Telluride by the Sea features HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, RUST IN BONE and other films in Portsmouth Sept. 14-16

[From the Telluride by the Sea Film Festival:]

Titles Announced!
The Music Hall Presents
Telluride by the Sea
September 14-16, 2012
Bill Murray as Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson
Academy Award best actress Marion Cotillard in Rust in Bone
Midnight’s Children adapted from Salman Rushdie

Tickets on sale noon Friday August 31, 2012

New this year
Renovated upper lobby
Telluride Film Festival Tributees:
Roger Corman, Mads Mikkelson, Marion Cotillard,
all represented in this year's titles!
And, for passholders:  TFF Past Gems: Film Noir - in The Loft!

Portsmouth, New Hampshire… The secret is out: six diverse, original films with international casts of both seasoned actors and fresh new faces, directed by some of the world’s most acclaimed filmmakers, are coming to The Music Hall’s Telluride by the Sea festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire—transforming the charming Seacoast town into a meccafor cinephiles for three exciting days, Friday September 14-Sunday September 16, 2012. In keeping with the tradition, individual film tickets go on sale, noon Friday August 31, 2012. Patron and Weekend passes are also on sale.

Probably the most highly anticipated is Bill Murray as Franklin Delano Roosevelt in Hyde Park on Hudson, and co-starring Laura Linney. A great tie-in with Music Hall live programming is the film Midnight's Children, adapted from the novel by Salman Rushdie who will be here for Writers on a New England Stage on October 10. Many who have been captivated by Gael Garcia Bernal in Y Tu Mama Tambien or The Motorcycle Diaries will be happy to see his return in the film No.


New this year - about the Tributes

Since its inception, the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado has featured three tributes each year. Typically, one has been devoted to an important figure in contemporary Hollywood, another to a major historical figure, and a third to someone who is either not well known to American audiences or who has been misunderstood by them. Each tributee is awarded the Telluride Film Festival Silver Medallion. Tributees have included Francis Ford Coppola, Gloria Swanson, Penélope Cruz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu, Clint Eastwood, Jodie Foster, Harvey Keitel, Ang Lee, David Lynch, Jack Nicholson, Peter O'Toole, Mickey Rooney, John Schlesinger, and Meryl Streep.

This year, for the first time, all three TFF Tributees are represented in this year's Telluride by the Sea films: Academy Award winner for Best Actress Marion Cotillard in Rust in Bone; Mads Mikkelsen (who was fantastically creepy in Casino Royale (2006)) in A Royal Affair; and finally, Roger Corman, the subject of Corman's World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

New this year – renovated upper lobby

We will be unveiling our new upper lobby in the Historic Theater – which will provide more room for our patrons to gather and mingle, an elegant transition between our Beaux Arts Founders Lobby and our 1878 Victorian auditorium and also offering upgraded amenities such as beer and wine and the new Music Hall chocolate bar.

New this year for passholders – Film Noir TFF Past Gems in The Loft!

The Telluride Film Festival in Colorado has long championed the style known as Film Noir. This year at Telluride by the Sea, we want to share with pass holders three hardboiled, dark, low budget, gritty classics, previously featured at TFF. And, in keeping with Noir's spirit of mystery and suspense, we are not going to tell you what the films are! Trust us, you won’t want to miss a single Gem. Each film will be introduced by our equally hardboiled and gritty host, the fedora-sporting Noir aficionado  Kent Stephens.  According to Bill Pence, “When we decided this year to sample some film noir at Telluride by the Sea we knew that Kent Stephens was the perfect person to present it.  Over the years we’ve observed Kent on many occasions opening his Stage Force plays and readings with a flamboyant theatrical style that immediately captures and holds the audience.  Who better to guide us in film noir’s dark, shadowy, world of gangsters, gun molls, double-crossers, stoolies, femme fatales and dicks?  And Kent looks terrific in a fedora!”

According to Chris Curtis, Programming Coordinator for The Music Hall, “We are again in store for a sensational weekend – a three day festival of film, food, and fun in a place that the Miami Herald recently named, ‘New England’s most appealing city.’ It’s such a great time of year - everybody on staff gets involved with the festival - a total team effort. And, it’s great to see the whole town energized. It’s clear - Portsmouth loves film!”

In recognition of the start of Rosh Hashana and the Jewish New Year at sundown on Sunday evening of Telluride by the Sea weekend, we are presenting an additional screening of our Sunday night movie for Sunday morning at the Historic Theater.  The Music Hall sends best wishes for shanah tova— a sweet and happy year ahead.

