I'm gonna step aside and just let Hollywood Man tell it how it was, wish I could have been there, and speaking of wishing. Maaaaaaaaan, I'd just love to be in Toronto during this film fest, my god they have a line up. But hey, I'll just live vicariously through the readers that report in, it's just as cool... really it is.... no seriously....
Hollywood Man here with a delayed report from TELLURIDE film festival, sorry it is a little late but I don't have e-mail at home. There is going to be some boring stuff in it so edit it if you want. Hell, it might not even be suitable for posting...."whatever happens, my toes are still tapping".
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 2
This was actually a travel day for me. Since I live in Toluca Lake (Yes, like Jimmy in Pulp Fiction) I flew out of Burbank instead of LAX. Now, I know Katie Holmes is in North Carolina filming Dawson's Creek but I thought just maybe she could have been here in town and maybe she might be flying out of Burbank. Alas, no Katie Holmes. I should point out at this time that having an empty seat on the plane was heaven, cus I make you look skinny Harry. This 2 hour flight zipped by. I was equipped with 2 issues of MOJO and 2 issues of Independent Filmmaker magazine for reading material. Because room in my carry on was tight I only had 4 cd's for the trip: Thin Lizzy - Black Rose, Maria McKee - Gotta Sin to get Saved, The Beatles - Help, and The Usual Suspects soundtrack. I arrive in Phoenix to switch planes for Telluride and everybody looks like a Baywatch extra. I know I am from L.A. but I swear I've never seen so many people in sandals with tan, blonde bodies. Since I don't want to socialize with a state that doesn't celebrate MLK's B-day, I get a pizza and wait for my small flight to Telluride. Now, my mom told me this plane would be small but I had no idea she meant propeller stuff. This was a tiny plane about the size of a big car! Needless to say Katie Holmes was not on this flight. By now I have realized that there is a special private jet reserved for girls whose smiles I would slay a million dragons for and that is the plane she must be on. But there was a cool person on this flight.....Robert Carradine! I totally tackled him and we talked about Sam Fuller (Robert was in The Big Red One) and Scorsese (some people don't know that Robert Carradine shoots brother David in Mean Streets) and he was totally cool!!! Lucky for him, he didn't sit next to me to get squashed, that was a pleasure to be enjoyed by Raul (a grad student from Columbia). This flight was totally bumpy and Raul and I both pleaded for Heroin, but only got a Ginger Ale....Damn Federal Regulations!!! When we landed in Telluride I quickly found out why everyone warned me about the High Altitude (9,000 ft). Just walking to the taxi nearly gave me a heart attack! Being a fat out of shape slob is one thing, but everything being 1/3rd harder on top of that was pure HELL!!! My driver was cool and it started me off realizing that HEY, ONCE YOU'RE OUT OF LOS ANGELES .......PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY NICE.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 3.
Picked up my schedule and walked around the gorgeous town of Telluride. The opening night Feed started at 5:00pm and the first films started around 7:00pm. I should point out that I was hoping to average 3 films a day (except for thurs). If you are in marathon shape(running to the next venue to get in line) you could do 4 films a day and if you have a patron pass(i.e. BIG WIG) and are in marathon shape you could see 4 a day. I ended up doing fine on my average thanks to Sunday, so don't get alarmed at my first stumbling.
First film I saw was THE GENERAL directed by John Boorman. He introduced it and explained that he PERSONALLY borrowed the money from a bank to make this film. It was truly independent! He also was proud of the fact that he shot it in black and white. I'm glad he did because this story was gritty and black/white suited it just right. It's the story of Martin Cahill, an Irish gangster that led an interesting and crime filled life. It has humor, action, drama and a cool robbery scene. Me = Loved it! Festival Vibe = Liked it.
Next was I'M LOSING YOU. Bruce Wagner's directing & screen writing debut from one of his books. I have never heard of this guy but I guess he has written 2 good novels. And this film is based on his second book. He and Rosanna Arquette introduced the film and he seemed really cool (I'll get to that later). It had a great cast! Maybe it's me, but I was totally in to seeing Andrew McArthy in a cool role! I mean where has he been? Elisabeth Perkins and Frank Langella were also great. As usual, whenever Buck Henry is in a film he steals every scene he is in. A lot of tragedy in this film so do not go if you are in the mood for DUMB DUMBER. Me = Liked it a lot, even if it had flaws. Festival Vibe = It was okay. Katie Holmes was not in attendance at either film, but there's still hope....
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 4.
