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Film

[click for Gary Meyer's conversation with Susan about the Festival program]

Pasted Graphic It is deja vu all over again as the curtain goes up on the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival, this weekend, September 4 – September 7. The picture on the world screen is dark as pitch: war, genocide, political debauchery and corruption, economic bubbles burst. If there's a silver lining, the toughest times may produce the greatest art – or not.

In 1929, after the global stock market crash, the top grossing film was "The Broadway Melody," escapist treacle based on a backstage show business love triangle. "Broadway Melody," MGM's first musical, was also the first sound film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. The recession of the early 1990s produced "Home Alone," a feel-good family classic featuring an eight-year-old left behind when his family heads out for a Christmas vacation. In 2001, the year America lost its innocence – and possibly its mojo – the trifecta of 9/11, the collapse of the dot.com bubble and corporate scandal led to another socio-economic contraction. The film to beat: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," a movie about a boy magician and his fight against Voldemort and the forces of evil. (Parsing the metaphor is child's play.) Which brings us to the present crisis and the sanguivorous. (And more obvious metaphors about blood-suckers.)

04 September, 2009 /

[click "Play" to hear Gary Meyer talk about "the big picture"]Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer There are about 2500 film festival across the globe, of which about 1700 are similar to the Telluride Film Festival, still, TFF is widely regarded as in a league...

04 September, 2009 /

As previously noted, the Nugget Theatre is closed Wednesday and Thursday, September 2-3 to set up for Telluride Film Festival. The Nugget is one of the venues for Film Fest from Friday, September 4 through Monday, September 7. The theatre will be closed Tuesday...

03 September, 2009 /

Telluride's summer cultural season is winding to a close as the 36th annual Telluride Film Festival officially opens for business Labor Day weekend, Friday, September 4 and runs through Monday, September 7.

Thanks to Ralph and Ricky Lauren, however, the Telluride Film Festival  kicks off unofficially for passholders and nonpassholders alike today, Wednesday, September 2, and Thursday, September 3, with two free al fresco screenings at the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema in Elks Park, beginning at sunset, around 8:30 p.m.

MV5BMTM3NzgyMzIzMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTYyMTYyMQ@@._V1._CR0,0,216,216_SS80_ Wednesday's film is "Hidalgo," a 2004 film made by director Joe Johnston, based on a story from 1890 about an American cowboy, Frank T. Hopkins (Viggo Mortensen), the first outsider or infidel to be invited by a wealthy Sheik (Omar Sharif) to race in the greatest long-distance horse race ever run, the "Ocean of Fire," a grueling 3,000-mile survival horse race across the Arabian Desert with the winner receiving $100,000 as prize money and the honor of being the best in the world. When the sheik's emissary approaches him, Hopkins, once a dispatch rider in the U.S. Cavalry, is working Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The race itself, held every year for the last thousand years, has only been open to the purest line of Arabian horses ever bred. Hopkins' horse, Hidalgo, a small mixed-breed mustang, was regarded as impure, and therefore not fit to run wth purebred Arabian stallions.

02 September, 2009 /

500daysofsummer_smallposter Gforce_smallposter Be aware Telluride: it's a short week at the Nugget Theatre. The Nugget will be closed on Wednesday and Thursday, September 2 & 3 to get ready for the Telluride Film Festival. For the rest of the week, Friday-Tuesday, the program is "G-Force" and "500 Days of Summer."

"G-Force" is a Disney animation featuring guinea pigs with a mission to save the world from the machinations of an evil tycoon. The movie is rated PG for some mild action and rude humor.

"500 Days of Summer" is not a love story, as the audience is warned at the very beginning. The movie does not follow the "Boy meets Girl, Boy gets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy gets Girl back" formula, and doesn't so not in chronological order. With me so far? Rated PG-13 for sexual material and language.

See the Nugget website for trailers and reviews. The week's schedule is shown below.

27 August, 2009 /

072001H1 Harrypotter This week August 21-27, Telluride's Nugget Theatre will be showing three movies. Harry Potter is back for another week. In addition, "Ice Age III" can be seen early in the week, including a matinee on Saturday. "The Ugly Truth" rounds out the week's program.

We know about Harry Potter: watch for the continuation of that story. "Ice Age" is the animated sequel to that series, rated PG for some potentially scary scenes.

"The Ugly Truth" is a romantic comedy, rated R for sexual content, in which Mr. Wrong plays Cyrano to a TV personality looking for Mr. Right. You can probably guess how this turns out.Theuglytruth_smallposter

For reviews and trailers, see the Nugget website. See showtimes below.







20 August, 2009 /

The program for Telluride's Nugget Theatre for the week of August 7-13 is "The Proposal" and "Public Enemies."

Theproposal_smallposter Publicenemies_smallteaser "The Proposal" pits high-powered NYC book editor Margaret, aka "The Witch" (Sandra Bullock) against her assistant Andrew (Ryan Reynolds). Margaret is Canadian, and facing deportation, hatches the plan to stay in the US by marrying Andrew. It's "Boy hates Girl" until... Rated PG-13 for sexual content, nudity, language.

John Dillinger (Johnny Depp) robbed banks; Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale) had the task of bringing in Dillinger. "Public Enemies" is the story. J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) named Dillinger the first "public enemy #1" and declared war on crime. During the 1930s recession people across America regarded banks and bankers as more villainous than the gangsters who robbed the banks."Public Enemies" documents rather than glamorizes the story. Rated R for gangster violence and language.


For reviews and trailers see the Nugget website. For movie times, see below.

06 August, 2009 /

_MG_9773 The Telluride Film Festival year-round office is now set up as your one-stop festival shop. Stop by upstairs at the Nugget Building (201 W Colorado Ave), Suite 207, to buy one of our iconic William Wegman posters, festival passes, to join us as a sponsor, and to ask any Festival-related questions you may have. And be sure to ask about our local Telluride Business Friends program, in which members partner with the Festival as a sponsor and receive tickets, event invitations, and great recognition both during the Telluride Film Fest and throughout the year. In choosing one of the program’s levels and signing on as a Telluride Business Friend, you are working with us to enhance and promote film and the arts in the Telluride community.

Acme Passes have already sold out, so the rush is on to get your Festival, Cinephile and Patron Passes.

30 July, 2009 /