Telluride Re-wind-TFF #15 / A Fantastic Woman / A Trailer for The Other Side of Hope

Welcome to Thursday, Nov. 16, 2017.


TELLURIDE RE-WIND-TFF #15

My ongoing Telluride Film Festival history project continues today with a flashback to the 15th Telluride Film Festival which ran from Sept. 2-5, 1988.  Here are the details:


Guest Director: Donald Richie

Tributes: Pedro Almodovar, Cab Calloway, The Xi'an Studio

SHOWS:

Aschik Kerib
Broken Down Film
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
Distant Voices, Still Lives
The Dragon Painter
Far North
High Hopes
Homeland of Electricity
The King of Children
Kric! Krac! Tales of a Nightmare
La Lectrice
The Legend of the Forest
Little Vera
Manifesto
Men of Kishnou Island
Night of the Hunter
The Old Well
One Hand Don't Clap
Patty Hearst
Rapt
Red Sorghum

Salaam Bombay
Split
Summer Vacation
That Rhythm Those Blues
Track 29
Voices from the Attic
Voices of Sarafina
Wherever You Are
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Wrath of the Gods

GUESTS:

Keith Carradine
Olympia Dukakis
Daryl Hannah
Tess Harper
Chuck Jones
Mike Leigh
Mira Nair
Nicholas Roeg
Teresa Russell
Paul Schrader
Barbet Schroeder
Sam Shepard


A FANTASTIC WOMAN

The L.A. Times Tre'vell Anderson interviewed Oscar contender Daniela Vega recently.  Vega stars in the TFF #44 film A Fantastic Woman and has been making buzz around the film since its premiere last February at the Berlin International Film Festival.    The film won a number of prizes at Berlin including Best Screenplay.

The film's story focuses on the life of a transgender woman in Chile and is directed and was written by Sebastian Lelilo.  The film currently sits at the #5 spot in this week's Film Award Clearinghouse Oscar predictions for Best Foreign Film.

That interview is here.

A Fantastic Woman is scheduled to open in the U.S. on Feb. 2nd.


A TRAILER FOR THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE


Aki Kurismaki's The Other Side of Hope  played the Berlin International Film Festival as well.  Kaurismaki won the Berlin prize for Best Directing;  The film highlights the European refugee situation.

The film's first trailer arrived this week from Janus Films.  Here it is:

The Other Side of Hope opens in New York on Dec. 1st.

The Playlist coverage of the trailer debut is here.



That's your MTFB for this Thursday.  I'll have more on Monday.  Have a great weekend!

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

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Friday's Schedule for TFF #44 / MTFB Does Well...But Not Perfect / Random Thoughts

Welcome to TFF #44 Space Cadets...

I am piecing together a schedule for tomorrow based on what I am seeing on the TFF #44 App...which I am suggesting you get certainly until you can snag a hard copy of the program.


OPENING NIGHT FEED/COLORADO AVE.
5:30pm

By Venue for Friday, Sept. 1, 2017

PALM

6:30pm-Darkest Hour- Joe Wright, Gary Oldman and Ben Mendelsohn
9:30pm Lean on Pete-Andrew Haigh, Travis Fimmel

GALAXY

7:00pm-Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool-Paul McGuigan, Jamie Bell
9:45pm-Darkest Hour

CHUCK JONES

5:15pm-Great Expectations
8:00pm-Lady Bird-Greta Gerwig, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts
10:30pm-Downsizing-Alexander Payne, Hong Chau

WERNER HERZOG "THE ZOG"

11:00am-Wormwood-Errol Morris
4:45pm-The Cotton Club Encore-Francis Ford Coppola
8:45pm-Downsizing

SHERIDAN OPERA HOUSE

5:00pm-A Fantastic Woman-Sebastian Lelio, Daniela Vega
7:30pm-Arthur Miller:Writer-Rebecca Miller
10:00p,-Loveless-Andrey Zvyaginstev

THE NUGGET THEATRE

5:15pm-A Man of Integrity-Mohammed Rasoulof
8:00pm-The Rider-Chloe Zhao
10:15pm-Loving Vincent-Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman

MASONS HALL

5:30pm-Land of the Free-Camilla Magid
8:00pm-Titicut Follies
10:15pm-Tesnota-Kantemir Balagov

LE PIERRE

5:00pm-Hostages-Rezo Gigneishvili
7:45pm-The Other Side of Hope
10:15-Faces/Places-Rosalie Varda. JR

ABEL GANCE/ELKS PARK

8:30pm-The Rider


Personal note:  My schedule is likely to depend on what the patron screening is Friday afternoon.  It looks to me like the big gets tomorrow might be Darkest Hour and Downsizing or maybe Lean on Pete.   I'd also be really interested late in Loving Vincent or Faces/Places.  Depends.

