Apparently, in the realm of film festivals, "premiere" doesn't mean what I always thought it did (and what dictionaries confirm): a first public performance, or to present publicly for the first time. Technically, several films will be "premiered" this weekend at Telluride, even though their "official" world premieres are set for later dates at Toronto and Venice and New York.
Among Telluride's "unofficial" world premieres, as a Washington Post article calls them, are Douglas McGrath's "Infamous," Todd Field's adaptation of "Little Children," Kevin MacDonald's "The Last King of Scotland," and Steven Shainberg's Diane Arbus biopic "Fur," starring Nicole Kidman.
Although the Post says Telluride's co-director Tom Luddy has "developed cordial relationships with programmers" at the festivals in Venice, Toronto and New York, The Guardian more than hints otherwise. In an article today entitled "Fur to Fly at Telluride," The Guardian reported the inclusion of Fur in Telluride's lineup was "highly irritating in the eyes of major festival and studio executives" because Fur's official world premiere is scheduled at the inaugural Rome film festival in October.
So is Telluride's habit of not labeling their films as premieres really irritating to people organizing other festivals? What's in a premiere? Does it really matter? I say let as many people as possible in as many places as possible see good films. Who cares who saw it first? (Or "technically" first. Or "symbolically" first. Or whatever.)
"More people see more good films." Here, here, Kristin! This sort of teeth-gnashing over Fur--is she or isn't she a Premiere event?--and the similar gripes at this year's Sundance Festival are the kind of very real and painful frustrations borne by any established generation at the birth of any new etiquette or social norm.
In this digital age, can anyone or any group ever again claim to be the first to see any film? Of course not. Fur and each of the other films here have been seen and discussed and blogged about already by hundreds or perhaps thousands of people. Opinions made and remade already. Films edited on the basis of audience response. We are no longer living in an age when a director stands in his tux at the back of the darkened theatre on the big night to see how an audience will react to his work. By the time a film reaches a festival on the scale of a Telluride, this director has a very good gauge of public response.
The folks frustrated by the vestigial idea of "premiere" are the same folks frustrated when "exclusive" interviews turn out not to be, and "breaking" news isn't, and the whole reality that talent and insight, venue and experience and hospitality are going to trump the concept of "scoop" from now on in the experience of and reporting of entertainment news. It is what it is, and it's different and getting differenter.
Posted by JuJu on September 1, 2006 09:38 PM