**********WEEKEND SCHEDULE *********

Friday, Sept. 14

5:30pm: Queues on Chestnut St. / Live entertainment: Gary Sredzienski, Accordion

7:00pm: Midnight’s Children

Canada/Sri Lanka, subtitled, (148 mins – end at 9:30p)

Born at the hour and the date of India’s self-declared independence from British rule, Saleem is switched at birth from a life of illegitimacy and poverty into a family of wealth and prosperity. This mix-up, along with Saleem’s enigmatic telepathic powers, transforms his path, and he takes a symbolic adventure into the tensions, conflicts and blood-soaked tragedies of modern India. Deepa Mehta’s film version of the novel (self-adapted by Salman Rushdie) does impressive justice to an indisputable literary classic of the 20th century.

Patron Party at Radici after film

Saturday, Sept. 15

10:30am: TFF Past Gem: Noir Gem 1 (67 mins – end at 11:37a)

(At the Loft, for Pass Holders only, limited seating)

1:30pm: Rust and Bone

France, subtitled, (120 mins – end at 3:30p)

Jacques Audiard follows his essential crime drama A Prophet (TbtS 2009) with the stuff of romance: mismatched lovers facing extraordinary obstacles. Alain (rising star Matthias Shoenarts of the Oscar-nominated Bullhead) is an inarticulate thug competing in gladiatorial street fights who can barely keep his son fed, clothed and in school. Steph (TFF 2012 Tribute Honoree, Marion Cotillard) is a free-spirited, streetwise dolphin trainer who suffers a devastating injury.

3:45pm: TFF Past Gem: Noir Gem 2 (79 mins – end at 5:04p)

(At the Loft, for Pass Holders only, limited seating)

4-5pm: Cinemange at Radici, 142 Congress St., with special cine-menu (Reservations suggested, call 373-6464)

6:15pm: Hyde Park on Hudson

US, (95 mins – end at 7:50p)

In 1939, Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Bill Murray) and his family invite the timid new King of England to visit. Though desperate to convert the U.S. into an ally in the struggle against the Nazis, nothing could prepare the Royals for a trip to rural America, nor the harem of FDR’s caretakers and lovers jockeying for power and influence. Director Roger Michell and screenwriter Richard Nelson weave together a gentle comedy of manners with an inside glimpse of how political goals get achieved. Also featuring Laura Linney.

8:30pm: A Royal Affair

Denmark, subtitled, (137 mins – end at 10:47p)

The most scandalous chapter in Denmark’s history also provides romantic tragedy worthy of Ibsen or Tolstoy. Around 1770, as King Christian VII struggles with mental illness, Johann Struensee, his trusted physician, begins an adulterous love affair with Queen Caroline Mathilde. The impressive cast features Mads Mikkelsen (TFF 2012 Tribute Honoree), Alicia Vikander and Mikkel Boe Følsgaard as the tortured manic-depressive King, directed by Nikolaj Arcel (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).

intelligence, is matched by Alicia Vikander as the recklessly passionate Caroline. But Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, as the tortured manic-depressive King Christian VII nearly steals the film. He is first saved, and then betrayed. (CUT)

Sunday, Sept. 16

10:15am: Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

US, (90 mins – end at 11:45a)

Part of this year’s TFF tribute to Roger Corman, Hollywood's most prolific writer-director-producer, and seminal influencing force in modern moviemaking over the last 60 years. Featuring interviews with Hollywood icons and cinematic luminaries, some who launched their careers within Corman's unforgettable world of filmmaking, including Paul W.S. Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert DeNiro, Peter Fonda, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, MartinScorcese, and many others, this documentary chronicles how Corman created his cult film empire, one low-budget success at a time, while pushing the boundaries of independent filmmaking.

12-1pm: Patron Pass Holder Brunch at The District

1:30pm: No

Chile, subtitled, (115 mins – end at 3:25p)

In 1988, Chilean voters prepare to head to the polls to vote on the future of the brutal dictator Augusto Pinochet. RenéSaavedra (Gael García Bernal), a guileless and successful ad exec, is approached to construct a media campaign to help defeat Pinochet. His strategy? Rouse voters from their apathy and fear with the same glitzy, pop-driven style he uses to sell cola. But René’s jingle-filled spots enrage both the left and the right, endangering him and his loved ones. Following his acclaimed Post Mortem and Tony Manero, director Pablo Larrain continues exploring the moral and spiritual costs of Pinochet’s rule with this prizewinner at Cannes.

4:00pm: TFF Past Gem: Noir Gem 3 (86 mins – end at 5:26p)

(At the Loft, for Pass Holders only, limited seating)

6:30pm: Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel

US, (90 mins – end at 11:45a)

Part of this year’s TFF tribute to Roger Corman, Hollywood's most prolific writer-director-producer, and seminal influencing force in modern moviemaking over the last 60 years. Featuring interviews with Hollywood icons and cinematic luminaries, some who launched their careers within Corman's unforgettable world of filmmaking, including Paul W.S. Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert DeNiro, Peter Fonda, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, MartinScorcese, and many others, this documentary chronicles how Corman created his cult film empire, one low-budget success at a time, while pushing the boundaries of independent filmmaking.

