Get TIO in your Inbox!

Events

IMG_5417
Jason Reitman

There is a lot of conversation about how much effect the Telluride Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival have on the Oscar nominating procedure. I don't pretend to have inside information on this subject, but TIO had the opportunity not only to view some great films at Telluride, but to witness audience reaction in the theaters and to converse with film buffs in the lines outside. Our take on the Oscar season? For an in depth look at what TIO said right after the festival see Susan's review from September 14.

We called out Jason Reitman's "Up in the Air", starring George Clooney, as a contender in several categories.

27 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Seth Cagin speak about film noir]

MV5BMTg1MDI0ODYyMV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwOTk4MTYyMQ@@._V1._SX100_SY140_

Telluride Film Festival Cinematique, a collaboration between the Wilkinson Public Library and the Telluride Film Festival, is a film club catering to local cineastes, who want After-the-Festival to last year 'round. Each of the four-film series develops a theme. Last season's hot button was the French New Wave of Varda, Truffaut, Godard, and Chabrol. This season, the subject is film noir.

What is this thing called film noir? We all understand the word "film." Film is, according to Orson Welles, nothing more than "a ribbon of dreams." The word "noir" is French for "black." The defining characteristic of these "dark films" is fatalism and alienation, shady motives, and bleak prospects: one false move and you're out. Predatory "femmes fatales" populate this bleak landscape, sirens who lure hapless heroes into the world of illicit desires.

26 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" to listen to Kelly Goodin speaking with Susan]

Home-top-4

Telluride is one place where going to the dogs is a good thing. (Young Russian directors in town for the Telluride Film Festival remarked in their interview about "dog heaven," saying pets here look like their people.) Second Chance Humane Society rescues hundreds of homeless pets each year, many of which have become beloved Telluride pets.

To show their deep appreciation to the residents of Ouray and San Miguel counties for 15 years of undying support, Second Chance is throwing a party – actually two parties. The first big event is in Telluride, Saturday, September 26, in Elks Park. The second hoorah is Sunday, September 27, in Ridgway's Town Park, home to Second Chance's shelter. Both celebrations take place 3 – 5 p.m.

24 September, 2009 /

Every season, Telluride's Ah Haa School for the Arts seasons its schedule of classes with high profile visiting artists. This fall, October 2 – 4, photographer Bill Ellzey teaches an intensive. The workshop is designed to help digital photographers focus on the Telluride...

23 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" to hear Susan's conversation with Sophia Tolstoy Penkrat]


IMG_5370

Over Labor Day weekend, Michael Hoffman's "The Last Station" enjoyed an auspicious world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival.

At the heart of the soaring biopic is a conundrum: author Leo Tolstoy's (Christopher Plummer) struggle in the last years of his life to balance fame and fortune with a commitment to a life devoid of material possessions. Weighing in for privilege is Tolstoy's wife of 48 years (and 13 children) Sofya (Helen Mirren). Her opponent in the debate is proto-Communist Vladimir Chertkov (Paul Giamatti), head of the Tolstoyan movement, a quasi political cult, which advocates pacifism, social equality, vegetarianism, and celibacy. The referee in the pitched battle is Tolstoy's secretary, Valentin Bulgakov, (James McAvoy).

21 September, 2009 /
[click "Play" to listen to Jackie Greene on his music]


[double click to view in larger format]

Into the fame game? There's no shortage of legends at the 16th annual Telluride Blues & Brews Festival, 
this weekend, September 18 – 20: Joe Cocker, Bonnie Raitt and Taj Mahal to name drop three. Then there's the skinny, soft-spoken man-boy who bears an uncanny resemblance to another icon, who, on more than one occasion has also performed in Telluride. But at this point in Jackie Greene's meteoric career, any allusion to Bob Dylan is so much horse exhaust.
17 September, 2009 /
[double click to view in larger format]

Following their visit to Telluride and total immersion in the Telluride Film Festival, four young Russian directors are heading for Boulder, Colorado, to present their work and meet fellow students at the University of Colorado before traveling on to New York for a screening at Tribeca Cinemas.

Natalya Govorina's "Sanatorium," was named Best Narrative Film at the 2008 Moscow Festival of Short Film.

16 September, 2009 /