Odd Days: Telluride Finale

A few final words about Telluride. Someone asked about subtitles. Quite some time ago, a friend recommended a movie to me and I said, "It sounds subtitled. Is it?" She thought for a moment, and then said, "I don't know." At the time, I thought that was very odd, but I have since come to believe that the better the subtitled movie, the less likely you are to notice the subtitles.

And indeed, in Telluride, I never think about it -- unless I am stuck in a seat that is at the far right of the first row of a huge theater AND there is a post in front of my left eye. In that case, if the film is subtitled, I am forced to multi-task in ways that even Leonard Maltin might find challenging. That's because I'm watching a (in this case) 2.5 hour movie with my neck twisted painfully up and to the left. Meanwhile, the last two or three words of each subtitle disappear behind the post forcing me to guess what the remainder of the sentence is. By the time I have finished solving the puzzle, my mind comes back to the screen, but I have (sometimes) missed something crucial.

I experienced the above nightmare only once. And although the vast majority of films at Telluride are subtitled, I generally did not notice.

Even if there were no film festival in Telluride, I would revel in being there. Here's why. (Unfortunately, these are only iphone photos, but I bet you'll get the idea.)