Look at Storytelling

Storytelling is currently slated for a January 25th release, with Belle & Sebastian's people saying "early next year" for the soundtrack. The book's release was also delayed, no doubt to correlate with the film's release. Oh well; let's see if Fine Line lives up to these dates... In the meantime, you can check out the pictures (below) and download the French trailer (English language) at: http://www.commeaucinema.com/bandeannonces/storytelling/qt/storytelling.mov

Photos contributed by Colonel Sanders; link to trailer & poster art from Milk Man Dan

Storytelling - The Book

Faber and Faber Inc., the same publishers that put out Solondz' Welcome To the Dollhouse and Happiness screenplays, have already announced the release of their Storytelling paperback (ISBN: 0-571-21283-2; dare we hope it will contain the now infamous, excised sequences from the film?), with a December 3rd release date and a list price of $13.00. Their description reads, "Todd Solandz offers two separate stories that unfold amid the sadly comical terrain of college and high school. A young female student has a stranger-than-fiction sexual encounter with her creative writing tutor; and a struggling documentarian finds himself drawn into his material." It's available for pre-order at Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, etc.

On a similar note, according to Amazon, the Storytelling soundtrack, on Matador Records, has a November 13th release date.

Official Storytelling Site Up

Fine's Line official Storytelling site is finally live, confirming that the film won't be released until 2002. There's really not much else there, yet, but at least it shows Fine Line is finally starting the publicity machine ahead for Solondz' latest effort. Coming as no surprise, the site lists the lead actors and does not include James Van Der Beek or Heather Matarazzo (it also notes its R rating). The address is: www.storytellingmovie.com; which has also been added to my links column.

Slightly Less Mutilated Storytelling DVD

Contractually obligated to give Fine Line Features an R-rated picture, Todd Solondz has had to censor (in addition to the whole James Van Der Beek sequence) an explicit sex scene with Selma Blair and Robert Wisdom from his latest film.
Well, according to a recently published article in IndieWIRE, Solondz claims the scene will be included, un-censored, in foreign prints and the upcoming DVD, adding, "I knew that the U.S. would be the only place - except for Iran and Iraq - that I would have this problem... It's not just the MPAA; the studios are complicit and the whole country has issues that you don't have to deal with abroad."
The same article also mentions that the MPAA also censored one of the trailers Solondz wanted for the film, which explains why the big red box which covers the aforementioned Blair/ Wisdom scene is there. "The MPAA didn't approve it," Solondz said, "because it suggested they would be censors. While, strictly speaking, it's unfair to say that the red box is censorship, this is one irrefutable example of censorship in the trailer: they're not letting us state the facts about why there's a big red box in the movie."
Well, it's good news, at least, that the one scene will find its way onto the DVD uncensored, and, hey - maybe we could even get Solondz' proposed trailer on there, too, but as far as the shorn Van Der Beek/ Matarazzo subplot, it still looks like we may never see a non-butchered Storytelling. "I wish that I didn't have these obstacles," Solondz said. "On the other hand, perhaps on some unconscious level, that's what spurs me on."