A slasher movie playing at the Telluride Film Festival? Don’t rub those eyes, or pinch yourself. Instead, ditch the question mark and tack on an exclamation point.
“We think ‘Severance’ is a real surprise,” says Bill Pence, co-director of arguably the planet’s most art-driven film festival. “It does exactly the right things, bringing comedy and horror together.”
Thursday, the 33rd Telluride Film Festival unveiled its four-day program, complete with premieres, panels, retrospectives, tributes. Among the highlights:
Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Babel”: Starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael Garcia Bernal, this is a tale of dislocation and connection that unfolds on three continents in four languages. Iñárritu, who reteamed with “21 Grams” and “Amores perros” writer Guillermo Arriaga, won the prize for direction at Cannes.
“Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus”: Directed by Steven Shainberg (“Secretary”), this quasi-biopic stars Nicole Kidman as the well-known photographer who killed herself in 1971. Don’t expect “The Hours,” Pence cautions. “It’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ meets ‘The Elephant Man.”‘
“The Last King of Scotland”: “Touching the Void” director Kevin MacDonald scales his first narrative feature in this film based on Giles Foden’s novel. Forest
Whitaker stars as Uganda’s former despot, Idi Amin. Up-and-comer James McAvoy (Mr. Tumnus in “The Chronicles of Narnia”) plays his physician.
Last year, “Brokeback Mountain” and “Capote” screened back to back. Even for a filmgoer accustomed to the serial viewing of festivals – where there’s a hit-and- miss rhythm to the day – that packed a wallop.
By the time awards season rolled around last year, Telluride seemed more than prescient. And the karmic chain continues. Pence credits this year’s sold-out passes (even the pricey, enviable $3,500 Patron Pass) to post Oscar-buzz.
The festival hardly lacks courage when it comes to courting the quizzical look. Take the seemingly foolhardy programming of Douglas McGrath’s “Infamous.” Starring Toby Jones and Sandra Bullock, it’s that other Truman Capote film. And we mean “other,” not another.
“The downside is this is exactly the same story as you saw last year. Exactly,” says Pence. “The upside is that it’s done in such a fresh and different and unfamiliar way. And the guy who plays Capote is every bit as worthy of an Oscar as was Philip Seymour Hoffman for totally different reasons.”
That might have been enough to mute the voices asking the cold- blooded question about whether anyone wants to see another Capote film. But what made it worth tempting déjà vu all over again, says Pence, was the input of David Thomson. The film historian, critic and author of the go-to “The New Biographical Dictionary of Film” will receive the festival’s sivler medallion.
“It’s his choice for the best film of the year so far,” says Pence. “I told him if he’s willing to get up and say that in front of an audience, I’m going to have him introduce the film and we’d play it.”
Penélope Cruz will be one of three tribute recipients. Two others are Australian director Rolf de Heer and Academy Award-winning film editor Walter Murch (“The English Patient”).
Cruz stars in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Volver” (“Coming Back”), the story of two sisters who reckon with their past and their complicated present when their dead mother makes an appearance. One only needs to witness Cruz’s work in Spanish-language film to know American directors have yet to unwrap her touching, funny, feisty gifts.
Five members of the “Volver” cast, including Carmen Maura (“Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown”) and Lola Duen, shared the award for best actress at the Cannes film festival in May.
While Telluride may be tucked away in the stunning San Juan Mountains, it doesn’t hide its sympatico ties to Cannes. “Usually 25 percent of our schedule is made up of what we consider the best of Cannes,” Pence says. In addition to “Babel,” and “Volver,” this year’s list includes de Heer’s “Ten Canoes” and Corneliu Poremboiu’s “12:08 East of Bucharest,” winner of the Camera d’Or.
That French festival has the sea, a film buyers’ and sellers’ market, competitions galore, and loads of attitude. Telluride has more altitude than attitude.
Yet in keeping with the theme, Pence says a Telluride-quality film will strike him with a je nais se quoi.
“That mysterious thing that you can’t put your finger on that makes it so special,” he says. “That sense of art.
“What was that je nais se quoi in ‘Brokeback Mountain?’ I’m not sure I can say, but I know it was there. Same with ‘Capote.”‘
This year’s program promises that certain something will float in the air once more.
33rd Telluride Film Festival
CINEMA EXTRAVAGANZA|Various theaters and venues in Telluride|Except for the deep-pockets Sponsor’s Pass (for those who have made a “major contribution” to the fest) all passes are sold out. Still, there’s hope. Go to telluridefilmfestival.org for information on single tickets ($20), free screenings in Elks Park and panels. Make sure to check out the Late Show Ticket, which gets you into four late-night screenings at the 650-seat Palm theater for $25.
