Another One Bites the Dust / Crazy Ideas Re-visited / A Trailer for Human Flow

Welcome back from your weekend.  It's Monday, August 21, 2017...ten days to TFF #44...

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

I started seeing some social media mention on Friday that Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan was probably not going to be ready for exhibition.  Indiewrie confirmed that in a post on Friday afternoon.

The film's french distributor is sourced in the article specifically saying that the film won't be ready for Toronto which necessarily also means that it wouldn't be ready for the earlier occurring TFF #44. John F. Donovan has been on my dwindling list of films that could still pop up at Telluride but that changes now.

One other note about Toronto; they do have one more round of films to be announced Tuesday.  Last week one of the major film outlet had suggested that TIFF was finished naming films but a friendly reader messaged me with the news that TIFF wasn't quite done which made more sense to me as I had gotten used to TIFF making their announcements in five installments.  So, look for a final wave of films and parsing coming tomorrow.

Consequently, my list of films which might still make The SHOW is now:

Final Portrait
L'amant Double
Marshall
Mary Magdalene
Our Souls at Night
The Snowman
Wonder
You Were never Really Here

CRAZY IDEAS RE-VISITED

Four things that are really far-fetched but...you never know...

Alejandro Inarritu's VR installation Carne y Arena.  It's played at Cannes and the L.A. County Museum.  

Denis Villenueve surprises by showing up with, at a minimum, scenes from Blade Runner 2049. Maybe the whole film.

William Friedkin is feted and shows The Devil and Father Amorth plus the recently restored Sorcerer and perhaps even The Exorcist.

David Lynch drops the final two episodes of Twin Peaks:The Return in Telluride prior to them airing on Sunday night, Sept. 3rd on Showtime.

Final word: make all these crazy ideas happen...

A TRAILER FOR AI WEI WEI'S HUMAN FLOW

One of the documentaries we expect to see in Telluride in a few days is Ai Wei Wei's Human Flow. The film is known to bow in Venice and we then think it'll make the trip to southwest Colorado.  Wei Wei focuses on the global refugee crisis after having filmed in nearly two dozen countries according to Indiewire which reported over the weekend that the doc has a trailer.

And here it is from YouTube:

That's Monday.  More tomorrow...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Ten (21) Bets #8 / New Posters: Human Flow and Film Stars / Maybe There Is Another Film from Venice?

It's Friday, August 18, 2017...13 days until The SHOW...

TEN (21) BETS #8

Here's your weekly update about expectations for films at TFF #44.

Last Week's Ten (actually 16) Bets were:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

This week's 21 Bets are:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

17) Lean on Pete

18) First Reformed

19) Loveless

20) Foxtrot

21) The Insult

Based on past festivals there might be somewhere between five and ten further films/programs that we haven't figured out as yet.  The best chances to be added, I think, are You Were Never Really Here, L'amant Double and some of Ken Burns' Vietnam documentary.

NEW POSTERS: HUMAN FLOW AND FILM STARS

We had our first glimpses of posters from both Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool as well as Ai Weiwei's Human Flow appear yesterday.  Weiwei also tweeted that a Human Flow trailer should be expected today.  Here are the posters:

Human Flow:

Film Stars:

MAYBE THERE IS ANOTHER FILM FROM VENICE?


Thanks go out to eagle-eyed Kamil Ahsan who communicated with me yesterday to ask about the chances of Woodshock playing at Telluride.  I had all but dismissed it as Venice has scheduled it to play on Sept. 4th.  Additionally,  Variety, Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter have all reported that Errol Morris' Wormwood is the only non-World Premiere at Venice.

But Kamil pointed me to this tweet from the official Woodshock film account that clearly says that the film will be a European Premiere at Venice.

This could mean that the film from the Muleavey sisters will drop early in the Telluride schedule and then move to Venice.  

So something has to give here.  It'll be interesting to see what happens but for those looking forward to catching Woodshock at TFF #44 there seems to be a glimmer of hope.

That's the MTFB for this Friday, Aug. 18th.  Have a great weekend!


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Cannes Is in Full Swing: The Critics Are Speaking / Inarritu Makes a Splash with V.R. at Cannes / Haneke's Happy End: More Clips

Good Monday to all,,,

CANNES IS IN FULL SWING: THE CRITICS ARE SPEAKING

The 70th Cannes Film Fest has roared into life and we begin the process of parsing critical responses as a method of gauging the possible Telluride fortunes of the films that make up the variety of programs.  Of course, it' still early.  As I type this on Monday morning, less than half of the Palme competition films have played.  With that noted, here's what the critical consensus is to this point (and only mentioning films that have publicly screened)

First, looking at Reini Urban's massive and constantly updated compilation of critical response among Palme d'Or competition films at the top is Robin Campillo's 120 Battements par Minute with a 7.10 composite rating on a 10 point scale.

