Telluride, Colo. — Maybe chalk it up to the altitude sickness, but I’m having trouble imagining a more whiplash-inducing double bill than Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” and Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” two of the first movies to screen at this year’s Telluride Film Festival. One lasts a taut 104 minutes; the other runs nearly twice as long. One has a collective focus, burrowing into the anguished deliberations of several women and girls who have endured grievous sexual abuse; the other is a man’s solo artistic journey, an expansive contemplation of his career, his family and his own considerable ego. One makes a virtue of economy; the other happily submits to excess. One, I think, is pretty outstanding; the other I could sometimes barely stand.
Of such furious contrasts and extremes, of course, is any worthwhile film festival made. Telluride, now in its 49th year, prides itself on the excellence of its rigorously curated program, but its organizers — led by the festival’s director, Julie Huntsinger — also know the value of a wide-ranging selection, and of a risky title that can set off a heated argument or two. Not that you typically see people coming to verbal blows in the streets and makeshift screening rooms of this small Colorado town, where attendees are famously (if perhaps a bit dutifully) prone to high spirits, grateful for the abundance of interesting movies and gorgeous mountain scenery. Everyone, for the most part, is happy to be here. Good taste may not always reign, but civility generally does.
And sometimes, the movie itself is the argument. “Women Talking,” the justly anticipated fourth feature directed by the Canadian-born actor and filmmaker Polley (after “Away From Her,” “Take This Waltz” and “Stories We Tell”), takes the form of a feature-length debate. Adapted from Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel about a fictional Mennonite community, the movie, which will be released Dec. 2 by United Artists, unfolds almost entirely in the hayloft of a barn, where several women and girls have gathered to decide their fates, as well as the fates of the other women and girls in their isolated colony. They must decide whether to carry on with life as normal, stay and do battle with a common enemy, or set out on their own, leaving behind the only home they’ve ever known.
