Telluride 2014

[Chris Knipp]

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Telluride Film Festival, August 29-September 21, 2014

Telluride would have the coolest, weirdest poster. Here it is -- an abstract arrangement of strips of film, I do believe! Passes for the 2014 festival are all sold out, so just forget about going, unless you're a V.I.P. guest!

Besides, What's playing in the Telluride program is not revealed until you reach the mountains. So don't ask what the films will be till the festival begins. That will be August 29.

Guy Maddin and Kim Morgan have been announced as the guest directors this year.

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The Telluride Programming Team: (left-right) Gary Meyer, Tom Luddy and Julie Huntsinger in 2009. photo courtesy J. Bradshaw
And this regular stafe (Tom Luddy longtime leader):

Julie Huntsinger | Directors
Tom Luddy
Gary Meyer
Muffy Deslaurier | Director of Support Services
Brandt Garber | Production Manager
Karen Schwartzman | SVP, Partnerships
Erika Moss Gordon | VP, Filmanthropy
Melissa DeMicco | Development Manager
Jannette Angelle Bivona | Assistant to the Directors
Kate Sibley | Education Programs Dean
Jenny Jacobi | Operations Manager
Joanna Lyons | Events Manager
Bärbel Hacke | Hosts Manager
Shannon Mitchell | VP, Publicity
Marc McDonald | Theater Operations Manager
Lucy Lerner | SHOWCorps Manager
Erica Gioga | Housing/Travel Manager
Chapin Cutler | Technical Director
Ross Krantz | Technical Wizard
Barbara Grassia | Projection Chief
Annette Insdorf | Moderator
Mark Danner | Resident Curators
Godfrey Reggio
Pierre Rissient
Peter Sellars
Paolo Cherchi Usai


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[Chris Knipp]

http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/telluridelogo.jpg (http://www.telluridefilmfestival.org/)

Telluride 2014 announces its slate.

Friday, August 29 - Monday, September 1, 2014.

As it their system, on the eve of its opening day, the slate of Telluride 2014 has been announced. More details online such as at Film Threat. (http://www.filmthreat.com/festivals/79512/) Interesting titles and only three overlaps with the NYFF. There will be sneak previews and tributes to Volker Schlöndorff and Hilary Swank.

Read more: http://www.filmthreat.com/festivals/79512/#ixzz3BhtgTW36 For the festival's own website, click on the logo above.

· THE 50 YEAR ARGUMENT (d. Martin Scorsese, David Tedeschi, U.K.-U.S., 2014)
· ’71 (d. Yann Demange, U.K., 2014)
· 99 HOMES (d. Ramin Bahrani, U.S., 2014)
· BIRDMAN (d. Alejandro González Iñárritu, U.S., 2014)
· DANCING ARABS (d. Eran Riklis, Israel-Germany-France, 2014)
· THE DECENT ONE (d. Vanessa Lapa, Australia-Israel-Germany, 2014)
· DIPLOMACY (d. Volker Schlöndorff, France-Germany, 2014)
· FOXCATCHER (d. Bennett Miller, U.S., 2014)
· THE GATE (d. Régis Wargnier, France-Belgium-Cambodia, 2014)
· THE HOMESMAN (d. Tommy Lee Jones, U.S., 2014)
· THE IMITATION GAME (d. Morten Tyldum, U.K.-U.S., 2014)
· LEVIATHAN (d. Andrey Zvgagintsev, Russia, 2014)
· THE LOOK OF SILENCE (d. Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark-Indonesia-Norway-Finalnd-U.S., 2014)
· MADAME BOVARY (d. Sophie Barthes, U.K.-Belgium, 2014)
· MERCHANTS OF DOUBT (d. Robert Kenner, U.S., 2014)
· MOMMY (d. Xavier Dolan, Canada, 2014)
· MR. TURNER (d. Mike Leigh, U.K., 2014)
· THE PRICE OF FAME (d. Xavier Beauvois, France, 2014)
· RED ARMY (d. Gabe Polsky, U.S.-Russia, 2014)
· ROSEWATER (d. Jon Stewart, U.S., 2014)
· THE SALT OF THE EARTH (d. Wim Wenders, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, Brazil-Italy-France, 2014)
· TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER (d. Nick Broomfield, U.K.-U.S, 2014)
· TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT (d. Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium-Italy-France, 2014)
· WILD (d. Jean-Marc Valleé, U.S., 2014)
· WILD TALES (d. Damián Szifrón, Argentina-Spain, 2014)

Guest Directors Guy Maddin and Kim Morgan, who serve as key collaborators in the Festival’s program, present the following six films:
• CALIFORNIA SPLIT (d. Robert Altman, U.S., 1974)
• IL GRIDO (d. Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy, 1957)
• M (d. Joseph Losey, U.S., 1951)
• A MAN’S CASTLE (d. Frank Borzage, U.S., 1933)
• THE ROAD TO GLORY (d. Howard Hawks, U.S., 1936)
• WICKED WOMAN (d. Russell Rouse, U.S., 1953)

The program "Backlot" will present screenings of these films about artists, musicians, and filmmakers:
BERTOLUCCI ON BERTOLUCCI (d. Walter Fasano, Luca Guadagnino, Italy, 2013)
FORBIDDEN FILMS (d. Felix Moeller, Germany, 2014)
HOW TO SMELL A ROSE (d. Les Blank, Gina Leibrecht, U.S.-France, 2014)
I STOP TIME (d. Gunilla Bresky, Sweden-Russia, 2014)
KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON (d. Alan Hicks, U.S., 2014)
MAGICIAN (d. Chuck Workman, U.S., 2014)
NIGHT WILL FALL (d. André Singer, U.K.-U.S.-Israel, 2014)
SEYMOUR (d. Ethan Hawke, U.S., 2014)
SOCIALISM (d. Peter von Bagh, Finland, 2014)

[Chris Knipp]

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Telluride roundups.

