Sunday's TBAs / Sometimes Dreams Come True / Sunday Planned Films /Sunday Plans / Notes from Saturday's Films

Good Sunday Ladies and Germs...the 44th Telluride Film Festival has moved past its half way point.  Hope it has been as good for you as it has been for me...

SUNDAY TBAs

Sunday TBAs

9:15am, Le Pierre, HOSTAGES with Q&A, 16 (program number), Cinephile

9:30am, Masons Hall Cinema, WORMWOOD, 21, Cinephile

4:15pm, Werner Herzog Theatre, BATTLE OF THE SEXES, 6, Cinephile

10:00pm, Nugget Theatre, A FANTASTIC WOMAN, 23, Cinephile

10:15pm, Le Pierre, STUDENT PRINTS WITH Q&A, 41, Cinephile

Noon, Elks Park, FREE
Sunday Seminar
How can movies be weapons of the spirit?
Moderated by Annette Insdorf
With panelists Paul Schrader, Ziad Doueiri, Mohammad Rasoulof

SOMETIMES DREAMS COME TRUE

Many of you folks who are faithful readers of this space know that I have been in dogged pursuit of trying to engineer a meeting this weekend between my wife and writer/director Guillermo Del Toro. Without flogging the whole story again, suffice it to say that my wife is an incredible woman and teacher within a set of circumstances that I thought might resonant with Del Toro.

To remind everyone, Guillermo is truly a personal hero to her and to her students.

So, I posted this week an explanation of her circumstance and my hope that she might be able to come face to face with Del Toro and express how important a place he had in her heart.

And so many MTFB followers responded with advice and solid, concrete steps to take to make a meeting happen this weekend during the festival including faithful reader Jack Wertzberger and others who prefer to keep anonymous.  I want to say thanks to you folks for your kindness and generosity in trying to make this happen.

And ultimately, it did happen on Saturday night thanks to the very generous invitation to MTFB from Fox Searchlight to attend their Telluride party.

We accepted and Senor Del Toro and many others were in attendance.  And let me mention that Guillermo Del Toro is a magnanimous individual.

As a matter of fact, Del Toro took this selfie:

The evening also included a Del Toro autograph of his book Cabinet of Curiosities.

Suffice it to say that Senor Del Toro could not have been any more gracious.

Finally, we plan to see The Shape of Water in the morning.  What a night!


SUNDAY PLANNED FILMS

The Shape of Water
Battle of the Sexes
Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool or Umbrellas of Cherbourg
Loving Vincent


NOTES FROM SATURDAY'S FILMS

Lean on Pete: Charlie Plummer is fantastic in a film that seems especially evocative of a specific culture.  Steve Buscemi is also awesome.

Lady Bird: Greta Gerwig's directing debut is honest and sweet and true.  Saoirse Ronan, Lukas Hedges. Tracy Letts and Laurie Metcalf shine.

Wonderstruck: Seemed to me that the second act meandered and some threads introduced at the beginning got lost along the way.

Ate next to Alexander Payne's table at a restaurant.  We exchanged pleasantries.  Was cool.


That's your Saturday.  I'll be back for more as Sunday concludes.  For now, remember this...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Saturday's TBAs / Quick Thoughts About Friday's Films

Here are the TBAs for Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017

Saturday TBAs

Masons Hall Cinema

3:00p, Land of the Free, 28 (program number), Cinephile

Le Pierre
3:30p, Arthur Miller: Writer, 19, Cinephile

Galaxy
4:15p, Lady Bird, 2

Masons Hall Cinema
7:30p, Great Expectations, 43, Cinephile

Galaxy
7:45p, Hostiles, 7a

Werner Herzog
10:00p, Loving Vincent, 15, Cinephile

Le Pierre
10:30pm, A Man of Integrity, 14, Cinephile

Masons Hall Cinema
10:30p, Faces Places, 17, Cinephile

Noon Seminar, Elks Park FREE
Sponsored by Participant Media
Moderated by Annette Insdorf
Is acting still the art, as Elia Kazan said, “of turning psychology into behavior”?
With Greta Gerwig, Tracy Letts and Gary Oldman






QUICK NOTES ON FRIDAY'S FILMS

DOWNSIZING:  Liked not loved.  Seems a little longish.  Hong Chau is fab

DARKEST HOUR: Gary Oldman is amazing as Winston Churchill.   Rest of the cast is solid but Oldman gives a performance for the ages.

