The Distributors: Magnolia Pictures / Bening Named Venice Jury Prez / TFF History Continued-TFF #22

Welcome back to MTFB...It's Thursday.

THE DISTRIBUTORS: MAGNOLIA PICTURES

Magnolia's record at TFFs is spotty but they could be playing this year.

Magnolia's TFF past:

2006-Severance
2007- Terror's Advocate, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Redacted
2012-The Hunt, A Royal Affair
2015-Viva

Magnolia played the Cannes Palme d'Or competition with Arnuad Desplechin's Ismael's Ghost and Ruben Ostlund's Palme winning The Square.

Ismael's Ghosts had a mixed response at Cannes but its undeniable star power (Cotillard, Gainsbourg and Almaric) may mean we can't rule it out.  Mark it with a 25% chance.

Ostlund's Palme winner has a much better shot due to its win and good critical response.  Added to the factoring is that a Palme winner hasn't played Telluride since 2013's Blue is the Warmest Color.  Perhaps the fest is due for another Palme winner.  Chances- 50%.



BENING NAMED VENICE JURY PRESIDENT

The Venice Film Festival announced yesterday that actress Annette Bening will serve as the president of their competition jury.  Details are here from The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.

That means you can also discount any chance that she would be in Telluride with either The Seagull or Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.  That's not to say that either film won't play TFF just that if they do, Bening won't make the trip to the San Juans with the film which, for my money, probably means that neither film makes the trip .


TFF HISTORY CONTINUED: TFF #22

The continued backward march through TFF fest history continues today with a review of the 22nd SHOW, Sept. 1-4, 1995

Guest Director: Phillip Lopate

Tributes: John Schlesinger, Zhang Yimou, The Surrealists

Special Medallion: Andrew Sarris

SHOWS:

The Arsonists
Augustin
Careful
Carrington
China; The Wild East
Cold Comfort Farm
Desolation Angels
Floating Clouds
Fresh Bait
From the Journals of Jean Seberg
The Hard Way
History is Made at Night
Institute Benjamenta
The Journey of August King
The Man with the Movie Camera
Man's Castle
On the Beat
Persuasion
Pie in the Sky
The River
The Saragosa Manuscript
Shanghai Triad
Survivors of the Holocaust
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
The Tit and the Moon
To Die For
Total Eclipse
Visions of Heaven and Hell
The Wanderers
Warrior Lanling
The Water Carrier
Welfare
The White Balloon


Guests:

Ken Burns
Josh Charles
Danny Elfman
Thierry Fremaux
Christopher Hampton
Anne Heche
Werner Herzog
Angneiska Holland
James Ivory
Chuck Jones
Philip Kaufman
Christine Lahti
Guy Maddin
Roger Michell
Thandie Newton
Mark Rappaport
Peter Reigert
Gus Van Sant
Sam Waterston
Treat Williams
Frederick Wiseman


That's a wrap for Thursday.  An updated Ten Bets list is on its way to you tomorrow.

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

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Cannes Opens This Week / Cannes Trailers, Teasers and Clips: Wonderstruck, L'amant Double and Ismael's Ghost / Lost in Paris Trailer

Welcome back from your weekend.  May is half over...beware the Ides of...May?


CANNES OPENS THIS WEEK

I've been focused on this week for some months now as the 70th Cannes Film Festival opens Wednesday with the screening of Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael's Ghosts starring Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Mathieu Almaric.

As regular readers know, we'll almost certainly hear about films that will end up playing Telluride after their bow at Cannes.  That crossover usually averages 7-8 films per year.  The tough part is trying to figure out what those films will be.  In addition to looking at directors and distributors with a Telluride history,  during Cannes it's usually a good idea to pay attention to the critical response as well as the films that ultimately win prizes at the end of the fest.

That doesn't mean that the Palme d'Or winner always makes it to southwest Colorado.  As a matter of fact, the Palme winner is a hot or miss T-ride proposition.  The last Palme winner to play Telluride was 2013's Blue is the Warmest Color.  Amour followed the same path the year before.  So it's best to pay attention to awards at all levels in the main competition category as well as in the other sections of the fest.

As I have for the past few years, I'll be keeping an eye on and posting the critical assessment as the fest progresses.

If you want to know when films are screening, here is the link to the official schedule from the Cannes website.

Additionally, I have linked more pre-Cannes analysis.  Here's Guy Lodge's assessment of the films playing Cannes that he did for Variety.

I also have included this overview of the fest from Indiewire which highlights 22 films that they "want to see" including Happy End, Ismael's Ghosts, Loveless, The Meyerowitz Stories, You Were Never Really Here and Wonderstruck.



CANNES TRAILERS, TEASERS AND CLIPS


The onslaught of media about Cannes films has picked, as you might expect, as we get closer to the festival.  As a result, we continue to get looks at some of the films that seem the best bets, at least at this point to make the trans-Atlantic journey from France to the San Juans.

Perhaps the Cannes film I am most excited about that also seems to me to be an  excellent T-ride prospect is Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck which made a substantial splash this week with a clip from the film which is here via YouTube:

We also saw our first look at a poster for the film:

There was a good deal of coverage of the Wonderstruck images and I have linked a sample of that here from:

Indiewire

Deadline

Awards Daily

The Playlist

The Film Stage

Collider

Awards Circuit

The Wrap

We were also treated to a trailer for Francios Ozon's L'amant Double.  Here it is from YouTube:

In addition, we have a look at the poster for that film as well:

 And coverage for the releases from The Film Stage.

And finally, here we have a couple of clips from the opening night film, Ismael's Ghosts that you can peruse. Here's clip #1 from Facebook.

and here's clip #2 from Facebook as well.

And the story from The Playlist.




LOST IN PARIS TRAILER

Some films that everyone seems to have at the end of each festival are those that you had on a list that, for whatever reason, you didn't get to.  For most of us, it's simply a matter of running out of time before you have to head back to the real world.

One of those films for me this last year was Lost in Paris and now that I've seen the trailer, I really wished I had traded it off for maybe a couple of films I did see.  Hindsight and 20/20.

And maybe the film isn't as entertaining as the trailer makes it seem but the trailer is promising.  Here it is via YouTube:

The film has no U.S. release date as yet but has played a number of other U.S. film festivals in addition to Telluride.  Oscilloscope is the film's distributor.


That's your MTFB for Monday, May 15, 2017.  Check back for more on Thursday.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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