A young bear high-tailing it across Colorado 145 was a harbinger. So too was the just waning moon that appeared over the San Juans as the gondola climbed from the town of Telluride to the boomtown of Mountain Village.
The founders of the Telluride Film Festival long ago realized the cinematic could converse with the scenic. A near-perfect convergence of form, substance and scenery happened on the penultimate day of the 34th edition of the four-day festival, which ended Monday (though a much abridged mini-selection unfolded in the days after Labor Day).
By late morning, nearly every inch of the Abel Gance outdoor theater in Elks Park was packed by film fans eager to see the free screening of Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild.”
In the midst of an impressively satisfying slate of movies and programs, Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s bestseller about Christopher McCandless’ journey into the Alaskan backcountry had already garnered a lot of festival buzz. And, like a number of films, “Into the Wild” is headed from one of the globe’s most intimate festivals to one of its largest.
The Toronto International Film Festival (which launched Thursday night) will multiply Telluride’s 30-some offerings by more than 10.
And with Toronto overlapping with the Venice Film Festival (which ends Saturday), it’s safe to declare the arrival of film-festival season.
Next weekend, the second Estes Park Film Festival begins (Sept. 14-16). Later in the month, Julie Christie will be on hand to receive the Independent By Nature Award at the Aspen Filmfest (Sept. 26-30). While she’ll be forever Lara to a generation of “Dr. Zhivago” fans, Christie has wielded her powerful presence in a remarkable career. Most recently, she appeared in the intimate wonder, “Away From Her,” in which she plays a vibrant woman dimmed by Alzheimer’s.
Yes, the Telluride-Toronto whammy begins the film-fest parade and hints at what might be on tap come November when our own robust 30th Starz Denver Film Festival gets underway.
Constellation of stars
Telluride is known for treating directors as stars, even when, as with Penn, they are also great performers.
While Toronto honors indie features, world cinema features and flexes a muscular slate of documentaries, it also gives its film-frenzied citizens some serious red-carpet action with gala screenings of major studio fare.
This year’s studio heavies include “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” starring Brad Pitt as Jesse and Casey Affleck in a mesmerizing and idiosyncratic breakthrough as the coward; Neil Jordan’s “The Brave One” with Jodie Foster, whetting fear into a lethal edge as a reluctant (then not) vigilante, and Terrence Howard playing a police detective.
“Michael Clayton” improves upon 1970s political thrillers with George Clooney as the title character in this a corporate conspiracy tale.
Cate Blanchett does double duty as she reprises her Oscar-nominated role in “Elizabeth: The Golden Age” and then rocks the screen as one of the prickliest Bob Dylan personas in Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There,” which had its first North American screenings at Telluride.
Ditto Julian Schnabel’s “Diving Bell and the Butterfly” and “Persepolis. Now all are headed for Toronto.
A dynamic film-moir (I think I just made that up), “Persepolis” is based on the personal graphic novels of Iranian exile Marjane Satrapi, who codirected. The oft humorous movie is a fresh example of how an observant soul might reveal not just the texture of a complex upbringing but also the rough weave of culture and nation.
Finding peace, inspiration
Schnabel, painter and increasingly masterful director, told those gathered for a screening in Telluride that he’d never been to the festival. Never been to Colorado for that matter.
“As I sat at a friend’s house looking out the window, I thought if those young men who choose to become suicide bombers could look at these mountains, I don’t think they’d give up their lives so easily.”
He added before a beguiling screening of his luminous adaptation of Jean-Dominique Bauby’s memoir that, “making a painting or a film is really an act of peace.”
Bauby, once high-flying editor of Elle Magazine in Paris, wrote the book after a massive stroke that left him cognizant of everything around him but also paralyzed “from head to toe.”
The movie is a brave plunge into what vision, consciousness and memory are: fragile and tenacious.
There are still more films celebrated in Telluride bound for Toronto. Among them: “The Counterfeiters,” based on the true story of a group of Jewish concentration camp prisoners who continue to survive by attempting to re-create a flawless pound and dollar.
Then there’s the sneak peek pleasure “Juno,” which seemed universally adored.
In introducing his film in Telluride, director Jason Reitman told audiences they would always remember the first time they came into contact with writer Diablo Cody’s work.
He wasn’t kidding.
How snappy and generous is this touching, riotous film, starring Ellen Page as a 16-year-old who becomes pregnant?
Let’s just say, I’d see it again in Toronto in a heartbeat.
But then I wouldn’t be doing my job. I’d be indulging my joy.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com. Be sure to check out Diary of a Mad Moviegoer at .
