Telluride day 2 —-Saturday Aug 31

A very interesting day!

1. A Tribute to Renee Zellweger—- We saw clips from many of her movies—many of which are ones We have seen.  Fun!

Then we got to see “Judy”.  We were all thoroughly impressed with her performance.  It did not cover her lifespan but focused on the last year of her life when she tried to resurrect her career via concerts in London. 

2. “The Two Popes”—Anthony Hopkins & Jonathan Pryce were superb!  Really worth seeing.  Trailers are out already. Check it out.  

3. “A Hidden Life”—Set during WWII in Austria it focused on a farmer in the mountains (gorgeous scenery) who doesn’t want to swear allegiance to Hitler and pays the price.  It was long & we assumed we wouldn’t sit thru it all—-but we did!  Artistically beautiful. And current in the themes. Based on a real story. Chilling. 

4. “Lyrebird”—Set just after WWII Holland—-A Dutch Jew during the allied temporary control of Holland gets on the trail of an art curator accused of  selling stolen art to Nazis.  Based on a real case.  Very interesting!  

Great day!

Telluride day1 Aug 29,2019

Opening day

I was surprised when I counted how many years I’ve been coming to Telluride to discover it’s 17 years!  Wow!

I saw my former student who has the Patron pass (expensive) and she sent me pix of 3 actors she saw at the Patron brunch. Fun!

This afternoon we went to a marathon documentary about the history of women filmmakers— over 4 hours long!  It was like a short a “course” in how women directors over the years have used film techniques like setting the tone, cameras angles, etc.  I’m sure no one will see this one later ...beyond film schools!

This evening was our first feature film: “Waves.”  It’s starring Sterling K. Brown  ( from “This is us”) as a father pushing too hard to ensure his family excels in everything. When his son is pushed too far, things unravel. A really moving & realistic drama. We all were impressed.

There was another late film tonight but 3 of us felt we needed to get some sleep...and it looked like it would be a really heavy film.

More tomorrow!

Telluride 2019 —the day before.. (Aug 29)

Here we are! This year we have 6 ladies in our VRBO condo: Michelle P., Julie B., Pat J., Julie A. and Johannah C.    Quite the crew!  (I joke that it’s an ASCCC recovery retreat!). The huge condo is very close to the theatre where all of our films are shown.  That helps a lot because we often have to run back home to grab a quick snack before the next show. As I have done in the past, I got the cheap pass with the others, as I am saving my $$ for my Big trip in October (watch this space).

We just got the program and here is a sample of what we’ll see:
The festival will pay tribute to 2 actors whose films will be shown: Renee Zellweger (with her film “Judy” as in “Garland”). And Adam Driver, with his film “Marriage Story” also with Scarlet Johannson, Alan Alda & Laura Dern.  He also has a second new film we’ll see: “The Report.”

A few others we’ll see:
“The Two Popes” —Anthony Hopkins & Jonathan Pryce
“The Aeronauts” Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones
“Pain & Glory”. Anthony Bandaras
“Ford v Ferrari” with Matt Damon & Christian Bale

We’re ready for the films to start!
:-)

Labor Day Telluride

As sad as it is to be on the last day already, the good news is we had 4 excellent films.

1. “White Boy Ricky”—based on a true story— a sad case of a father & son living on the wrong side of the law in Detroit in the 80s.  Matthew McConaughy was here to introduce the film to us.

2.” The old man & the gun” stars Robert Redford as a career bank robber—based on a real person named Forrest Tucker. It was charming. Will have wide appeal. Also with Casey Affleck &Sissy Spacek.

3. The Front Runner” is about Gary Hart’s failed run for president in 1988 after tabloid accusations of his womanizing.  Starred Hugh Jackman & Vera Farmiga—well acted.

4.  “Boy Erased”— powerful real tale (based on a memoir) of an 18 year old son of a preacher in Arkansas who is sent to “conversion therapy” for being gay.  Excellent cast: Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman & Russell Crowe.  Excellent!