First film was HAPPINESS, the much anticipated follow up to WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE from Todd Solondz. If you liked WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE and (this is a big "and") you don't have a problem with issues like rape,masturbation,drug abbuse,pedophilia, and other stuff...then you will like this film. It is hilarious considering what subject matter it has. The cast is amazing!! Anything Phillip Seymour Hoffman is in, I run to. Everybody shines in this film; Ben Gazzara is great! Lara Flynn Boyle does her best work since Twin Peaks and even Marla Maples (yes, that Marla Maples) is pretty funny. Todd did a Q&A after the film which was pretty cool. I guess OCTOBER films lost all their balls when they were bought by UNIVERSAL and are not going to distribute the film. GOOD MACHINE productions is going to distribute the film themselves as "UN-RATED" which is smart. Me = Loved it! Festival Vibe = Almost Loved it (except for a few fuddy-duddies)
Next film was a collection of French Avant Garde films from the 20's. It was eight shorts that were recently unearthed and restored by the FRENCH CINEMATHEQUE. Dominique Paini, the director of the CINEMATHEQUE was there and he sooooooo cool! He explained that there is still many films at the Cinematheque that haven't been discovered yet. Later, when I spoke with him and asked him what exactly he meant he said, "there are 15,000 boxes that they haven't even gotten to yet." Can you imagine? Man, I wonder what cool shit they're gonna find in there. Anyway, the films were really cool. I dug everyone of them. Real early experimental stuff like just playing with shapes and light and then a cool one about the Eifel Tower and then one with a little more story and character. I liked them all, but I am afraid people were dropping like flies. Not enough star attraction I guess!!! Fucking Light weights!! Sorry, got a little mad there. I SHOULD ADD THAT THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THESE FILMS HAVE EVER BEEN SHOWN OUTSIDE OF FRANCE!!! How cool is that?! Me = Loved it. Festival vibe = "It was kind of weird, I don't get it" - Damn Mainstreamers, got to fight them at every turn!!!
Now at this time I should have seen a third film but......... Stupid me thought I should pop in to a German restaurant and have a snack. Well after 3 steins of lager these construction guys and I started talking. As soon as I told them I was writing for Entertainment Weekly (No, I am not) they bought round after round of weird shots I have never heard of. Actually, I know Jaegermeister, but none of the others. Basically I missed out on a third film for the day and slept a little late the next morning. No Katie Holmes at the German place either, where the hell is she?
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 5
Slept late!! Dammit, I'm never drinking again...I SWEAR! Went to mid-day THANKSGIVING ON THE MOUNTAIN. Basically it is the second of three free meals of the festival and it is held on top of the some huge mountain in TELLURIDE. The view is unbelievable! No wonder people flock here all summer! The food was cool and there was a presentation to Meryl Streep by none other than Clint Eastwood. He was a surprise and everybody was ecstatic that he was there. I don't see what the big deal is, it's not like it's Katie Holmes or anything.
First Film was CELLULOID RESUMES, which was a collection of 6 shorts from around the world. Although I liked them all, my two favorites were L'INTERVIEW by Xavier Giannoli and LARGER THAN LIFE by Ellory Elkayem. The French film L'INTERVIEW was about a guy preparing for an interview with Ava Gardner and his ultimate let down, it was really cool. The New Zealand film LARGER THAN LIFE is an homage to the "bug" movies of the fifties and I know Harry would love it. it's pretty cool how the low budget special effects work.
Next film was THE SILVER AGE: US FILM 1967-74. This was actually clips from about 10 films. GRADUATE,EASY RIDER,FIVE EASY PIECES,TWO LANE BLACKTOP,THE CANDIDATE,AMERICAN GRAFITTI,PLAY MISTY FOR ME,...CUKOOS NEST,LAST PICTURE SHOW,BADLANDS. Then, there was a panel discussion with (and this is cool) Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Ritchie,Bob Rafelson,Buck Henry,Saul Zaentz,Monte Hellman, and John Boorman. It was moderated by Todd McCArthy from Variety. Now I am sure Mr. McCarthy knows his shit, and I am sure he is a swell guy but I don't think he moderated the discussion very well. I think he didn't have any good follow up questions and there was hardly any mention of films by directors who weren't present. I just thought that he should have better questions than, "So Peter, what was it like making the LAST PICTURE SHOW?" But hey, who I am I anyway. here is a sample sentence from each person so you can get each person's vibe. These are my interpretations, don't go suing anybody.
PETER BOGDANOVICH - "Hey! I knew Orson!"
MICHAEL RITCHIE - "Negative pick up is the path to creative freedom"
BOB RFELSON - "It was no big deal, there's great films now dammit!"
BUCK HENRY - "Entertainment Tonight can @#$%^ off"
SAUL ZAENTZ - "Hey! Producers are people too!"
MONTE HELLMAN - "People want to please the audience instead of creating art, what a bummer"
JOHN BOORMAN - "You can't get a film done unless some marketing @#$%^&* can make a 30 second TV spot on it."
