Telluride Film festival live - Waiting for Viggo...

To cover a festival is a sad mix of “Marathon Man” and “Apocalypse Now” combined : I have caught more Q&A sessions than screening of films. I haven't seen the latest movie by Jason Reitman "Up in the air" with George Clooney but I have heard Jason Reitman talk about it : “It is really the success of Juno that has allowed me to make this movie with the actors of my choice. As Michael Haneke (the director of the White Ribbon) said yesterday, the casting of a movie is really 2/3 of the movie done." The film was well received here but less than Juno (at least in Telluride).
Many people were annoyed by the product placement : "It is true", said Reitman, "that American airlines has provided a lot of support for the film. As a matter of fact and if you are travelling on American Airlines in the next few months, you will be able to hear me talk on one of the inflight audio channels about the soundtrack of the film."

Waiting for Viggo and the team from The Road (and seeing the Roadblock coming my way!!!) I sat down in the sun to eat a bagel, seeing Daryl Hannah cruising around, Helen Mirren very regal and Jacques Audiard flanked by his two usual suspects from A Prophet, the magnificent Tahar Rahim and the screenwriter Thomas Bidegain.

The tribute to Viggo Mortensen started with excerpts from “Witness”, “The Indian Runner”, “A walk on the moon”, “GI Jane”, “Lord of the rings”, “History of violence” and “Eastern Promises”… followed by the screening of “The Road” beautifully directed by the Australian director John Hillcoat (charming and sharp) and adapted from Cormac McCarthy's best-seller.
Cormac Mc Carthy should also have been in Telluride but had to stay in New-Mexico in order to work on a new project with Tommy Lee Jones, according to Ken Burns, one of the regular at Telluride and a wonderful and internationally recognized director of documentaries. “The Road” had a strong welcome in Telluride among the public and it is indeed a magical film (the cinematography is stunning), almost black and white in colours. I have heard people fighting over "depressing" vs "not depressing"... it is not a depressing movie, unless you leave before the end and one should never do that! With a little bit of luck, I will close my "Tellurique" coverage with an interview with The Road trio, unless I manage to catch Werner Herzog and get an update about the state of the iguanas!

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

APPALOOSA **

I don’t know about Appaloosa, it is a western but it doesn’t really taste like one. It’s not bad but it’s not good either. Ed Harris is definitely more skilled as an actor than a director. And he is a good actor in Appaloosa. Viggo Mortensen is great but I am an unconditional when it comes to him. I have always found Renée Zellweger annoying for no good reason ! She is just annoying. If there is such a thing as “magic” that makes the movie stars what they are, temporary vehicles for chameleonic metamorphosis, then she doesn’t have it. Moronic would be more like it. I wasn’t bored watching Appaloosa but I wasn’t impressed either. Whenever I cannot ignore the person in front of me slurping their big drinks or scrunch-scrunching their popcorn, it means that I am only half into the movie. If, on top of it I am making a to-do list for the following week in my mind, it means that the movie doesn’t work for me! Then again, it’s just me… I’ve also seen “The secret life of bees” and I don’t even want to talk about it. All I can say is : you don’t make good literature with good intentions and the same goes with movies.

Appaloosa est un western mais il n’en a ni le goût ni les couleurs. Ce n’est ni un bon ni un mauvais film. Ed Harris a, à mon sens, plus de talent comme acteur que comme réalisateur. Et il est très bon acteur dans Appaloosa. Viggo Mortensen est aussi très bon mais je suis une inconditionnelle du Viggo. Quant à Renée Zellweger, je l’ai toujours trouvée agaçante et elle le devient de plus en plus au fil des films. S’il existe une espèce de magie qui fait que les stars de cinema sont ce qu’ils sont, c’est sûrement parce qu’ils savent devenir des véhicules temporaires pour métamorphose caméléonique et on ne peut pas dire que cela s’applique à Renée Zellweger qui ne se défait jamais de son côté Bécassine de Clocher les bécasses, pas caméléonique pour deux sous. Je ne me suis pas ennuyée en regardant le film mais je ne suis pas entrée dedans. Quand je ne peux pas oublier mon voisin qui boit son coca en faisant des grands shlurp ou qui mange son popcorn en faisant des grands scrounch, ça signifie que je ne suis qu’à moitié prise par le film. Et quand je commence à prendre mentalement des notes pour mon programme de la semaine à venir, ça veut dire que je n’y suis même plus à moitié dans le film. J’ai aussi vu “The secret life of bees” et je n’en parlerai meme pas ici, sinon pour dire que si on ne fait pas de littérature avec des bons sentiments, on ne fait pas de bons films non plus.