Toronto & New York Film Festival 2008 anticipation

I'd heard Che wasn't showing at NY or Toronto because they both wanted it split. Shows how much I know.

Still no distributor, apparently:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i9603a54f631ae7b033f83a4a62257dfe

Wild Bunch head Vincent Maraval hoped to get a $10 million pickup to pay back investors immediately but now says his company would need just a $4 million deal with longer-term payouts. Four indie offers are on the table, though not the Weinstein Co., he said.

Soderbergh wants to release the two-part, four-hour-plus film as one movie in limited December openings. He'd then like to release the first part in January and the second in February. Soderbergh has cut five to seven minutes from each half, but a potential distributor who suggested one three-hour cut was ruled out immediately.

full TIFF slate not yet up...

this thread started at the perfect time because i just started panicking about tiff 10 minutes or so ago!

let's not forget... urgh... the montreal world film festival... yay?

you're not going to tiff this year are you DM?

thought about 3-4 days of it, but no, I need to retire some debt. :(

haha that's WHY i go to tiff. i think about 10% of my income comes out of that one week.

Do either of you have any experience with the TIFF Talent Lab? I filled in a director friend's application (he complained the questions were reductive and got in a paddy about it) and it turns out he got in.

I only have experience w/ buying tickets and paying my own way.

i've had a couple friends go thru the talent lab. heard only great things about it. congrats to yr friend.

Nothing too exciting-looking at NYFF, but it's better than last year I guess.

Anyone seen Hunger yet?

Pics from Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler:

http://www.badtaste.it/images/immagini/venezia2008/wrestler01.jpg
http://www.badtaste.it/images/immagini/venezia2008/wrestler05.jpg

More Venice selection pics here: http://www.badtaste.it/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4711&Itemid=68

Goddamn Mickey Rourke looks like Joan Rivers!

http://www.virginmedia.com/microsites/celebrity/slideshow/surgery/img_1.jpg

especially in that one!

The top photo of those two could easily be Axl Rose.

Old-school Mickey.

actually Joan Rivers looks pretty good now. that's Jocelyn Wildenstein who looks about as bad a Mickey Rourke here.

I really can't imagine looking at Rourke for a couple hours.

i know. only DAYS would do.

full TIFF list:

http://1stthursday.blogspot.com/search/label/Films

vertiginous

NYFF screening schedule -- Che up vs baseball playoffs, I think I wait.

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff/program.html

montreal TIFF prescreenings start tomorrow... here we gooooo

NYFF Views from the Avant-Garde sounds promising this year, especially the James Benning program. Excited about the Oshima retro too.

I think it's just Jia & K Kurosawa for me. at least w/ advance tix.

whatcha seen, s1ocki?

so far only coens, distributors in charge are having major flake-outs arrrrgh.

as an interloper in this world, can someone explain why a non-professional would want to see anything that will later open in a real run?

to see it first

i mean it's mostly bragging rights / excitement factor. but real festival "heads" / non-pros will more often go for the more obscure stuff, or stuff theyv'e read about but might not open for years.

those 'bragging rights' aren't enough for me (UNLESS there's a 2-month lead time, as with I'm Not There)

sometimes, like i said, it can be up to or even more than a year. and sometimes when foreign stuff gets bought at festivals it comes out in truncated form

Just got back from Venice. I'd never been before, but it was completely crazy, even in comparison to Sundance. Anyone else been?

Was in town for an academic conference and the conference dinner turned out to be the same evening as the only screening I had a ticket for (public screening of Burn After Reading on opening night), so I had to scalp it. So, in the end, I didn't actually see anything apart from a lot of famous people, a lot of advertising for perfume and Lancia cars, and weather that was hot hot hot with a 100% chance of passion. Good times nevertheless.

super excited for middle of nowhere and a few docs

Sicinski will be doing TIFF reporting for GreenCine:

http://academichack.net/TIFF2008.htm

MY EYEBALLS ARE GOING TO FALL OUT.

but will they have any good films in them?

seen the After Life guy's new one?

so has anyone seen the Wrestler yet? that's the big winner while we've been away.

ya i saw the wrestler. mostly liked it a lot but ultimately its about as subtle as an aronofsky film. pretty on-the-nose. but defly his best.

i interviewed wong-kar wai!

the fiend who made 2046? yukyuk

I just found out like ten minutes ago that my film was selected for Austin. Who has been? It sounds like fun with the screenwriting stuff going on.

the fiend who made 2046? yukyuk

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, September 11, 2008 2:40 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink

haha i know. thankfully i was talking to him about a movie i actually like (ashes)

i interviewed ben kingsley.. did NOT like the movie but come on how could i not interview ben freakin kingsley

I hope he assumed his Sexy Beast persona.

(shd we just change this to s1ocki namedropping thread?)

congrats caek

im allowed to namedrop in this thread, that's what film festival threads are for!!

this was dope:

http://tiff08.ca/filmsandschedules/films/soulpower

You should interview me!

