It's been a disrupted TIFF for me this year with some significant family health issues occupying the foreground for much of this week.
I had a brief window in which to see a film and it was a perfect restorative to the stresses of the week. "Faces Places" was jointly directed by Agnes Varda, an octogenarian French film-maker whose previous work I've enjoyed and JR, a thirty-something photographer who is famous for taking pictures of people and pasting huge enlargements in public spaces (JR was involved in one of Toronto's Nuit Blanche events from a couple of years ago). The film represented both the combination of each of their talents, and framed it within a conversation between two friends about a host of subjects.
And it was beautifully playful in documenting the travels of two very different companions around the French countryside. In a festival that seemed to have a lot of films that stretched well beyond 150 minutes, Faces was concise, entertaining and thought-provoking.
Watch for this at the Hot Docs (I believe it's coming up fairly soon).
2017/09/15
2017/09/13
This is the violence that is inherent in the system
I was familiar with Armando Iannucci's through watching the scabrous political satire of his "The Thick of It" show so was curious when I saw a first trailer for "The Death of Stalin".
"The Thick of It" was brutal in its depiction of a political game to be won at all costs. Stalin shares some of that and some of the best bits in the film are when the difference between nastiness and comedy is razor-thin. With the security forces of the NKVD out and either imprisoning or executing rivals to power, the threat of violence is always close at hand.
Into this is added the machinations of the various members of the politburo to identify or become the main player in the post-Stalin world, with Lavrentiy Beria (the head of the NKVD, played by Simon Russell Beale) and Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) as the main competitors.
A decision was made to allow each of the actors to use his or her own speaking voice for the film, resulting in a melange of accents. The dialogue takes on a somewhat distracting quality and, for me, moved it in the direction of sketch comedy, rather than a coherently presented feature. While very funny in parts and occasionally chilling, I found the end result a little disappointing. I was looking for something with the teeth of "The Thick of It" and got something closer to the political satire of "Monty Python".
"The Thick of It" was brutal in its depiction of a political game to be won at all costs. Stalin shares some of that and some of the best bits in the film are when the difference between nastiness and comedy is razor-thin. With the security forces of the NKVD out and either imprisoning or executing rivals to power, the threat of violence is always close at hand.
Into this is added the machinations of the various members of the politburo to identify or become the main player in the post-Stalin world, with Lavrentiy Beria (the head of the NKVD, played by Simon Russell Beale) and Nikita Khrushchev (Steve Buscemi) as the main competitors.
A decision was made to allow each of the actors to use his or her own speaking voice for the film, resulting in a melange of accents. The dialogue takes on a somewhat distracting quality and, for me, moved it in the direction of sketch comedy, rather than a coherently presented feature. While very funny in parts and occasionally chilling, I found the end result a little disappointing. I was looking for something with the teeth of "The Thick of It" and got something closer to the political satire of "Monty Python".
2017/09/11
What Happens After
"The Cured" is an Irish film by David Freyne which looks after the world after the zombie outbreak has occurred. It's his first feature, adapted from a short he made called "The First Wave".
The Maze virus has ripped through the world and Ireland was particularly hard-hit. A new cure has been developed which restores 75% of the infected to normalcy, although they are cursed with retaining the memories of their actions during the time of infection (the plague has more in common with the world of "28 Days Later" than "The Walking Dead" or Romero's creations. These are fast zombies!).
The Cured are back in society but are under heavy surveillance, out of fear that they will revert or repulsion about what they've done. There is also the open question of what can be done about the 25% of the infected population that is resistant to the cure, with a culling operation planned.
It's the above part of the story that is handled best in the screenplay. They did a great job of dressing Dublin as an occupied city, still under some form of martial law.
The narrative focuses on one of the Cured and his relationship with his late brother's wife and newborn child (what she didn't realize at the beginning was that he had torn his brother apart while under the spell of the virus).
I didn't think this worked as well and lost interest with the film when the inevitable chaos of the third act descended. That said, there was enough here to suggest that Freyne could be someone to watch in the future.
The Maze virus has ripped through the world and Ireland was particularly hard-hit. A new cure has been developed which restores 75% of the infected to normalcy, although they are cursed with retaining the memories of their actions during the time of infection (the plague has more in common with the world of "28 Days Later" than "The Walking Dead" or Romero's creations. These are fast zombies!).
The Cured are back in society but are under heavy surveillance, out of fear that they will revert or repulsion about what they've done. There is also the open question of what can be done about the 25% of the infected population that is resistant to the cure, with a culling operation planned.
It's the above part of the story that is handled best in the screenplay. They did a great job of dressing Dublin as an occupied city, still under some form of martial law.
The narrative focuses on one of the Cured and his relationship with his late brother's wife and newborn child (what she didn't realize at the beginning was that he had torn his brother apart while under the spell of the virus).
I didn't think this worked as well and lost interest with the film when the inevitable chaos of the third act descended. That said, there was enough here to suggest that Freyne could be someone to watch in the future.
2017/09/10
Considering Ourselves Warned
I was at a screening of "Occidental" yesterday and the director spoke briefly before the film. He noted that it was the "heaviest" film that he had ever done. Just before the lights went down, he said "Good Luck". A somewhat ominous message for the audience.
"Occidental" is part of the Wavelengths program this year, a home for the more "difficult" films. Set in a European hotel during the night of street riots, the film followed staff and patrons of the hotel, with occasional shots of the action outside. It was odd and didn't really hang together as a film, but interesting in parts. On the plus side, it didn't overstay it's welcome -- I've had a couple of films which didn't seem to know when to end.
