The weekend in the Rockies was marked by an interesting
trend that has emerged in this year’s festival. If you are the kind of person
who keeps an eye on Twitter for film-related news and musings every now and
then, you would have noticed a number of folks already talking about All Is Lost (lost in sea) and Gravity (lost in space) in some kind of
a thematic togetherness. But the weekend over here has confirmed that this
thematic trend would continue to be the talk of this year’s cinematic stories
under the umbrella of “survival”. Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Eugene
Hernandez posted a very insightful piece about Telluride being marked by extreme
stories of survival, including not only Gravity
and All Is Lost under this theme, but
also (very rightfully so) 12 Years A
Slave (which I talked about in my previous Telluride dispatch). Over at The
New York Times, A. O. Scott similarly hinted towards the same trend (by calling All Is Lost "another movie about the fight for survival in a hostile environment.") So here
we are, slowly heading into the madness of the awards season, with survival in
mind. Seems ironically fitting.
So, what did I see over the weekend? My Saturday was marked by ‘dizzying tension’, as well as survival. Early Saturday morning (8:30
am, to be specific), I started my day with a sneak peek of Prisoners directed by Denis Villeneuve (Incendies), which was a competent if not slightly overwrought
procedural/thriller. While capably maintaining tension throughout, Villeneuve’s
film lost some blood due to a few issues in its script (written by Aaron
Guzikowski), reminding us that it is never good news when characters take
unconvincing steps and make senseless decisions as a convenient means of
furthering the plot. Still, there is a lot to like here. Tension, for one.
Melissa Leo, for two. And most importantly, Roger Deakins’ gorgeous photography
that makes the experience worthwhile. Prisoners
will hit the theaters in just a couple of weeks under a Warner Bros
distribution. You may choose to check it out, or perhaps re-watch a masterpiece
called Zodiac instead that an
ultimately Fincher-esque Prisoners
will inevitably make you think of.
After a brief stopover at the Elks Park to hear a free panel
moderated by Annette Insdorf (Moving Pictures: How is narrative shaped by
evolving visual strategies? What makes a story cinematic?), with the attendance
of Jason Reitman, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Asghar Farhadi; I continued
my Saturday with David Mackenzie’s excellent Starred Up, starring a jaw-dropping Jack O’Connell (whom you might
remember from This Is England and Harry Brown.) Depicting the corruption
within the British prison system through the story of a teenage criminal,
Mackenzie’s accomplishment lies in his unbending honesty and naturalism in
telling the story of another survival struggle. Starred Up is drawing a lot of comparisons to Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, and there is currently some
distribution buzz around it.
In the evening came this year’s hottest ticket, Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity in 3D (and along with Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, my favorite of this year’s festival). A dizzying, nauseating and heart-stopping space
adventure, Gravity is very much a tightly choreographed piece of
cinematic dazzle, completely free of excessive flashiness and overwrought
dialogues. For reasons you will understand as soon as you see it, many talk
about Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as a point of reference to this movie. But in
all honesty, it made me think of Ridley Scott’s Alien a lot more –
it was almost impossible to not recall Ellen Ripley (played by Sigourney
Weaver) while watching Dr. Ryan Stone (played by a marvelous Sandra Bullock)
embracing all her intuitive instincts in order to survive in this masterpiece
that celebrates the classic adventure genre by slightly turning it over its
head. During the post-screening Q&A in front of an overexcited audience in
the Werner Herzog Theatre, writer/director Alfonso Cuarón (joined by his
co-writer and son Jonás Cuarón) said, “This film was a big act of
miscalculation. That's why it took four-and-a-half years to make.”, jokingly
addressing the challenges of pulling off an overambitious project such as this
one that deceptively looked easier to tackle at first.
Saturday was concluded with a laid-back (and surprisingly
under-attended) Fox Searchlight party over at the New Sheridan Bar. In addition
to prominent journalists and bloggers, the entire 12 Years A Slave team were in attendance (all but Brad Pitt). It
was the right way to end an epic day marked by Gravity; catching up with
friends over a few drinks, and watching the contenders Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong'o dance the night away.
The following day, I was able to fit in Ritesh Batra’s
heart-warming and old-fashioned love story/drama The Lunchbox, which is slated for distribution by Sony Classics. Charged
by humanistic performances by Irrfan Khan and Nimrat Kaur, this little film has
become a darling in the streets of Telluride, producing much enthusiastic word
of mouth. I continued my day with Yuval Adler’s Bethlehem – a powerful drama that navigates the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict through a Palestinian teenager’s troubling life. Following Bethlehem, I had an incredible 30-minute chat with The Past director Asghar Farhadi on his
latest movie and his cinema collectively. I can hardly wait to transcribe our conversation in which he offered generous insights about his narrative choices and cinematic aspirations.
Catching up with Twitter later on alerted
me about the three pieces of news that broke a little earlier that day. First
was The Weinstein Co acquisition of Tracks. The second was Hayao Miyazaki’s
retirement decision (which convinced me to catch his somber and beautiful The Wind Rises at Chuck Jones later that
night.) And the third was, the Weinstein Co Team bringing the Salinger documentary to Telluride
crash-landing in Telluride’s frightening regional airport. Thankfully, no
injuries were reported. Talk about a weekend being marked by stories of
survival...
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