Thursday, September 15, 2011

Foreign Submissions/Close Gets Close/Toronto's Telluride Echoes/Carving Butter/Dialing It Back

Good Morning Ladies and Germs...

FOREIGN SUBMISSIONS

Word from two nations over the past 48 hours about their submissions for the Foreign Language Best Pic Oscar race and both announcements deal with films from TFF #38.




Norway has announced that its submission will be Aki Kaurismaki's "Le Havre."  A pleasant enough exercise  but rather arid for my tastes.  The story can be found from The Hollywood Reporter here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/aki-kaurismakis-le-havre-finlands-235447

Le Havre's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1508675/



For my money the much superior film will be Iran's entry in the FLF Oscar sweepstakes; Asghar Farhadi's " A Separation."  That story via Incontention.com here:
http://incontention.com/2011/09/12/irans-a-separation-latest-to-enter-oscar-race/#more-42822

A Separation's IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1832382/

As a side note: News yesterday that Incontention.com was joining HitFix...so congratulations to Kris Tapley and Guy Lodge.  This news comes on the heels of the move of Scott Feinberg to The Hollywood Reporter.  Oscar season is going to look and feel different this year.

CLOSE GETS CLOSE



Glenn Close has an new interview posted just yesterday at Hollywood News yesterday wherein she talks about TFF #38 film "Albert Nobbs."  The film has garnered mixed reviews but I quite liked it.  You can read my full review here from The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/telluride_11_review_albert_nobbs_glenn_close_mia_wasikowska/#

Close's Hollywood News interview is here:
http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/09/14/glenn-close-on-the-long-heartfelt-journey-of-albert-nobbs-awards-alley/

Albert's IMDb page is here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1602098/

TORONTO'S TELLURIDE ECHOES

A good deal has been written about the fact that Telluride may well have stolen a big chunk of Toronto's thunder this year (as if that's not true every year...at least I think so) and that sentiment is driven home by indieWire's Toronto critic's project.  Just as they did during Cannes, the indieWire folk are collating critical response to a number of films during the TIFF.  Yesterday saw their first post as results are starting to become available.  Leading the pack (and not to  my surprise) Steve McQueen's "Shame."  Other TFF #38 films that you'll find (and their aggregate grade) on the first listing include:
Pina
A Separation
The Turin Horse
The Artist
The Descendants
Le Havre
The Kid with a Bike
A Dangerous Method
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Footnote
Into the Abyss

Check their scores at:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/criticwire_tiff_shame_tops_critics_as_fest_winds_down/

CARVING BUTTER




A lot of hoopla over a Harvey Weinstein stunt in Toronto to intensify publicity for his Telluride sneak peak film "Butter."  He had actress Olivia Wilde, who stars in the film, do an "introduction" designed to tie the film and its political satire element and the current political climate together.  All this was reported in a number of news outlets the last 24 hours.

If you read this space often you know that I wasn't a real fan of the film. My complete review of "Butter" for The Playlist can be found here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/telluride_11_review_jennifer_garners_butter_churns_and_churns_but_doesnt_pr/#

Interestingly, at least to me, was this story of the P.R. stunt from The Olympian and the mention in the fifth paragraph that TWC is re-editing the film after its Telluride sneak.

Here's the story:
http://www.theolympian.com/2011/09/14/1799639/harvey-weinstein-carves-butter.html

Kind of hope I had something to do with that...

DIALING IT BACK

Well, it's time to dial back MTFB for the fall.  Now that the 38th edition of the Telluride Film Festival is in the books (and school is under way in earnest) I'm going to go to a twice a week publication format (Mondays and Thursdays is what I'm going to try for).  Of course there will always be the option to publish more often should news warrant.

The focus now shifts to the other part of the blog's name "The Film Awards Clearinghouse" as I'll track the awards season fortunes of this year's crop of Telluride films through the Globes, the Guilds, the Critics and finally Oscar night.

It should be fun!

Next post on Monday, Sept. 19th!

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