Thursday, August 24, 2017

New York Tells / First Look at Hostiles / Marshall Oddity / Beating the Drum: Rate Those Films!

It's Thursday, August 24, 2017...Seven days until The SHOW!!!

NEW YORK TELLS



I was more than a little surprised a couple of weeks back when Toronto announced the bulk of its documentary films and I couldn't find a single doc that was going to share the two festivals.  Unheard of and weird, to be honest.  However...

The New York Film Fest named its documentary selections late yesterday and if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, that's the fest that will crossover with T-ride this year with some choice titles.

Judging by NYFF's premiere status designations with a focus on docs that were announced with no status and cross checking with IMDb, it would seem that the following films could be playing in Colorado next week:

Arthur Miller: Writer directed by the famed playwright's daughter Rebecca Miller (does this portend accompaniment by her husband-Daniel Day Lewis?  Probably not as he is-we believe-still filming Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled/maybe titled Phantom Thread-film).



Filmworker directed by Tony Zierra.  The film focuses on Leon Vitali who became an acolyte of Stanley Kubrick.  This played Cannes and reports about it totally caught my attention when it did.  I mentioned it as a Telluride possibility in my May 8th post.  Very intriguing.



And perhaps the one that gets me the most excited is Vanessa Redgrave's directorial debut Sea Sorrow which played Cannes as well and features Ralph Fiennes and Emma Thompson in an exploration of the refugee crisis with an historical perspective.  I have been hoping for a Vanessa Redgrave appearance at The SHOW for years and maybe that happens in 2017.  Sea Sorrow was briefly mentioned in this space as a film of interest back on April 13th.

A Vanessa Redgrave tribute?

And finally Barbet Schroeder's The Venerable W looks like it could be headed to Telluride.  The doc explores the evil behind ethnic cleansing in Burma.  Schroeder, who has an extensive history with Telluride may be making a return. The Venerable W was first mentioned here at MTFB as a T-ride possibility on Mar. 20th.

Now, a quick disclaimer...the provenance of documentaries is often a bit more difficult to accurately pin down as compared to feature films.  That said...these four films all seem like a good fit for TFF #44.

I have linked coverage of the NYFF documentary announcement here from Indiewire and here from Deadline.



FIRST LOOK AT HOSTILES

If you follow me on Twitter (@Gort2) then you may have caught my Tweet Tuesday that includes the first still photo from the Scott Cooper film Hostiles which, of course, I'm sure is going to be in The SHOW lineup when  it's announced a week from today.

I believe I had the honor to be one of the first outlets in the country to publish the pic as I was included in the P.R. email that provided access to the photo.

If you missed it Tuesday here it is:


You have your Christian Bale looking pensive.

The film is said to center on the story of an American Army Captain in the late 1800's who accompanies a dying Native American Chief through dangerous territory.

It is definitely on my list to see next week.


MARSHALL ODDITY



Again, if you're reading this space closely now as we get down to mere days before film Nirvana presents itself in southwest Colorado, you know that I have a list of films that I still think might play the fest that we don't have good intell about.  There are seven films still on that list and of them, five are still moderately seriously in play.  Two are incredibly long shots at this point: Wonder and The Snowman.  Five, I think, still have a fighting chance: You Were Never Really Here, L'Amant Double, Final Portrait, Our Souls at Night and Reginald Hudlin's Marshall.

Well...yesterday, the Urbanworld Film Festival (based in NYC) became the first fest (to my knowledge) to announce a screening of Marshall.  UFF runs Sept. 20-24th.  So, as you might expect, I opened the story expecting to see that the film would be World Premiering there.

To my surprise...NOPE.  UFF lists Marshall as a "U.S. Premiere".  I don't know how to interpret this.
That designation would make sense if the film had been announced for Toronto or Venice but it has not.  As best as I can find, Marshall will not have played anywhere when UFF screens it (I believe it may be their closing film on Sept. 24).

But here's the thing, if it were to play T-ride then its UFF appearance would not be a U.S. premiere.

To add confusion, UFF does list other films as World, East Coast or even New York Premieres.

So...does this take Marshall off the TFF #44 table or is the U.S. Premiere designation meant to convey that its World/North American premiere will have happened...meaning Telluride and an odd designation from UFF?

I don't know the answer here but I do know that I would not be surprised if it were to be included at T-ride despite to scheduled play in Toronto, Venice or NYFF.



BEATING THE DRUM



Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."

Submit your ratings for The People's Telluride via any of the contact methods listed below.

That's Thursday.  A NEW TEN (20+) BETS will be here tomorrow.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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