Previewing "Telluride By The Sea"

Selections from one of the country’s premier film festivals will be in residence at The Music Hall of Portsmouth this weekend. The Telluride By The Sea weekend celebration of new cinema features films traveling directly from premieres at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado. The event coincides with the opening of The Music Hall’s spectacular renovation of its lobby, with a beaux arts design and 21st century upgrades.

Word of Mouth contributor Garen Daly will be there to review a few of the films for us. Films he'll review include Helen, by the Irish team of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. The film is about a withdrawn 17-year-old girl in state care, who is hired to play a missing girl in a police reconstruction of her disappearance. Directors Lawlor and Molloy both worked in experimental theatre, giving the film a feel that critics have called, “entirely fresh,” "hypnotic" and “haunting.”

Happy-Go-Lucky is the much-anticipated new film by director Mike Leigh. Sally Hawkins is being praised for her role as a free-spirited, somewhat ditzy London teacher named “poppy.” There are two men drawn to her effervescent charm. Audiences accustomed to the gritty urban landscapes and bleak characters of Leigh’s previous films, like Naked and Vera Drake may be shocked. Garen is going to find out if the director’s light-hearted film is a 2ist century take on Georgie Girl.

We’ll also hear about O'Horten, from Norwegian director Bent Hamer. A railroad engineer retires at 67 and misses his last train home, leaving him to a series of absurd, and sometimes comedic lessons for discovering joy at any age.

UPDATE: You can listen to Garen Daly's review of Telluride on Word of Mouth HERE.