On Thursday, the talk of Telluride was what the Friday patron screening would be. On Friday, we learned it was Paolo Sorrentino’s Venice opener “La Grazia.” And at the annual Telluride brunch, the question circulating was: Which screening of Scott Cooper’s “Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere” would Bruce show up at? Friday or Saturday? (Both.)
The jampacked brunch up in the mountains brought many of the Labor Day weekend players together. When I introduced Paul Mescal (“The History of Sound” and “Hamnet”) to documentarian Morgan Neville (“Man on the Run”), they dove into a deep, enthusiastic conversation about their mutual fascination, Paul McCartney. Mescal is deep in rehearsals in London for the first of four Sam Mendes Beatles movies. He has visited McCartney’s sheep farm in Scotland, where he decompressed after the Beatles breakup, and also visited his Cavendish manse. Neville is debuting his post-Beatles McCartney Wings movie. While Telluride director Julie Huntsinger wanted McCartney to attend, he was on tour. Mescal also greeted Harris Dickinson (the writer-director of “Urchin”), who plays Lennon, and Jeremy Allen White, who plays Springsteen.
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Also on hand were Chloe Zhao, the director of the book adaptation “Hamnet,” starring Mescal and Jessie Buckley as Shakespeare and his wife, one of two films about grieving at the festival, along with “H is for Hawk,” starring Claire Foy, who plays the author Helen Macdonald in Philippa Lowthorpe’s film version.
Rose Byrne is generating Oscar talk for her performance in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” and Ethan Hawke is also building buzz for “Blue Moon,” directed by Richard Linklater, who was on hand with his “Nouvelle Vague” star Zoey Deutch.
Many Cannes films are on display at Telluride, including “Sentimental Value” (with Stellan Skarsgard) and “Pillion” (with Alexander Skarsgard) and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “Secret Agent,” starring Best Actor winner Wagner Maura.
The other first night screenings were “Hamnet” and Edward Berger’s “Ballad of a Small Player,” starring Colin Farrell as a seedy gambler in Macau. Saturday brings two Venice arrivals, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia” starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons, and “Jay Kelly,” without George Clooney, who missed his press conference due to a sinus infection. In fact the Italian government delayed two private planes that were bringing the “Jay Kelly” entourage to Colorado. Huntsinger at her press conference after the brunch suspected foul play from the Venice festival, which doesn’t like their talent to leave early to go to Telluride. (There is fierce competition among Telluride, Venice and Toronto.)
Huntsinger is obviously friendly with Sundance’s Eugene Hernandez, Berlin’s Tricia Tuttle, and Cannes’ Thierry Fremaux, who were all on hand.
