I don’t follow the movie industry that closely, but I do tend to pay attention to major film festival buzz. The films that get talked about at Cannes, Sundance et al tend to be the films I want to see.
However, I’ve recently noticed a minor frustration with this process. I’ll read about a film getting positive reviews at a festival, and then try to find its trailer online. Often, I can’t. I remember this was the case with Teeth at Sundance last year. This year I have the same complaint about the new Neil Young tour documentary, CSNY Déjà Vu. It debuted at this year’s Sundance, I read an interview with Neil in Rolling Stone but can’t check out the trailer.
This is one of those rare times when I really want to look at an ad for a product, and I can’t. To use some marketingese, I’m ready to begin a relationship with this movie, but I can’t. More importantly, I’d be happy to post it to this website, favourite it on YouTube and so forth, but I can’t.
I assume there are some baroque politics around distribution deals and marketing control that prevents the trailer from debuting when the movie does, but it’s pretty silly. Movie marketers may think they’re creating desire by delaying the trailer, but I find I just forget about these movies. A trailer would, I think, help me remember. I can certainly picture moments from the Teeth trailer which I watched when it eventually came out).
I started this entry assuming I’d be able to find trailers for both films, but I couldn’t find one for Redacted. That’s surprising, given that it’s receiving plenty of media attention. So here’s a trailer for In the Valley of Elah, and an interview with Brian De Palma in Italian with some footage from Redacted:
I’m looking forward to In the Valley of Elah, as it’s written and directed by Paul Haggis, who recently racked up writing credits for Crash (which he also directed), Million Dollar Baby and Casino Royale. He’s Canadian, and about 15 years ago he created Due South, for which I have a fondness.
Living on an island with only one movie theatre (now playing: Blades of Glory, coming soon: Spiderman 3) has reduced my interest in movie news. Happily, Gillian posted links to a bunch of movies trailers. The three that most interested me were:
Once - A musical set in Dublin, starring the (instantly charming, I think) Glen Hansard of the Frames. Looks like an Irish Before Sunrise, and it made me pine a little for the dirty ol’ town.
Day Night Day Night - An accentless girl prepares to become a suicide bomber. Her target is Times Square. It’s a gritty, remarkable-looking film.
