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Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Categorical Weirdness / A Candidate for the Unusual Tribute / Coming Soon: Things to Come

Good Wednesday everybody...


CATEGORICAL WEIRDNESS






It seems to happen every year especially since Toronto and the rest of the film fest world moved to the "honest" premiere status requirement.  That is that between the various announcements of what's eiplaying where and when, there occur some weird anamolies.

Case in point...yesterday, I was alerted by friend of the blog Kenny Miles to the announcement of the film lineup for Fantastic Fest.  It's a film fest based in Austin, TX and will run Sept. 22-29 this year. Mr. Miles called my attention to FF's claim that Andrea Arnold's American Honey would play as a "Texas" premiere.  That's curious as we know that the film has played Cannes (World preem) and was announced last week for Toronto as a North American premiere.  That unto itself is partially beguiling.  What makes it all the more curious is that Fantastic Fest has listed other films with the designation of a "U.S. Premiere" (Aloys and The Crew for example).  What that seems to mean is that Fantastic Fest believes that American Honey will have played somewhere else in the U.S. prior to Sept. 22.

Unless I'm missing something, that means one of the designations from either TIFF or FF have to be inaccurate unless there's a film fest in the United States that's going to get it between Toronto (Sept. 8-18) and Fantastic Fest.   Off the top of my head, nothing springs to mind.  The Aspen Film Fest opens on Sept. 21, so I suppose that's a possibility.

Mr. Miles was curious about whether the "Texas" premiere designation might mean that a Telluride play was possible.  While I doubt it and I suspect that there's a perfectly reasonable explanation that I haven't tumbled onto yet...I can't completely rule it out.

Over the past three years there have been films which have been accidentally categorized in gthe wrong premiere category and there have also been a film or two that have flaunted the designation requirement and kept their Telluride presence under wraps.  Sooo...

Here's the Fantastic Fest announcement:

http://fantasticfest.com/news/entry/fantastic-fest-2016-announces-the-first-wave-of-progamming



A CANDIDATE FOR AN UNUSUAL TRIBUTE



In 2014 the Telluride Film Festival took the unusual step of tributing a film rather than a person.  Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now was feted with screenings as well as screenings of the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse".  FFC was there along with DP Vittorio Sortaro, editor Water Murch and producer Fred Roos.  It was, I believe, the first time that a tribute honored something rather than someone or someones.

Which has got me wondering this week as I have been seeing the promo for the re-issue of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver for its 40th anniversary.  My understanding is that the film will be screened in theaters again.  Both Screen Daily and The Playlist are reporting spruced up version of a 2011 digital restoration.  At this point there are plans foe overseas screenings but no announced plan for the United States.

The film played last April at the Tribeca Film Fest (DeNiro's home festival) so we know that it's festival ready.

So, in the spirit of a tribute to Apocalypse Now, I humbly submit that Taxi Driver be afforded the same status in four weeks.  While you're at it, get Scorsese, DeNiro and Paul Schrader on board to be part of the presentation.

Here's the recently released teaser trailer for the 40th anniversary screenings from YouTube:



And the previously mentioned stories from Screen Daily and The Playlist:




COMING SOON: THINGS TO COME

Overnight the folks at The Playlist dropped a new trailer for Mia Hansen-Love's Things to Come which played extremely well at this year's Berlin Film Fest winning the Silver Bear and is expected to make the Telluride lineup owing to its announced status as a Canadian premiere for the Toronto Film Fest.

Things to Come stars Isabelle Huppert.  Here is the new trailer from YouTube:



And the post from The Playlist:

http://theplaylist.net/isabelle-huppert-finds-freedom-new-trailer-mia-hansen-loves-things-come-20160803/


That's it for today.  Come back tomorrow when we may have new information from TIFF.


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