Here we are, at the start of another thread of fall film
festivals that are officially kicking off the most exciting time of the year
for brand-new movies from renowned and new filmmakers. The opening night of the
70th Venice Film Festival was just a few days ago, with people
swooning over what looks to be a heart-throbbing Gravity. Toronto will start in just a few days, and the 51st
edition of the infinitely prestigious New York Film Festival is slated to kick
off on the last Friday of September, just like every year. But there is one fall festival, a very unique one that
stands between Venice and Toronto called Telluride, that has –in a way- stolen
the unofficial spot of Toronto as the kick-starter of the awards season that
stretches through the Oscars. And I am currently at that very festival,
reporting from its 40th Edition. Celebrating a landmark year with an
added day (5 days instead of their usual 4), the festival directors Julie
Huntsinger, Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer drew attention to not only the highly-anticipated
titles in this year’s line up, but also under-the-radar titles that are waiting
to be discovered such as The Galapagos
Affair: Satan Came to Eden (Daniel Geller, Dayna Goldfine), Fifi Howls from Happiness (Mitra
Farahani), as well as their Guest Directors program, which aims to collaborate
with a variety of participants who help craft a dedicated slate to bring a number
of overlooked films to light. During yesterday’s press-orientation meeting, the
directors noted that their programming and scheduling structure sometimes means
having to make “tough choices” (e.g. today, two sneak previews were scheduled
at the same time; Steve McQueen’s 12
Years A Slave and Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners),
and added that the program tends to reflect the current cinematic landscape as
well as their own tastes, as opposed to a conscious worry to give equal weight
to different trends or countries.
After proudly talking about their brand-new,
state-of-the-art venue named after Werner Herzog, the small number of us in the
press orientation were guided to the gondola to take us to the Chuck Jones
Theater up at Mountain Village, for a “surprise” screening for press and
patrons which ended up being Jason Reitman’s surprisingly untypical Labor Day. The Telluride veteran Reitman
dedicated the movie to his mother, and jokingly warned the audience about the
difficult transition ahead: “You will need to step out of a beautiful town on a
Labor Day weekend, and step into another beautiful town on a Labor Day weekend.
It’s like seeing Gravity. You’ll
somehow get there.” I wouldn’t be exaggerating in saying Labor Day took all of us in Chuck Jones by storm. By the end of it,
there were many tears being wiped, many sighs being exchanged in appreciation
of a somber study of love and family. Labor
Day is very much a departure for Reitman. In what can be labeled as a
“coming of age” story, he is incredibly lyrical, patient and observing. At
times, Labor Day –in a very loose
fashion- made me think of Malick in its lyricism around human nature. And it
has been -very fittingly so- compared to Clint Eastwood’s A Perfect World and The
Bridges Of Madison County by In Contention’s Kris Tapley. “It sits with its
characters, measured, patient with them.”, says Tapley in his accurate
comparison. Scheduled to release at the end of this year, Labor Day will surely head into the awards season with a strong
voice, and it will be interesting to witness how its –along with its cast’s- journey
will shape from there on out. Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin are two strong performers, but
the glory also belongs to the newcomer Gattlin Griffith. My only reservation
with the movie is its slightly overblown tease of danger (supported by a
suspenseful score by Rolfe Kent), yet the other side of the same coin would
mean giving Reitman the credit he deserves in keeping the audience on their
toes in this wonderful drama.
During the rest of my first day, I decided to make a stop at
the “Opening Night Feed” briefly, to help myself to some wine and food, and head
out to the Werner Herzog Theatre, to discover Herzog’s 1972 classic Aguirre: Wrath Of God for the first
time. I mean, how often does one get to sit in front of Herzog in a theater
named after Herzog himself, right after he introduces his own film? After this
once-in-a-lifetime experience, I ran over to the other end of the town to check
out Gia Coppola’s (Francis Ford’s granddaughter) confident, soundly observed
debut Palo Alto, adapted from a
collection of short stories by the prolific James Franco.
