Monday, August 22, 2022

No Holdovers After All / All the Beauty Seems Likely / New TAR Trailer Due / Sneakiness at Telluride / Your People's Telluride Invitation

NO HOLDOVERS AFTER ALL


(Photo via World of Reel)



I posted a week ago news that Alexander Payne's The Holdovers had test-screened and wondered if that film from a T-ride regular, past Guest Director and current member of TFF's Board of Governors might be a late-breaking addition to the Telluride lineup.

It won't be.

One of my frequent sources for Telluride tidbits, Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel. reported last Thursday that the film is not ready.  From Ruimy's August 18th post:

"it turns out that, according to Payne himself, “The Holdovers” cut shown in California was a “work-in-progress.” The film just isn’t finished."

Ruimy also suggests that a possible plan is a Cannes premiere in May 2023.  Should that occur then a berth at TFF #50 becomes a real possibility.

Check out Jordan's full post about The Holdovers here.


ALL THAT BEAUTY SEEMS LIKELY


(All the Beauty and the Bloodshed photo via the Venice Film Festival)



Laura Poitras buzzy documentary about photographer Nan Goldin, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, has been a part of my consideration for a few weeks now.  It's a film that has had some ambiguity about its premiere status.  Venice is its World Premiere (and it is scheduled to debut early enough there to make the trip to The SHOW-Sept. 2nd).  Toronto has it listed as a North American premiere and New York has it as its Centerpiece with no premiere designation.  

It's the TIFF/NYFF designations that have given me pause.  The TIFF NAP designation signals no TFF #49 whereas the lack of designation at NYFF suggests yes at TFF #49.

However, this week's Indiewire ScreenTalk podcast seems to settle the issue as Eric Kohn flat says "and then we have the Laura Poitras film which we already know is at Telluride..."  David Ehrlich, sitting on for Kohn's normal ScreenTalk partner, Anne Thompson, tells us that makes All the Beauty and the Bloodshed the ONLY film to play the BIG 4 Fall Fests: TFF, Venice, TIFF and NYFF.  

Sounds pretty confirmed to me.

You can hear the reference at the 29:35 mark of the podcast which is linked here.


NEW TAR TRAILER DUE

Again with the good intell, Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel posted that Todd Field's TAR starring Cate Blanchett will have a new trailer released soon, likely this week. The film had an earlier trailer released a month ago.  Here's that trailer from July 25th:




TAR is one of the films expected now to play Venice and then TFF #49.  I am wondering if its presentation will be part of a Cate Blanchett Tribute.

IMDb describes TAR as:

"Set in the international world of classical music, the film centers on Lydia Tár. widely considered one of the greatest living composer/conductors and first-ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra."

I think the original trailer sounds like the film could be a riff on the Faustus story.


SNEAKINESS AT TELLURIDE



Idle wondering on my part as we squeeze down to 11 days before TFF #49 ensues.  What I mean by that is: what sneakiness is a foot regarding the schedule?  

Last year both Kenneth Branagh's Belfast and Mia Hanse-Love's Bergman Island had premiere status announcements from Toronto that seemed to preclude a play at TFF #48 (World Premiere for Belfast and North American for Bergman Island).  Additionally, TFF listed four films as "Sneak Previews" : The French Dispatch, The Card Counter, Becoming Led Zeppelin and Dear Mr. Brody.

So as we approach TFF #49, I am wondering what sneaky tricks the fest has up its sleeve for this year?  After that sleight-of-hand last year, I figure that they'll try to pull off something approaching that again this year.

But what?

Last year, in my "Final Bets" I had  The Card Counter listed at #2  and The French Dispatach as the #24 listed film and Bergman Island as an "Other Possibility".   Belfast, Becoming Led Zeppelin and Dear Mr. Brody were nowhere to be found on that Final list.

Last year it was Focus features that provided the big surprise in Belfast.  I currently have Focus expected to be in town with TAR and Armageddon Time.  Could they also bring Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies (maybe) or Wes Anderson's Asteroid City (doubtful)?

What about recent frequent distributors such as Netflix, Searchlight, NEON or A24?  Coiuld they provide a surprise?

