response with an odd quip, jokingly apologizing to the Telluride audience for what they were about to experience.
"I'm very sorry for what is about to happen," Aronofsky told the crowd, "I didn't know I was doing it."
And More
At dinner the previous night, IFC celebrated its own festival slate at a joint IFC Films/Sundance Channel gathering that was among the highlights of the festival. Grouped at tables around the 221 Oak St. restaurant were small groups of folks that included Alexander Payne, Philip Lopate, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Thierry Fremaux, Todd McCarthy, Bertrand Tavernier, Lesley Manville, and of course, Olivier Assayas and "Carlos" star Edgar Ramirez.
Edgar Ramirez (left) with Olivier Assayas at the Telluride Film Festival over the weekend. Photo © Pamela Gentile, courtesy Telluride Film Festival.
Particularly worth watching for its lead performance, "Carlos" is the six-hour story of a renowned international terrorist, told in three separate films spanning decades. All three movies played numerous times throughout the weekend ahead of the film's trips to the Toronto and New York Film Festivals in the coming weeks.
Profiled by indieWIRE back in Cannes, Ramirez reflected on the portrait of the sexy terrorist, explaining that the story is about "how an individual interest and ego and fame prevail." He continued, "In any human process we can’t escape from the vanity, the power and the ego. Not even in acting."
IFC's Ryan Werner stood up to make a toast at the dinner, calling "Carlos," "Assayas' masterpiece."
Earlier in the evening, at a smaller dinner hosted by Sony Pictures Classics, a pair of other personal favorites were showcased. I sat alongside Paris-based producer Jake Eberts who ushered Sylvain Chomet's "The Illusionist" to the big screen.
Very little is spoken in "The Illusionist," but a lot is said. Eberts said that is the beauty of the movie.
At a nearby table, "Inside Job" director Charles Ferguson held court.
Talking heads have rarely told a more harrowing story as they do in his latest documentary, the follow-up to his "No End In Sight." Dense and detailed, Charles Ferguson's doc provokes sadness and madness in moviegoers as it examines the roots of the persistent international economic crisis.
Buzz for other new movies was strong. Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" generated a lot of buzz ahead of this week's Toronto debut, as did Errol Morris' "Tabloid."
But, beyond "Incendies" and "Black Swan," it was Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech" that seemed to stir a lot of folks. Its star Colin Firth was honored by the festival and additional screenings were added to accommodate demand, including a free outdoor showing as the festival came to a close on Monday night.

Fall Fest Daily | Telluride Day 3; Phoenix, Scorsese, Ozon Venice Reactions

Basil Tsiokos — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 12:26:42 GMT

As Telluride heads into its fourth and final day, Thompson on Hollywood's Telluride critic Tim Appelo reviews Errol Morris' "Tabloid," calling it "the funniest farce of 2010, with a tragic core and absolute fidelity to the facts," and featuring Morris' "most astounding character ever" - impressive, given all the indelible subjects the documentarian has profiled over the years.
Also attending the Colorado festival, Todd McCarthy writes about 1960s cinema icon Claudia Cardinale, who starred in Fellini's "8 1/2," Luchno Visconti's "The Leopard," and dozens of other classics. The now 71-year-old actress, being celebrated by Telluride, reflects on her numerous leading men - a who's who including Mastroianni, Belmondo, Delon, and Lancaster - and working with directors like Leone and Herzog ("I love crazy people. Normal is boring.”).
Leonard Maltin, also enjoying Telluride, sent out a lovely tweet at the urging of his wife, recommending one of the films generating the most Oscar buzz.
Speaking of the Oscars, TOH's Anne Thompson and In Contention's Kris Tapley, covering Venice and Telluride respectively, still managed to have their Oscar Talk, covering Aronofsky's "Black Swan," wowing at both fests, among other hopefuls.
Finally, the indieWIRE presence at Telluride also includes Eugene Hernandez, who offers an appreciation for the "only in Telluride" moments found at the venerable cinephile's haven - "It’s the one-time-only events and screenings of movies you probably can’t see anywhere else on a big screen that make the festival worth the money and keep me coming back every year." His article covers the 3-D shorts/rarities program curated by Serge Bromberg (“Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno”), as well as a rare screening of Stanton Kaye's "Brandy in the Wilderness," a low-budget American independent film from the 1960s, which Hernandez describes as "a bit like an early version of a Mumblecore movie."
Meanwhile, covering Venice for iW, Shane Danielson offers his inimitable takes on a number of films: Alexsi Fedorchenko’s “Silent Souls" ("I watched it unfold in a state of rapt fascination; two days later, unable to get it out of my head, I went back to see it again"), Pablo Larrain's "Post Mortem" ("similarly extraordinary"), Sophia Coppola's "Somewhere" ("...the surfaces are uniformly sleek and covetable. The trouble is, the viewer never so much as scratches them, to see what might lie beneath"), Dennis Villeneuve's "Incendies" ("the standing ovation he received at its public premiere was entirely deserved"), Julian Schnabel's "Miral" ("a work of such staggering ineptitude in every aspect of its manufacture, that you wondered if its maker might have suffered some kind of stroke"), Pernilla August's "Beyond" ("it set out to shake and, to move - and it did"), Kelly Reichardt's "Meek's Cutoff" ("by 40 minutes in, I looked around, blearily, to find that almost everyone in my vicinity was fast asleep"), and Francois Ozon's "Potiche" ("the best thing he’s done since 'Sous le Sable'").
Also from Venice, Anne Thompson presents a video of the press conference for Sophia Coppola's "Somewhere," with a one-on-one interview with the helmer promised soon.