FACES/PLACES: Um, a film that was lauded at Cannes...maybe too much Varda worship.

Today's likely films: Lean on Pete, Lady Bird and Wonderstruck...then see how we feel.

Saturday TBAs / Quick Notes on Friday's Films

Here are the TBAs for Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017

Saturday TBAs

Masons Hall Cinema

3:00p, Land of the Free, 28 (program number), Cinephile

Le Pierre
3:30p, Arthur Miller: Writer, 19, Cinephile

Galaxy
4:15p, Lady Bird, 2

Masons Hall Cinema
7:30p, Great Expectations, 43, Cinephile

Galaxy
7:45p, Hostiles, 7a

Werner Herzog
10:00p, Loving Vincent, 15, Cinephile

Le Pierre
10:30pm, A Man of Integrity, 14, Cinephile

Masons Hall Cinema
10:30p, Faces Places, 17, Cinephile

Noon Seminar, Elks Park FREE
Sponsored by Participant Media
Moderated by Annette Insdorf
Is acting still the art, as Elia Kazan said, “of turning psychology into behavior”?
With Greta Gerwig, Tracy Letts and Gary Oldman






QUICK NOTES ON FRIDAY'S FILMS

DOWNSIZING:  Liked not loved.  Seems a little longish.  Hong Chau is fab

DARKEST HOUR: Gary Oldman is amazing as Winston Churchill.   Rest of the cast is solid but Oldman gives a performance for the ages.

FACES/PLACES: Um, a film that was lauded at Cannes...maybe too much Varda worship.

Tomorrow's likely films: Lean on Pete, Lady Bird and Wonderstruck...then see how we feel.

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...



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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The 44th Telluride Film Festival Lineup Has Been Announced / Reminding Guillermo / Rate Those Movies Folks!

Welcome to Thursday...TFF #44  IS IN ONE DAY!!!

THE 44TH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED

Here is the announced lineup for the 44th Telluride Film Festival:

·       ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)

·       BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)

·       DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)

·       DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)

·       EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)

·       FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)

·       A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)

·       FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)

·       FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)

·       FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)

·       FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)

·       HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)

·       HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)

·       HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)

·       THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)

·       LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)

·       LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)

·       LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)

·       LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)

·       LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)

·       LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)

·       A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)

·       THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)

·       THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)

·       THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)

·       TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)

·       THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)

·       THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)

·       WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)

·       WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)

REMINDING GUILLERMO

I posted the following on Monday and am re-posting today as I am still working on making this happen.  To be honest, I have had a couple of great leads that are still percolating but nothing has come to fruition yet.  So...if you missed it Monday...here it is again:

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.

RATE THOSE MOVIES FOLKS

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 to come...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Waiting for It / You Were never Really Here Trailer Appears

Good Thursday friends!  TFF #44 IS IN ONE DAY...

WAITING FOR IT

Not the Stephen King IT.  The lineup for TFF #44 is just minutes away from being released.  I'll have it up here at MTFB as soon as it goes live.  So check back.

Also, you might want to download the TFF #44 app if you haven't already done so.

STAY TUNED...


YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE TRAILER APPEARS

It popped yesterday.  A new international trailer for Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here.  The film is from Amazon Studios and picked up the Screenplay award and Best Actor award (for Joaquin Phoenix) at Cannes last May.

The film has no announced release date and hasn't been announced for Toronto or New York (but has been for San Sebastian).  I have speculated for months that it could well be headed for Telluride and now am wondering if the trailer release might signal that.

I guess we will know quite soon.

Here's the link to The Playlist which has the trailer.





REMINDER TO RATE

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

SPECIAL WEDNESDAY POST: The Final Ten (25) Bets for TFF #44 / Downsizing Teaser / What I'm Thinkin' Is... / Rate The Films

Welcome everyone to this special Wednesday post for Michael's Telluride Film Blog...


THE FINAL TEN (25) BETS FOR TFF #44

Here are 25 films that I expect will be announced tomorrow morning at some point by the Telluride Film Festival in order of probability:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Lady Bird
7) Hostiles
8) Visages/Villages (Faces/Places)
9) Loving Vincent
10) First They Killed My Father
11) A Fantastic Woman
12) The Rider
13) Wormwood
14) First Reformed
15) The Other Side of Hope
16) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
17) Lean on Pete
18) Loveless
19) The Insult
20) Foxtrot
21) Filmworker
22) The Venerable W
23) Arthur Miller: Writer
24) Before We Vanish
25) The Cotton Club Encore

Also hearing some buzz that some of Ken Burns Vietnam doc may screen as well as Mohammad Rasoulof' A Man of Integrity could play.  I still think You Were Never Really Here, L'Amant Double and Cold War are possibilities.


