Michael's Telluride Film Blog : Beyond the Hills

Showing posts with label Beyond the Hills. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

O'Toole Bids Farewell/Sundance Selects/New Anna Poster/Our Friends in Toronto

Good Wednesday To All!

O'TOOLE BIDS FAREWELL

News yesterday via an announcement that I believe originally appeared at Playbill.com that legendary actor Peter O'Toole has chosen to retire from the profession. O'Toole was a 2002 Tributee at Telluride and the last of his 8 Oscar nominations was for "Venus" which appeared in 2006 at TFF #33. O'Toole's 8 nominations without a win is reportedly the longest streak of acting noms without a win in the history f the Academy.

O'Toole was also nominated for:

1983: My Favorite Year
1981: The Stunt Man
1973: The Ruling Class
1970: Goodbye Mr. Chips
1969: The Lion in Winter
1965: Becket
1963: Lawrence of Arabia

O'Toole was interviewed by Roger Ebert in Telluride in 2002 as a part of the Tribute ceremony and Ebert tweeted the link to that story yesterday. Here it is:
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020915/FILMFESTIVALS03/99010308

O'Toole's IMDb page is here:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000564/

Personally, I am partial to his performances in "My Favorite Year" and "The Lion in Winter".

SUNDANCE SELECTS

This week I'm wrapping up my stroll through film production/distribution companies that have been a part of Telluride's film festival recently. Today's specimen is a relative newcomer: Sundance Selects. Sundance Selects is listed at IMDb as having been created in 2008 so they are very young and have a short timeline to assess...but it has been a list of distributed films with many TFF films in the last two years. TFF films from Sundance Selects include:

2011: Into the Abyss, Goodbye First Love, The Kid with a Bike, The Forgiveness of Blood, Pina

2010: Tabloid, The Princess of Montpensier

Sundance had a bare presence in 2010 (and with two TFF stalwarts at that: Errol Morris and Bertrand Tavernier) and then exploded in 2011 with 5 films. So what's in their stable for the rest of 2012?

Christian Mungiu's "Beyond the Hills"

Brandon Cronenberg's (David's son) "Antiviral"

Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone in Love"

Ken Loach's "The Angel's Share"

Ben Wheatley's "Sightseers"

Walter Salles' "On the Road"

All of which played in some program at Cannes in May.

From this list come three pretty good suspects: "On the Road" ( Salles history with Telluride: 1998, 2004) "Beyond the Hills" (Mungiu in Telluride in 2007) and "Like Someone in Love" (Kiarostami in Telluride in 1997).

You'll see that "Road" and "Hills" are both on this week's "Ten Bets" list and "Like Someone in Love" on this year's program wouldn't surprise me either.

Of the other three Ken Loach's "The Angel's Share" is the most likely fourth possibility. Its critical reception at Cannes wasn't flashy but it was respectable. As to "Antiviral" and "Sightseers"; their lukewarm/negative critical response leaves me thinking that they're not likely to be seen at The Chuck or anywhere else on Labor Day weekend in the San Juans.

Tomorrow we'll end the series of company profiles with some odds and ends from both America and Europe.

NEW ANNA POSTER

Rope of Silicon linked us to the new poster for Joe Wright's "Anna Karenina". Here's the poster:

And here's the link to the ROS story:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/new-poster-for-anna-karenina/

AND OUR FRIENDS IN TORONTO

The Toronto International Film Festival is set this year for Sept. 6-16. Unlike the Venice Fest, which usually has a small overlap of films with Telluride, Toronto (because of its massive size, geographic location and where it is on the calendar) has had a significant overlap with Telluride. If you don't believe me...look at their new festival trailer and you'll see recent Telluride guests featured prominently as they also ended up in Canada...

Did you notice Mr. Clooney, Ms. Close,Ms. Wilde, Ms. Garner, Ms. Knightley, Mr. Cronenberg, Mr. Mortensen, Mr. Hazanavicius, Mr. Fassbender?