Morbs, what is on your list for NYFF?

how was wkw?, and did you see ashes of time? i saw it once a few years ago and wasn't so keen, but thought it was maybe the most aesthetically beautiful film ever. i'm still not sure whether he's re-edited it or just changed the sound design or something.

it's not changed that much, biggest deal is the new soundtrack (more cello, less synth) and the restoration. he was super-nice in person. we talked about wu-tang.

I haven't heard a bad thing about the new Desplechin yet. Why am I so worried?

worry about the Shari Lewis fan, Mr Priorities.

All I have NYFF tix for is Tokyo Sonata and 24 City. And if the Mets make the playoffs, that's likely all I'll go to.

man i still need to see that. just didnt have time to fit it in, even had to cancel my interview :(

xp

morbs ive been hearing baaaaad stuff about 24 city i'm sorry to say :(

perfect for my "contrarian" POV

Ashes of Time isn't still a bore?

defly like to hear your take.

ashes of time is kinda boring... but pretty

did you like half-nelson?

their new one is quite good. and it's about baseball! you might like it!

yeah, Sugar. I pretty much disliked Half Nelson.

i... uh.. half-liked half nelson!

this one is quite good tho.

Tokyo Sonata sounds interesting. What about Night and Day?

Beyond the two lead performances, I didn't think there was really anything else going for Half Nelson, not that I guess most people needed anything else.

Saw "50 Dead Men..." last night. Yeah, wasn't overly impressed. There was an awful montage sequence at one point that was downright amateurish. That's cool that you got to meet Sir Ben, s1ocki!

ya 50 dead men sucking was more like it

i don't know if i've slept on tickets for too long?, maybe, but i wanna see 24 city/zhangke stuff.

so so close to the end of this...

what about Schrader's Holocaust comedy?

ya everyone seemed kind of appalled by that but no one has actually seen it.

vigo's holocaust (unintentional) comedy, GOOD, was by far the most misleadingly-titled movie of the fest.

Hay s1ocki, my wife the Viggo stalker fan asked me to ask you for details why Good was not-good.

it ends with him witnessing the horrors of auschwitz, throwing up his arms in despair and shedding a single tear.

definitely worst, most awkward VM performance ever.

i bought tickets for three screenings at NYFF and think i may have accidentally thrown them out :(:(:(

bummer!

Is The Road playing at any festivals? Release date is January, but I haven't heard anything about it yet.

no not yet.

Beyond the two lead performances, I didn't think there was really anything else going for Half Nelson, not that I guess most people needed anything else.

― Eric H., Thursday, September 11, 2008 4:07 PM (3 days ago)

i sure didn't. amazing performances. more than enough for me.

s1ocki, did you see the Kelly Reichardt film? i loved "Old Joy".

yes! i loved it.

i interviewed her too, she was awesome. really cool lady, i wanted to be her friend.

oh good! really looking forward to that now. btw thought kelly was a dude but i guess that would be kelley o_O

maybe slocki interviewed the wrong person

haha

she only charged me like $50

wow, thanks s1ocki. Did you see Appaloosa at the Toronto festival? (My wife is curious about that one too, obv.)

no, i missed it--heard mixed reviews.

Eric, Sicinski gave Desplechin a 7, so maybe you shouldn't be that worried.

http://academichack.net/TIFF2008.htm

is eric worried about it being good or being bad?

Given the widespread praise... he is smelling something.

contrarian 4 life!

No I'm not!

hey s1ocki did u see the bros. bloom?

Sicinski liked 24 City as well.

contrarian 4 life!

― s1ocki, Tuesday, September 16, 2008 4:06 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

No I'm not!

― Eric H., Tuesday, September 16, 2008 4:10 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha!

brothers bloom was pretty awful

awful maybe too much but yeah, it was... not good. it was also the only thing i saw except for ashes of time and so doubly disappointing

Some are buzzing 'bout Afterschool and The Headless Woman

Glitches in the high-def video delayed the start of 24 City by a half-hour Saturday... Also, the subtitles for Che were running with it on the first two attempts, lol. Jia was there for Q&A.

Some of the long shots in 24C are amazing looking -- was it the HD technology leaps, or just the size of the Ziegfeld Theatre screen? I do think the scripted scenes seemed lacking next to a couple of the "real" ones. It's good but no Still Life.

Haha Che subtitles for 24 city. Good grief.

Che was shot on a Red, which may explain the mix-up if 24C was on Red. Files lying around on the same digital ingestor/projector. Red stuff looks _incredible_ on the big screen. You can see forever.

I missed this panel on criticism cuz I didn't want to be late for the delayed 24C screening...

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/006755.html

Is 24 City boring?

Anyone see the Windmill Movie? indieWIRE SLAMMED it.

A few 24C scenes flirt with boring, but are merely static.

looks like postwork Oshima sidebars for me the next 2 evenings.