Yesterday Paul shared some highlights from his experience at Telluride. Now it’s Aaron’s turn. Here’s what I asked for and here’s what he gave me.

5 favorite films:

- Jindabyne (check out my blog post about it)
- The Last King of Scotland
- Catch a Fire
- Volver
- John Ford Directs

4 interesting people:

- Peter Bogdanovich (check out the podcast of the conversation I had with him)
- Kevin MacDonald (again, another conversation, another podcast)
- Bill Pence (Telluride co-director for 33 years)
- Rolf (a really interesting Telluride volunteer and film-lover)

3 favorite spots:

- on the gondola descending the mountain into Telluride–a breathtaking view
- the trail leading from our hotel to the Brigandoon
- the Nugget Theatre (Spout was the Nugget sponsor)

2 memorable moments:

- Interviewing Peter Bogdanovich for SpoutBlog. I never expected to meet him, a consummate film lover, flimmaker, actor and film historian. The highlight of our conversation was when he said Orson Welles’s “genius was a kind of rebuke to mediocrity.”

- Paul and I were riding the gondola down to Telluride one night, in the dark, and the gondola stopped moving. There we were, hanging in the quiet darkness on the side of the mountain. Paul recorded a “final” entry with his recorder (”To whoever finds this compact flash card…”) Then it started moving again and we made if back safely. Paul recorded the scary sounds the gondola makes as it glides along.

1 way the festival changed you:

- Mostly, I just have hope that people are still making good films–that not everything being made is designed to just make money. I saw a lot of amazing and beautiful stories. When I think back on what I saw, I am amazed at the variety and the scope and breadth of the films: The hilarity and terror of Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland; the aching beauty of the mountains and hidden rivers in Jindabyne; Penelope Cruz singing through her tears in Volver; Derek Luke standing naked in the midst of a South African field, his arms raised, guns pointed at him in Catch a Fire, and the hilarity of Jimmy Stewart recounting a humbling moment with the late great director John Ford in John Ford Directs. There are still people who actually love films. Out of that deep deep love they make wonderful and beautiful films. They know their craft and are true to the stories they want to tell.

Jindabyne centers around the marriage of Stewart (Gabriel Byrne) and Claire (Laura Linney). As the film unfolds scene by scene, we discover that Stewart and Claire have unresolved matters in their marriage stemming from Claire’s intense postpartum depression after the birth of their son. Claire constantly strives to be the mother she wasn’t when her son was born. Stewart finds himself in the middle of his life, wondering where his marriage is and what kind of a man he has become. The film draws us into this domestic life, which seems to be in a kind of stasis.

When Stewart goes away on an annual fishing trip with his friends, however, this stasis ends, bringing their wounds to the forefront. An incident followed by a collective decision by the men ignite a crisis for Stewart and his friends, as well as their wives and girlfriends. Ultimately, all of their secrets and deceptions are brought out into the light, along with a piercing question: What kind of men would make such a decision? For Stewart and Claire, this question forces them to face where they are wounded and decide ultimately what they will do and how they will move forward.

This story unfolds in the Australian outback in a little town called Jindabyne. The locations for this film are both stunning and haunting. Filmed entirely with natural light, the film has a sensibility to it that reminds the viewer of Malick, but what Ray Lawrence, the director, does with the landscape is wholly original. The vastness of the outback, the desolation of it, the beauty of it, guides the characters in a way. This approach casts the landscape as a kind of character all unto itself. Its secret and sacred places try to warn the characters against the tragedy that awaits them. Some of them can sense this, but other cannot because their lives have caused them to dull their sensitivity to the beauty around them and what it wants to tell them.

Each scene of the films unfolds the way it needs to, for how long it needs to. Lawrence doesn’t seem to be interested in making sure the audience is “entertained” at all times. Rather, his concern seems to be with the emotional truth of each scene and what that truth means for the characters. Lawrence leads us, and them, towards a conclusion that is utterly profound and moving, while at the same not heavy handed or emotionally manipulative.

One of the highlights of watching this film at Telluride was the presence of lead actress, Laura Linney. After the film was screened she answered questions about how it was made and how she created her character, Claire. One of the most interesting things she had to say involved the director’s decision to only use natural light for the film. He made this choice, she explained, so that their performances could shine through and be the centerpiece of the story. This decision, while risky, imbued the film with beauty and a sensibility that is not often seen in the cinema.

The patron’s brunch must have been the place to be at Telluride today. Aaron Smith, with some help from Bill HR, managed a brief interview with Laura Linney. Laura discussed her role in the new film, Jindabyne, how much she hates watching herself on the screen, and how much she absolutely loves the process of filmmaking.

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