Quick Links
- Continuing with Venice news and reviews, The Wall Street Journal's Dean Napolitano covers the premiere of Casey Affleck's directorial debut, "I'm Still Here," the much discussed potentially not-completely-true documentary about his brother-in-law Joaquin Phoenix. While the pair claim in the press conference that the film is not a "hoax," questions remain. Napolitano's assessment: "The film is often funny and entertaining, but its scenes of full-front nudity, vomiting and other disturbing images will certainly turn away many viewers."
- Reuters reports on the surprise entry in the Competition, Chinese director's Wang Bing's "The Ditch," about forced labor camps in 1950s-'60s, which was greeted enthusiastically by critics today.
- The Independent's Geoffrey Macnab reviews Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones new documentary on still controversial director Elia Kazan, "A Letter to Elia," calling it "a deeply personal reflection on Kazan's career" and "as much about Scorsese as it is about Kazan."
- The Telegraph also writes about "Elia," praising it as "absorbing" and "an affectionate tribute to an enormous talent."
- Finally, In Contention's Guy Lodge offers his more lukewarm take on "Elia:" "a heartfelt, comforting if mostly unrevelatory valentine to Elia Kazan and his work that extends Scorsese’s night job as everyone’s most benevolent film studies professor."
- Lodge also weighs in on Francois Ozon's Catherine Deneuve/Gerard Depardieu-starrer "Potiche," which he describes as a "fizzy, silly, pop-brite comedy," but also adds, "with Deneuve having such contagious fun at the center of it, one is loath (not to mention a little scared) to complain."
- The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw shares a similar regard for "Potiche," acknowledging but embracing its wackiness: "It is impossible to watch [Deneuve], especially her scenes with the hefty Dépardieu, without a smile at all the engineered absurdity."
- Bradshaw concludes his Venice coverage with two standouts: Kelly Reichardt's "Meek's Cutoff" - calling it a "fascinating and tremendously well-made film" - and Pablo Larrain's "Post Mortem" - writing appreciatively that "it positively crackles with strangeness."
- Moving over to Telluride, the North American premiere of "The Black Swan" was hotly anticipated, given the critical response in Venice. In Contention, Deadline Hollywood, and Cinematical provide a sampling of reactions.
- Cinematical's Eric D Snider, a first-time attendee to the Colorado event, gives his humorous first impressions of the fest ("The roster is lean and fat-free, much like Coloradans themselves"), its altitude ("Every now and then I'll be walking around and get just a few seconds of mild, pleasant light-headedness… in small bursts it's quite refreshing"), and its gondola rides ("at some point I'll be stuck on the gondola with someone who's loud and offensive, or who's boring and won't shut up, or who's Harvey Weinstein, and I'll have to weigh the pros and cons of forcing the gondola door open and leaping to my death").
- Finally, covering Telluride for the LA Times, John Horn offers his thoughts on "Incendies," which also screened to a standing ovation at Venice and heads next to Toronto, concluding that the film, which still lacks a US distributor, "may soon find a deserving home."
- With the Toronto International Film Festival starting in just a few days, the Toronto Star surveys 22 "in-the-know festival goers" for their Toronto can't miss titles - including TIFF's own Cameron Bailey, Piers Handling, and Michele Maheux, as well as the Bell Lightbox's Noah Cowan, plus indieWIRE's Eric Kohn and TOH's Anne Thompson. Leading the poll is Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams," Aronofosky's "Black Swan," Bruce McDonald's "Trigger," Julian Schnabel's "Miral," and Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job," but the respondents have a nicely eclectic list of suggestions beyond these as well.

