Good Friday and Welcome to Day One of the 39th Telluride Film Festival!
LAST INVITATION
I am really very pleased to invite everyone...one more time...to "The Second Annual (?) Guide to the 'Ride; Flow of the SHOW". Our little meet-up is scheduled for 5:00 this afternoon at The River Club, 550 Depot in Telluride. Come by...have a little vino...talk a little film...
THE FILMS...
Here's the copy of TFF #39's press release from yesterday announcing all of the films in the main schedule:
39th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program, the ‘Show’:
THE ACT OF KILLING (d. Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark, 2012);
AMOUR (d. Michael Haneke, Austria, 2012);
AT ANY PRICE (d. Ramin Bahrani, U.S., 2012);
THE ATTACK (d. Ziad Doueiri, Lebanon-France, 2012);
BARBARA (d. Christian Petzold, Germany, 2012);
THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE (d. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon, U.S., 2012);
EVERYDAY (d. Michael Winterbottom, U.K., 2012);
FRANCES HA (d. Noah Baumbach, U.S., 2012);
THE GATEKEEPERS (d. Dror Moreh, Israel, 2012);
GINGER AND ROSA (d. Sally Potter, England, 2012);
THE HUNT (d. Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark, 2012);
HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (d. Roger Michell, U.S., 2012);
THE ICEMAN (d. Ariel Vromen, U.S., 2012);
LOVE, MARILYN (d. Liz Garbus, U.S., 2012);
MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN (d. Deepa Mehta, Canada-Sri Lanka, 2012);
NO (Pablo LarraÃn, Chile, 2012);
PARADISE: LOVE (d. Ulrich Seidl, Austria, 2012);
PIAZZA FONTANA (d. Marco Tullio Giordana, Italy, 2012);
A ROYAL AFFAIR (d. Nikolaj Arcel, Denmark, 2012);
RUST & BONE (d. Jacques Audiard, France, 2012);
THE SAPPHIRES (d. Wayne Blair, Australia, 2012);
STORIES WE TELL (d. Sarah Polley, Canada, 2012);
SUPERSTAR (d. Xavier Giannoli, France, 2012);
WADJDA (d. Haifaa Al-Mansour, Saudi Arabia, 2012);
WHAT IS THIS FILM CALLED LOVE? (d. Mark Cousins, Ireland-Mexico, 2012).
I'm going to do my level best to find an e-version of the schedule that I've already seen floating around and post that.
THE SURPRISES...
Well, I feel that my Top Ten Bets looked pretty good. At this point, it seems I missed on "Argo". But, let me tell you...at weekend's end I'll be 10 for 10. "Argo" will sneak at some point this weekend.
Here were the final "Ten Bets":
1) Rust and Bone
2) Hyde Park on Hudson
3) The Central Park Five
4) Frances Ha
5) Ginger and Rosa
6) No
7) Argo
8) Amour
9) Midnight's Children
10) The Hunt
Now 11-20...different story (I knew I should have listened to that inner voice that was telling me not to do "Ten More Bets").
Here were the "Ten More Bets" I listed yesterday:
11) At Any Price
12) On the Road
13) Passion
14) The Gatekeepers
15) The Sapphires
16) The Iceman
17) A Royal Affair
18) Ernest and Celestine
19) Bromberg's Chaplin Restoration
20) Populaire
As I write this the announced schedule does include: "At Any Price" (#11), "The Gatekeepers (#14), "The Sapphires" (#15), "The Iceman (#16), and "A Royal Affair" (#17).
The "main" program includes 11 films not in either the final "Ten Bets" or the :Ten More Bets". But I will note that of those 11...I did mention "The Act of Killing" and "Love, Marilyn" in the late going as Telluride possibles/probables.
The thing I'm most surprised by is the "no shows" for "Passion" and "On the Road". I was morally certain that they would play. And I suppose they still could, but the current scuttlebutt is that "Argo" may well be the lone "Sneak" TBA...
AND THEN THERE'S "THE MASTER"...
There are, still, a devoted core of die hard hopefuls that think that there is some chance that Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" will play as a TBA this weekend.
No one wants to believe that more than I...
The current "rumor/buzz" has to do with "Baraka" which is apparently set to show in the same 70mm format that Mr. Anderson shot "The Master" in and clearly wants it to be seen in. It appears that "Baraka" is set for a Sunday morning showing at the Galaxy Theater and that there is a 10am TBA following that on the schedule. Further, The Galaxy seems to be historically where 70mm is shown at TFF.
Even further, Ms. Laura Dern is reportedly in town...and those of us who have obsessed over "The Master" know that she's a part of the cast (albeit a small one).
Needless to say, those of us who desperately want "The Master" in that slot are connecting these dots.
But I'm telling you, Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood says the Fest could have programmed "The Master" and opted not to. It appears that the sneak pop-up presentations around the country the last few weeks were the determining factor. Wish it were otherwise.
Thompson's post is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/telluride-fest-skips-master-adds-last-minute-argo-and-eclectic-programming-delights
I'LL TELL YOU WHAT'S COOL
I'm usually pretty unconcerned about the actual tributes...want to see the film that's attached...not sure I need to see the actual tribute...
Not true this year. I am absolutely hot to see the Marion Cotillard and the Roger Corman tribs...
Cotillard...beautiful, french and phenomenally talented. I'll be there!
Corman..."King of the B's" and maybe responsible for more of the best American cinema than almost anyone else because of who he mentored. You can draw a direct line from Corman to the creators of what I think are some of the best films ever made: "Godfather II", "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest", "Taxi Driver", "American Graffiti", "Chinatown", "L.A. Confidential".
Like a million other slobs, I have a script or two (and ideas for a dozen more) and I'd like to believe that someday one of them might actually get made. And for peeps like me who have the dream, Roger Corman is that example of making it happen under almost any circumstance. I salute you sir...as does this festival this weekend.
Corman is in Telluride as I write. Hope I get to meet him.
More at 5:00pm this afternoon at The River Club!
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