Clooney, Scorsese, Close films head for Telluride (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A Martin Scorsese documentary about late Beatle George Harrison, the George Clooney movie "The Descendants," and a film in which Glenn Close plays a woman pretending to be a male butler were all picked for this year's Telluride Film Festival.

Festival organizers on Thursday unveiled the lineup for the event that begins Friday, runs over the holiday weekend and is regarded as among the top U.S. movie gatherings of the year.

The festival in the ski resort town of Telluride, Colorado, is considered a key event for cineastes and annually features an eclectic group of foreign and U.S. movies. Last minute selections, as yet unannounced, often end up being Oscar contenders.

Among this year's highlights include director David Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method," starring Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley in a story about the turbulent relationships between fledging psychiatrist Carl Jung, his mentor Sigmund Freud and patient Sabina Spielrein.

"The Descendants," from Alexander Payne, the director of "Sideways," stars George Clooney as an indifferent husband and father forced to re-examine his life, while the Irish drama "Albert Nobbs," co-written by Glenn Close, has the actress playing a shy Butler who is hiding the fact that he is woman.

Other fictional films include British director Steve McQueen's "Shame," also starring Fassbender, as well as Tilda Swinton in "We Need to Talk About Kevin."

Martin Scorsese's documentary about George Harrison, "Living in the Material World," a project he developed with the former Beatle's widow, Olivia, also will screen and it promises unseen Harrison footage and songs.

Among other nonfiction films selected were German director Werner Herzog's "Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life" as well as Wim Wenders' "Pina."

Included in the foreign titles are prominent Polish director Agnieszka Holland's new film, "In Darkness," about a sewer worker who helps Jewish people escape a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland, as well as Hungarian director Bela Tarr's "The Turin Horse."

Also screening is "The Kid With a Bike," by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne that shared the runner-up prize earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival and "The Artist" by French director Michel Hazanavicius. It won best actor for Jean Dujardin at Cannes.

(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

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George Clooney comedy to close New York Film Festival (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – Alexander Payne's eagerly awaited comedy "The Descendants" will serve as the closing-night attraction at the New York Film Festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center announced on Wednesday. The film, featuring George Clooney as a father whose life is shaken when his wife is injured in a boating accident, is Payne's first since the Oscar winner "Sideways."

The festival also announced its main slate of 27 features, some of which had already been confirmed. The lineup includes Michel Hazanavicius silent comedy "The Artist," Lars von Trier's controversial "Melancholia," Martin Scorsese's documentary "George Harrison: Living in the Material World," and Steve McQueen's "Shame," the British director's follow-up to his acclaimed "Hunger."

The opening night attraction, Roman Polanski's "Carnage," was previously announced.

The festival will also feature an in-depth conversation with Payne as part of its "On Cinema" series.

The New York Film Festival, which is presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs from September 30 through October 16.

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Glenn Close to get lifetime award at Spanish festival (Reuters)

(Reuters) – Actress Glenn Close will receive a lifetime achievement award at the San Sebastian film festival in Spain next month for a career that has shocked, delighted and moved audiences for more than 30 years, organizers said on Friday.

The five-time Academy Award nominee and twice Golden Globe winner will be presented with the award on September 18 and will also travel to the festival for the European premiere of her latest film, "Albert Nobbs", set in 19th-century Ireland.

Close made her big screen splash in the 1982 film "The World According to Garp", for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination, for Best Supporting Actress.

She has gone on to play characters that have been etched into cinematic memory, such as a bunny-boiling obsessed killer in "Fatal Attraction", the evil but hapless Cruella de Vil in "101 Dalmations" and a French aristocrat in "Dangerous Liaisons".

In recent years, Close has won fans and earned an Emmy for playing a tough-as-nails attorney on cable TV series "Damages".

(Reporting by Martin Roberts, editing by Paul Casciato)

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Glenn Close to receive Spanish film award (AP)

MADRID – The organizing committee of Spain's premiere film festival says Hollywood actress Glenn Close is to receive this year's edition of its lifetime achievement award.

