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September 05, 2009
Telluride To Toronto
Sadly, not up in the mountains this weekend, socializing and seeing movies in the most beautiful place in the world. But a few notes as we head towards Toronto in less than a week...
Todd Solondz isn't making it to either fest. He's at Venice and his new work, Life During Wartime, a "further adventures of" Happiness will have to speak on its own at both fests, though Ally Sheedy will do some speaking for it and she is supposed to be raw and magnificent picking up in this film where Lara Flynn Boyle left off in the first film. Todd is teaching in Singapore.
Not doing press in Toronto will be Jean-Pierre Jeunet, director of Micmacs, which just got a pick-up from Sony Classics. The film is being scheduled for Fall 2010, so get a glimpse at TIFF if you can, because it's going to be over a year until it shows up in theaters.
Michael Haneke is in Telluride now, but is not making the trip to Toronto... he doesn't much like the experience of being one film amongst hundreds. (Great guy... a sneak peek at our chat will be up later today.)
Anne Fontaine is in Telluride, but her film, Coco Before Chanel, will not be going to Toronto, set to be released by Sony Classics on September 25.
Herzog returns to his tradition of spending his birthday in Telluride, showing Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans. He'll take the film to Toronto too, where a second film of his will also be shown, the true crime film, My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, which is Exec Produced by David Lynch.
Bad Lieutenant, the Solondz, and The Road are the only "American-made" films on the main schedule at Telluride this year... 3 of 23. As I have been saying for a while, this is the face of "indie" in 2009. American Indie is on life support and world cinema - somehow forever tagged as indie - is what will fill most major festivals this year and probably for a few more years to come.
The biggest surprise on the Telluride schedule, for me, is the absence of Ken Burns' national park series, due later this month on PBS. Maybe they will TK a few episodes, but it has been one of the festival's great traditions to show the entirety of his films, challenging a handful of people to see the entire however many hours in the course of 4 days and late, late nights. I still remember the Jazz showings in the middle of the night with great joy.
Here is a trailer for a film that is not in Telluride - their somewhat snobby loss - but will be at TIFF and is one of my very favorite things I have seen as we head to the great white cement north...
Posted by dpoland at September 5, 2009 11:27 AM
Comments
I was told that Micmacs is late winter 2010 which I read as February/March rather than November/December.
Posted by: EDouglas ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 5, 2009 03:28 PM
ah, good on ya jools and lynda, funnier cross-dressing yodelling lesbian political activist twins with beautifully harmonising singing voices you'll not find in all the world
(the protests shown in that clip are from the gay rights marches of the 70's, the anti-apartheid protest over the springbok's (the then 'whites-only' south african rugby team) tour of enzed in 1981, and anti-nuclear protest marches in the 80's with the boats out on the harbour to 'greet' the american nuclear subs not welcome here in nuclear-free nz)
Posted by: leahnz at September 5, 2009 04:27 PM
Dave, are you seeing Samson & Delilah? God I hope so.
Posted by: KamikazeCamelV2.0 at September 6, 2009 05:37 AM
This is funny – sort of. Every year when I return from the Toronto Festival, I toss leftover Canadian coins into a coffee mug, fully intending to use them the next year I attend. Except, of course, I usually forget about the coins, leave them at home – and add to their number with leftover coins from the next trip. And so on. Well, this year, I decided to go through about three years’ worth of coins before Toronto ’09. The good news: I found 12 Toronto Transit Commission subway tokens among the coins. The bad news: All but three of them are the old aluminum tokens. Which, near as I can figure out, were discontinued back in 2007. Damn.
Posted by: Joe Leydon at September 6, 2009 09:39 AM
Hey what is this UP IN THE AIR shit? All I know is D-Po's "rival" has done 786 threads on it in the last three days, acting like it's the second coming of Citizen Kane.
When it sounds to me like some middle-aged white-man MILQUETOAST BULLSHIT, which Clooney in a suit and Reitman lighting it through his usual copper soft-focus sheen.
At what point does IVAN MOTHERFUCKER REITMAN commandeer the stage at the Oscars and shout, "HEY MOTHERFUCKERS, I DIRECTED MEATBALLS AND STRIPES, why is my kid racking up Oscars like 1999 Fred Durst racked up Playmate Vag?"
I'm sure it's good, it's probably even a 3.5 STAR MOVIE, but the WHITEBOY SUBJECT MATTER and HOLY SHIT LET'S GO TO THE GROVE BECAUSE WE'RE RICH BRENTWOOD CAUCASIAN ASSHOLES WHO'VE NEVER SPOKEN TO A MINORITY vibe is wafting off this thing like you wouldn't believe.
Smacks of some Oscar nominee that all the Beverly Hills denizens gush over, then 10 years on NOBODY would watch this shit with a gun to their head, while you're all rewatching Transformers 2 and Hurt Locker and Basterds and District 9 for the umpteenth time.
Basically, it sounds like 2009's ACCIDENTAL TOURIST, a movie last seen by ANYONE EVER in 1989.
Posted by: LexG at September 7, 2009 01:51 AM
They should have a movie called VAGATAR.
GET ME A SAG CARD, SAVE A LIFE.
YES, YOU.
Posted by: LexG at September 7, 2009 05:01 AM
I remember Gina Davis being kind of hot in Accidental Tourist. Can't remember anything else about the film though.
Posted by: martin at September 7, 2009 08:31 AM
I love "The Accidental Tourist."
It's always been one of my favorite Kasdan films (along with "Body Heat" and "The Big Chill"). If "Up in the Air" is even remotely in the same league, that's good enough for me.
Btw, Todd McCarthy already posted his "Air" rave from Telluride. Since that was apparently one of the only films he wasn't allowed to see in LA, it makes me wonder what's left for him to screen in Toronto.
Although I realize that it's probably wishful thinking on my part, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the current economic meltdown translates to a few less pretend critics and industry wannabes clamoring to get into the same p/i screenings this year.
Like I said, wishful thinking.
Posted by: movieman at September 7, 2009 10:01 AM
For what it's worth: I know of two people who haven't attended TIFF for the past two years simply because their former outlets weren't interested in paying for festival coverage anymore. Now, mind you, these folks, like me, had free digs while they were there, so rent wasn't an issue. But they couldn't qualify for press passes and/or justify the cost of the trip because their outlets cut back. I'm sure they aren't anomalies. But I can't say I found the lines any shorter last year and the year before.
Posted by: Joe Leydon at September 7, 2009 02:05 PM
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the current economic meltdown translates to a few less pretend critics and industry wannabes clamoring to get into the same p/i screenings this year."
It also means people have more free time on there hands. I go to waaaay more press screenings now than when I had a full-time day job.
I don't go out of town though.
Posted by: LYT at September 8, 2009 11:58 AM
d'oh! major there/their foul on my part.
Posted by: LYT at September 8, 2009 11:59 AM
"HOLY SHIT LET'S GO TO THE GROVE BECAUSE WE'RE RICH BRENTWOOD CAUCASIAN ASSHOLES WHO'VE NEVER SPOKEN TO A MINORITY vibe"
God bless Lex. I'd like to see Larry Kasdan, Paul Haggis and Ivan Jr. go on a triple date to the Plant. Or Crenshaw Plaza. Just once.
Posted by: Wrecktum at September 8, 2009 02:18 PM
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