Urban' current top three:

1) 120 Battements par Minute (7.10)
2) Okja (6.41)
3) The Square (6.38)

Among all films in all categories with sufficient critical response to give  a reasonable indication of how it's playing the top film so far has been Agnes Varda's Villages, Visages with a 7.57 score.

The complete Urban list is here.

The Todas Criticas compilation has 120 BPM on top of the Palme films with a 6.63 rating.  Todd Haynes Wonderstruck is right behind at 6.6.

Todas Criticas is here.

Loveless leads the Screen Daily critical collective with a 3.2 composite (out of 4).  Screen Daily's grid is here.

Ioncinema's group of critics have Loveless and 120 BPM locked together with a 3.5 average rating (out of 5).  The Ioncinema chart is here.


INARRITU MAKES A SPLASH WITH VIRTUAL REALITY AT CANNES

We've be following the reports from France concerning Alejandro Inarritu's V.R. installation Carne y Arena.  Reportedly lasting about six minutes and focused on immersing the "viewer" in the world of the current refugee crisis.  Reports also indicate that it can experienced by one person at a time and is established in a warehouse.

The experience is said to be headed for Los Angeles this summer.

In as far as Telluride is concerned, I'm still dubious about our chances but...

Details about the V.R. experience can be found here from Indiewire as well as here from The Hollywood Reporter.


HANEKE'S HAPPY END: MORE CLIPS

I had a link in my last post to a single clip from Michael Haneke's Happy End.  That has expended to three clips that are now accessible from this story at The Film Stage.

Haneke's first film since Amour is set to bow at Cannes in Palme competition today.  As a matter of fact, depending on when you're reading this, it may have already have happened.


That's it for now.  More on Thursday...


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the BLOG

Jonathan Demme Remembered / Judging Cannes / Inarritu Talks VR in NY / 30th Telluride Film Festival Re-visited

It is Thursday, April 27, 2017...No really...it s.

JONATHAN DEMME REMEMBERED

The news of Jonathan Demme's death yesterday was a shock.  He was 73, so I suppose, in terms of age, it isn't that anomalous but Demme always seemed so vital that he didn't seem to be 73.

Demme's best known work was the five Oscar winner Silence of the Lambs.  I was a huge fan of the Thomas Harris book long before it became a film and when it came out in 1991 I was skeptical that anyone could make the film version stand up to the novel.  I was pleasantly surprised.  It's one of those rare films that succeeds as well as its source material.  Demme (and screenwriter Ted Talley) proved me wrong.  

Demme won an Oscar for direction and the film won Best Picture as well as Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Jodie Foster) and Actor (Anthony Hopkins).  It became the first film since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) to win the Big Five Oscars.

Demme also had other memorable efforts including Philadelphia and Something Wild.

In 1987 his documentary effort Haiti Dreams of Democracy appeared as a part of the 14th TFF screening on Telluride Community Television.

Indiewire marked Demme's passing yesterday with this profile and with this reminiscence from Barry Jenkins.

JUDGING CANNES

The official announcement of jurors for the Plame d'Or for the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has been revealed.

We already knew that the jury would be presided over by Pedro Almodovar and it had slipped that actress Jessica Chastain would be a jury member as well.  The group was completed yesterday with the official confirmation of Chastain along with actor (and surprise choice) Will Smith as well as directors Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann), Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden), Paolo Sorrentino (Youth).  Additional members of the jury are Fan Bingbing, Agnes Jaoui and musician Gabriel Yared.

As always, the jury composition is eclectic and varied.  Where will they land for the Palme.

Indiewire has more about the Cannes jury here.

INARRITU TALKS VR IN NY

Alejandro Inarritu's virtual reality project Carne y Arena is set to play at Cannes and this week the Oscar winning director was in New York as a member of a Tribeca Film Festival conversation focused on VR and his project.

I'd be very interested should TFF chose to invite Inarritu and present the project over Labor Day weekend but the challenges are interesting.  

Here's coverage of the Inarritu convo from Tribeca from Entertainment Weekly as well as from Indiewire.

