Updated: Telluride Film Festival
Many media reports on the 35th annual Telluride Film Festival taking place this Labor Day weekend. Here are some of them:
“‘The Road’ looks to get on track” (L.A. Times):
The struggling Weinstein Co. is hoping Telluride will be especially kind to “The Road,” after the movie about a father and his son trying to navigate a perilous post-apocalyptic America debuted at the Venice Film Festival to polarized reviews. Equally important, director John Hillcoat and star Viggo Mortensen (honored in a sold-out Telluride tribute tonight) are hopeful their Telluride screenings can establish what the film really is, as opposed to what its early advertising materials have suggested: a moving story of a father’s unrelenting love for his son rather than a “Mad Max” action thriller as the movie’s opening trailer misleadingly implied.
“George Clooney’s Oscar contender seduces Telluride” (L. A. Times):
There was heavy anticipation in the drizzly air over Telluride, Colo., late Saturday afternoon as hundreds lined up for the “sneak preview” of George Clooney’s latest starring role in “Up in the Air” at the Chuck Jones Cinema high atop Mountain Village overlooking the picturesque town.
The packed-to-the-rafters audience filled the auditorium quickly, and from all accounts the film didn’t disappoint — certainly from our vantage point where we watched such Oscar-winning director-screenwriters as this year’s guest programmer Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) and cinephile Curtis Hanson (“L.A. Confidential”) be among the last to find empty seats for the debut of co-writer and director Jason Reitman’s smart, funny and perceptive comedy.
“Jason Reitman returns flying high” (L.A. Times):
When director Jason Reitman brought “Juno” to the Telluride Film Festival two years ago, it was the start of something big. The comedy not only went on to become a break-out hit (domestic gross: $143.5 million) but also brought screenwriter Diablo Cody the best original screenplay Oscar.
Reitman was back in the Colorado resort town Saturday night with a sneak preview of “Up in the Air,” and, judging from the audience reaction at its first, sold-out showing, the 31-year-old filmmaker may have another critical hit for a follow-up.
“Best Actress Oscar race could be heating up at Tellurid” (L.A. Times):
By all accounts this year’s best actress race has been looking awfully thin with few surefire contenders.
One of them, “An Education’s” Carey Mulligan turned up Friday afternoon for the first Telluride screening of her Sundance hit, and even those not completely bowled over by the early ‘60s-set movie (a definite minority) were singing her praises. She charmingly introduced the film (along with director Lone Scherfig) by noting her nervousness , particularly with the presence in the audience of Brenda Blethyn, who played her “mum” in her first job (2005’s “Pride & Prejudice”). Mulligan was hoping Blethyn would be impressed and we bet she was.
“Telluride: Plenty for sale, but few shoppers” (L.A. Times):
There’s no shortage of new films at the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival looking for a theatrical distributor. Problem is, there aren’t that many buyers — in this Colorado mountain resort, or anywhere else for that matter.
Two concurrent — but not necessarily complementary — business cycles have led to the imbalance. First, a rush of money (from high net-worth individuals, hedge funds and other outside-of-Hollywood sources) helped create a deluge of new movies, often the kind of modestly budgeted, high-minded dramas the studios tend to avoid. But just as those films were coming to market and looking for a theatrical home, the very distributors of those movies vanished from the scene — the latest victims including Senator Entertainment. And even the handful of specialty films that are still around (Focus Features, Lionsgate, Miramax, The Weinstein Co.) aren’t buying nearly as many festival films as they once did.
Review: “Up In The Air” (Daily Variety / Toddy McCarthy)
“Reitman and Clooney prepare for takeoff” (Hollywood Reporter)
And then this THR story about what may be the sleeper movie to emerge from the festival:
The second sneak preview of the Telluride Film Festival, the indie-turned-studio horror pic “Paranormal Activity,” unspooled in perfect conditions late Saturday: outdoors, in the dense darkness of midnight under pouring rain. And the audience, which stuck it out under makeshift ponchos and umbrellas, were primed for the experience.
By now the backstory to “Paranormal Activity” is the stuff of indie-film lore. Made with a single camera for ?$11,000 in one house, the movie caught the attention of Paramount, which noted the film’s low-budget spooks, saw it as a potential breakout along the lines of “The Blair Witch Project” and proceeded to acquire the title.
Curious I found this IMDB user review:
The storytelling here is simple but also inspired. Young couple Katie and Micah plan to film their home at night while sleeping in hopes of capturing evidence of a ghost that seems to haunting them, or more precisely Katie, since this is not the first time she has experienced these type of visitations. We watch the footage of the young couple sleeping and gradually things do start to happen. Katie and Micah also film themselves discussing the situation, a visit from a spiritualist, and a few other random moments. Doesn’t sound like much, right? Or that it could possibly be the slightest bit scary. Well, Oren Peli’s little indie film is everything a scary movie should be. In other words, it is indeed very scary.
Peli accomplishes the improbable through utilizing tension, character and imagination. The found footage concept used in the movie, a la “Blair Witch”, “Cloverfield” and the recent “Quarantine”, is perhaps slightly more effective in this situation. It’s usually a still camera with things sometimes occurring just beyond what we can see. The result is a heightened sense of reality and a greater sense of dread as to what those sounds could be. We’ve all been there. We here a noise out in the dark and are frightened by the unknown. Peli seems to understand this greatly and uses it to great effect. When the camera does move it is often done slowly, perhaps in an effort to avoid the shaky-cam effect, but it also helps create greater tension.
Sounds cool. I especially like the idea of activity happening just off-camera: How frustrating that could be — in a good way — for a viewer, making us more and more curious as to what’s really going on.
Re Telluride: There will be a couple more days of reviews and analysis, but it sounds like a promising start to this year’s festival.