Me = Loved it (I can't help it with all those cool guys) Festival Vibe = It was okay.
That was it for Saturday, cus I slept in. Did I mention that Katie Holmes was not on the panel.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 6
First film was Stroheim's THE WEDDING MARCH. There were several silent films at this years festival but I chose this one because I had seen most of the others. Although I would have liked to have seen THE MAN WHO LAUGHS (at least I think it was silent). Peter Bogdanovich spoke some and then introduced Kevin Brownlow as "the man who knows more about silent film than anyone on the planet". Now, I have to interject here that I ashamed of myself for never knowing who this guy was. He is so amazing! Listening to him was pure bliss. I am going to buy every one of his books and go rent the one film he made called IT COULD HAPPEN HERE (at least I think he only made one film). Other people were saying Leonard Maltin was a good speaker but I thought this guy was the best speaker ever! THE WEDDING MARCH was amazing! I was not disappointed at all. I have a new appreciation for Fay Wray. One reel was in panchromatic color (whatever the hell that is!) and it was cool. Every Stroheim film I have seen is a five star and this one was no different.
Next film was THE APPLE. It is by Samira Makhmalbaf the 18 year old daughter of filmmaker Moshen Makhmalbaf. Now I know quite a bit about the FRENCH NEW WAVE and even my share of the ITALIAN NEO REALISTS but I don't know anything about Iranian film. So this was my first. Supposedly the dad,Moshen, is a big deal so this film by his daughter was a big interest at the festival.....translation = A LOT OF HYPE! It is the "re-created, directed documentary of a real life event". Basically, she directed the real people in reenacting the vents that went down about two 11 year old girls that were locked up by their father. I'm not going to say much here except....not my cup of tea. I actually liked the short that preceded it better. I forgot what it was called but it was Cindy Klein and it was interview footage of her parents....interesting stuff. For the Apple: Me = it was okay I guess Festival Vibe = "Wasn't it amazing?!!!" Everybody but me loved it! The Cindy Klein short: Me = Cool Festival Vibe = "Kind of exploitive, wasn't it?"
The Next film was the re-cut of TOUCH OF EVIL. What can I say? A masterpiece just got better! Trust me it is sooooo much better than the original release which Orson didn't hate, but felt was inferior to his vision. GO SEE IT!!!! The girl I was hanging with on this day had never seen any version before and she was sooo in to it! Afterwards Janet Leigh, Dennis Weaver, Peter Bogdanovich and Rick Schmidlin had a discussion. It was super cool, Dennis Weaver had the best stories about Orsen on the set. There's really not much to say here except, it was great. Oh, also Dennis Weaver sat across the aisle from me so I talked with him briefly about DUEL and took a picture of him with Roger Ebert (who was sitting behind me). Katie Holmes was no where in sight!
The next Film was RUSHMORE, the new film by Wes Anderson (BOTTLE ROCKET). This was a last minute addition and for a while there I was n't even sure what it was. But I was at the NEW DIRECTOR'S SEMINAR and they announced that it was the new film by Wes Anderson. Say no more, BOTTLE ROCKET made my top ten that year so I was in! Julie, the friend I was hanging with skipped the panel after TOUCH OF EVIL and went out to get in line for us. That saved the day, cus this film was packed! I was not disappointed, Oh shit, alright I'll say it, "It's as good as BOTTLE ROCKET in my opinion". I didn't want to hype it so people will be disappointed but I can't help it. I laughed through the whole thing. Bill Murray does his shtick perfect and the supporting cast is great and the bottom line....it was totally funny. Oh, almost forgot...great soundtrack! A lot of cool forgotten pop songs from the past. I loved it. Me = Totally loved it!!! Festival vibe = Liked it a lot, maybe loved it.
The next film was AUGUST 32 ON EARTH by French/Canadian first time filmmaker Denis Vileneuve. Excluding TOUCH OF EVIL and RUSHMORE cus I don't really think of them as "festival" films, I would say that this was my favorite. The more I think about this film, the more I like it. It was visually stunning, I was interested in the story, the dialogue(although in French) was cool and I genuinely cared about the characters. I don't like spoilers so I'll just say a girl has an experience that makes her aware of how precious and short life is. She decides to have a baby and enlists the help of her best friend. It is not predictable or goofy like that Whoopie Goldberg insemination film with Ted Danson or whatever, it is really touching and cool. Pascale Bussieres was amazing as the lead actress! I was kind of wishing I was in this "film reality" with her character Simone. She made me like her no matter what! The main guy was cool too but I don't remember his name. I really can't recommend this film enough. If you like Atom Egoyan's films you will probably like this one too. I am so glad that later during the closing night party I got to meet this guy and talk to him about his film, Godard, Kubrick and of course.....Katie Holmes.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 7...LAST DAY OF FESTIVAL
There was only 2 films showing this day that I was interested in and besides the closing night party started at 7:00pm. And maybe I was a little hasty in that "No drinking thingeee, I mean it is free at the party."