Overall we felt it wasn’t the most spectacular year of films this time.  But I did enjoy most of them.  A theme this year: stories based on real cases.
It’s really hard to believe it’s over already. Went really fast!  More rain this year than ever.

My ratings: in no special order

Favorites:
Girl
The Favourite
White Boy Rick
Watergate
The Front Runner
Destroyer
BoyErased

Very good:
First Man
Old man & the gun
Trial by Fire
The White Crow

Worth seeing:

Limited appeal: Roma, Cold War

I didn’t see here but want to:
Can you ever forgive me
Nonfiction (French)
Reversing Roe

Telluride Day 3 Sept 2

We managed to see 4 films today.  An excellent day!

1. A tribute to Emma Stone & her new film, “The Favourite.”  The festival honored Stone & we saw a short interview with her before the movie.  She has been here the last 2 years with La La Land and Battle of the Sexes.  (And the Birdman was the year prior).
Her new film was excellent.  She played a conniving servant in Queen Anne’s court.  The filmmakers did an excellent job of suggesting the historical period but making it current enough to be accessible.
It was really entertaining!  I look forward to seeing it again.  It will get a lot of attention.

2. “Girl” was a very moving story of a young man who wanted to become a female and wanted to become a ballerina.  I thought it was very touching and easy to empathize. Outstanding acting.  It had won several awards at Cannes.  Not surprising.

3. “First Man” tells about Neil Armstrong on his path to the moon.  This will be popular. We all enjoyed it.  It does take poetic license but still worth it.

4. “The White Crow” told the story of Rudolf  Nureyev from his childhood until his professional ballet, and then his defection.  Of course I enjoyed the dancing.  Well done!

So this was a day of 4 excellent films!!
We had thunder & lightening, so it reminded us where we were!

Telluride Day 2 Sept 1

Today we decided just to see three films. We’re taking it a little slower this year. They’re just were some films that didn’t appeal to us very much.

1. First was a tribute to Alfonso Cuaron(who directed “Gravity” for example)
and the screening of his new film: “Roma.”  He explained that the film was drawn from memories of his childhood in a district in Mexico City called Roma. It was in the 1970s. The four of us had very mixed reactions to this film. It was a character study and certainly not action packed. Visually it was interesting and the human story was compelling. But I doubt that many people will flock to see it. It was in Spanish.
2. “Cold War” was a Polish film about a man who researched, played and taught folk music to a young choral group, to ensure the tradition continues.  He falls in love with a young lady in the group and their very passionate and tortured relationship is set against the backdrop of the challenging political turmoil of Eastern Europe from the late 40s -50s.  Because of the music and locales (including Paris in the 50s) I was drawn to it, but some others thought it less appealing.

3. “Destroyer” starred Nicole Kidman as an LA detective who ( as the program explains) was haunted by an old case that had gone wrong.  Her transformation into this character is certain to garner an Academy award nomination.  It’s a gritty cop show with a woman in the lead, instead of a man. We Just read a review of it that was very positive.  This is one to watch for.

Sleep time. . .

Telluride Day 1 Aug 31,2018

Today is the start of the festival!  They did something new: at “our” venue—right by where we’re staying—- in the afternoon they screened a very long new documentary film: “Watergate—-Or How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President.”  It was 260 minutes long!! But amazingly we were all captivated.  It wove together excerpts from the hearings, interviews at the time, current interviews such as with Woodward & Bernstein and some re-exactions of some key conversations from the Watwergate tapes.  The parallels with Washington’s corruption today were powerful and chilling.  This film will be on the History channel in November, so watching it in several smaller pieces will be easier for most viewers.  After our screening, there was a panel with the filmmaker, a congresswoman from that era, and Lesley Stahl, who you’ll recognize in the photo (if I can add it ok).

The second film we saw today was “Trial by Fire,” based on a real case.  Chilling.  Cameron Todd Willingham was on death row in Texas for the arson murder of his 3 children. From all evidence, he actually was innocent.  Laura Dern played a woman who took on his cause to appeal the conviction.  Chilling, but well done.

So we started the film festival with 2 real American tales.