More tomorrow and I will be tweeting some throughout the day.  My Twitter handle is @Gort2.


MTFB DOES WELL...BUT NOT PERFECT

If you were keeping Score (and I always do) the final Ten (25) Bets was 24 of 25.  my mistake was inadvertantly bumping AiWeiWei's Human Flow off the list and keeping Before We Vanish.  My mistake.

Seriously, I had Human Flow in the Bets for awhile and then just seemed to loose track of it.

Still, 96% isn't awful.


RANDOM THOUGHTS

Weird that we only have two tributes lined up this year.  One for Christian Bale/Hostiles and the other for Ed Lachman/Wonderstruck.  I suspect that the third tribute existed in some way but was derailed at the past minute.

Might have to be at The Abel Gance Sunday Night for Al Gore and An Inconvenient Sequel.

Thrilled Billie Jean King and Emma Stone will be in town for Battle of the Sexes.

Also pretty stoked that Richard Jenkins will be here with Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water.


Come back for more here tomorrow...



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LATE BREAKING: Toronto Titles Today Offer New Telluride Clues

LATE BREAKING: TORONTO TITLES TODAY OFFER NEW TELLURIDE CLUES


Toronto's purported final announcement of titles today sheds light on films that we think are now newly added to our list of T-ride screenings or confirms others that we thought were going or reveals titles that we thought might play that will not.

TIFF announced further Galas, Special Presentations, Masters and Contemporary World Cinema titles earlier today.

Here's what we think we've learned based on the premiere status of the films named:

New films that appear headed to Telluride:

Foxtrot
Lean on Pete
The Insult
First Reformed
Loveless

Films that appear to be further confirmed for Telluride:

The Other Side of Hope
Visages/Villages

Films that WILL NOT BE PLAYING TELLURIDE:

Chappaquiddick
Molly's Game (disppointed about this)
Mark Felt-The Man Who Brought Down the White House
Redoubtable
Happy End

And films confirmed out that we already thought were out:

The Leisure Seeker
The Florida Project


More to come on Thursday...

Ten (Actually 16) Bets #7 / Loving Vincent is Solid / More Views of Shape of Water / Lean on Pete News / Late Breaking: Venice Schedule Gives Clues / 350,000

It's Friday...


TEN (ACTUALLY 16) BETS #7

Here's your weekly assessment of what I think are the films that will play at the Telluride Film Festival based on the announcements from other fests, social media, media speculation and my own best estimate.

As always...

Last Week's Ten (really 16) Bets plus additional possibilities

1) Wonderstruck
2) Downsizing
3) Battle of the Sexes
4) The Shape of Water
5) Darkest Hour
6) A Fantastic Woman
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) The Rider
10) Loving Vincent
11) Human Flow
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) Wormwood
15) The Florida Project and Visages/Villages (tie)

Other possibilities: Loveless, You Were Never Really Here, Lean on Pete, Mary Magdalene, The Other Side of Hope, Mektoub My Love, First Reformed, Happy End, Our Souls at Night, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Molly's Game.

This week's Ten (really 16) Bets #7

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



Films still possible for Telluride:

Happy End
Marshall
Wonder
Mary Magdalene
Loveless
Final Portrait
The Silent Man
Molly's Game
The Snowman
Lean on Pete
Redoubtable
L'amant Double
You Were Never Really Here
Our Souls at Night
Chappaquiddick
Mektoub My Love
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan

Of these remaining possibles here are the five most likely:

1) Loveless
2) Lean on Pete

3) You Were Never Really Here

4) Happy End

5) L'amant Double

LOVING VINCENT IS SOLID

We have thought that the hand painted animated prize winning feature film Loving Vincent would be on the Telluride list this year and I can report that sources tell me that it is solidly a part of The SHOW.

The new trailer earlier this week looked gorgeous.  The film will be released in the U.S. Sept. 22nd.


MORE VIEWS OF THE SHAPE OF WATER

Slash Film reported new stills from Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water this week.  It might, at this point, be the film I am most looking forward to for TFF #44.

Here are a couple of the new pics:

And the complete SlashFilm article is here.

LEAN ON PETE NEWS

 Had a knowledgeable source last night tell me that Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete will likely bow in Venice on the first Friday of that fest which, theoretically could allow it to make a screening in Telluride (just as I suggested might be possible for Our Souls at Night in yesterday's post).