Today (day 2) started on a very high note, with Asghar
Farhadi’s masterfully crafted The Past,
starring Bérénice Bejo and Tahar Rahim. In yet another complex human drama
where complicated individuals seek truth and justice through their competing
motives, Farhadi, following his masterpiece A
Separation, once again proves his mastery in intricate plotting and using
every inch of physical space to his plotlines’ advantage. During a fascinating
Q&A, he mentioned he actually wrote a sequence of The Past here in Telluride when he was here a couple of years ago
for A Separation (in response to a
question whether the Oscar win had any impact on his career or storytelling).
He also talked about his previous stage work and how handy that expertise is
coming to him in composing his scenes. The stakes don’t feel as high in The Past as they did in A Separation; yet this film is beautiful
in quieter ways and I very much look forward to seeing it one more time in New
York.
After The Past, I
made my way to the Herzog Theatre once again to see Teller’s Tim’s Vermeer (the second Sony Classics
film of the day). After a brief impromptu chitchat with Alejandro González Iñárritu on his
Telluride experience so far in front of the theater (thanks to First Showing’s
Alex Billington for the introduction), I caught this instantly winning film
among an enthusiastic audience. The documentary follows a passionate, obsessive
inventor who sets to prove that Vermeer was using photographic techniques in producing
his work; by building a replica of his studio completely out of scratch to
reproduce one of his classic paintings. Very much an appreciation of the
crossover between arts and sciences –as well as ambitions that make us human- Tim’s Vermeer is likely to play to equally-strong
reactions once it hits the theaters. The screening was off to a bumpy start
with some severe sound issues, but director Teller and the film’s producer Penn
Jillette took the opportunity to entertain the audience while the technical
issues were being resolved. And how great was that… Honestly (as I said to Sony
Classics’ Michael Barker and Tom Bernard in passing later) – they couldn’t have
bought that extra time and used it to the film’s advantage that brilliantly, if
they planned for it.
Later in the day brought out the festival’s REAL big gun:
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, one
of today’s sneak peeks. In attendance in the screening were Steve McQueen, Brad
Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o and the magnificent Chiwetel Ejiofor (it
looked like seeing “some” names in attendance here took everyone by surprise.)
And…what a movie this was. Adapted from Solomon Northup’s memoir with the same
title, 12 Years A Slave tells the
story of a free man, kidnapped and sold to slavery in 1840s Washington DC. It
is impossible to not feel shell-shocked after witnessing McQueen’s
unapologetically fixated camera in which he captures extreme brutality to even
further brutal effect. This is an account of history of racism that I don’t
believe to have witnessed in cinema lately. Not simplified, not sugarcoated
(far from it) and to its credit, extremely brave and fittingly raw. It is tough
to predict what an average moviegoer’s reaction will be to McQueen’s
uncompromisingly graphic images and the near-perfect script by John Ridley. Some
will find the movie extreme, I’m sure. It is going to be hard to watch for some.
But it is incredibly necessary, if not crucial, to watch and endure these
images. It is crucial to take them in with all the details delivered by an
excellent ensemble of actors in incredibly demanding, physical performances. As
early as it might be to call winners, I don’t really see a scenario (expect
perhaps for an upset by Robert Redford in All
Is Lost) where the Best Actor title could be stolen from Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Equally stunning are Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong’o; definitely two
other names I’d love to see go far. Movies rarely get much better than this,
dare I say…
One couldn’t really see anything else to follow 12 Years up. Following the screening, I
got to catch up with First Showing’s Alex Billington as well as Awards Daily’s lovely
Sasha Stone and got to hear their takes on the titles they’ve seen thus far. We
even got to chat with Jason Reitman and All Is Lost director JC Chandor for a little while. That’s
the thing about Telluride. Everyone’s here to hang out and be accessible.
Unlike Sundance, it’s an extremely pressure-free environment where you just get
to enjoy the show along with some breathtaking views.
Many other titles and debuts ahead for tomorrow. The hottest
ticket in town will surely be Alfonso Cuarón’s
Gravity. I’m planning on lining up early.
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