In Search Of That "Only in Telluride" Moment

Eugene Hernandez — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 07:12:23 GMT

Looking for some of the must-see movies at the Telluride Film Festival? Follow the clique of famous filmmakers and film aficionados who often travel in a small pack to screenings here.
A cadre including Bertrand Tavernier, Todd McCarthy, Scott Foundas, Tom Luddy, Alejandro Gonzalez-Inarritu, Alexander Payne, Thierry Fremaux, and others gathered early Sunday morning outside a Colorado middle school gymnasium, eventually filing into the temporary Galaxy theater for a meaty program of classic 3-D shorts and clips.
Serge Bromberg was the emcee for a show that started with the rather wacky Frenchman taking a disposable lighter to a small strip of nitrate film. It immediately burst into flames, stirring the few hundred folks that had gathered at the Galaxy for what festival fanatics here call an "only in Telluride moment."
Bromberg is a cult figure here at the Telluride Film Festival, a Labor Day weekend event that carefully caters to a mix of upscale attendees and die-hard film aficionados alike.
New films like Darren Aronofsky's "The Black Swan" and Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" -- surprise screenings here this weekend -- draw media and industry attention, but more on those movies later. It's the one-time-only events and screenings of movies you probably can't see anywhere else on a big screen that make the festival worth the money and keep me coming back every year. At times a weekend at the Telluride Film Festival can be like sitting in on a film course one could only dream of. Other times it's like traveling to a summer camp for film geeks. Either way it offers a few days to escape and restore a passion for cinema.
Sunday's two-plus hour program of short films and rarely seen clips, all on 3-D, were introduced with commentary and comedy by Bromberg. He also sat in at the piano to accompany silent work. A cinema archivist and activist with a wry sense of humor and an engaging stage presence, Bromberg had the crowd in the palm of his hand. Among the highlights were "Motor Rhythm," a 1940 musical short that depicts the building of a Plymouth, part by part, and Disney animator Ward Kimball's "Adventures In Music: Melody," which explores the music of everyday life.
Early experiments in 3-D by Lumiere and Melies, some created by accident, revealed a rich history of stereophonic cinema leading up to shorts like Chuck Jones' "Lumberjack Rabbit" from the '50s, one of just two Warner Bros. Bugs Bunny shorts that were made in 3-D, and John Lasseter's "Knick Knack" from the '80s. The 3-D Pixar short was shown in an edition that Bromberg said is rarely screened (a female character's breasts were apparently toned down a bit in the version that most folks have seen).
After tasting the 3-D treats on Sunday, aficionados headed down the block to the Sheridan Opera House where Serge Bromberg led a Q&A with UCLA Film & Television Archive head Jan-Christopher Horak. UCLA was awarded a Telluride medal for its preservation and archival work during a program that included about an hour of films saved and restored by the Archive.
Stanton Kaye (left) with Telluride's Tom Luddy this weekend. Photo by Eugene Hernandez/indieWIRE
The UCLA Archive also delivered "Brandy In the Wilderness" to Telluride this weekend. A low budget black-and-white American indie from the late 1960s, the film feels a bit like an early version of a Mumblecore movie. Mostly unseen and forgotten, "Brandy" was the second film by largely unknown American filmmaker Stanton Kaye.
A follow-up to his successful first feature, "Georg" (1964), "Brandy" is an homage to the French New Wave in which the Kaye aimed to reflect on screen his own off-screen relationship with a woman. "It was meant to be a looser version of a diary film," he said on Saturday afternoon here in Telluride, adding, "It was only my second film, so forgive the look of it."
Despite the promise from his two acclaimed indies, Kaye gained little additional attention outside of small film circles.
"We all looked at him, in those days not as simply 'avant-garde' but as a huge talent who had the drive to do things, and was charismatic talking about literature and poetry and art," Telluride co-director Tom Luddy told the LA Weekly a few years ago. "We thought he'd be the next Orson Welles — Francis Ford Coppola revered him."
Kaye is a longtime friend of Luddy, who convinced the filmmaker to bring "Brandy In The Wilderness" to the fest this year. Much to their own surprise, the UCLA Archive had the film (and its original elements) in a vault and not only agreed to dust it off for the Telluride screening, but decided to restore the film itself.
"When I was nineteen I made a very successful film, but all of that success just fucked me up," Stanton Kaye said this weekend. He embarked upon an ambitious new feature film after "Brandy," but never finished it.
Programs of nearly lost films this weekend here at the Telluride Film Festival were enough to make film preservation activists out of those who caught the showings. Fortunately, screenings and one-time-only programs presented by the festival and its clique of devotees often find their way to wider attention.
"There are big parts of the history of cinema that are missing," Serge Bromberg implored in Telluride. He'll continue pounding the pavement for cinema in Los Angeles tomorrow (Tuesday, Sept. 7th) to present this weekend's Telluride program of 3-D rarities in conjunction with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Fall Fest Daily | "127 Hours" & "King's Speech" Slay Telluride Auds; "Meek's Cutoff" Impresses Lido

