Monday, May 25, 2020

Late Breaking: Venice Is On (Says a Government Official) / Still Up in the Air / The Best of the 2000's / Telluride and the World of Reel Lists

LATE BREAKING: VENICE IS ON (SAYS A GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL)

The Venice Film Festival Will Not Be Going Digital – /Film

Multiple outlets reported that Venice is still planning to run Sept. 2-12.  The news came late yesterday from the Governor of the the Venetian region who is also on the board of the Biennale. Deadline.com's Nancy Tartiglione reported:

"The governor of Italy’s Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said today that the Venice Film Festival will go ahead as scheduled in September. Dates are September 2-12 for the Lido event which would mark the first major film industry gathering not recently postponed or canceled amid the coronavirus pandemic."

Reporting on the news is linked here from:

Deadline

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter



STILL UP IN THE AIR



In 2009 the 36th Telluride Film Festival screened Jason Reitman's Up in the Air for the first time anywhere.  It's the story of a man, played by George Clooney, unsure about the choices he has made along the way to constructing his life hence at least one reason for the title.

Now in 2020...with a global pandemic changing the world on a daily basis we're all with George...up in the air.  That might also be a fair description about were the film community is in terms of film fests that act as the starting place for the fall film frenzy...Venice, Toronto, New York and, of course Telluride.  

I have had a number of TFF patrons reach out to ask me what I know...which is zip...or what I think.  I have some ideas but am hesitant to speculate in print as those ideas are wholly uninformed.  I have no insider info.

This much is true...we still don't really know how any of these fests are going to construct themselves as yet nor do we know when we will know.  Our first indication of some sign of what is to come may happen when Cannes reveals its list of films that it would have programmed had Cannes occurred this past two weeks (in a normal world this space would have been assessing the 2020 Palme d'Or winner in today's post).  That is supposed to be revealed in "early June".  Perhaps there will be some more details at that time regarding how the cooperation with other fests that Cannes' head Thierry Fremaux has referenced might be structured...

Until then...or more likely even later...we're all still Up in the Air.

Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn discussed some of these issues with Toronto Artistic Director Cameron Bailey in this week's edition of their podcast: Screen Talk linked here.


THE BEST OF THE 2000'S


(photo from CNN)


You might have noticed a week ago in my post, that I had included a rundown of a poll conducted by Jordan Ruimy's World of Rell website about the best films of the 1990's.  Jordan was kind enough to include me as one of the approximately 180 folks that were a part of that poll.  You may have also noticed that that I mentioned that Jordan polled us about the 2000's as well.

Well, those results are in!

The top ten films from the collective:

1) Mulholland Drive (David Lynch) 
2) There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson) 
3) Zodiac (David Fincher) 
4) In the Mood For Love (Wong Kar-Wai) 
5) No Country For Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen) 
6) Children of Men (Alfonso Cuaron)
7) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry)  
8) Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki) 
9) Yi Yi: A One and A Two (Edward Yang) 
10) Lost in Translation (Sofia Coppola) 

From the list of ten are four of the five films that I put on my list (in alphabetical order):

Children of Men (6)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (-)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (7)
No Country for Old Men (5)
There Will Be Blood (2)
Last week I matched four of five with one of the other participants but this week the best I could do was matching three of five with several of the other participants including Mr. Ruimy himself!

Matt Fagerholm/RogerEbert.com
Ann Hornaday/The Washington Post
Don Kaye/Den of Geek
Richard Lawson/Vanity Fair
Marcos Levy/Freelance
Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel
Peter Travers/Rolling Stone
Glenn Whipp/The Los Angeles Times





TELLURIDE AND THE WORLD OF REEL LISTS



You won't be stunned to see this entry.  Now that Jordan has completed the compilation of data for 
both the 1990's and the 2000's, here's my rundown of TFF films that made each of the lists.

From the 1990's:

14) Beau Travail  (which actually screened at Telluride in 2012)
22) The Piano
31) Blue
32) Breaking the Waves
33) The Long Day Closes


From the 2000's:

2) There Will Be Blood (scenes screened in 2007)
3) Zodiac 
8) Spirited Away
9) Yi Yi
10) Lost in Translation
14) 4 Months, Three Weeks. Two Days
16) Brokeback Mountain
22) City of God
25) Talk to Her
26) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
29) Dogville
31) Cache
39) Amelie
45) The White Ribbon


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

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