Repsectively that's; "The Descendants" (well Ides of March too), "Albert Nobbs", "Butter", "A Dangerous Method", "The Artist" and "Shame" all touted by Toronto's trailer and all having appeared in Telluride beforehand last year.

And it's a cool trailer.

More later...

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Saturday, June 9, 2012

#500/Best of the Week/Beasts De-Nudge/Thunder

Good Saturday...

#500...Welcome to my 500th post for Michael's Telluride Film Blog and The Film Awards Clearinghouse....500...hard to believe...

Thanks for reading!

Here's the best of what I posted this week...

MORE OSCAROLOGY POST-CANNES

Tom O'Neill's Gold Derby has its first odds posted for the Big 6 categories for 2012 in a post from this weekend. It's here:

http://www.goldderby.com/odds/index/56/

On its lengthy list are the following "good" Telluride possibilities:

Best Picture: The Master (#2) (a guy can hope...), Hyde Park on Hudson (#9), The Sapphires (#18), Amour (#19), On the Road (#22), 12 Years a Slave (#42) (is it going to be ready?...kind of doubt it), The Hunt (#58), Song for Marion (#69).

Director: PT Anderson (#1), M. Haneke (#15), R. Michel (#20), S. McQueen (#29), J. Audiard (#35), W. Salles (#57)

Actor: B. Murray (#2), PS Hoffman (#3), T. Stamp (#10), G. Hedlund (#14), M. Mikkelsen (#15),GG Bernal (#22), M. Schoenaerts (#27), C. Ejiofor (#30), S. Riley (#39), C. O'Dowd (#42)

Actress: L. Linney (#1), M. Cotillard (#3), K. Stewart (#15)

Supporting Actor: J. Pheonix (#1), M. Fassbender (#9), S. West (#10), B. Pitt (#24), V. Mortensen (#36)

Supporting Actress: A. Adams (#2), O. Williams (#3), V. Redgrave (#5), O. Colman (#8), L. Dern (#20), A. Adams (#26)

Sasha Stone at Awards Daily also analyzes The Gold Derby post and contrasts it with where we were at this point last year here:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2012/06/is-it-too-early-for-oscar-predictions/

NEW VIEWS: AMOUR

One of the two films I am personally most excited about that played Cannes last month and almost certainly will play Telluride is Michale Haneke's "Amour" (the other is "Rust and Bone"). Haneke's other Palme D'Or winner "The White Ribbon" may have been the best film of 2009. I have included the link to Rope of Silicon's post of two clips from the film here:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/amour-movie-clips-haneke-cannes/

NEW VIEWS: BEYOND THE HILLS (PLUS)

The Playlist put up a massive post of pics and clips from over a dozen Cannes films. It's very impressive. Check it here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/new-cannes-photos-richard-jenkins-in-killing-them-softly-20120510

12 YEARS A SLAVE...NEXT YEAR

News that director Steve McQueen is still casting "12 Years a Slave" from The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/garret-dillahunt-will-work-the-fields-with-chiwetel-ejiofor-in-12-years-a-slave-20120605

The word is that filming is expected to start this month.

Now that may be a little confusing to readers of this blog who may have noticed numerous references to "12 Years" in Monday's post about Gold Derby's 2012 Oscar contenders.

Unless I'm wildly off, it won't be ready until way later than that. My guess is that McQueen is looking to Cannes next summer and that we could (and probably will) see it in Telluride for TFF #40 (2013).

ODDS AND ENDS

Paul McCartney confirmed yesterday that he will be part of the Olympics opening ceremony directed by Telluride favorite (and perpetually nice guy there) Danny Boyle. At one point the rumor was that Sir Paul would re-unite with Ringo and that George and John's sons would also appear in what would be the closest approximation of The Beatles.

I, personally, want even more...let's re-unite Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and The Stones also as a part of the ceremony!

DJANGO!

If you don't obsessively watch the interweb for this kind of stuff and you didn't see Entertainment Tonight last night, then you missed the release of the first full-fledged trailer for Quentin Tarantino's much anticipated "Django Unchained".