Basil Tsiokos — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 10:16:14 GMT

With Telluride already halfway through its 37th edition, and Venice just about at the same point in its 67th, reviews and posts are starting to hit on a number of high-profile titles and about these stalwart fall fests.
From Colorado, Thompson on Hollywood's festival correspondent Meredith Brody details her cinephile's caravan roadtrip - Las Vegas to Telluride by way of the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley featuring auteurs Stephen Frears and Bertrand Tavernier, together with Telluride co-founder Tom Luddy and the head of my alma mater's Film Society, Stanford's Samuel Pressman.
It seems the magnificent mountain backdrops in Telluride aren't the only sights to take attendees' breath away - Brody reports on two audience members' reactions to Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" that necessitated medics and ambulances!
TOH! also reports that critic Tim Appelo has pegged Tom Hopper's "The King's Speech" "a serious Oscar contender," calling leads Colin Firth and Geofrrey Rush "geniuses who raise each others' game" in "the true bromance of the year," concluding that the film "has style to burn, and wit, and resonant emotion. Long may it reign." The film received a 5 minute standing ovation after its screening, so it seems Appelo's not alone in his assessment - as can be seen in our Quick Links below.
Meanwhile, indieWIRE's Eugene Hernandez has been tweeting about all the notables assembled in Colorado, from James Franco (see reactions to "127 Hours" below), to a who's who at the duelling Sony Pictures Classics and IFC dinners. This morning he was excited to check out one of Telluride's "most anticipated events," Serge Bromberg's "Retour de Flamme 3D" program, whose remarkable "Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno" screened at last year's event.
Also on Twitter, TOH! Anne Thompson's been offering up quick thoughts on a few notable films that have hit the Lido this weekend, including Kelly Reichardt's "excellent, taut" "Meek's Cutoff" and Francois Ozon's "breezy, fun" "Potiche" - more on these below. Thompson also confesses to avoiding Vincent Gallo's films, meaning no take on "Essential Killing" from her.

