Wrapping Telluride, 9/4.

"If it seems to exist on a higher plane than Cannes, Toronto or Sundance, this is not just a matter of altitude," writes AO Scott in the New York Times. Nonetheless, "in spite of its high-mindedness Telluride is unmistakably a place where the industrial byproduct known as Oscar buzz is manufactured, albeit in artisanal form."

"By Telluride's end it was two sneak films that had audiences talking the most - Jason Reitman's buoyant comedy Juno and Brian De Palma's highly polarizing Redacted," writes Mike Jones, wrapping the festival at Variety's Circuit.

Updated.

JJ: "Mark it: Juno will be a big fat hit and make stars of Ellen Page and its screenwriter."

"Elderly and problem parents and the difficulties of breaking away from them has been a major theme of Telluride this year and of the group, I think The Savages is the best," writes David Poland. "It seems to me that the group of filmmakers that wanted to talk about relationships a decade ago and about breaking up five years ago are entering the dying parent stage and that is the cause of all this filmic discussion."

Tamara Straus's Telluride roundup for the San Francisco Chronicle naturally introduces the paper's readers to the usual suspects but also mentions a partnership worth noting: Wayne Wang's A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is based on a short story by Yiyun Li: "Wang said he related to Li's story of an aging widower who travels from China to Spokane, Wash, to help his daughter recover from divorce, because, as he put it, 'Chinese parents assume that no matter how old you are, they have the right to interfere.'... The festival also offered a sneak preview of another Wang-Li collaboration called The Princess of Nebraska, which follows 24 hours in the life of a young Chinese woman who, at four months pregnant, takes a daring journey from Beijing to San Francisco to have an abortion."

Online listening tip. At the SpoutBlog, Paul talks with Werner Herzog.

Updates, 9/4: There were "an unprecedented 12 world premieres" this year, notes Todd McCarthy in his wrap-up for Variety.

David Poland snaps some pix and offers a little advice to the Weinstein Company as to how to market I'm Not There.

So George Kuchar was there and Karina Longworth, who studied with him at the San Francisco Art Institute, has a terrific entry on him at the SpoutBlog. Fun stories and lots of links leading to further reading and online viewing.

Criterion's Jonathan Turell "saw nine shows in my two and a half days," and he'll tell you about them, too.

Posted by dwhudson at September 4, 2007 6:14 AM