The release came complete with controversy over an early sneak or two online in violation of an embargo from The Weinstein Company. The embargo was in place, almost certainly, to allow ET to have it "exclusively" for their syndicated show.

So, this morning, in order to not allow everyone the opportunity to see it (and it is kind of fun...in a Tarantino-y way), I have provided multiple links to various websites for the video:

Thompson on Hollywood:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/trailer-watch-tarantinos-django-unchained-hits-web

HitFix:
http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/django-unchained-trailer-promises-an-assured-romp-with-lush-production-values-from-quentin-tarantino

Rope of Silicon:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/django-unchained-movie-trailer/

The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-first-trailer-for-quentin-tarantinos-django-unchained-is-here-20120606

"Django Unchained" opens on Christmas Day and has a 2% chance of playing Telluride (and that might be on the optimistic side).

"Django's" IMDb page is here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1853728/

COSMO NO

David Cronenberg's Cannes competition piece "Cosmopolis" is off the table as a Telluride possibility. It was announced yesterday that the film will have an August 17 release here in the U.S. thus insuring a no show for T-ride.

"Cosmopolis" received mixed reviews at Cannes.

I had always thought that its Telluride prospects were dicey at best. Then with the critical reaction from Cannes being what it was, I was even less convinced that we'd see it in the mountains.

You have to wonder if there was a lack of interest from the fall festivals (T-ride, Venice and New York particularly...it is scheduled to open in Canada today, which would also preclude a Toronto run) and if that might not have been a part of the decision process.

Additionally, Aug. 17 doesn't exactly scream awards positioning.

Here's the story from both Hollywood Elsewhere:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2012/06/cosmopolis_will.php

and The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/david-cronenbergs-cosmopolis-starring-robert-pattinson-hits-u-s-theaters-on-august-17th-20120607

BEASTS DE-NUDGE

Earlier this week I nudged the Telluride programmers to think about including Sundance and Cannes hit "Beasts of the Southern Wild"...silly me. "Beasts opens on June 27th...nevermind.

THUNDER

And because I am from Oklahoma and the Oklahoma City Thunder will be playing for an NBA championship and because I think it's kind of hilarious...the link to the trailer for Kevin Durant's film debut as himself in "Thunderstruck"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0wiLTsDqag

More Monday...have a good weekend.

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Mungiu on the Record/Django Unchained Unchained/12 Years...Next Year

Good Morning!

MUNGIU ON THE RECORD

One of the most critically well received and ultimately awarded films at last month's Cannes Film Festival was Christian Mungiu's "Beyond the Hills" (Best Screenplay and both leads tying for Best Actress). Mungiu's last film was Palme D'Or winner "4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days" which then landed in Telluride. I expect that "Hills" will be in T-ride as well.

Thompson on Hollywood's Anne Thompson posted this interview from Cannes with the writer/director yesterday:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/cannes-interview-cristian-mungiu-talks-beyond-the-hills

DJANGO UNCHAINED IS UNCHAINED

Bunch of buzz last night that a "Django Unchained" trailer will drop today. Also, last night, a "preview" from Entertainment Tonight.

Look at the "Preview" either here at Rope of Silicon:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/django-unchained-entertainment-tonight-trailer-preview/

Or The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-preview-of-footage-from-the-trailer-for-quentin-tarantinos-django-unchained-20120605

Now, don't get me wrong, "Django" won't play at Telluride. But it's Tarantino and will be out at Christmas and may be an awards contender...so see the "preview" if you choose.

12 YEARS A SLAVE...NEXT YEAR

More later...

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

New Views: Amour, Beyond the Hills, Knight of Cups

Good Morning!

Had a nice day yesterday as one of the friends of this blog and I made tentative plans to meet in Telluride during the festival this year. I also made my official application for press accreditation for 2012. I got it last year and am hoping that will be the case again this year. On to today's post!

