A splendid ‘Women Talking’ and indulgent ‘Bardo’ get Telluride arguing from the start

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