Now, that doesn't guarantee anything but does keep the door open for the film to make the trans-Atlantic trip.  See the following story...

LATE BREAKING: VENICE SCHEDULE IS UP AND  GIVES CLUES

The schedule for the Venice Film Festival was posted overnight and gives clues about what films we think may play both places.

We already have had some clues.  I was already fairly certain about things like Downsizing, The Shape of Water, Wormwood and Human Flow due to their Toronto status or other reporting.  Those films seem to be in good shape for Telluride with Venice dates that will allow them to do Venice and then come to T-ride or the reverse...do Telluride and then to Venice.

We also know that Venice director Alberto Barbera has said that there are likely 7-8 films that would play both places.

Downsizing opens Venice on Aug. 30
The Shape of Water plays Aug. 31
Human Flow plays Sept.1...which is probably as late as a film can play Venice and still make T-ride.

Then...

Wormwood plays Sept. 6 which would allow a Telluride bow before Errol Morris headed to Italy.

Other films we have been pointing out that fall into either the early or late windows:

Early:

Aug. 31-Paul Schrader's First Reformed and (though I haven't had this on my radar) William Freidkin's The Devil and Father Amorth (yes please)
Sept. 1- Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete and Ritesh Batra's Our Souls at Night

Late:
Sept. 6-Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country
Sept. 7-Mektoub My Love Canto Uno

That's six films in addition to the four that we thought were already probable to make the journey.  My guess is that the additional three or four are among these.

The full Venice Schedule is here.

More analysis on Monday...

350,000

MTFB passed another milepost yesterday with the 350,000th view.  

Thank you.

That's your MTFB for Friday, Aug. 11, 2017.  More on Monday!

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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Ten Bets #2 for TFF #44 / Wonderstruck Centers New York AND... / A Trailer for California Typewriter

Welcome to Friday Film Fans...


TEN BETS #2 FOR TFF #44

Here we are on a Friday in July once again which means it's time for our weekly update of my list of ten films that seem, at least at this point, the most likely to play as a part of this year's Telluride Film Festival.

Last week's first attempt looked like this:

1) Loveless
2) A Fantastic Woman
3) Wonderstruck
4) Visages/Villages
5) The Florida Project
6) Downsizing
7) You Were Never Really Here
8) 120 BPM
9) The Rider
10) Battle of the Sexes

The Next Bets, in no particular order of likelihood:  Happy End, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Current War, Loving Vincent, Lean on Pete, Redoubtable, Spoor.

In light of bits and pieces of information, here's this week's Ten Bets:

1) Wonderstruck

2) Loveless

3) Visages/Villages

4) Battle of the Sexes

5) Downsizing

6) The Florida Project

7) A Fantastic Woman

8) The Other Side of Hope

9) 120 BPM

10) You Were Never Really Here

Other films bubbling just below these Ten Bets:

The Rider, Happy End, Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, The Current War, Loving Vincent, Lean on Pete, Redoubtable, Spoor.

WONDERSTRUCK CENTERS NEW YORK AND...

The New York Film Festival announced yesterday that Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck will be their Centerpiece this year on Oct. 7th.  Of special note to Telluride followers was the note in the announcement from the Film Society of Lincoln Center that the film would be presented as its New York premiere.  

That implies that the film will have played previously as a North American and U.S. premiere somewhere else.  My conclusion...it plays Telluride.

Here's the FSLC announcement.

And additional coverage of the selection by the NYFF from Indiewire.

In light of this announcement, I moved Wonderstruck up to the number one spot in today's Ten Bets as you can see above.

A TRAILER FOR CALIFORNIA TYPEWRITER

One of last year's sort of underground hits at TFF #43 was the documentary California Typewriter. The film acts as a love letter to the machine and the people that still love to use them.  The film is being distributed by Gravitas Ventures and The Playlist reports that it has a domestic release date of August 18th.

The trailer, however, is out and here it is from YouTube:

That's a wrap for this Friday and this week.  More to come on Monday.

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

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Telluride and The New York Times 25 Best Films of the 21st Century / Oscar's Foreign Language Race and Labor Day

Welcome back from the weekend...

TELLURIDE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES 25 BEST FILMS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The New York Times got social media going over the last few days as they posted a list of what A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis have determined are the 25 best films that have been released since the calendar rolled over to the new century.  

It will likely not surprise you that a good number of those films had ties to TFF.  For example, their too choice is Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece There Will Be Blood as the top film.  As many TFFers will recall, TWBB scenes were screened in 2007 as a part of the tribute that year to Daniel Day Lewis.