Post-film: Wrap Party at The Portsmouth Brewery for Pass Holders

About the Telluride Film Festival

The Telluride Film Festival has been, for the last 39 years, a celebration of the art of film: honoring the great masters of the cinema, discovering the rare and unknown, bringing new works by the world's greatest directors and the latest in American independent film to a small mountain town in Colorado. The New York Times called Telluride "the smallest, most original, and most stimulating of the major festivals," while Entertainment Tonight simply said it was "the world's best festival."

About Telluride by the Sea

The Music Hall and the Telluride Film Festival collaborate on an exclusive presentation of six new features, brought directly from their Colorado debuts. This unique and intimate Portsmouth event treats audience members from across the Northeast to an exclusive peek into the Telluride experience - packing one September weekend in Portsmouth with the latest international cinema, private parties, great music, delicious food, and inspired conversations with othercinephiles of all ages, tastes and backgrounds. According to Patricia Lynch, executive director of The Music Hall, “Portsmouth is the perfect town for this perfect weekend. With its charming mix of history, salt air, and film lovers, Portsmouth buzzes when Telluride by the Sea arrives. The streets are filled with people stopping one another to talk about the films, the restaurants are jumping. It’s a moving party!”

Telluride by the Sea is made possible with the generous support of:

Weekend Sponsors
New Hampshire Public Television
The Wire
WSCA Portsmouth Community Radio

Day Sponsors
BayRing Communications
Smuttynose Brewing Company

Film Sponsors:
The District
Isles of Shoals Steamship Co.
Jackson Lewis LLP
Harbour Women's Health
Radici

Season Sponsor
River House Restaurant

Ticket information

Patron Pass $200 -  entitles the bearer to:

Primary seating for all films
Opening night post-show party at Radici
VIP access all weekend – no lines
Isles of Shoals Steamship Co. Cruise (offer good until 10/31/12)
Sunday Brunch at The District
Wrap Party at The Portsmouth Brewery
Price of pass includes a $75 tax-deductable donation
Admission to passholder-only 'Past Gems' films in the Loft (seating limited!)
Telluride by the Sea Seat Saver

Weekend Pass - $85 entitles the bearer to:

Preferred seating for all films
Isles of Shoals Steamship Co. Cruise (offer good until 10/31/12)
Wrap Party at The Portsmouth Brewery
Admission to passholder-only 'Past Gems' films in the Loft (seating limited!)

Please note: Seating is General Admission. Patron Passholders are admitted first, Weekend Passholders second, and Individual ticket holders last. Show up early for best seating options. TFF Gems are in the Loft. Seating is very limited. Patron Passholders are admitted first. Seating is NOT guaranteed. Saving of seats or places in line is prohibited, except for Patron Passholders using designated seat-savers. Use of photographic, video, recording, or broadcast equipment is strictly prohibited. Please turn off cell phones BEFORE you enter the house. Late seating will be accommodated only at the discretion of the House Manager. Theaters will be cleaned between screenings and must be entirely emptied. Remove all personal items from your seat as you leave.

Individual Film Tickets $12.50/$10.50 for members

A limited number of individual tickets will be available at noon Friday August 31 when individual film titles are announced.

Telluride by the Sea Patron and Weekend Passes are on sale now through The Music Hall Box Office at the Historic Theater at 28 Chestnut Street, in downtown Portsmouth, by phone at 603.436.2400 or online at www.themusichall.org.

About The Music Hall

The Music Hall is a performing arts center featuring curated entertainment from around the world in two theaters in its downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire campus - one, a landmark 1878 Victorian theater, the other the intimate Music Hall Loft around the corner, recently named "best performing arts venue" by Yankee Magazine and the recipient of the NH AIA award for design excellence. Acclaimed signature series bring top authors and artists to both stages, while HD broadcasts and independent film fill both screens. A radio show broadcast on NH Public Radio originates here. This dynamic arts center urges patrons to Explore + Learn via master classes, post film panel discussions, and matinees for children. An anchor cultural organization in this historic working seaport, The Music Hall is one of downtown Portsmouth’s biggest employers and largest contributors to the regional economy: The Music Hall and its patrons contribute $7 million annually to the local economy through show and visitor related spending. Innovative in its outlook, the organization is community oriented and committed to making the Seacoast flourish. The Music Hall is 501c3 nonprofit managed by a professional staff with the assistance of a volunteer board.  Though global in the scope of its artists and programs, The Music Hall operates independently with the support of 3,000 members, 300 business supporters and 40 community partners. Welcoming more than 100,000 patrons (including 20,000 children) each year from the tri-state area and beyond, The Music Hall is the region’s center for the performing arts, literature and education…easy to get to, impossible to forget. www.themusichall.org

“the beating cultural heart of New Hampshire's seacoast” – Boston Globe