Ben W. is coming! Ben W. is coming to the 38th Telluride Film Festival!
“Who?” you ask? Well, precisely, since it’s code for an A-lister.
The storied, cinema-loving festival, which begins today and runs through Labor Day, is famously mum about which famous guests will attend and what will be on its jammed-packed program of films, tributes, panels and other cinematic delights. And it has been for decades.
In this regard, Telluride remains apart from its kin — Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, definitely Sundance. But Telluride co-directors Gary Meyer, Tom Luddy and Julie Hunt singer often find gems by fishing in the waters of international festivals, so pass holders — media and veterans alike — often try to guess what’s in store by reading the tea leaves of those gatherings, especially Cannes.
Will they see the latest from Belgian brothers Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne this year? (Yes.) How ’bout David Cronenberg’s Sigmund Freud-Carl Jung drama “A Dangerous Method,” starring Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender? (Yes again.)
But each year, it’s hush-hush until the day before the festival opens. Which is either too precious for words, or refreshing in a business that’s fond of hype and hurry.
Now, the cone of silence has lifted. We are free to shout the name of “Ben W.,” sans the subterfuge.
Saturday night, George Clooney, actor/director/activist and, yes, movie star, will receive a tribute. The festival first approached him about it two years ago, says Meyer, “when we saw him in ‘Up in the Air.’ ” But the timing wasn’t right.
When programmers screened writer-director Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants,” the process to get Clooney to Telluride began in earnest. In the film, the actor portrays Matt King, a father who must shoulder more parental responsibilities for his two daughters when his wife has a boating accident.
“It’s a definitive performance by Ben,” Meyer said a few days ago. “It’s not what people would expect we would do, because they see him as a superstar. And yet, when we looked at his body of work as a serious actor, a romantic lead, a comedian. . . . And then his career as a director, where he chooses really carefully. There are multiple reasons why he’s deserving of the kind of tribute we take very seriously here.”
The festival is also known for the sneak previews it sprinkles into its “TBA” slots, openings that aren’t announced until late the night before. So it’s possible that Clooney’s praised political drama, “The Ides of March” — which he directed and stars in — might pop up.
In a “Michael Clayton” reunion of sorts, the festival will also honor Tilda Swinton. In the Oscar-winner’s latest, “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” directed by Lynne Ramsey, Swinton portrays the mother of a child who goes from difficult baby to dangerous son.
And Glenn Close will attend with “Albert Nobbs” director Rodrigo Garcia (“Mother and Child”).
But one of the charms of Telluride is that the actors are never the only, or even the most glam, stars on the scene.
A few years back, director Alejandro González Iñárritu stopped midsentence when he saw Werner Herzog walking up the main thoroughfare. This year, Herzog has two documentaries screening: the death-penalty film “Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life” and the short “Ode to the Dawn of Man,” about composer Ernst Reijseger. The director is also the subject of a third, Christian Weisenborn’s “I Am My Films, Part 2 . . . 30 Years Later.”
While Martin Scorsese won’t be in the mountain town, his 3 1/2-hour opus about George Harrison, “Living in the Material World” will be.
And Wim Wenders will be there with “Pina,” his 3-D tribute to Pina Bausch, the titanic German dance-theater choreographer who died in 2009.
“The stunning accomplishment in this film is that you feel like you are a part of the performance,” said Meyer. “It is one of the rare times when 3-D was truly a great decision to have made.”
It’s not, however, the first 3-D film to have been screened there, he says. “Last year, we had 3-D films from the 1800s.” Very Telluride.
DocuWest in Golden
Much closer to Denver and decades younger is the third installment of DocuWest. The smart and beautifully programmed nonfiction film festival unspools at Golden’s Foothills Art Center on Wednesday and runs through Sept. 11.
“Battle for Brooklyn” starts things off Wednesday. Directors Michael Galinsky and Suki Hawley followed the saga of the fight over New York City’s Atlantic Yards project, which pitted a developer, job seekers and city fathers wanting a new sports arena against home and small business owners and citizens concerned about being gamed by a builder.
DocuWest will screen 50 films, features and shorts. Make sure to see the quiet and terse stunner “Flying Anne,” about a Dutch girl with Tourettes.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567 or lkennedy@ ; also on madmoviegoer
“38th TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL.”
The annual cinemaphile extravaganza in the former mining mountain town nestled in the San Juans. Through Sept. 5 Passes no longer available online; purchase at the festival box office near the gondola station. .