NEW VIEWS: AMOUR

There has been a good deal of buzz that Terrence Malick's "To the Wonder" ( used to be called "The Burial" and filmed, in part, here in Oklahoma) may actually make an appearance before the end of the year perhaps poking its head out during the fall festival season. Amazingly, the hyper-slow (or hyper-attention-to-detail...whichever you prefer) director is working on the next project entitled (for now) "Knight of Cups".

Christian Bale and Natalie Portman star and can be seen here in stills from The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/christian-bale-natalie-portman-frolick-in-the-surf-in-set-pics-from-terrence-malicks-knight-of-cups-20120531

Is it possible that we might see "Wonder" in 2012 and "Knight" in 2013? That hardly seems likely given Malick's track record of years (sometimes decades) between projects but it's also hard to believe that we have photographic proof of work on both projects.

More later...

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Cannes Post Mortem & Crtitics Poll #3/The Master to Venice?/The Hunt/Les Miz Teaser

Good Morning!

Summer blogging begins in earnest today as MTFB/FAC begins its 6 times a week posting schedule. The serious countdown to the 39th Telluride Film Festival begins today. Three months from today (Aug. 31) the festival opens...as always, I can't wait.

CANNES POST MORTEM AND THIRD CRITIC'S POLL

Cannes #65 is in the books with Michel Haneke's "Amour" taking the top prize. I started the fest thinking that six films were the most likely for repeating in Colorado: "Amour", "Beyond the Hills", "Rust and Bone", "Reality", "On the Road"' and "Cosmopolis". At the end of the festival, I feel as strongly, maybe even more strongly, that we'll see "Amour", "Hills" and "Rust". "Reality" seems like a 50/50 proposition and I think that "Road" and "Cosmopolis" may have lost some steam for Telluride.

I think"Holy Motors", "The Hunt", You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet", "Like Someone in Love", and "Mud" may have put themselves into some Telluride conversations. In addition, I have some suspicions that non-competition films "No" and "The Sapphires" will make it into the Telluride program.

Also, CriticWire at IndieWire posted a third critic's poll of Cannes films here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/criticwire-at-cannes-the-top-films-and-performances-poll?page=1#

"Amour" and "Holy Motors" were at the top mirroring the critical response measured by Screen Daily and Ioncinema.

THE MASTER AND VENICE

In the midst of announcements from the new director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera,this week came his claim that Venice would probably program Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master". PT Anderson fan site Cigarettes and RedVines reported the story here:

http://cigsandredvines.blogspot.com/2012/05/master-could-be-headed-to-venice-film.html

As we have noted in this space previously, double booking Venice and Telluride does happen...but it's fairly rare. "Shame" and "A Dangerous Method" did it last year...so it doesn't kill chances that we'll see the film in Colorado but it probably reduces the odds some.

Of course, Barbera could just be expressing wishful thinking. He also mentioned new films from Malick and DePalma as "likely candidates". Which isn't exactly a flat out statement that he's got those films programmed.

And, further, I almost always approach this guessing game with the assumption that previous Telluride guests had a really pleasant experience and prefer to return. I believe Anderson enjoyed his time in Telluride in 2007 when he was in town for the Daniel Day-Lewis tribute and the presentation of 20 minutes of "There Will Be Blood".

I often kick myself that I didn't take the opportunity to introduce myself when I sat the row behind him later that weekend as we caught Noah Baumbach's "Margot at the Wedding". But he seemed to be enjoying the experience.

So, I'm not giving up hope just yet. I've always thought "The Master" was a long shot for Telluride...but I'd love to be wrong.

THE HUNT

Magnolia Pictures has grabbed the U.S. rights to Thomas Vintenberg's "The Hunt" which won its lead Mads Mikkelsen the Best Actor prize at Cannes last week. The Hollywood Reporter has the story here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/magnolia-picks-up-cannes-winner-the-hunt-330909

"The Hunt's" success at Cannes has raised its Telluride profile.

LES MISERABLES TEASER

Les Miz's chance of bowing at Telluride: about 3% ( director Tom Hooper's "King's Speech" was in T-ride in 2010 and production company Working Title had "Catch a Fire" showed as a sneak in 2006). Nevertheless, it has its first teaser out and I couldn't resist re-linking it from The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/les-miserables-trailer-anne-hathaway-330941

More later...