DOWNSIZING TEASER

Ahead of its World Premiere in Venice, Paramount has released a 30 sec. teaser for Alexander Payne's Downsizing.  Set to to the Talking Heads Once in a Lifetime, the teaser introduces us to the main characters in the film lead by Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Christoph Waltz, Laura Dern and Jason Sudekis.

Here's the teaser from YouTube:

And coverage from Indiewire is here.


WHAT I'M THINKIN' IS...

Normally I will get in 10-13 films in the course of the weekend.  That could be different this year because my pass level is a little different and so I'm uncertain how much that will shake up what I can see, when and where.

That said...here are the films I'd personally like to see in order of preference...and keep in mind, that could change depending on the buzz around town as the weekend unfolds.

1) The Shape of Water
2) Downsizing
3) Battle of the Sexes
4) Hostiles
5) Wonderstruck
6) Darkest Hour
7) Lady Bird
8) Loving Vincent
9) Wormwood
10) Visages/Villages
11) Lean on Pete
12) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
13) First They Killed My Father
14) Filmworker
15) Arthur Miller: Writer
16) The Rider
17) A Fantastic Woman

Honestly, I like to see The Cotton Club Encore as well and I know that Wormwood may be problematic if they program all six episodes.

But this all is likely to go out the window when we get the actual schedule.  Tributes will be key. Speaking of which, I'm already on record that I think two of them will be Christian Bale and Ed Lachman.  The third...call me crazy...Saoirse Ronan (who is in Lady Bird and is a voice in Loving Vincent).

If I were hedging my bet...Sally Hawkins.

We might still see another film announcement from Toronto.  It was rumored yesterday and is rumored again today.


 JOIN MTFB AND RATE THOSE FILMS

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..."


Have a great weekend and get rested up for next week.  More on Monday!

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Wormwood Trailer Lands / Foundas Finds a New Cotton Club / Sorrow About Sea Sorrow / Views from the Film Field: Awards Season / Views from the Film Field: The Women Directing / Venice and Telluride / Reminders

You're staring at Tuesday, August 29, 2017...TFF #44 cranks up in three days!


WORMWOOD TRAILER LANDS

Maybe the most mysterious likely inclusion in the TFF #44 lineup is Errol Morris' Wormwood.  We got more info about it yesterday including the notes that it will be six episodes and that Netflix will drop it on Dec. 15th.

Oh, and there is also a trailer via YouTube:

Included here is Wormwood coverage from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Entertainment Weekly

Deadline

FOUNDAS FINDS NEW COTTON CLUB

Scott Foundas, who has been a Telluride festival or three Tweeted out a big surprise and reveal late last night.

TFF#44 will program a restoration of Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club.  Here's the screen grab of two Foundas Tweets with the reveal:

And the second:

So if you have a yen for a restoration, looks like Telluride has your answer.  Also, you have to think that Coppola would likely be in town to present.  

SORROW ABOUT SEA SORROW

After reading the NYFF announcement stories in a number of different places, I concluded that Vanessa Redgrave's directing debut, the documentary Sea Sorrow, could be Telluride bound.  That was based on the lack of any premiere status designation in the stories.  Last night I discovered that the actual NYFF/Film Society of Lincoln Center website does, in fact, list it as a U.S. Premiere meaning that it will NOT be a player at TFF #44 after all.  

Here's your evidence:

So...no Sea Sorrow.  Apologies to all.

VIEWS OF THE FILM FIELD: AWARDS SEASON

The Playlist's awards guru Greg Ellwood has published a story that focuses on 13 films that he has highlighted as possible awards season dominators.  Among them he has included Alexander Payne's Downsizing, Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Joe Wright's Darkest Hour.

Ellwood also sprinkles in some Telluride intimations ahead of Thursday's lineup reveal so you might to look for those.

The entire post is here.


VIEWS OF THE FILM FIELD: THE WOMEN DIRECTING

I came across a couple of stories that were focused on female directors that look to have films in the end of the year awards conversation and naturally I was interested in which of those films included by the authors could make a splash this weekend at Telluride.