30TH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL RE-VISITED

MTFB's continuing project focused on the past programs from the Telluride Film Festival reviews the program from TFF #30 (Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2003)

Here are the highlights:

TFF #30 Program-Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2003

GUEST DIRECTOR: Stephen Sondheim

TRIBUTES: Toni Collette, Peter Brook, Krystof Zanussi

SHOWS

Alexandra’s Project

The Barbarian Invasions

The Battle of Algiers

The Beggar’s Opera

La Belle Equipe

Best of Youth

Carnet du Bal

Contract

Dans la Nuit

Dogville

Elephant

A Face in the Crowd

Fog of War

French Can Can

The General

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Horatio’s Drive

I’m Not Scared

Intermission

Japanese Story

Lost in Translation

Love Me If You Dare

The More the Merrier

My Life Without Me

Noi Albinoi

Osama

Panique

Reconstruction

Sexual Dependency

Shattered Glass

Song of the Little Road

Struggle

Tell Me Lies

This Little Life

Touching the Void

The Triplets of Belleville

Uzak

Wheel of Time

GUESTS:

John Crowley

Errol Morris

Robert S. McNamara

Sarah Gavron

Budd Schulberg

Peter Bogdanovich

Kevin Macdonald

Chloe Sevigny

Peter Sarsgaard

Rolf De Heer

Peter Sellars

Werner Herzog

Ken Burns

Mark Ruffalo

Gus Van Sant

Paul Schrader

 That's a wrap for this Thursday.  See you on the other side of the weekend...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the BLOG

More from France / Does Burns Vietnam Doc Play Telluride? / Inarritu at Cannes Means T-ride?

Good Monday to ya...

Welcome to the Monkey House...as Mr. Vonnegut might say...


MORE FROM FRANCE

We continue to digest the announcement of the bulk of the Cannes #70 lineup that was released last Thursday with analysis from some other outlets.

Initially, I should note that I hadn't paid enough attention to the announcement that Francois Ozon's L'Amant Double (The Double Lover) had been chosen to compete for the Palme d'Or.  My mistake was not catching this and also indicating that the film needs to be included on the list of Telluride possibilities as Ozon scored well at TFF #43 last year with Frantz.

So definitely put it on the watch list and take a look at this story from Indiewire that includes the teaser for the film.

Additionally, you might want to grab a look at in depth  Cannes coverage from some sources that I did not include in the post last Thursday:

from Nancy Tartaglione and Greg Evans of Deadline

And an additional piece from Tartaglione here.

Gwilym Mumford of The Guardian also takes a look at the lineup

and check this piece from Talia Soghomonian at Collider.


Meanwhile, Indiewire's Anne Thompson has posted an analysis at Indiewire that assesses the potential Oscar players that might be starting down that road by walking the Red Carpet next month in the south of France.  Take a look at Anne's perspective here.


DOES BURNS' VIETNAM DOC PLAY TELLURIDE?

Ken Burns has been a regular part of the Telluride Fest for a long long while.  He's one of its biggest supporters and has often been featured in the lineup.  It's been some time, however since his last inclusion.  I believe his last project to play was 2012's Central Park Five.

We've also known for some time that he has been working on a multi-part documentary about the Vietnam War and PBS has announced just this weekend that the program will debut on Sept. 17. That premiere date would work incredibly well if it were following a TFF #44 bow (Sept. 2-6).

So, it seems to me that there's a better than 50/50 chance that parts of the 10 episode series make their way to some of the screens in and around Telluride.

Here's the announced schedule from Uproxx.



INARRITU AT CANNES MEANS T-RIDE

Well, most years that there was announcement that Alejandro Inarritu was part of the Cannes lineup, I'd immediately think that we'd see his project 3 1/2 months later in Telluride but I'm not so sure about this.

Working with frequent collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki, the Oscar winning director will premiere Carne y Arena at Cannes in May.  Thing id, it's not a film but a virtual reality project.  Reports describe it as a six minute experience that focuses on the current Latin American refugee situation.  I understand that the experience will be presented for groups of ten people at a time.

My inclination is to believe that it probably won't play in Telluride, despite Inarritu's affinity for the fest.  If I grasp it correctly, the presentation requires a fairly large dedicated space and I'd be a little surprised if TFF organizers would give up one of their current spaces or have a new space that they could use.  That said, however, Cannes has apparently put together a way to do it and and if Cannes can, why not Telluride.

I'll be interested to see reports out of France next month about how the presentation occurs.  That will definitely move the needle for me in terms of assessing the Telluride possibilities for a presentation.

Indiewire has the coverage here.



Come back for more on Thursday...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the BLOG