Quick Links
- Deadline Hollywood's Pete Hammond writes about Danny Boyle's unofficial sneak preview of "127 Hours" at Telluride, in the same venue where the director's Oscar-winning "Slumdog Millionaire" had its premiere two years ago, noting that "Franco's performance could put him in contention for a best actor Oscar nod."
- "…Mr Boyle's characteristically fast-moving, immersive style, is jarring, thrilling and weirdly funny," blogs AO Scott for the New York Times.
- In Contention also weighs in on "127 Hours," with Kristopher Tapley not as immediately embracing of the film as other critics, noting a weariness to its repetition, and concluding, "I’m frankly still trying to put a finger on my own thoughts."
- AO Scott also responded well to Peter Weir's "The Way Back," stating "…Mr. Weir’s style is stately, almost classical, and the astonishing story he has to tell in the new movie… has an old-fashioned gravity and grandeur."
- For this film, Kristopher Tapley agrees, calling "The Way Back" "quietly profound, epic, bold filmmaking at its very best."
- For a contrarian view, Eugene Novikov at Cinematical, while still admiring much about the film, says: "Despite its impeccable awards pedigree and prestige pic status, it may be too straight-up harrowing to get much traction, either with the Academy voters or at the box office."
- Speaking of the Oscars, Deadline Hollywood calls Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech" "stylishly entertaining, brilliantly acted," and "catnip for Academy voters."
- In Contention also took a fancy to Hooper's crowd-pleasing film, agreeing that Firth and Rush have "amazing, impeccable chemistry together," and are likely Oscar contenders, noting also that he "wouldn’t be surprised to see the film land nominations for Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Art Direction (absolutely splendid). The cinematography and film editing are also quite worthy."
- But Oscar talk hasn't been reserved for only Telluride's narratives, as Deadline Hollywood notes of Shlomi Eldar's "Precious Life," recently picked up by HBO Documentary Films: "Due to the gut-wrenching but ultimately hopeful subject matter and execution of this effort, a strong list of Doc contenders just got stronger."
- From the Lido, In Contention's Guy Lodge offers his praise for "Meek's Cutoff," saying "Malick would have been proud to conjure the rhapsodic visuals on display here," and concluding: "Adventurous, ambiguous and truthful, “Meek’s Cutoff” may be a marvel in itself, but it only sets up greater expectations for the future."
- From Reuters, "Meek's"' director Kelly Reichardt discusses her love of Westerns and how she used the diaries of women who traveled along the Oregon Trail in the mid 19th century to inform her film, noting: "My challenge was to figure out how... I could show that point of view from the people on the journey who don't get a vote, whether it be the Indian, or the kid, or the women" vs the traditional masculine point of view of such stories.
- Pablo Larrain ("Tony Manero") revisits Chile's Pinochet era in his "Post Mortem," which debuted in Competition in Venice today to generally positive early reviews. Reuters has his thoughts on approaching the pivotal history of his homeland in his newest film.
- Francois Ozon speaks about being inspired to make "Potiche" when he recognized "a new era of machoism" during France's Sarkozy/Royale presidential election race, and wanted to "say something about French women today," reports the AP.

Fall Fest Daily | Telluride Takes Off with "Never Let Me Go," "Tabloid"

Basil Tsiokos — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 11:51:55 GMT

Writing from Venice, Anne Thompson battled a torrential storm to post her thoughts on Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere," and later caught up on the early word out of Telluride on new films from Mark Romanek, Errol Morris, and Peter Weir premiering last night, the festival's opening day.
Writing about Romanek's 1970s alternate reality set "Never Let Me Go," Thompson notes that the director and writer "have created a believably off-kilter 'what-if' world that is vaguely familiar but not exactly what once was." She also praises the actors, Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and the next Spider-Man Andrew Garfield, as a "heartbreaking love triangle," and warns viewers to "get out your handkerchiefs."
indieWIRE's own Eugene Hernandez arrives in Telluride today and will no doubt have some thoughts on the stellar lineup over the next few days.
Thompson also notes that Todd McCarthy's review for "Somewhere" is up at Deep Focus. With McCarthy having screened the film for New York Film Festival consideration, it's no surprise that the selection committee passed on Coppola's latest with McCarthy referring to it as a "fuzzy, emotionally stunted film" and including a line like this in the first paragraph of his review: "This junior league Antonioniesque study of dislocation and aimlessness is attractive but parched in the manner of its dominant Los Angeles setting, and it’s a toss-up as to whether the film is about vacuity or is simply vacuous itself."

Quick Links
- Over at Slash Film, despite some nitpicks, Peter Sciretta calls "Never Let Me Go" "emotionally powerful," and singles out one actress' performance: "Mulligan deserves a nomination, which if it happens, would be the second year in a row."
- This sentiment is shared by Alex Billington of FirstShowing.net, calling Mulligan's performance "phenomenal." The glowing review concludes, "It's a completely different film than 'One Hour Photo'... but it's magnificent in all of its own ways."
- In marked contrast, HitFix's Gregory Ellwood was not enamored with the film, beginning his review: "There is a great idea for a movie in Kazuo Ishiguro's acclaimed novel 'Never Let Me Go,' but its not apparent in the new film." Though he notes the actors do their best, particularly Mulligan and Garfield, he blames a lack of emotional connection with their characters on the film's script and tone, and concludes that "it's hard to imagine either of them at the [Oscar] nomination finish line."
- On the other hand, in a short round up post from Telluride, Ellwood had a very different experience with Errol Morris' "Tabloid," concluding "Keep your fingers crossed a strong and smart distributor picks this one up soon. It deserves to be seen."
- Morris' new doc generated a similar reaction from Hollywood Elsewhere's Glenn Zoller, who's "What a trip!" might just say it all. HE also notes that In Contention's Kris Tapley calls it "a masterful work," and "one of [Morris'] best films in years."
- While, as Thompson notes, reviews of Peter Weir's "The Way Back" haven't made it online yet, Deadline Hollywood yesterday speculated about the film's Oscar chances, now that Newmarket has announced its acquisition, and spoke to Weir, who is also receiving a career tribute at Telluride.
- Meanwhile, Day 4 of Venice continued with some high profile screenings. At The Daily Notebook, David Poland considers Catherine Breillat's "Sleeping Beauty" while Reuters takes a look at Martin Scorsese's "A Letter to Elia" and at Catherine Deneuve in Francois Ozon's "Potiche."