"Occidental" is part of the Wavelengths program this year, a home for the more "difficult" films. Set in a European hotel during the night of street riots, the film followed staff and patrons of the hotel, with occasional shots of the action outside. It was odd and didn't really hang together as a film, but interesting in parts. On the plus side, it didn't overstay it's welcome -- I've had a couple of films which didn't seem to know when to end.
2017/09/09
Scenes from the line
Yesterday, I saw "The Death of Stalin" at the Winter Garden theatre (I'll put some thoughts down about the film later).
The entrance to the Winter Garden and Elgin is through the main entrance, although part of the entryway is roped off for red carpet-type arrivals. It can make for a very congested passageway, esp if it's a popular film with stars in attendance.
That happened with Stalin. As I turned the corner and headed for the ticket-taker, I found myself less than a metre behind the female star of the film. Her very slim back was towards me and a bank of three or four squares of high-intensity LEDs shone in my face, putting her in silhouette. In the glare, I could see that she wore a black mini-dress, encrusted with sequins (more glare) and her short blonde hair was pulled back into a small bun. There was an over-riding impression of an almost lethal amount of polish.
At the same time, her face was obscured by the lights. To make matters worse, I couldn't remember who the female star was for the film (if you've seen the trailer, the film is about the machinations of the Politburo following the death of Stalin and the cast is, as a result, mostly male). She [I later learned that she was Andrea Risebrough] was a dark star, evidence of her presence mostly defined by the lights around her.
The entrance to the Winter Garden and Elgin is through the main entrance, although part of the entryway is roped off for red carpet-type arrivals. It can make for a very congested passageway, esp if it's a popular film with stars in attendance.
That happened with Stalin. As I turned the corner and headed for the ticket-taker, I found myself less than a metre behind the female star of the film. Her very slim back was towards me and a bank of three or four squares of high-intensity LEDs shone in my face, putting her in silhouette. In the glare, I could see that she wore a black mini-dress, encrusted with sequins (more glare) and her short blonde hair was pulled back into a small bun. There was an over-riding impression of an almost lethal amount of polish.
At the same time, her face was obscured by the lights. To make matters worse, I couldn't remember who the female star was for the film (if you've seen the trailer, the film is about the machinations of the Politburo following the death of Stalin and the cast is, as a result, mostly male). She [I later learned that she was Andrea Risebrough] was a dark star, evidence of her presence mostly defined by the lights around her.
2017/09/08
Beginnings and endings
I kicked off TIFF42 last night with a pair of films at the Winter Garden theatre. In one of those coincidental occurrences, both films dealt with tragedy although the approach taken for each was very different.
The kick-off film was "On Chesil Beach", based on a novel by Ian McEwan (he also wrote the screenplay). The film shows the first night of a young married couple on their honeymoon, played by Saorise Ronan and Billy Wolfe. Through flashbacks, the characters of the two are revealed, along with how their family histories have moulded them in ways that will make the marriage a problem. The failure to meet their own expectations ends in tears and different paths are taken.
It was followed by "loveless", the new film by Andrey Zvyagintsev (I saw his last film, "Leviathan" at a previous TIFF). It's similar to "On Chesil Beach" in that it focuses on a couple in crisis. The difference is that the marriage has also produced a young boy, who is 12 when the film opens. Their marriage has already disintegrated and a divorce is imminent, although there are complications. When the boy disappears, it drives additional wedges into their tense relationship.
Both films display their settings with a stark beauty, although the Dorset countryside is a more traditional one ("Loveless" finds its beauty in the decaying environment of a Russian city). "Chesil" feels a little like a theatrical play transferred to film, the two leads struggling at times to overcome the stainless of the material. In the end, though, they are able to overcome this and create compelling portraits of two people in love, but who are not sure what that really means for them.
Loveless is a much more visceral and grittier affair and its pacing is masterful. As a result, the tragedy of the film hits harder. The leads are equally strong but there is little if nothing to like about them. The ending suggests that history may be about to repeat for them, although the players are different.
All in all, a good start to 11 days of film.
The kick-off film was "On Chesil Beach", based on a novel by Ian McEwan (he also wrote the screenplay). The film shows the first night of a young married couple on their honeymoon, played by Saorise Ronan and Billy Wolfe. Through flashbacks, the characters of the two are revealed, along with how their family histories have moulded them in ways that will make the marriage a problem. The failure to meet their own expectations ends in tears and different paths are taken.
It was followed by "loveless", the new film by Andrey Zvyagintsev (I saw his last film, "Leviathan" at a previous TIFF). It's similar to "On Chesil Beach" in that it focuses on a couple in crisis. The difference is that the marriage has also produced a young boy, who is 12 when the film opens. Their marriage has already disintegrated and a divorce is imminent, although there are complications. When the boy disappears, it drives additional wedges into their tense relationship.
Both films display their settings with a stark beauty, although the Dorset countryside is a more traditional one ("Loveless" finds its beauty in the decaying environment of a Russian city). "Chesil" feels a little like a theatrical play transferred to film, the two leads struggling at times to overcome the stainless of the material. In the end, though, they are able to overcome this and create compelling portraits of two people in love, but who are not sure what that really means for them.
Loveless is a much more visceral and grittier affair and its pacing is masterful. As a result, the tragedy of the film hits harder. The leads are equally strong but there is little if nothing to like about them. The ending suggests that history may be about to repeat for them, although the players are different.
All in all, a good start to 11 days of film.
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