UPDATE: Sally Potter's Ginger & Rosa

As any of you know by now, I've been following Sally Potter's latest film like a hawk (see my original post and first update). Any tidbit of information is scooped up and passed on without delay. So here it goes... 

Behind the scenes of 'Ginger and Rosa' © Nicola Dove

As you may have noticed, the working title of her film, Bomb, has been replaced with the more descriptive Ginger & Rosa. It's making its way along the festival circuit as I write this. The first appearance I had wind of was this very weekend at the Telluride Film Festival that runs until Monday (9/3). According to the program (pg5), the film was shown Friday, Saturday and Sunday with the Director and Alessandro Nivola (Roland) making appearances. Oh what I wouldn't have done to make one of those screenings! This is mainly due to the fact that the film hasn't been picked up for distribution yet. It's bound to be but there's still a side of me that always worries. 

Photograph of Annette Benning and Elle Fanning  © Nicola Dove

IndieWire's Rodrigo Perez wrote a favorable review of the Telluride screening. I highly recommend reading it through but here are a few quotes: 

"Lovely and devastating, challenging yet worthwhile..."

"...as the lead, Fanning is transformative, heartbreakingly conveying the inner life of an adolescent with an almost eerily nuanced command of her craft."

"Expressively told, Potter is a master of documenting the rich emotional inner life of characters...the director gets as close as humanly possible to capturing that exuberant rush of blood to the head. Elsewhere the picture is sparse and minimal, but always with a thoughtful, examining gaze that illuminates the lives of these frustrated characters."

"...Alice Englert... puts in a commanding performance that points toward a bright future."

"Philosophically landing in a place where moral integrity and passion can exact enormous cruelty on a person's life, Potter’s picture is clearly a very personal one, but its depiction of global and social destruction (or its potential) is still deeply humanistic and universal. Beautiful, yet dark and moving, unsparing, but told with a sympathetic eye, “Ginger & Rosa” is sometimes relentless in its examination of emotional pain, and as such may be a challenging picture for some audiences."

"... a layered and rich little gem of a picture about life, love, and trying to find and understand one's place in the world..."

Additional reviews for this screening are available from The Hollywood Reporter, Variety and The Guardian. 

According to Potter's website, the film will have it's world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday, Sept. 7th and has been invited to the New York Film Festival in October. Additional information for these festivals available at tiff.net and NYFF. 

I know I can't be the only excited about this film. Are you looking forward to it too? Do you think it'll be too serious for a wide release? I welcome your comments!