Docs Top 2010 Telluride Roster

Eugene Hernandez — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:48:38 GMT

Documentary films are the buzz of this year's Telluride Film Festival. In keeping with tradition, the lineup for the event is announced just 24 hours before the event begins in Colorado tomorrow and the roster includes a number of notable documentaries.
Errol Morris will unveil his latest, "Tabloid," ahead of its Toronto debut next week, while Ken Burns will present "The Tenth Inning" and Werner Herzog will be at the event with "Happy People: A Year in the Taiga."
Shlomi Eldar's "Precious Life," a look at Israeli and Palestinian doctors’ attempts to save the life of a Palestinian baby, will screen prior to traveling to Toronto. Telluride will also unveil "A Letter to Elia," directed by Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones, concurrent with its premiere this week at the Venice Film Festival. Doc legend Rickie Leacock will be at this year's festival. The event will include a look at work by Robert Flaherty and Telluride will spotlight filmmaker Harutyun Khachatryan. Even more docs will screen for free in the fest's Backlot theater all weekend.
Some two dozen new feature films lead the roster of more than eighty titles that will screen at this weekend's Telluride Film Festival in Colorado.
Evening tributes to both Colin Firth and Peter Weir will showcase new films from both men. Firth stars as George VI in Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech," and he'll be in Telluride with Hooper and film co-star Geoffrey Rush. Peter Weir will appear with his latest, "The Way Back," set in a Siberian prison camp.
Looking back, Telluride will salute legendary actress Claudia Cardinale this weeeknd. The Italian star will be in Colorado for a tribute that will include conversations with Hilton Als and Davia Nelson, as well as a screening of Valerio Zurlini's 1961 film, "The Girl With The Suitcase."
The Telluride Film Festival poster. Design by Ralph Eggleston
A selection of films from this year's Cannes Film Festival, as well as a program of classic and restored films, as well as a number of short fllms, round out the roster for the 37th Telluride fest.
Mark Romanek's "Never Let Me Go" is on the lineup ahead of its Toronto fest launch and distributor Fox Searchlight is expected to unveil two more titles with unannounced sneak previews at the Telluride Film Festival. Festival organizers are silent on the matter, but word is that Danny Boyle will debut "127 Hours" and Darren Aronofsky will make the trip from Venice to Telluride for the U.S. debut of "Black Swan," which opened the Venice Film Festival last night. The much talked about new film, starring Natalie Portman, will be at the Toronto fest next week.
Heading to Telluride directly from Cannes are Mike Leigh's "Another Year," Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu's "Biutiful," Olivier Assayas' "Carlos," Charles Ferguson's "Inside Job," Lee Chang-dong's "Poetry," Bertrand Tavernier's "The Princess of Montpensier," and Stephen Frears' "Tamara Drewe." Other notable inernational entries include Sylvain Chomet's "The Illusionist" and "If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle," directed by Florin Serban, both from this year's Berlin International Film Festival
As usual, Telluride will showcase numerous classics, archival films and restored work.
As the festival organizers said last year, it’s as important at a film festival to offer classics and repertory cinema as it is to debut new work. “For those of us who love movies,” explained festival co-director Gary Meyer, in a conversation with indieWIRE last year, “I don’t think that our world is limited to new movies. We often relate something we see to our past moviegoing experiences.”
This year's Telluride fest will include a selection of films from the UCLA Film and Television Archive and the organization will be awarded a special medallion. Also this year, popular fest attendee Serge Bromberg will present a collection of classic 3D titles. Finally, filmmaker Michael Ondaatje is this year's guest director presenting favorite films.
