2024 Telluride Film Festival Report – Day 3 – Two Mainstream Films and a Legend

Settling into the new way of Telluriding I was able to see two really good mainstream targeted films and attend the accolading of a legendary film editor. If you are here on the ground or watching from afar you can be assured that there is always true reverence for great cinema with the fare presented by the Festival programmers. Today was no exception. The broad spectrum of mainstream cinema was represented in the films Conclave and The Friend and the industry acknowledged the life work of one of its greatest editors who helped create so many mainstream classics, Thelma Schoonmaker.

Conclave

Started the day bright and early, using another get into jail free card, to see the highly anticipated adaptation of the Robert Harris novel about the politics, both internal and external revolving around the selection of a new Catholic Pope. Director Edward Berger was able to summon a full actors’ studio-level cast to give life to Peter Straughan’s script. The onscreen beauty is stunning, as is the inner turmoil boiling beneath the surface of each and every character. Of particular note, the excellent score rivals the stellar locations in awe of inspiration.

A conclave is the period of sequestered voting of the cardinals charged with electing the next pope when one dies. It is very somber, serious moment in church history and gilded with all the gaudy pomp and circumstance as if time passing was irrelevant. But of course, all the characters are people of their own time, with their own agendas and biases. Wonderfully woven the film stitches together revelations and twists of plot effortlessly and is a wild ride whether you’re familiar with the setting and its implications to the world at large. In deference to the intended impact of those plot twists, I will not go into detail, but, rest assured the ride is a wild one.

Watching this, I was instantly reminded of my all-time favorite film set within the conclave to find a new pope, The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968). Both films wonderfully articulate the internal politics of the church within the more global political landscape of their times. Conclave will certainly be one of many best films of the year lists. It ticks all the boxes.

The Friend

Bringing a dog to Telluride is like breathing, it seems. So bringing a film whose arguably main character is a giant Great Dane seems like a no-brainer. And having the dog star, Bing along to do the Q&As is guaranteeing a great reception with the audiences and press alike. (Bing is so dang cute!)

That said, it’s easy to understand why so many people found this film so endearing and enjoyable, so, I’ll start this review from that perspective. The Friend is a tearful soliloquy on dealing with loss with a centerpiece, a great big lovable dog adapted from the novel of the same name by Sigrid Nunez. The adaptation is deftly handled by directors Scott McGehee and David Seigel with the guiding hand of executive producer and star (co-star to Bing?) Naomi Watts. Most audiences leave the film feeling warmed by the connections made between individuals and pets who’ve experienced unexpected, irrevocable loss. Who among us, when feeling sad, hasn’t felt a little bit better after petting a dog that seems to care about you and your feelings?

Although my personal takeaway from this film seems to be in the extreme minority, I found the message of the film much more about recognition and expression of grief. Although the film focused on the human’s use of a pet to find a way to cope and move on, I felt it shorted the flip side of story, how creatures who have no way to express or fully understand a loss need something to help them cope. They truly never forget. Also, the dealing with denial, guilt, and strong emotions brought to the surface by an unexpected death are displayed but not given real purchase. And the unique storytelling artifices they used would have been interesting settings in which to explore these areas.

Again, I acknowledge that no one else I talked to had this take from the film, so, I fault no one from dismissing it. After all, every film hits an audience member differently, and we’re all right in our own interpretations.

A Tribute to Thelma Schoonmaker

Our industry has very few true giants. Those rare individuals whom everyone admires and respects not only for their achievements, but, also for their personality and singular humanity and good-natured soul. Often, when you find these unicorns, they show extreme humility and give credit to those around them much more often than they accept credit upon themselves. In the realm of film editing, the rare, female unicorn is Thelma Schoonmaker.

Schoonmaker has had a hand in crafting a huge swath of what we consider classic cinema throughout the last half-century. Reeling off her resume is like articulating the curriculum of a high-order cinema studies class list of films that have influenced film excellence. She’s edited films from the widest range of genres and styles with equal aplomb. She is the epitome of a great film editor.

Schoonmaker’s path to film editing was a circuitous one. She went to college to be a diplomat, failed because she was too free with her liberal opinions. She then took a class in filmmaking, not because of any particular interest in becoming a filmmaker but because she had learned to cut negatives at a previous bad job that had no cinematic respect for the films being cut. During that class, the professor asked if anyone with negative cutting experience could help a struggling student out who was trying to save a bad edit of his short film. She said she’d try and went off to meet with that filmmaker, a frazzled Martin Scorsese.

She likes to give credit to “Marty” for teaching her the art of film editing. True though that may be to some extent, I can’t quite help but imagine that the film student she met who had just spent three days without sleep trying to fix his film might still be at it if she hadn’t shown up. To hear Schoonmaker talk, you get a sense that she has an instinctual aspect of approaching how each scene should be and that she tirelessly works through the steps of getting there. She seems down to earth and willing to listen, but, also stands her ground on the things that are important. 

As much as a modest professional can, she tries not to trash the editing tropes taught in film schools that don’t always hold true when you are down in the trenches. As an editor myself who can find himself in a self-created quagmire of mess, it's refreshing to think that she might just say, “The rules only apply if they work. You can break the rules if the edit works.” You may have come to the conclusion after reading this that this tribute is one I will remember for a very long time.

It was a wonderful way for my day to end here in Telluride.