Day Three from Telluride/Sunday's TBAs and Sneaks

Telluride Day Three…

I opened the day with a fantastic tribute to the Coen Brothers and their collaboration with T-Bone Burnett.  As a “pre-show” we were treated to a mini-concert from “The Americans”.  Their banjo/guitar, stand-up bass performance set the tone perfectly for the program to follow. 

The tribute featured the four films that the threesome have worked on together: “The Big Lebowski”, “The Ladykillers”, “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and the upcoming “Inside Llewyn Davis”.  Scott Foundas of Variety led the Q&A that followed the clip presentation.  As you might expect with three geniuses, the discussion was lively, thought-provoking and often funny.  My favorite couple of moments:  the Coens revealed they’re working on a script about an Opera singer and they want to make a film that has an overture and an intermission.  Additionally, Joel described their movie making genesis and what they do now the same way, “We’re just f*#@ing around”.  Loved it.

I followed the Coens with Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin”.  It’s an interesting film and technically proficient.  You have to give Glazer his due for attempting a film in which we see our world through alien eyes and especially ears.  The sound work is remarkable.  Choices for “dialogue” which often is unintelligible and the music for the soundtrack are universally great choices. 

Scarlett Johansson plays the alien “under the skin” of a human disguise.  Johansson is serviceable in very challenging role.  She has to be temptress that lures humans into her alien lair and still convey the sense of unease with her surroundings and the “alienness” of our species.  She largely succeeds.

Pacing is the issue for me with this film and even that makes sense in the context of what Glazer does.

I concluded the afternoon with the world premiere of Ralph Fiennes sophomore directorial effort, “The Invisible Woman”.  It’s based on the true story of Charles Dickens virtually unknown mistress.  Fiennes cast himself as Dickens and Felicity Jones as the “invisible” woman.  Fiennes is good but, again, pacing is an issue.  It’s just slow.

I finished the evening with Buck Henry presenting Mike Hodges’ 1972 film “The Terminal Man” based on a Michael Crichton novel.  Admittedly I was there to see and listen to Buck.  I’ve been saying for years that I was going to make sure we crossed paths at this festival and this year gave me the opportunity.  I couldn’t pass it up.

Buzzy titles through three days: “12 Years a Slave”, “Gravity”, “Prisoners”, “Tim’s Vermeer” and “Burning Bush”.

 SUNDAY TBA'S AND SNEAKS

Sneak 

• The Wind Rises     CJC/Sun 9p

Reflecting his deep fascination with aviation, the legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki's beautifully animated exploration of the early life of aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi. Miyazaki keeps the fanciful elements to a relative minimum, while featuring imaginative, exquisite dream sequences and a stunning recreation of the devastating Kantō earthquake of 1923. This fictionalized biopic—with a liberal dose of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain as subtext—dramatically details the pacifistic (and overtly romantic) tendencies behind the chief designer of the A6M Zero, one of the most effective warplanes in history. –Jonathan Marlow (Japan, 2013, 126m) Introduced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall



• 9  Nebraska   Palm/Sun 11:15a


• Sneak Prisoners    Galaxy/Sun 1p

• 38   Don DeLillo: Zapruder Film plus panel with Mark Danner and Errol Morris  SOH/Sun 1p

• Sneak   12 Years a Slave  Palm/Sun 2:15p

• 33 Gloria  Le Pierre/Sun 4p

• 15 Tim’s Vermeer  Nugget/Sun 4:45p

• 25 The Lunchbox   CJC/Sun 6:30p

• 35 Before the Winter Chill SOH/Sun 6:45p

• 23 Slow Food Story  Nugget/Sun 7:15p

• 6  Inside Llewyn Davis  Palm/Sun 8:45p

• 16  The Past  Masons/Sun 9:15p

• E   Jodorowsky’s Dune  Backlot/Sun 9:15p

• 28  Palo Alto  SOH/Sun 9:30p

• 36  Ida  Le Pierre/Sun 9:30p

• 22  Under the Skin Nugget/Sun 9:45p

More tomorrow...