By April MacIntyre Jul 28, 2009, 4:19 GMT
Turner Classic Movies will honor the 36th Annual Telluride Film Festival with a cinematic Labor Day Celebration. The all-day marathon includes great films recently screened at Telluride.
The history:
In 1974, four film lovers got together to create what would become one of North America’s most important film festivals: Telluride. The prestigious film festival is a four-day, international celebration of the art of film nestled in the bucolic mountain town of Telluride, Colo.
The event:
As the 36th edition of the festival unspools in Colorado over Labor Day Weekend, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will dedicate its Monday, Sept. 7, schedule to pay tribute to the annual exposition. The day will include movies that have premiered at Telluride; classic gems that have been screened during the festival; and works by stars and filmmakers that have been honored by the festival.
The exciting schedule is kept a secret by festival co-directors Julie Huntsinger, Tom Luddy and Gary Meyer until opening day. The program consists of more than two dozen filmmakers presenting their newest works, special guest director programs, three major tributes to guest artists, special events and remarkable treasures from the past. Additional information about the Telluride Film Festival is available at www.telluridefilmfestival.org.
The line-up:
Six of the day’s films will be appearing on TCM for the first time, including the thriller Uncle Silas (1951), starring 2008 Telluride honoree Jean Simmons; Calvacanti’s gritty film noir They Made Me a Fugitive (1947), which screened at the festival in 1987; the Italian coming-of-age thriller I’m Not Scared (2003), which had its North American premiere at the festival; the Russian wartime drama The Ascent (1976), directed by festival favorite Larisa Shepitko; first festival honoree Francis Ford Coppola’s domestic drama The Rain People (1969), starring Shirley Knight, James Caan and Robert Duvall; and Oskar Fischinger’s An Optical Poem (1938), a groundbreaking, pre-Fantasia example of abstract animation set to the classical music of Franz Liszt.
Additional honors:
TCM’s Telluride marathon will include a tribute to Chuck Jones, who has been dubbed the “Patron Saint of Telluride” and for whom one of the Telluride theaters is named. The tribute to Jones will include his classic films The Dot and the Line (1965) and The Phantom Tollbooth (1969), as well as the unique special Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood (2009). Additionally, a tribute to filmmaker Samuel Fuller, who was honored by Telluride in 1981, will be part of the lineup, with presentations of Fuller’s tough newspaper drama Park Row (1957) and the documentary special The Men Who Made the Movies: Sam Fuller.
The finale:
Rounding out TCM’s Telluride collection will be the original King Kong (1933) and the special I’m King Kong: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper (2005), both of which screened at Telluride in 2005; Anthony Mann’s stunningly photographed film The Black Book (1949, aka Reign of Terror); and, in the Telluride tradition of presenting silent films with live music, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Godless Girl (1929). In addition, 2006 Guest Director Alexander Payne has selected Sam Peckinpah’s Junior Bonner (1972), starring Steve McQueen, for this special day.
The following is a complete schedule of TCM’s Labor Day, Sept. 7, salute to the Telluride Film Festival:
6 a.m. Godless Girl (1929)
8 a.m. I’m King Kong: The Exploits of Merian C. Cooper (2005)
9 a.m. King Kong (1933)
11 a.m. Uncle Silas (1951)
1 p.m. The Black Book (1949, aka Reign of Terror)
2:45 p.m. The Men Who Made Movies: Sam Fuller (2002)
3:45 p.m. Park Row (1952)
5:15 p.m. An Optical Poem (1938) and The Dot and the Line (1965)
5:45 p.m. The Phantom Tollbooth (1969)
7:30 p.m. Chuck Jones: Memories of Childhood (2009)
8 p.m. They Made Me a Fugitive (1947)
10 p.m. I’m Not Scared (2003)
Midnight The Ascent (1976)
2 a.m. The Rain People (1969)
4 a.m. Junior Bonner (1972)
(All times Eastern. TCM premieres in bold.)
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