Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with Dharma the Cat again with a summary of Day Three of what I'm told is the coolest festival held in the US, Telluride. Dharma teases about this French film called LEMMING that sounds like it could be great and also goes into WALK THE LINE, the Johnny Cash biopic starring Leaf... I mean Joaquin Phoenix (Gimme a break! I loved SPACE CAMP when I was little! "Maaxxx!") and Reese Witherspoon and Ang Lee's gay cowboy film BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. Read below for the good word on all these flicks!
Telluride Report, 2005 Sunday, September 4, Day Three:
I noticed something about the staff here at Telluride. I've gone up to several to ask where somebody is.... and instead of saying "I don't know" (like they might in the real world), they say things like "I don't know. Is there anything I can help you with? Can someone else help you?" The Telluride Film Festival is what all festivals (and real world theatres) should strive for.
Intermittent very hard rain today; we were in the new Palm Theatre and could hear the rain pounding on the roof of the (new) building.
We saw 3 more films today:
1. "Lemming" in French with subtitles, starring Laurent Lucas, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Charlotte Rampling. Very entertaining thriller. The lemming is a rodent that only lives in Scandinavia. But one turns up in the plumbing of Lucas and Gainsbourg in France.... then the boss and his wife arrive late for dinner and.... I won't spoil it. See it.
2. "Walk the Line" Starring Joaquin Phoenix as Johnny Cash and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter. Terrific, very mainstream biography of Johnny Cash, with, astonishingly, the actual singing voices of Phoenix and Witherspoon. I loved the interplay between them; it "makes" the movie. And although I'm not a big country western fan, I was surprised at how many of the songs I knew (and liked). Well worth seeing.
3. "Brokeback Mountain" Directed by Ang Lee and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger. You know the Groucho line, "Everything about you reminds me of you. Except you."? Well, I like everything about this movie...except the movie. The plot is "daring" (although much less so than if it was shot 30 years ago), the acting great, the cinematography (by Rodrigo Prieto) is breathtaking. And yet... the film is way too long, too slow, and frankly boring in spots. And this: Most of the dialog is mumbled by the actors. They barely move their lips much of the time. I couldn't understand most of the dialog (I asked around; others had the same problem). I wanted to like this; I really did. But I don't.
More tomorrow!