Both Tomris Laffly writing for Film School Rejects and Kate Erbland at Indiewire examine the group of films from directors such as Angelina Jolie, Chloe Zhao and others that seem, at least as we stand on the precipice of the fall film festival season, could make the most awards noise.

Both writers include these films in their musings that I am thinking will be announced as part of the TFF #44 lineup on Thursday: First They Killed My Father, The Rider, Visages/Villages (Faces/Places) and Lady Bird.

Laffly also includes Battle of the Sexes which is co-directed by Valerie Faris.

Take a look at the complete articles.  The Laffly/FSR article is here and the Erbland/Indiewire article is here.


VENICE AND TELLURIDE

Nick Vivarelli writing for Indiewire last week examined the dynamic between the three fall film fests that are set to launch over the next ten days with a particular focus on Venice and an ancillary focus on Telluride.

Vivarelli interviews Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera who talks considerably about the current state of the two fests and Toronto as well.

Vivarelli confirms that this year may have the largest crossover between the two fests that anyone can remember.  Venice reportedly wanted both Last Flag Flying which will open the New York Fest in a few weeks and Hostiles which we believe will first screen at Telluride this weekend.

Read the entire Vivarelli piece here.



DON'T FORGET...THE FINAL LIST OF TELLURIDE PREDICTIONS WILL BE UP TOMORROW MORNING IN A SPECIAL EDITION OF MTFB.

ALSO, WE MAY GET ONE MORE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TORONTO TODAY...STAY TUNED...



JOIN MTFB AND RATE THOSE FILMS

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..."


Have a great weekend and get rested up for next week.  More on Monday!

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

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Ten (20+) Bets #9 / How Loving Vincent Came To Be / Wormwood Revelations / It's Almost Rating Time

We're back to a Friday...August 25, 2017.  Six days to The SHOW!!!

TEN (20+) BETS #9

Here are the next to last wagers from Michael's Telluride Film Blog about what films will play at the 44th Telluride Film Festival next week.  Begin with a re-cap of last week's "Ten" Bets:

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

17) Lean on Pete

18) First Reformed

19) Loveless

20) Foxtrot

21) The Insult


Now, this week's in order of likelihood:

1) The Shape of Water
2) Downsizing
3) Wonderstruck
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Hostiles
6) Darkest Hour
7) Lady Bord
8) A Fantastic Woman
9) Visages/Villages
10) The Rider
11) Loving Vincent
12) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
13) The Other Side of Hope
14) First They Killed My Father
15) First Reformed
16) Loveless
17) Foxtrot
18) Lean on Pete
19) Wormwood
20) Before We Vanish
21) The Insult
22) Filmworker
23) Sea Sorrow
24) The Venerable W
25) Arthur Miller: Writer

Still could make The SHOW: You Were Never Really Here, L'Amant Double, Cold War, Marshall, Final Portrait, Our Souls at Night.

HOW LOVING VINCENT CAME TO BE

One of the more intriguing titles that we think is likely to play in Telluride next week is the hand painted full length feature film about the life of Vincent Van Gogh entitled Loving Vincent.  If you've seen the trailer you know that the film looks to be visually stunning.  Here is that trailer from YouTube:

If you're curious about how the film was made Indiewire has the story.

It's definitely on my list for consideration to see next week.


WORMWOOD REVELATIONS


I've actually had people ask me if Wormwood really exists which isn't a crazy question.  To say it's been flying under the radar would be an understatement.

If you check out Errol Morris' IMDb entry doesn't list it anywhere on his resume.  But you know it's real because Venice is screening it.

After some digging I can tell you that it's a Netflix series starring Peter Sarsgaard.  IT is said to focus on a true life murder mystery that occurred in the 1950's and is expected to combine archival footage with re-enactments.  Here's the placeholder on the Netflix site:

And interviews with Morris over the last year where he has mentioned the project but certainly hasn't been terribly forthcoming.  Here are three of those:

Collider

Season Zero

Flavorwire

Honestly, after I took a look at these, my interest is piqued.



IT'S ALMOST RATING TIME

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..."


Have a great weekend and get rested up for next week.  More on Monday!

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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New York Tells / First Look at Hostiles / Marshall Oddity / Beating the Drum: Rate Those Films!

It's Thursday, August 24, 2017...Seven days until The SHOW!!!

