Ten Bets 2014 #2/News from Wells/National Gallery Release/Roger and Peter

Welcome to Independence Day everyone from Great Barrington, MA.  By the time you read this I will already be selling art at the 13th Annual Berkshires Art Festival.  If you're nearby, come by Tent #48 and say hello...and buy some art!

TEN BETS 2014 #2

Here's your second edition of "Ten Bets" for films that I expect to appear at the 41st Telluride Film Festival. Last weeks list looked like this:

10) Salt of the Earth (Wenders)
9) Winter Sleep (Ceylan)
8) Red Army (Polsky)
7) Coming Home (Yimou)
6) Foxcatcher (Miller)
5) The Roosevelts (Burns)
4) Leviathan (Zvyagintsev)
3) Birdman (Inarritu)
2) Two Days, One Night (Dardennes)
1) Mr. Turner (Leigh)

  

After a week of tracking any Telluride news/rumors, here's your new "Ten Bets" (also, see the next story below):

10) Coming Home

9) Winter Sleep

8) Red Army

7) The Roosevelts

6) Queen of the Desert

5) Foxcatcher

4) Leviathan

3) Two Days, One Night

2) Mr. Turner

1) Birdman

NEWS FROM WELLS

"Birdman" trailer via YouTube

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere posted a Telluride piece on Wednesday.  He claims that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Birdman" is a Telluride lock...which I have suspected for over a year.  Also a lock, according to Wells: Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert" which has also been anticipated here, as long as it was finished.  Wells also says that Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice" and David Fincher's "Gone Girl" are locked for the New York Fest and necessarily pre-empted for T-ride. 

The really interesting tidbit is the possibility of a Telluride presentation of Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar".  Up until last year, I would have thought this unlikely in the extreme but with the success of Telluride landing Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity" last year...I could believe this.  I'm not there yet...but I don't rule it out either.

Wells also has a couple of comments about the Toronto Film Fests ultimatum vis-a-vis Telluride and you can find the entire piece here:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2014/07/50534/#more-50534

NATIONAL GALLERY RELEASE

Photo via IndieWire

IndieWire reports that Frederick Wiseman's "National Gallery" a documentary about London's National Gallery has a stateside release date for November.  The Telluride possibility will be released on Nov. 5th. Take a look at the post here:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/new-frederick-wiseman-documentary-national-gallery-slated-for-november-release-20140703

ROGER AND PETER

Photo via rogerebert.com

And in the midst of all the hoopla about the release of the Roger Ebert doc "Life Itself" (which I was just sure would play last year at TFF #40)  came this re-tweet/re-post of Ebert's Telluride interview with Peter O'Toole.  I had to post the link:

http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/video-of-rogers-interview-of-peter-otoole-in-2002-at-telluride

Cannes in the Can/The Cannes Critique/Cannesalysis

Welcome to Monday!

CANNES IN THE CAN

They're done in France.  The 67th Cannes Film Festival came to a close Sunday with re-screenings of films from throughout the week.  Saturday evening the Jane Campion-led Palme jury announced its choices for prizes:

Palme d'Or: "Winter Sleep" dir: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Grand Prix: "The Wonders" dir: Alice Rohrwacher
Jury Prize: (Tie) Goodbye to Language" dir; Jean-Luc Godard and "Mommy" dir: Xavier Dolan
Director: Bennett Miller, "Foxcatcher"
Screenplay: "Leviathan"
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, "Maps to the Stars"
Best Actor: Timothy Spall, "Mr. Turner"

Un Certain Regard prizes included:

UCR Prize: "White God" dir: Kornel Mundruczo
Jury Prize: Turist (Force Majeure) dir: Ruben Ostland
Special Prize: "Salt of the Earth" dir: Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribiero Salgado
Ensemble: "Party Girl"
Actor: David Gulpilil, "Charlie's Country"


Check the complete list of all prizes for all sections here from Variety:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/winter-sleep-wins-palme-dor-cannes-1201191262/


THE CANNES CRITIQUE

Here are the final critical compilations for the 67th Cannes Film Fest  with the top three films listed for each source:

Ioncinema:

1) Two Days, One Night
2) (tie) Mr. Turner
2) (tie) Winter Sleep

http://www.ioncinema.com/news/film-festivals/2014-cannes-critics-panel-day-9-assayas-doubles-down-with-sils-maria-zvyagintsev-drinks-to-sweet-tragic-notes-with-leviathan

From http://cannes-rurban.rhcloud.com/2014

1) Goodbye to Language
2) Winter Sleep
3) Two Days, One Night

From http://www.todaslascriticas.com.ar/cannes

1) Goodbye to Language
2) Winter Sleep
3) Clouds of Sils Maria

And from http://criticsroundup.com/cannes-2014/

1) (tie) Two Days, One Night
1) (tie) Wild Things
3) Goodbye to Language


Critically, the big winners seem to have been: Godard's "Goodbye to Language" (Jury Prize), "Winter Sleep" (Palme d'Or) and "Two Days, One Night" (bupkes). The Dardennes snub seems curious.  I would have thought Cotillard was a lock for Best Actress if the jury wasn't awarding the film an overall prize.

"Out of Competition" films that did well in critical analysis:

From the Un Certain Regard section both "The Blue Room" and "Juaja" did very well with critics...neither were prize winners.

"How to Train Your Dragon 2", "Silver Watered-Syria Self Portrait", "The Owners", "Maidan", "Cold in July", "Gett" , "National Gallery", "A Hard Day", "Mange Tes Mort", "Le Counte De La Princesse Kaguya", "P'tit Quinquin", "It Follows", "Red Army" and "The Kindergarten Teacher" all received steady critical acclaim.

CANNESALYSIS

And after the two weeks at Cannes are done...what do we know vis-a-vis the 41st Telluride Film Festival.  Mostly that the films that I thought were likely are probably still likely.  The acquisitions of Sony Pictures Classics of "Leviathan", "Jimmy's Hall", "Saint Laurent" and "Wild Tales" during the festival raises their T-ride profile. As of yesterday, SPC had also acquired "Salt of the Earth".

Going into Cannes, I had been pointing at certain films that, assuming they played well, had a reasonably good Telluride profile.  It seems to me that "Mr. Turner" and "Two days, One Night" fit that bill.  Through the course of the I think "Leviathan" and "Red Army" both became very real possibilities.

I suspect that both Dolan's "Mommy" and Cronenberg's "Maps to the Stars" will exclusive to the Toronto fest.  I don't have any insider info, it just feels that way to me.

"Foxcatcher" remains something of an enigma.  It all depends on how SPC perceives its Oscar chances as a result of a Telluride play and the expectation that should they play the film at Telluride that it will play Toronto in a less-than -prime slot.

Of course, they could chose to bypass Toronto altogether as "Nebraska", "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "All is Lost" did last year (all three played in Cannes as well).  Though you could make a strong case that that strategy didn't work particularly well.

As to Oscar repercussions...from Cannes...."Foxcatcher" and "Mr. Turner" seemed to be the most likely films with that potential before and after the fest.  I expect a number of films to be a part of the Foreign Language film Oscar convo depending on what countries make which choices.  For example, "Leviathan" seems like a no-brainer as the choice for Russia in terms of quality but its critique of the Mother country is not likely to sit well in Putin's "throwback" Russia.

It'll be fun to watch this summer.

SPEAKING OF SUMMER

I'll be back to a six-post-a week schedule beginning next Monday, June 2.  Let the full tilt Telluride obsession begin!

More on Thursday!