Not So Fast Don / Welles Doc to Play Cannes / Chloe Zhao Talks The Rider / Late Breaking: Ed Lachman Honored by Cannes

Welcome my friends, to Thursday and MTFB...

NOT SO FAST DON

There is yet another snag in the ongoing drama concerning Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.  The film had been announced last week as the closing night presentation for the Cannes Film Festival on May 19th but is now again in Limbo.

I had thought with last week's announcement that the last legal hurdle had been cleared or at least that accommodations had been reached that would allow the film to play in France.  That doesn't seem to be the case at this point as Screen Daily reported that one time producer Paulo Branco has sought a "writ" to prohibit the screening from a court in Paris.

It appears from the Melanie Goodfellow reporting that there will be a hearing about the matter on May 7th which could result with the film being barred from screening.

Gilliam's saga continues and it seems that we will have to wait for the court proceeding to find out if the film will, in fact, close Cannes.

WELLES DOC TO PLAY CANNES

Orson Welles may not be represented at Cannes with The Other Side of the Wind due to the feud between the fest and Netflix but that doesn't mean that you won't have the opportunity to get your Orson fix.  The fest has announced that the documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles will play in the Cannes Classics section.  The film is directed by Mark Cousins who historically has had quite a connection to Telluride, though not recently.

Cousins has played TFF with films such as The Story of Film, What Is This Film Called Love and The Story of Children and Film which was his last Telluride visit in 2013.

Also of potential interest in the Cannes Classics selections is Magarethe Von Trotta's documentary Searching for Ingmar Bergman which I could see making the grade for TFF #45.

Coverage of the Cannes announcement of additional films is linked here:

Indiewire

Ioncinema

Awards Watch

CHLOE ZHAO TALKS THE RIDER

With the release a few days back of Chloe Zhao's The Rider came a flurry of P.R. materials including this interview with the writer/director with Gregory Ellwood at The Playlist.  

The film played very well at TFF last year ending up tied for the #2 spot on my collection of film ratings from film Pros.

You can find Ellwood's article and the recorded interview from The Playlist here.

LATE BREAKING: ED LACHMAN HONORED BY CANNES

Ed Lachman and Todd Haynes in Telluride last year (pic from Scott Foundas)

As I am getting ready to post this morning word is coming form France that TFF #44 tribute recipient Ed Lachman will be honored next month by the Cannes Film Fest for his contributions as a cinematographer.  Lachman will receive the Pierre Angenieux ExcelLens award.  The award began in 2013 and past winners include Vilmos Zsigmond and Roger Deakins.

Lachman was honored last September in Telluride for his career.  That tribute included screenings of Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck.

Lachman's credits also include Far From Heaven, Carol and The Virgin Suicides.

That's a wrap for this Thursday.  I'll have more on Monday.

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

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Dear Guillermo... / Tribute Clues / WeiWei Interview / Screen Talk Talks Fall Fests / Reminder to Rate Your Films

Welcome back from the weekend.  It's Monday, August 28, 2017.  The 44th Telluride Film Festival begins in four days.


DEAR GUILLERMO...

This section of MTFB is going to be a little different than what you readers commonly see here but...

First, most everyone reading here knows that I have been very sure these past few weeks that Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water will be announced on Thursday as a part of the TFF #44 lineup.  I am very excited about the film but you know who's insane about it?

My wife.

Let me tell you why because it goes beyond the excitement about seeing GDT's new film in the incredible setting that is Telluride.

Some of you know that both my wife and I teach high school in a rural town (pop. 12,500)  in the Oklahoma Panhandle.  She's the art teacher here and damned good at what she does.  Especially in light of our current student body.

Please understand, that's not a slam about our kids but our situation is really unique.

In 1992 a massive pork processing facility opened in our community and to fill their workforce they have scoured the planet to find workers willing to re-locate.  That has meant a reliance on immigrants, refugees and others.

In the last 20 or so years our demographics have shifted from a majority Anglo population to one in which minority students are the majority.  Mostly kids from about every country south of the southern border of the U.S. but we're not exclusively Latin.  We have have significant student populations from Burma, S. Korea, Thailand, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia and more.

Our school administration tells us we have somewhere between 25-30 languages spoken in our high school (enrollment is a shade under 900 kids grades 9-12).  Imagine that in a Podunk Oklahoma town.

Many of you also know that Del Toro had a harrowing childhood and turned to art as a kid to deal with that.  My wife sure does.  Del Toro's story and artwork have become an integral part of the curriculum in her classwork because...you know..it resonates with these kids...immigrant kids. They can relate to Del Toro's story because, for many of them, it's a lot like their stories.  Del Toro's body of film work plays a part too.  All these kids know Hellboy.

And, of course, because it's art, the language barrier is a much smaller problem in my wife's classroom than about anywhere else in the building.  For some of her students, it's the safest and most comfortable place they find themselves every day and that's not an exaggeration.  Some of her refugee kids spell out the terrors that they have lived through from refugee camps to predatory traffickers to hiding from death squads and civil war.

Needless to say, Guillermo has a more than special place in her heart.

So...I've never done this before in the nine years I've been writing this thing...but

If anyone knows anyone in the Del Toro camp (and I'm assuming here that he will make the trip with the film from Venice to Telluride), I'm asking for a favor.  You know what I'm going to say here...

A meeting between Kris and Guillermo would be...um...nice.  Well, she'd likely lose her mind at least a little bit.  She's already got a big honking copy of Guillermo's Cabinet of Curiosities and will be hauling it this weekend on the off chance that she might be able to get an autograph.  I'd like to make it a little less "chancy".

If anyone has some insight about making this happen, please contact me using any of the methods listed at the bottom of this post.

And Senor Del Toro, if YOU are reading this, hear my plea and reach out to me.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog post.


TRIBUTES CLUES

Many of you know that in the days before the beginning of the festival that, usually a couple of films are screened in Elks Park and that they almost always hint at who the tribute recipients will be.

A Telluride local and friend of the blog, who I am keeping anonymous, emailed me the an ad that has run locally in T-ride for the films that have been scheduled:

The choice of these two films seems to confirm earlier speculation that tributes are set for Christian Bale and cinematographer Ed Lachman.  As to the third tribute, I think I have that nailed down as well but am going to keep that under wraps for the time being.

WEIWEI INTERVIEW

Artist, dissident and film maker Ai Weiwei is certainly set for screening his documentary Human Flow at Venice this week and then is very likely to bring it Telluride this weekend.  He was the subject of a substantial interview with Variety this past week in which he speaks about the film.

Nick Vivarelli writes.  Here's the interview.

SCREEN TALK TALKS FALL FESTS

This week's podcast of Screen Talk with Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn spends a good deal of time focused on some of the upcoming launch of the fall film fests and Oscar season.  Although neither of them can name films that will be at Telluride, they do make mention of the fest and make no bones about Downsizing being there.  Among other films that they mention that I'm feeling will lay are: Lady Bird, Darkest Hour and The Shape of Water.

The Screen Talk podcast is here.


REMINDER TO RATE YOUR FILMS THIS WEEK

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."

I will publish The People's Telluride film ratings a week to ten days after the festival concludes.  Join in!

That's all for now.  More tomorrow and on Wednesday I'll post a special edition of MTFB with the final "Bets" for TFF #44.

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

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