-- the Telluride Film Festival lineup is available on the next page --
The Telluride Film Festival lineup:
"A Letter to Elia," directed by Martin Scorcese and Kent Jones
"Another Year," directed by Mike Leigh
"Biutiful," directed by Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu
"Brandy in the Wilderness," directed by Stanton Kaye (1968)
"Carlos," directed by Olivier Assayas
"Chicago," directed by Cecil B. DeMille (1927)
"Chico and Rita," directed by Fernando Trueba
"The First Grader," directed by Justin Chadwick
"The First Movie," directed by Mark Cousins
"The Girl With The Suitcase," directed by Valerio Zurlini (1961)
"The Illusionist," directed by Sylvain Chomet
"Happy People: A Year in the Taiga," directed by Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov
"If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle," directed by Florin Serban
"Incendies," directed by Denis Villeneuve
"Inside Job," directed by Charles Ferguson
"The King's Speech," directed by Tom Hooper
"Moana: A Story of the South Seas," directed by Robert Flaherty (1927)
"Never Let Me Go," directed by Mark Romanek
"Of Gods and Men," directed by Xavier Beauvois
"Oka! Amerikee," directed by Lavinia Currier
"The Plummer," directed by Peter Weir (1976)
"Poetry," directed by Lee Chang-dong
"Precious Life," directed by Shlomi Eldar
"The Princess of Montpensier," directed by Bertrand Tavernier
"Le Quattro Volte," directed by Michelangelo Frammartino
"Rotaie" directed by Mario Camerini (1930)
"Tabloid," directed by Errol Morris
"Tamara Drewe," directed by Stephen Frears
"The Tenth Inning," directed by Ken Burns
"The Way Back," directed by Peter Weir
Six Films: Curated by Michael Ondaatje
"The Ascent," directed by Larisa Shepitko (1977)
"Confidence," directed by Istvan Szabo (1980)
"Fat City," directed by John Huston (1972)
"Here's Your Life," directed by Jan Troell (1966)
"The Hustler," directed by Robert Rossen (1961)
"Mother Dao, the Turtlelike," directed by (1995)
Spotlight on Harutyun Khachatryan
"Border," by Harutyun Khachatryan
"Return of the Poet," by Harutyun Khachatryan
Backlot
"...But Film is My Mistress," directed by Stig Bjorkman
"Cameraman: The Life and Work of Jack Cardiff," directed by Craig McCall
"Chekhov for Children," directed by Sasha Waters Freyer
"Daniel Schmid: Le Chat Qui Pense," directed by Pascal Hoffman and Benny Jaberg
"Documentarist," directed by Harutyun Khachatryan
"Hurricane Kalatozov," directed by Patrick Cazals
"Images from a Playground," directed by Stig Bjorkman
"Moguls and Movie Stars," directed by Jon Wilkman
"The Magnificent Tati," directed by Michael House
"Music Makers of the Blue Ridge," by David Hoffman
"On 'Being There' with Richard Leacock," directed by Jane Weiner
"Pygmies in Paris," directed by Mark Kidel with "African Pygmy Thrills"
"The World According to Ion B.," directed by Alexander Nanau
Showcase for Shorts
"The Cow Who Wanted To Be A Hamburger," directed by Bill Plympton
"Dennis Jakob Unplugged," directed by Errol Morris
"For the Birds," directed by Ralph Eggleston
"Frozen," directed by Naghi Nemati
"Mickey Bader," directed by Frida Kempff
"The Shadow's Dream" directed by Jeff Scher
"Stretching," directed by Francois Vogel
Filmmakers of Tomorrow
"Dreams Awake," directed by Kevin Gordon and Rebekah Meredith
"God of Love," directed by Lukas Matheny
"The Love Song of Iskra Prufrock," directed by Lucy Gaffy
"Off Season," directed by Jonathan Van Tulleken
"On Leave," directed by Asaf Saban
"The Queen," directed by Christina Choe
"Woman in Purple," directed by Igor Drljaca
"Wolves," directed by Rafael Sommerhalder
Great Expectations
"Come To Me," directed by Ewa Banaszkiewicz
"Fatenah," directed by Admad Habash
"Poster Girl," directed by Sara Nesson
Calling Cards
"Deeper Than Yesterday," directed by Ariel Kleiman
"Ezra Rishona," directed by Yarden Karmin
"Flawed," directed by Andrea Dorfman
"Hideg Berek," directed by Mihaly Schwechtje
"Let's Harvest the Organs of Death Row Inmates," directed by Max Joseph
"On the Run with Abdul," directed by David Lale
"Tussilago," directed by Jonas Odell

