Friday the 2nd-7:37 PM
And so, with a great and bellowing “Welcome to the world of the film festival!” I’ve been shut out of my first scheduled screening. I knew this would happen, this being my first major film festival attendance. It’s no big issue, the film was Conversations With Other Women, starring Helena Bonham-Carter (who incidentally does dress similarly to her costumes in Fight Club) and Aaron Eckhart. But after so much avid anticipation for the onset of my weekend film marathon, it’s still a tad disappointing to find myself back at home base, eating the crappy popcorn I bought back in line.
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Between Cannes, Venice, Toronto, and any other major film festival unraveling their red carpets this Fall, Telluride may be the only fest at which the filmmakers are allowed to introduce their films garbed only in a dinner jacket and their velvet pajamas. Such was the occasion at the premiere of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, an as of yet unknown picture that stands as an early contender for Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards. I took my seat in the antique Opera House-turned-screening room, forced into the second row of the theatre, when a man sitting peculiarly in front craned around to face me.
“I wouldn’t sit there if I was you. It’s far too close. You won’t see a thing.”
I looked at him, unsure of what to say.
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The New York Film Festival opened its gilded, gold-encrusted doors this weekend at the Lincoln Center, welcoming an unusually impressive slew of upcoming awards season favorites. Figuring that as a relatively new citizen of Manhattan, I should slap down the forty bucks and attend the Opening Ceremony. It didn’t hurt, of course, that Wes Anderson’s new picture, The Darjeeling Limited, would be showcased.
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