Justin Chang and Scott Foundas of VARIETY have a nice roundup discussion (http://variety.com/2014/film/festivals/telluride-from-birdman-to-mommy-festival-soars-above-the-fray-1201295912/) of Telluride 2014. He says movies just look better there (I think that about Paris, and maybe the NYFF). And it's so friendly and intimate you might get to share a picnic with Salmon Rushdie or Coppola or some other notable.

THE IMITATION GAME (Morten Tyldum) about the guy who cracked the German code for Britiain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch. sort of parallels THEORY OF EVERYTHING, another sort of tragic British tale of a genius with a great performance; Chang says the movie isn't worthy of the performance. He says it reminds him of A BEAUTIFUL MIND -- a dumb person's movie about a smart person. He wishes it had been made instead by Christopher Nolan or David Cronenberg "or better yet, Shane Carruth." Chang liked BIRDMAN best and thinks it brilliant ("thrilling, inventive and exhilarating"), which bodes well for the NYFF, where it's the closing night film.

Foundas liked BIRDMAN and also Dolan's MOMMY. A DCP restoration of Mario Monicelli’s 1960 comedy JOYFUL LAUGHTER was also mentioned; not much else. (Monicelli was hugely prolific and there must be a lot of gems most of us haven't seen yet.) Another thing was a restoration of APOCALYPSE NOW.

Another Telluride film talked about elsewhere is ROSEWATER, where Gaël García Bernal plays a detained Iranian journalist, which was directed by political comic-commentator Jon Stewart when he took a sabbatical from his show last year.

THE LOOK OF SILENCE I guess debuted here; it is a companion piece by Joshoa Oppenheimer to his much-praised documentary about Indonesian massacres, THE ACT OF KILLING (Reviewed here in ND/NF last year.) This is mentioned in another round, which also goes into detail about Murch and Francis Ford Coppola discussing APOCALYPSE NOW and their careers otherwise.

Another site's roundup of Telluride lists "movies likely to be in the Oscar race," but they've been mentioned here before, were at Cannes, are at Toronto, are in the NYFF, and the ohnly one not mentioned elsewhere is Jean-Marc Vallé's WILD. This is listed as having its "international premiere" at Toronto so I guess Telluride was a "sneak preview." One article notes a Telluride introducer saying they "don't care" about such things, but they obviously do. Not sure WILD is a big deal but here's the summary:
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Tom Sadoski, Mo McRae, Gaby Hoffman, Laura Dern
Synopsis: After a series of hardships, an inexperienced hiker tackles an 1100-mile trek to reclaim her life.
SSN Insight: At long last, the highly anticipated Wild gets its world premiere at Telluride. Based on Cheryl Strayed’s beloved, best-selling book, the Fox Searchlight release was penned by author Nick Hornby (High Fidelity, About a Boy, An Education), who’s no stranger to literary adaptations himself. This one is all about Witherspoon though, whose performance has generated early buzz. Valée, coming straight off Dallas Buyers Club, might just be thrust into the awards season race again this year. Though underwhelmed by Vallée as a director (this breakdown is missing an L in his name), he seems to have scored again with WILD, a great role for Witherspoon and a stirring survival story. It opens Stateside Dec. 5 and may be up for some awards. The others from Telluride destined for awards mention that this site (studio system) mentiones are ROSEWATER, BIRDMAN, MR. TURNER, THE 50-YEAR ARGUMENT [in the NYFF doc series], THE IMITATION GAME, FOXCATCHER, and WHIPLASH. The NYFF reviews will coverr BIRDMAN, MR. TURNER, FOXCATCHER, and WHIPLASH, maybe THE 50-YEAR ARGUMENT (a history of the NY Review of Books co-directed by Scorsese and David Tedeschi), but not WILD and ROSEWATER.

[Chris Knipp]

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I think Telluride is one of those "you had to be there" situations. They have some good premieres but don't necessarily have a slate to match Cannes or certainly not Toronto or maybe even the NYFF. The latter is less ambitious in seeking dazzling premieres perhaps (thought they seem to have some great high profile ones this year) but they are ready to offer the best of Cannes and several other festivals plus some fine indie or favorite auteur discoveries or rediscoveries. But Telluride seems to provide a uniquely clubby experience of friendly encounters between actors, filmmakers, and film lovers. Here is Scott Foundas this year in VARIETY about Telluride:


As the grizzled Telluride veteran, I’m glad to hear you had such a good time, and such an emblematic one. I’ve been coming to the festival for 11 years now, and I still delight at seeing the wide-eyed awe on the faces of first-time attendees who find themselves standing in a screening queue or sharing a Labor Day picnic with Francis Coppola or Errol Morris or Salman Rushdie or the theater director Peter Sellars — or sometimes all of them at once.