Sat Aug 31 Telluride

 Each year the festival chooses 1 director & 1 actor to honor. This year, Frenchman Jacques Audiard was the director.  We saw clips of many of his films, then there was an interview with him. The principal actors were also present.  We then saw his new film “Emelia  Perez”. Really well done.  The story revolves around a drug lord in Mexico, who decides he wants to completely change his identity—Actually, from male to female. He hires a lawyer to work on his behalf to locate a different country that will do the drastic surgery needed to change sex. The three women playing the three major roles received awards at Cannes &  it was easy to see why that occurred. They were excellent.  It will be on Netflix sometime.  ( by the way, I have found that even the films that are not released yet typically are  included in IMDB where one could get more information about a given movie.) 

The second movie wasn’t in the printed program— it was a “TBA” — called “ Real Pain” written, directed & starring Jesse Eisenberg ( who was here to introduce it)  also with Kieran Culkin.  The two are cousins who take a small group tour to Poland to honor their recently departed grandmother, who was born in there. For the most part, it is a comedy, but family tensions emerge between the cousins.  It was entertaining, but rather lightweight. It’s the kind of movie I would watch on an airplane. 

Next we saw “September 5”, the telling of the 1972 terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. A journalist introduced the film to us and pointed out the  role that journalists play in reporting. In this case, the ABC sports reporters covering the Olympics were suddenly news journalists and some events may have been in advertently caused by their behavior. Peter Sarsgaard starred and was present to speak to us briefly before the screening. I thought it was an excellent film. It shows an important event in international history and shines a  light on terrorism, Arab -Israeli conflicts, and the role that journalism plays in reporting. I definitely recommend this film.

Well, I could have seen one or even two more films today, but three was enough. We came back to the condo and had a nice late dinner. Then three of the gals went back to see a late movie.