D.A. Pennebaker in 2002 / Motherless Closes New York / Coming Soon: A Trailer for Little Women

It's Monday...


D.A. PENNEBAKER IN 2002

D.A. Pennebaker 1925-2019

(photo via HuffPo)

Legendary documentary film maker D.A. Pennebaker died this past Thursday.  He was 94.  Pennebaker was a 2002 Telluride Film Festival Tribute recipient.  He was also a 1994 Oscar nominee for The War Room, an up close look at the effort to elect Bill Clinton to the presidency, and an honorary Oscar winner for lifetime achievement in 2013.

He was perhaps best known for his 1967 Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back which featured this iconic presentation of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues (from YouTube):

Here's the program cover and the entry for Pennebaker's tribute from 2002:

                                  

Pennebaker's career spanned more than six decades with his first credit on IMDb listed as 1953.

I have linked stories about his life and passing here from Indiewire and The Los Angeles Times.  Pennebaker's IMDb entry is linked here.


MOTHERLESS CLOSES NEW YORK

The New York Film Festival (which we expect to announce the majority of its lineup tomorrow) announced that Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn will close their fest on Oct. 11th.  The film is listed as a New York premiere which cements what we already thought as a result of the film's International Premiere status for Toronto signaling that it would be screening in Telluride.

In the process of reporting the announcement over the weekend a few  news outlets included the claim that the film would be or would likely be playing Telluride first including: Screen International, Entertainment Weekly.

Here's the actual announcement from The Film Society of New York.



COMING SOON: TRAILER FOR LITTLE WOMEN...AND A WILD THEORY

Anton Volkov of Trailer Track revealed over the weekend that we should soon see a trailer of some sort for Greta Gerwig's Little Women.

Volkov says it's likely in the next couple of weeks; perhaps even this week.  That's linked here from his Trailer Track site.

Most of the scuttlebutt about the film is that it will not play Telluride and perhaps won't play any festival dates at all.  The film is scheduled for release in the U.S. on Dec. 25th.

But...and I am fully admitting that this has NO BASIS IN CLUES OR EVIDENCE...but...

I am morally certain that Gerwig's partner, Noah Baumbach will be screening his Marriage Story at TFF #46.  What if Greta tags along?  What of she just happened to haul a copy of Little Women with her?  It's been test screened.  Linked here is a Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel story from yesterday with anonymous responses to Little Women test screenings.

Wait...wait...there's more.

One of the things I've been asked every year (since anybody thought I kind of knew what I was talking about) was if there were to be any "sneak previews".  My answer for that last five years has been no.  With the decision by Toronto (and other fests since) to adopt their policy for revealing "Honest" premiere statuses, that seemed impossible.  And it hasn't happened since Escobar: Paradise Lost in 2014.

And the comment I have heard the most since then has been pass holders lamenting the loss of that tradition.

So...what if you had a highly anticipated film that was completed (IMDb says Little Women has been in post-production since November of 2018 and there are those test screenings).  What if that film was not going to play any fest...meaning that it would have no premiere designation?

What if the director had had a seemingly glorious relationship with the festival in that past?  Like with a Frances Ha and a Lady Bird?

Little Women as a Sneak?

Look...I think the real chance of the above described scenario is at about 2% but not completely outside the realm of possibility.


And with that reckless speculation/theory...that's your MTFB for the start of this week.

Here's the current Ten Bets with Bonus Bets:


10) The Aeronauts
9) Ford v. Ferrari
8) The Two Popes
7) Pain and Glory
6) Uncut Gems
5) Judy
4) Motherless Brooklyn
3) Marriage Story
2) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
1) Parasite

"Bonus Bets":

Bonus 1) The Truth
Bonus 2) Varda by Agnes
Bonus 3) First Cow
Bonus 4) Family Romance LLC
Bonus 5) Country Music


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