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

Monday, May 28, 2012

Cannes Concludes: The Winners, The Critics, The Meaning and The Reviews

Good Morning!

The 65th Cannes Film Festival came to a close yesterday and they closed the extravaganza with the traditional presentation of the Palme D'or and other awards. Here they are.

AWARDS FOR CANNES COMPETITION FILMS (Via Awards Daily)

Palme d’Or:

AMOUR (LOVE) – Michael HANEKE

Grand Prix:

REALITY – Matteo GARRONE

Prix de la Mise en Scene (best director):

Director: POST TENEBRAS LUX by Carlos Reygadas

Prix d’interpretation feminine (best actress):

Cristina Flutur & Cosmina Stratan DUPÃ DEALURI (AU-DELA DES COLLINES/BEYOND THE HILLS)

Prix d’interpretation masculine (best actor):

Mads Mikkelsen JAGTEN (LA CHASSE/THE HUNT) (- Thomas VINTERBERG)

Prix du Scenario (best screenplay):

Cristian Mungiu – DUPÃ DEALURI (AU-DELA DES COLLINES/BEYOND THE HILLS)

Camera d’Or (best first feature):

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD by Benh Zeitlin

Prix du Jury (jury prize):

Ken Loach for THE ANGELS’ SHARE

Palme d’Or (short film):

SESSIZ-BE DENG (SILENCIEUX/SILENT) – L.Rezan YESILBAS

CRITICAL RECEPTION

Both Ioncinema and Screen Daily spent a good deal of time compiling the collective critical response to the 22 films that were in competition in Cannes. The top 6 from the Ioncinema group:

1) Amour

2) Holy Motors

3) Beyond the Hills

4) Rust and Bone

4) You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

4) Mud

Just on the Ioncinema cusp were: In the Fog and Moonrise Kingdom

Here's the link to the complete chart:

http://www.ioncinema.com/news/cannes-critics-panel-hanekes-amour-should-beat-caraxs-holy-motors

From Screen Daily the top six were:

1) Amour and Beyond the Hills

3) Rust and Bone, The Hunt, Killing Them Softly, In the Fog

Close on the Screen Daily chart: The Angel’s Share and Mud.

Here's the link to The Screen Daily Chart:

http://www.screendaily.com/journals/2012/05/26/k/j/v/Cannes-jury-grid_Day-12.pdf

When the charts are combined…here’s the critical top ten from Cannes

1) Amour

2) Beyond the Hills

3) Mud

4) In the Fog

5) You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet

6) Holy Motors and The Hunt

8) Moonrise Kingdom

9) The Angels Share

10) Killing Them Softly

Next: Rust and Bone

So what does all this mean for Telluride in 3 months?

Bank on seeing “Amour” and “Beyond the Hills”.

If “Rust and Bone” had won any prize at all, I’d also include it on the “bank on it” list…though I still think it’s highly likely.

“Reality”, which had lost some Telluride steam because of fairly weak critical reception over the last week…actually ended the festival back in the possible/probable category because of its Grand Prix win.

Two other T-ride probables that I think suffered some this past fortnight: “Cosmopolis” and “On the Road”.

Getting a boost for Telluride consideration among the competition films: “Mud”, “Holy Motors”, “The Hunt” “The Angel’s Share” and “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”.

The two out of competition films that caught my eye with some (a lot of) Telluride potential were “The Sapphires” and “No”.

I’m still unconvinced that Carlos Reygadas “Post Tenebras Lux” will end up in Telluride despite its win for Direction.

Now, I spend the next 3 months ferreting out which of these actually is going to end up in Telluride on Labor Day and the other films that will join them.

BACK TO A DAILY

Michael’s Telluride Film Blog returns as a daily blog on Thursday (except for Sundays) and will run Daily until the 39th Telluride Film Festival comes to an end. Join me in my obsession!

AND NOW REVIEWS...

I have included links in this third installment of reviews for films at Cannes: