Telluride Film festival live - Werner and all

To watch Todd Solontz last movie is a bit like watching a never ending car crash on the highway ! It leaves you with a feeling of gloom, mixed with horror. It is Todd Solontz's territory after all, the world of Happiness and Welcome to the dollhouse. A great big garbage (or recycling) can filled with America's lost cases, losers and pedophiles (mostly pedophiles). There is nevertheless a strange poetry in Solontz' films and even though his movies are not "easy" to watch, his work stays with you a long time. Todd Solontz was not attending Telluride, he was still in Venise.
The Prophet by Jacques Audiard was very well received by the public here. It seems that the title was not clear to many. When asked to explain a bit where the "prophet" fit into the film, Jacques Audiard went into a somersault, pirouette of an escape by saying "it's a beautiful word, a beautiful meaning in the large sense of the term". Indeed, but I am not sure this will fly on this side of the world.
Today (Saturday) opened with “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” by Werner Herzog with Nicolas Cage. Werner was still flying from Venise so Nicolas Cage talked at the end of the film. Bad Lieutenant would not be a Herzog film without a three minute sequence involving iguanas. As Nicolas Cage explained, "Werner told me, without the iguanas, my film doesn't make sense. I need the scene with the iguanas. There is actually more than the iguanas that make this film a Herzog film in spite of the more traditional filming this one has. As for Nicolas Cage, it is a delight to see him come back to roles where he excels. He is truly as good in Bad Lieutenant as he is in Leaving Las Vegas. There is a very strong Australian presence in Telluride this year and they (film makers, directors and actors) are by far the most approachable, normal, nice people! The documentary Making Samson follows the shooting of Samson and Delilah, by Warwick Thornton (which got a prize in Cannes last year). This documentary is a happy example of the movie making challenge adventure, even more so in the middle of Australia and with Aborigenes people who could care less about acting in a movie! It is very interesting to see Samson -the actor- becoming a "diva" along the way and as the film is made. He was 14 at the time of the movie. Today he is 16 and he laughs about this "attitude" he had during the film.
The good thing about attending Telluride Film Festival is that if you have missed the movie you can still go horseback riding in the mountains...
See photo with Laurie Lundquist (cavaliere extraordinaire), Marissa Gibson (Delilah in Samson and Delilah), Gabrielle Dalton (Australian film maker, actress) and Alexis Bloom (film maker, documentariste, journalist). Barbara Sukowa is not on the photo but she is ready to join the gang at the ranch !

Pour la version française voir http://sotinel.blog.lemonde.fr/2009/09/