NEW YORK TELLS

I was more than a little surprised a couple of weeks back when Toronto announced the bulk of its documentary films and I couldn't find a single doc that was going to share the two festivals.  Unheard of and weird, to be honest.  However...

The New York Film Fest named its documentary selections late yesterday and if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, that's the fest that will crossover with T-ride this year with some choice titles.

Judging by NYFF's premiere status designations with a focus on docs that were announced with no status and cross checking with IMDb, it would seem that the following films could be playing in Colorado next week:

Arthur Miller: Writer directed by the famed playwright's daughter Rebecca Miller (does this portend accompaniment by her husband-Daniel Day Lewis?  Probably not as he is-we believe-still filming Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled/maybe titled Phantom Thread-film).

Filmworker directed by Tony Zierra.  The film focuses on Leon Vitali who became an acolyte of Stanley Kubrick.  This played Cannes and reports about it totally caught my attention when it did.  I mentioned it as a Telluride possibility in my May 8th post.  Very intriguing.

And perhaps the one that gets me the most excited is Vanessa Redgrave's directorial debut Sea Sorrow which played Cannes as well and features Ralph Fiennes and Emma Thompson in an exploration of the refugee crisis with an historical perspective.  I have been hoping for a Vanessa Redgrave appearance at The SHOW for years and maybe that happens in 2017.  Sea Sorrow was briefly mentioned in this space as a film of interest back on April 13th.

A Vanessa Redgrave tribute?

And finally Barbet Schroeder's The Venerable W looks like it could be headed to Telluride.  The doc explores the evil behind ethnic cleansing in Burma.  Schroeder, who has an extensive history with Telluride may be making a return. The Venerable W was first mentioned here at MTFB as a T-ride possibility on Mar. 20th.

Now, a quick disclaimer...the provenance of documentaries is often a bit more difficult to accurately pin down as compared to feature films.  That said...these four films all seem like a good fit for TFF #44.

I have linked coverage of the NYFF documentary announcement here from Indiewire and here from Deadline.



FIRST LOOK AT HOSTILES

If you follow me on Twitter (@Gort2) then you may have caught my Tweet Tuesday that includes the first still photo from the Scott Cooper film Hostiles which, of course, I'm sure is going to be in The SHOW lineup when  it's announced a week from today.

I believe I had the honor to be one of the first outlets in the country to publish the pic as I was included in the P.R. email that provided access to the photo.

If you missed it Tuesday here it is:

You have your Christian Bale looking pensive.

The film is said to center on the story of an American Army Captain in the late 1800's who accompanies a dying Native American Chief through dangerous territory.

It is definitely on my list to see next week.

MARSHALL ODDITY

Again, if you're reading this space closely now as we get down to mere days before film Nirvana presents itself in southwest Colorado, you know that I have a list of films that I still think might play the fest that we don't have good intell about.  There are seven films still on that list and of them, five are still moderately seriously in play.  Two are incredibly long shots at this point: Wonder and The Snowman.  Five, I think, still have a fighting chance: You Were Never Really Here, L'Amant Double, Final Portrait, Our Souls at Night and Reginald Hudlin's Marshall.

Well...yesterday, the Urbanworld Film Festival (based in NYC) became the first fest (to my knowledge) to announce a screening of Marshall.  UFF runs Sept. 20-24th.  So, as you might expect, I opened the story expecting to see that the film would be World Premiering there.

To my surprise...NOPE.  UFF lists Marshall as a "U.S. Premiere".  I don't know how to interpret this.

That designation would make sense if the film had been announced for Toronto or Venice but it has not.  As best as I can find, Marshall will not have played anywhere when UFF screens it (I believe it may be their closing film on Sept. 24).

But here's the thing, if it were to play T-ride then its UFF appearance would not be a U.S. premiere.

To add confusion, UFF does list other films as World, East Coast or even New York Premieres.

So...does this take Marshall off the TFF #44 table or is the U.S. Premiere designation meant to convey that its World/North American premiere will have happened...meaning Telluride and an odd designation from UFF?

I don't know the answer here but I do know that I would not be surprised if it were to be included at T-ride despite to scheduled play in Toronto, Venice or NYFF.

Check the story from Variety.

BEATING THE DRUM

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..."

Submit your ratings for The People's Telluride via any of the contact methods listed below.

That's Thursday.  A NEW TEN (20+) BETS will be here tomorrow.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG