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Sep 4 09 5:50 AM
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stateside wrote: Oh thank you Gensing! My Rheumatoid gives me little gifts that are quite odd and show up where I would not like them too. My elbow is where I have my latest gift (nodules - hate that word though). So they have to cut it off because it's causing me at times the function of my arm and hand. Not too serious and looking forward to getting a lot of "loopy" LOL! So if I attempt to post and my posts sound strange, forgive me. "Moderators" beware, I may get confused!!!!
Oh thank you Gensing! My Rheumatoid gives me little gifts that are quite odd and show up where I would not like them too. My elbow is where I have my latest gift (nodules - hate that word though). So they have to cut it off because it's causing me at times the function of my arm and hand. Not too serious and looking forward to getting a lot of "loopy" LOL! So if I attempt to post and my posts sound strange, forgive me. "Moderators" beware, I may get confused!!!!
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Sep 4 09 8:07 AM
Every Labor Day weekend, they stream into the box canyon from the coast, from Europe and middle America towns and college campuses, arriving starry-eyed and full of esoteric knowledge and with a love for movies that borders on rabid. ... There are dozens of movies for the offering this weekend, a dizzying array that can make the eyes glass over and the brain grow numb in deliberation. Gary Meyer, co-director of the festival, and Julie Huntsinger, the festival's managing director, stopped into the Planet offices this week to drop some knowledge about this year's lineup. Each had the tough task of picking five festival favorites. What they told us may help you festival-goers when you are plotting your schedule. Here goes: Huntsinger's picks: • "Red Riding." This trilogy of films has been adapted from four novels by David Peace. And each features a different director. The stories take place in West Yorkshire in a period that spans 1974-1983, and involves murder and double-crossing and stunning twists of plot. "It's a fantastic set of movies," Huntsinger said. TFF will offer a special back-to-back screening of "Red Riding" on Friday in the Palm. • "Fish Tank." This movie tells the story of 15-year-old Mia, a hardened English teenager wandering through life under her partying single mom, with only her love of hip-hop dancing as an anchor. "It's a really amazing snapshot of how hard it is to bee a teen in an underprivileged environment," Huntsinger said. • "Farewell." This French film is a story of double agents trading secrets, but it's also one of the Cold War's ending. With complex characters, an elaborate narrative and an amazing director, this one's not to be missed, Huntsinger said. "It's very, very compelling," she said. • "The Last Station." This adaptation of Jay Parini's novel is a comic-dramatic account of Leo Tolstoy's tumultuous final months. With a top-notch cast that includes Helen Mirren, James McAvoy and Christopher Plummer, the film is at turns funny and moving. Huntsinger called it "glorious." • "An Education." This film, with a screenplay by Nick Hornby, is a coming of age story of both a 16-year-old British girl (played by the bright Carey Mulligan) in the early '60s and her country. ...
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Sep 4 09 8:53 AM
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Sep 5 09 5:46 AM
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Sep 5 09 6:40 AM
Sep 5 09 1:07 PM
James has always called TLS Chekhovian, which I took to mean part comedy/part tragedy, and Parini said that James 'proves himself a first-class comic actor here, and it's a brilliant performance on every level.' First review is in: TELLURIDE: 'The Last Station' premieres to the world Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:32 pm · September 4th, 2009 Michael Hoffman's "The Last Station," adapted from Jay Parini's novel about the last days of famed Russian author Leo Tolstoy, has been on my radar for quite some time. There seemed to be an air of awards potential around Christopher Plummer, who stars as a dwindling Tolstoy, and Helen Mirren, as his fiery wife, Countess Sofya. The film had its world premiere tonight here in Telluride in front of a packed audience. The line was out the door and around the block, partly because it's opening night, partly because of the fact that Helen Mirren is on-hand (though, as it turns out, not until later tonight). But those hoping to hear a nice chat with the actress after the film weren't disappointed for long: Hoffman had Vladimir Tolstoy in tow, overseer of the Tolstoy estate, and a number of other Tolstoy family members as well. But first, the film. It's a delightful effort with bright comedic spots throughout, but it's also thematically resilient in its depiction of a relationship, 48 years on, nearly torn apart by diverging philosophies on religion, property, etc. It's a touching exploration of love in its many forms. "Yes, it's hard," Hoffman said. "You want to do what you need to do, they want to do what they need to do, but I don't know what else to do." Christopher Plummer is serviceable as Tolstoy. It's not the baiting performance you might expect and I rather liked it for that. Helen Mirren - who seems to get more and more beautiful with age - is wild and, at times, gut-wrenching as a woman clearly in love with her husband but terrified of the endowment he may deny his family by signing his life's work into the public domain (at the encouragement of a dedicated disciple capably performed by Paul Giamatti). James McAvoy offers the film's great performance. He benefits from having the most complex arc, but he takes his Valentin Bulgakov - a devoted Tolstoyan who learns nuance in the doctrine where others see rigid discipline - on a touching journey of love, commitment, anxiety and passion. The Tolstoy clan came to the mic for a brief Q&A session with the audience after the film. Along with Vladimir (Tolstoy's great-grandson) was his niece, Sophya, so named for Mirren's Countess. There are plans to show the film in Russia, when the Tolstoy family convenes for an annual family reunion. One thing that struck me early on was the choice to film "The Last Station" in English, probably expected but, given the subject matter, a bit disorienting. But I liked what Vladimir had to say to that, as it was brought up by an audience member. "I think it's better that it is in English," he said, his daughter translating, "because that makes it more universal, and Leo Tolstoy's work was meant for all of mankind." It might sound contrived, but it fits snugly in with the film's themes of immortalizing one's art and being responsible with your legacy. But considering some 250 descendants attend that Tolstoy family reunion every year, it becomes clear that Tolstoy's legacy isn't merely on the page. "The Last Station" hasn't secured domestic distribution yet, but I imagine it won't have a hard time finding a buyer somewhere down the line. http://incontention.com/?p=13076#more-13076
Sep 5 09 1:12 PM
No mention of James being there? Good review on James' performance. Waiting on Anne Thompson's Review http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2009/09/05/telluride_red_riding_the_last_station/ (she too is wondering why they are not showing at Toronto)
Sep 5 09 5:03 PM
Helen M wrote: James has always called TLS Chekhovian, which I took to mean part comedy/part tragedy, and Parini said that James 'proves himself a first-class comic actor here, and it's a brilliant performance on every level.'
James has always called TLS Chekhovian, which I took to mean part comedy/part tragedy, and Parini said that James 'proves himself a first-class comic actor here, and it's a brilliant performance on every level.'
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Sep 5 09 5:48 PM
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Sep 5 09 10:08 PM
Helen M wrote: James McAvoy offers the film's great performance. He benefits from having the most complex arc, but he takes his Valentin Bulgakov - a devoted Tolstoyan who learns nuance in the doctrine where others see rigid discipline - on a touching journey of love, commitment, anxiety and passion.
Sep 6 09 12:34 AM
Blue - there's a Telluride Review in the Spoiler thread that refers to comedic. The Review not the best but the part about James is.
Sep 6 09 1:52 AM
The Last Station is a straight-on period biopic starring Christopher Plummer as the aged Leo Tolstoy, the famed Russian author of War and Peace, constantly at war with his mercurial wife Sophya (Helen Mirren). Paul Giamatti, a scheming Tolstoy disciple, wants to share the author's copyrights with the masses, while Sophya fights for her husband's love and her children's inheritance. Caught in the middle is Tolstoy's loyal, vegetarian, celibate secretary (James McAvoy). Plummer and Mirren are equally matched blazing adversaries and McAvoy is wonderfully reactive as the virginal acolyte who not only loses his innocence, but starts to learn about love and marriage.
This German-financed $17-million movie is gorgeous-shot in the former East Germany-and utterly accessible and entertaining. The audience ate it up. This is one of those movies that's not so much a critic's picture as an adult crowd-pleaser. It seems well-matched to The Weinstein Co., Miramax or Goldwyn.
The question of future awards potential is strictly a matter of which distrib picks it up and when they release it. While IFC is talking with seller Robbie Little, the movie will next be shown at AFI Fest.
At the screening, I sat next to a line of Tolstoy descendents, including great great grandson Vladimir Tolstoy, who runs Yasnaya Poliana, the family estate south of Moscow, and his 24-year-old daughter Anastasia, a lovely literature grad student specializing in Nobokov at Oxford. Vladimir flew to Colorado through New York and Denver, and was returning the next day. Even though the movie was directed by an American, shot in Germany and stars a cast of English-speaking Brits, Vladimir said that he was glad that the film would spread the love of Tolstoy to the world. Several Telluride residents who are Tolstoy descendants read about the film in the program, contacted Vladimir and came to dinner with their Russian relatives Friday night.
Typically, the movie had a long road to getting made. But throughout its history actors reacted to its juicy roles. Producer Bonnie Arnold originally picked up the rights to Jay Parini's 1990 novel about the last year in the life of Tolstoy after finally convincing elderly Anthony Quinn that he would never make the movie. For a long time Robbie Little, who raised money overseas, waited for Anthony Hopkins and Meryl Streep to add the movie to their schedules, but they never did.
Years later, a mutual friend brought Arnold together with Michael Hoffman (Soapdish, Restoration), who had long wanted to do the movie, but didn't know how. One night, he confessed at Friday night's Galaxy screening, as he was realizing that he didn't want to do yet another studio comedy, he suddenly remembered this movie and saw in a flash how to do it. It wasn't just about Tolstoy and his contentious family and followers, it was about "love and marriage. It's a struggle for all of us," he said.
The Parini book is a Rashomon-like distillation of six diary accounts of that year, from family members, Tolstoy followers and the auteur himself, who kept a public and a secret diary. The film changed course as the actors brought in more snippets of information, so that Leo and Sophya's marriage took front and center. She bore him 13 children and wrote out War and Peace six times by hand. He had a nervous breakdown after finishing Anna Karenina. The producers plan to screen the film for the 250 or so Tolstoy extended family who convene at the estate for reunions every year or so.
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