Fall Fest Daily | Portman, "Miral," and Telluride Lineup

Nigel M Smith — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:19:40 GMT

Rounding up the latest from the fall festival circuit on a daily basis…
Both Shane Danielsen and Anne Thompson are planted in Venice to report on the festival for indieWIRE. Each offered their take on Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan," which opened the Venice Film Festival on September 1. Danielsen for one loved the film, hailing it as superior to Aronofsky's debut "Pi." Of Natalie Portman's much talked about lead performance, Danielsen writes, "Portman herself was mesmerizing: her voice half-an-octave higher than usual, her manner raw and petrified throughout." And to the film's naysayers he has this to say: "Complaints as to the film’s improbability seemed to me to miss the point, given that any pretence at strict realism had been swiftly dispensed with - certainly from the first moment the audience saw her mother (Barbara Hershey), a figure of Grimm-like malevolence. This was as much a fairy tale as “Swan Lake” itself: a story of fragile, spiteful, broken-bodied little girls, who puke up their meals and mortify their flesh until it bleeds."
Thompson meanwhile concurs with Danielsen's assessment of Portman's performance, writing "Aronofsky pulls the best performance ever out of Natalie Portman as a tightly wound ballet dancer with no life." Of the film itself, Thompson has admiration, but expresses reservation for the severity of the dark tale. She writes: "The intensity is on a level with Roman Polanski’s "Repulsion," Nic Roeg’s "Don’t Look Now" or Ken Russell’s "The Music Lovers." Yes it’s brilliant, unpredictable and visceral—as Thomas tells Nina what he wants from her—but it’s hard to take."
Arguably the second highest profile film to premiere at Venice up to this point, Julian Schnabel's "Miral," also had its world premiere at the Italian event. Unfortunately Schnabel's eagerly anticipated follow up to "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" left Thompson disappointed. Her main problem was Schnabel's leading lady, "Slumdog Millionaire"'s Freida Pinto. "While gorgeous, [Pinto] is not an expressive actress," Thompson writes. "(She likely helped to raise funding for the film produced by Jon Kilik with financing from Israel, Italy, India and France, which The Weinstein Co. will release stateside.) Her story remains expositional and flat, filled with long debates with her boyfriend Hani (Omar Metwally) about alternative routes to a Middle East solution." As for the director's efforts, Thompson says that Schnabel isn't a proficient enough dramatist to pull this material off. "He’s an elegant, visual director," she writes. "He and cinematographer Eric Gautier adopt an unusual blurry technique for the more intense scenes—but this movie, while filmed on authentic Jerusalem locations, too often devolves into dull talking heads."
Quick Links
- One thing critics the world over are agreeing on is the strength of Natalie Portman's performance in "Black Swan." The Washington Post reported on the early award buzz surrounding Portman's powerful turn. "Evidently Natalie Portman already has this year's Academy Award for best actress all sewn up," Jen Chaney writes. "At least the media buzz coming out of the Venice Film Festival -- where her "Black Swan" just premiered -- is making it sound that way."
- True to form, the Telluride Film Festival unveiled their lineup one day before the official kickoff tomorrow. Included in the lineup is the North American premiere of Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu's "Biutiful," Danny Boyle's "127 Hours," and Peter Weir's "The Way Back." The Los Angeles Times dissected what separates Telluride from the pack in their lineup report. "As they [the patrons] queue up in Telluride's unavoidable lines (there are hardly any of the line-skipping uber passes seen at Sundance and Cannes)," writes John Horn, "it's clear this crowd is cut from a different cloth: rather than texting on their Blackberries, these people are solving intricate crossword puzzles or reading Jonathan Franzen's latest novel."
- In indieWIRE's Telluride lineup announcement, Editor-in-Chief Eugene Hernandez spotlighted the buzz worthy documentaries that made the cut. "Errol Morris will unveil his latest, “Tabloid,” ahead of its Toronto debut next week," writes Hernandez, "while Ken Burns will present “The Tenth Inning” and Werner Herzog will be at the event with “Happy People: A Year in the Taiga."
- And back in Venice The Associated Press profiled Vietnamese-French Oscar-nominated director Tran Anh Hung, who premiered his latest "Norwegian Wood" at the festival today. "Tran told reporters Thursday, the day his film is premiering at the Venice Film Festival in competition for the Golden Lion, that he didn't try to make a Japanese film," writes The Associated Press, "...and in fact sought a set design that would not be completely familiar to Japanese audiences."