Other films that make the NYT list with Telluride histories include:

#2 Spirited Away played Telluride in 2002.

#6 Yi Yi 2000

#11 Inside Llewyn Davis 2013

#14 L'enfant 2005

#17 Three Times 2005

#20 Moonlight 2016

#22 I'm Not There 2007

So better than a third of the list (8/25) made a stop in the San Juans in their journey to the NYT list (if you include TWBB, which I do).

The complete NYT list of 25 with commentary from Scott and Dargis is linked here.

OSCARS FOREIGN LANGUAGE RACE, FESTS AND LABOR DAY

Shane Slater at Awards Circuit posted an interesting article over the weekend with some thoughts about the major fests that have already come and gone and the impact that they might have on the foreign language Oscar race.

As a result, we can look at some of those as potential titles for TFF.  

Slater mentions films from Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Cannes.

From those films he mentions these probably have the best T-ride shot:

The Other Side of Hope 

Spoor

Loveless

120 BPM

The Square

Happy End

Check out the entire post from Awards Circuit here.

That's Monday...

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

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Berlin Titles of Note / Cannes Speculation 2017 / Awards Circuit's Best Picture Picture

It is Thursday in most jurisdictions...Welcome to Michael's Telluride Film Blog



BERLIN TITLES OF NOTE

The Berlin Film Festival ran from Feb. 15-23.  That fest, as I have noted here, seems to have become a staple for films that then find their way into the Telluride lineup six and a half months later.  Now that our Oscar fever has broken, I thought I'd take one more quick look at the Berlin lineup and isolate films that might replicate the experience of films such as Taxi, Fire at Sea, Gloria and The Counterfeiters.  Over the last few years the average of Berlin Fest to Telluride films has been 2-3 films.

I have posted articles from Variety, Indiewire and The Film Stage that inspect this year's Berlin crop and here what seem to be the most likely candidates foe T-ride inclusion:

A Fantastic Woman-Sebastian Lelio (produced by Pablo Larrain) Film Stage and Variety

The Other Side of Hope-Aki Kaurismaki Film Stage, Indiewire and Variety

On Body and Soul-Ildiko Enyedi (Golden Bear winner) Indiewire, Variety

Spoor-Agnieszka Holland-Variety

The Party-Sally Potter-Variety

And here are the links to those articles:

The Film Stage

Indiewire

Variety



CANNES SPECULATION

So...Oscar's over, Sundance is over, Berlin is over...South by Southwest takes off starting tomorrow so that can only mean that it's time to get into some serious speculation about the films that will be a part of the Cannes Film Festival.

As I have written on many occasions the Cannes-Telluride connection is substantial and averages a crossover of 7-8 films per year with most of those titles coming from the Palme d'Or competition slate.  Anyone who is serious about trying to puzzle out the Telluride lineup has to take note of the films that are possible for and then do make the lineup of Cannes.

So buckle up friendo...

I took a look at Cannes speculation from recent posts in The Hollywood Reporter and Cineuropa and compiled the following list of a dozen films that could play Cannes and have potential to make the trip to Telluride.


Making both lists:

Les Gardiennes-Xavier Beauvois

Happy End-Michael Haneke

Wonderstruck-Todd Haynes

Le Redoubtable-Michel Hazanavicius

Mektoub is Mektoub-Abdellatif Kechiche

Loveless- Andrey Zvyaginstev


From the THR article:

Victoria and Abdul-Stephen Frears

Submergence-Wim Wenders


From the Cineuropa article:

Downsizing-Alexander Payne

You're Not Really Here-Lynne Ramsay

Roma-Alfonso Cuaron


Here are links to the Cannes spec posts:

The Hollywood Reporter

Cineuropa



AWARDS CIRCUIT'S BEST PICTURE PICTURE

And finally, continuing to cast a predictive gaze toward films that might comprise the TFF #43 program, Awards Circuit, one of the Oscar prediction outlets that I follow, has posted its first take on possible Best Picture candidates for Oscar #90.  Clayton Davis lists 40 films (plus some additional possibilities) and so I cast my eyes there in the search to discern what plays at the 2017 edition of The SHOW.

Among the Top Ten:

#5 Battle of the Sexes
#6 The Current War
#8 Downsizing

From 12-20:

#16 Wonderstruck

From 21-40

#24 Lean on Pete
#29 The Shape of Water
#37 You Were Never Really Here

Hopes that might not be completely crazy:

#2 Suburbicon
#14 Molly's Game


Here's the link to the first forecast of Oscar players from Awards Circuit.

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


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

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