Netflix will certainly be in T-ride with Alejandro Inarritu's Bardo, Sebastian Lelio's The Wonder and perhaps Romain Gavras' Athena.  It has a couple of candidates that look at this point to be totally off the TFF table: Noah Baumbach's White Noise and Andrew Dominik's Blonde and I still think they're off the table.

But how about Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front (listed at TIFF as a World Premiere)?
Tobias Lindstrom's The Good Nurse (listed by TIFF as a World Premiere).  

Possible, but unlikely.  Netflix is probably solid at T-ride with Bardo, The Wonder and maybe Athena.

Searchlight looks to be landing at Telluride with Sam Mendes' Empire of Light.  Could their comedy/mystery See How They Run show up?  It's scheduled for release on Sept. 30th and isn't set for any of the big four fall festivals and has a starry cast (Sam Rockwell, Saorise Ronan, Adrien Brody).  Could they pop Chevalier which is labeled as a World Premiere for TIFF?

NEON?  Looks like NEON will light up Telluride with Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker and Laura Poitras' All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.  Anything else from them for possible sneakiness?  The only possibility I can think of is Brett Morgen's David Bowie doc Moonage Daydream which TIFF lists as a North American Premiere.

And A24 who has a lineup this fall which seems endless but at the moment doesn't have any film locked at Telluride.  I have been saying Aftersun and Close were both likely TFF #49 picks and yet... Aftersun was just announced as a North American Premiere for Toronto last week and Close hasn't been announced for either TIFF or NYFF.

White Noise? WP at Venice, NA preem at NYFF
The Whale?  NA Preem at TIFF
The Inspection? WP at TIFF
Stars at Noon? NA preem at NYFF

All that after A24 had C'mon C'mon and Red Rocket at Telluride last year and Uncut Gems, Waves and First Cow at TFF #47.

Maybe Close is all that goes to T-ride from A24...and maybe not even it.


YOUR PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE INVITATION





For the 10th non-consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride.  All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".


Report your ratings with any of the following contact methods:

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

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays


PS-LATE BREAKING:  THE BETS LOOK GOOD

Late yesterday afternoon, our frequent go-to for Telluride news, Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel posted a pre-festival analysis of Oscar players and in it wrote:

"First things first, I was told by my Telluride contact to not expect the unexpected. Almost everything that’s been predicted to go is actually what will be going. There won’t be any “Babylon” surprise or David O. Russell’s “Amsterdam.”

The Bad News: No Babylon or Amsterdam or maybe much of anything else that hasn't been on one list or another.

The Good News: We appear to be fairly accurate

Here's Ruimy's most current Telluride list as last Friday:

Tar (Field)
Bones and All (Guadagnino)
Bardo (Inarritu)
The Wonder (Leilo)
Empire of Light (Mendes)
Women Talking (Polley)
A Compassionate Spy (James)
My Name is Alfred Hitchcock (Mark Cousins)
Theatre of Thought (Werner Herzog)
Amanda (Carolina Cavalli)
Godland (Hylnur Pálmason)
The US and the Holocaust (Ken Burns)
Sr. (Smith)
Good Night Oppy (White)
Holy Spider (Abbasi)
Armageddon Time (Gray)
One Fine Morning (Hansen-Løve)
Broker (Kore-eda)
Close (Dhont)
Living (Hermanus)
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)

Looks like he includes Mark Cousins' My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock and Carolina Cavalli's Amanda that I don't currently have on the latest Ten Bets and Possibilities.  The Cousins film is listed as in pre-production on IMDb BUT wouldn't surprise me as Cousins often works quickly and under the radar.  

As far as Amanda is concerned, it is a film I know nothing about.  IMDb describes it as follows:

"Amanda, 24, lives mostly isolated and has never had any friends, even if it's the thing she wants the most. Amanda chooses her new mission as to convince her childhood friend to believe that they are still best friends."

The film is set to be a part of Venice's Orizzonti Extra program and is slated to bedut there on Sept. 5th which seems to me to make it an unlikely TFF #49 player.

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