First film was CLAIRE DOLAN by Lodge Kerrigan the director of CLEAN SHAVEN. I loved CLEAN SHAVEN so I was not about to miss this. It has Katrin Cartlidge from NAKED and BREAKING THE WAVES in the lead with great supporting performances by Vincent D'Onoffrio and the guy who's in all those Irish films.......The dad from the COMMITMENTS, can't remember his name but he is great in this. A drama about a girl who tries to piece together her life and leave Prostitution and have a baby. Met Katrin at the closing party, she was cool too! Me = Loved it Festival vibe = Liked a lot.
The next film was CENTRAL STATION by Walter Salles. A human heart wrenching drama about the bond that forms between a lonely old woman and a young boy who's mother has just been killed. I'm sorry, but I am tired of the cute kid squeezing his way in to the old cynical person's heart. Not my cup of tea. I will say this though, the train station environment that they meet in and some of the places they encounter along their travels are interesting. Good performances and nice vistas....I just couldn't care that much about this kid. all he has to do is cry and the whole audience wants to take him home. The best part was that I sat next to Bruce Wagner, the director of I'M LOSING YOU, and got to talk to him for like 1/2 hour before the film started. He was really cool and it was fun to talk to a director about scenes in his film...really cool. I hope to bump in to him again in Los Angeles. Me = It was alright Festival vibe = Loved it!
You are not going to believe this, but guess who has not been spotted yet? Katie Holmes. They probably just fly her in for the closing night party, yeah, that must be it.
Next was closing B-B-Q. I'm gonna be brief (for once). The sponsors of this year's festival were SMIRNOFF and AMSTELL LIGHT. Need I say more? Basically I got a little courage(Liquored) up and tried to speak to everyone I could AND take my picture with them. I figure a little imposing for 10 seconds and I have a cool picture and memory for life. So I did. So what follows is a list of people I met, had a conversation with (sometimes a good one where I look cool, and sometimes a bad one where I made no sense and babbled) and took a picture with Special thanks to Julie for taking all the pictures and spotting everybody for me...it was dark and the drinks were flowing: Peter Bogdanovich, Michael Ritchie, Dennis Weaver, Bob Rafelson, Tom Bowler, Kevin Brownlow, Ken Burns, Bruce Wagner, Katrin Cartlidge, Denis Villeneuve, Pascale Bussieres, Dominique Paini, and Bill Spence (TELLURIDE festival founder)
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8
Travel Day back. I will keep this brief, but there are a few things I should share of interest. On the flight from TELLURIDE to Phoenix there was a lady with a ferret. Yes, I said Ferret! When we stopped in Montrose she started freaking out saying her ferret was gonna die if she couldn't let him/her/it out of the bag for air. Stewardess(who made Nurse Ratchet look like Marry Poppins) said she was sorry but FAA regulations were etched in stone. So of course women loving to bitch as they do went at it for like 15 mins. Now, I have nothing against ferrets in general but I was hung over and wanted to get home this century. So I was ready to feed this ferret to the propeller when the Caption (pilot?) of the plane came back and gave Ferret-lady the "I'll chuck you outta here, if you don't stow it" speech. We were on our way and of course the Ferret lived and of course Katie Holmes was not on this flight either!
From Phoenix back to Burbank there was an interesting altercation right next to me. It seems "Fiscal Man", who I call that because all he wanted to tell me was that the stock market was recovering and all the "pussies" (his word, not mine) shouldn't have run, was not in his proper seat. Well this upset "Green shirt man" who was a lot bigger than "Fiscal Man" but he restrained himself and sat in front of me instead. I actually preferred "Green shirt man" as a travel buddy because we had a good time comparing the screams of the 3 babies that were on board. Oh yes, there were crying babies and oh yes, I did want to feed them to the ferret! Baby #1 was by far the best crier. I mean he could belt it out there for 20 mins, no sweat. I mean he really wailed. I found out later from "Fiscal Man" that he was like 2 1/2 and if he was "Fiscal Man's" kid he would have gotten the shit beat out of him by now. I'm not sure but I think "Fiscal Man" has a little stored up rage inside him. maybe raped by the football team or something. Anyway, "green shirt man" bought me a beer since I was a reporter for VANITY FAIR (I know, but I can't resist) and we proceeded to rate the baby criers for 2 hours. I finally made it home late in the evening and of course watched what I had taped off TV......Everybody together.............THE KATIE HOLMES SHOW (also known as DAWSON'S CREEK).
TELLURIDE RULED!!!!!!
Hollywood Man
