Film Fest

This weekend was the Telluride Film Festival, and Jer and I saw two movies. Both of them were fabulous!

One was Never Let Me Go, which was a beautifully done British film, but it was extremely deep and dark. Although it was great movie, I don't foresee it becoming a widely seen film by the general public. I also wouldn't want to necessarily see it again, as just the one viewing will most likely stay with me for a long while (very similar to the feeling I had after The Road with Viggo Mortenson last year). Seeing it with the two main actors/actresses, the director and producer sitting in the same auditorium was surreal as usual.

Never Let Me Go was about a group of orphans who were raised for the sole purpose of being organ donors. Although this may bring to mind a sci-fi thriller, it was nothing of the sort. Instead, it was set in the beautiful English countryside and done in a more artistic style.

For me, it was so overwhelming and hard to deal with for two reasons:
1. It was set in the 19050s-1990s, not in the future as many movies dealing with difficult issues of cloning and human rights are. This made it impossible to dismiss it as a possible future occurrence.
2. The characters just accept their fate and never fight back. I get the feeling this was done to make people angry and fight back against submission... In many other fictional movies about people who's human rights are taken away, there is someone who comes in to save the day. That makes for a good Hollywood ending, but often shuts down the thinking that was provoked to begin with.

The second film we saw was The King's Speech, which was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. Of course, Jer and I are both history nerds and have been into this period of history lately (I'm talking podcasts, documentaries, and more), but I believe anyone would fall in love with the film and rejoice at the triumph of the human spirit in the end. And seeing the movie immediately after Laura Linney presented Colin Firth with the Silver Medallion award on the stage right in front of us, as well as a tribute reel of Firth's most notable roles and a Q & A session with Firth, just made the whole experience amazing.

The King's Speech is a film showcasing the relationship between Queen Elizabeth II's father King George VI (played by Firth of course) and his speech therapist (played by the Geoffrey Rush). Bertie had a severe stammering problem and was never supposed to be king until his older brother abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry a woman not acceptable to the British government (according to other accounts Jer and I have been listening to, the older brother also had some ties with Hitler which was of course unacceptable on the eve of WWII).

This put Bertie in the unfortunate position of becoming king, which was the last thing he wanted. With the radio and newsreels being widely used for the first time, the king could no longer hide in the palace. He had to make speeches to his subjects via radio transmissions and provide a strong monarch the country could be united behind... and a man with a speech impediment was not necessarily the best man for the job. Enter Geoffry Rush as the unconventional speech therapist. I absolutely LOVED the combination of Collin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in these roles! Even though this was a very serious issue, the two also made the audience laugh. And in the end I was crying with joy.

Quite a fabulous weekend! I'm sure there were many, many other great films this weekend as well, but we are happy with two we chose. Definitely be on the look out for the releases of Never Let Me Go and The King's Speech!

Back to reality (and school) tomorrow. I probably won't be running into the likes of famous actors and directors until next Labor Day, but considering the fact that we live at 8000 feet, my head will still be in the clouds :). Hope you've had a wonderful Labor Day!