The actress will also introduce her latest work, "Albert Nobbs," a movie directed by Rodrigo Garcia which depicts life in 19th century Ireland, at the San Sebastian Festival, it said in a statement Friday.

Previous recipients of the Donostia lifetime award have included American actors Richard Gere and Meryl Streep, Spanish actor Antonio Banderas and Norwegian actress Liv Ullmann.

The annual festival is due to culminate with a star-studded red carpet award ceremony on Sept. 18 in the northern seaside city of San Sebastian, known as Donostia in the local Basque language.

(This version CORRECTS Liv Ullman's nationality to Norwegian instead of Swedish.)

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Lloyd Webber's musical 'Love Never Dies' to close (AP)

LONDON – Andrew Lloyd Webber's sequel to the hit musical "The Phantom of the Opera" will close in August.

"Love Never Dies" opened in March last year to mixed reviews at the Adelphi Theatre as the first musical sequel to open in London's West End. The show relaunched with changes months later and recently nominated for seven Laurence Olivier theater awards, but won nothing.

Lloyd Webber had told reporters that he could not properly oversee the opening of the show because he was diagnosed with cancer before the debut.

The musical opened in Melbourne, Australia, in May to more positive reviews.

"Phantom," now in its 25th year, continues to be popular in the West End.

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Paris bar honors The Doors; may have to close them (AP)

PARIS – The walls of the Paris bar are plastered with images of Jim Morrison and The Doors, and a bust of the lead singer presides over the beer tap — all part of the owner's lifelong passion for the band. But an attorney for the group doesn't love it madly.

Christophe Maillet said he received a letter from a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based attorney warning that "The Doors do not want to be seen as having approved of your establishment and also the consumption of alcohol."

The April 21 letter — signed by Anthony Keats, The Doors' intellectual property lawyer, and shown Friday to The Associated Press — urged Maillet to remove images of the group from his bar within three months.

Not an easy task.

The walls feature oversized close-ups of Morrison and framed photos and posters of the band. And there's that bust of the flowing-locked singer at the tap.

Morrison, known for a partying lifestyle, died in 1971 at age 27 of heart failure in his bathtub in Paris — just minutes from Maillet's bar. Morrison's grave at Pere Lachaise cemetery remains a pilgrimage site for fans.

Doors lawyer Keats did not respond to email and phone messages Friday about the letter.

The decorations are from Maillet's own collection — the fruit of 25 years as a dedicated fan, he said.

"I found my passion for Jim Morrison at the age of 12," said the soft-spoken bartender. "Then I found a profession that could go along with it.

"Since I started in this business, my goal was to start a bar dedicated to Jim Morrison."

After nearly a decade spent working at other people's establishments, Maillet's dream came true nine months ago when he opened the "Lezard King" — a play on Morrison's nickname, the "lizard king." Because he worried about possible copyright issues, Maillet used the French word for lizard, he said.

On the menu are cocktails of Maillet's own creation that he baptized after Doors' songs: the "Light My Fire" blends rum, Cointreau and citrus juices; the "Roadhouse Blues" mixes tequila, Cointreau and blue curacao.

Maillet won't say how much he invested in the bar located in Paris' hip Bastille neighborhood but said it amounted to his life savings.

Maillet doesn't know what could happen if the legal action goes ahead — the attorney's letter doesn't specify — but he said: "I guess worst-case scenario is that they could close the bar."

Maillet, who does not have a lawyer, wrote The Doors' attorney back but said he hasn't yet received a response.

He said in order to appease The Doors, he'd be willing to add other 1960s and '70s bands to the bar's decoration. The letter also demands that the name of the bar be changed — something Maillet flatly refuses.

He said he knows of about a dozen Doors-themed bars — from Amsterdam to India — and it's unclear whether others have faced similar legal woes.

"I didn't do this to destroy (The Doors') image or to dirty it," Maillet said. "I did it to make them happy."

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