Mission Congo

During the Rwandan massacres of 1994, an estimated one million people flowed across the border into Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) to try to escape the bloodshed. A variety of medical relief organizations raced to the area to help as best they could.

Besides organizations like Médécins sans frontières and thé Red Cross, several faith-based groups also came. One of the most heavily publicized was Operation Blessing, a spinoff of the Christian Broadcasting Network led by Pat Robertson, a notable evangelical conservative.

What becomes clear in "Mission Congo" is that the operation had less to do with humanitarianism and more to do with securing diamond mining concessions and tax advantages for Robertson. Over the course of its approx 80 minutes, the directors start with the transmissions of CBN's "700 Club" and inexorably tear down the facade to reveal the reality of the mission. Interviews with journalists, MSF workers on the ground and members of Robertson's own team paint a damning portrait of a massive con job.

Here's one example to illustrate the deception. The "700 Club" announced that they had purchased three Caribou short-takeoff-and-landing aircraft to ferry medical supplies to Goma. Caribous can land on about 1300 feet of runway.

A landing strip was constructed at Kamonia for the planes. Kamonia was very close to the area where the diamond concessions were located and is nearly 900 miles from Goma, the location of the refugee camps. The planes were primarily used to ferry dredging equipment used in the mining operation.

If there's an absence in the film, it's a lack of a response from the Robertson camp on the allegations. The film has just been completed and is receiving its premiere at TIFF this week (I was at the second screening yesterday evening). It will be interesting to see if there is any follow-up in the weeks to come.

Recommended. I can see this as a good doc for Newsworld or TVO.

Watermark

I've been a fan of Edward Burtynsky's photography for many years and try to take the opportunity to see his work in its gallery presentation whenever possible. While his work is beautiful in many formats, the incredible detail of his images demands that they be seen in the large-scale presentation of a gallery.

"Watermark" is his second collaboration with Jennifer Baichwal (the first was "Manufactured Landscapes", which was also shown at TIFF a few years ago). Both share an editorial focus of the impact of man on the natural environment, but "Watermark" simultaneously tightens the focus and expands the frame of the image to look at our relationship with water.

It's a film that will provide the greatest rewards by being seen on the largest, sharpest screen possible. I saw it this morning from the centre of one of the front rows. In that position, the images wrap around and over you. The scale, particularly in the sequences shot during the construction of one of the mega-dams in China is immense. I can't recall a scene from any Hollywood blockbuster that has communicated size like these images.

Burtynsky describes his work as a "lament" for the environment. As with much of his best work, they have successfully married images of great beauty with despair for what was been (or may be) lost.

Highly recommended.

Following the screening, I had a chance to wander a bit to reflect on the film. Walking up through Grange Park, I came up to the south side of the AGO, Gehry's addition shining blue in the mid-day sun, an image of solidified sky (or water).

Southcliffe

Southcliffe holds the title this year of the longest screening I will attend at TIFF13. It's representative of the blurring of lines between cinema, television and new media. The piece was shot as a mini-series for TV in the UK, but its length just over three hours) and complexity make it a good choice for a festival like TIFF.

Set in a small "market town" in the south of England, it opens with the shooting death of an old woman in her front garden. The killing is actually one of many that afternoon and the story is revealed through a series of flashbacks and scenes set in the present. At thee beginning the shifts occur without warning and it takes a little while to dispel some confusion about when a scene exists in the timeline. Over the course of the four episodes, though, one's comfort with the approach settles, just as your understanding of the situation grows.

It's a powerful story and the first three episodes were gripping (while the fourth maintains the level of tension, the story goes in directions that I didn't think worked very well. Overall, it's reminiscent of "Blue Velvet" or "Twin Peaks", though without Lynch's weirdness.

It wouldn't surprise me if this ends up on the schedule for one of the specialty channels in cable land. Definitely worth a look when it returns.

We'll Get Through This

Preceding each film at TIFF is a collection of short promos for the TIFF Group and their programming, along with ads from the major sponsors. They're mostly OK in isolation, but seeing them 4 or 5 times a day is recommended for masochists only.

For the past few years, RBC has been one of those sponsors. For this year, they've created a collection of short scenes from a variety of genre films (drama, thriller, horror, etc.) where a character speaks a single line of dialogue: "we'll get through this". It's not a great ad and yesterday I started to wonder if this is a line of dialogue that you want to insert in anyone's mind just before settling down to watch a challenging bit of cinema. Perhaps an unfortunate mixed message...

Out of the Rain, into the Flood

Started this very mild and wet day in hot and dry Africa with a collection of five African short films. All had something to offer, but the last two were exceptional.

"Kwaku Ananse" was the story of a daughter's journey from her city to the country for the funeral of her father. The film combines the ceremony with the spider myths of the area (her father is named after a spider who collected all the wisdom of the world in a gourd.

"Unogumbe" is a reworking of a Benjamin Britten opera about Noah's Flood, re-imagined through an African lens. Fantastic singing combined with playful staging put smiles on everyone's faces in Jackman Hall before sending us back out into the rain.

The films were part of a program called "To Repel Ghosts".

A quick note. In walking to the theatre this morning, I crossed paths with the marchers in the "Weekend to End Woman's Cancers", in support of the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Good luck to everyone out there this weekend and if you are able, please send your support to them as well.

A Story of Children and Film

The follow-up to Mark Cousin's massive documentary "A Story of Film" (shown in its entirety -- all 15 hours of it -- at TIFF a couple of years ago, takes a similar approach to the earlier doc, by providing a survey of how children are depicted in film. Cousins' voiceover describes how kids are portrayed in film along with some of the techniques used by film-makers to tell their story.

He's an unabashed proponent of world cinema and most of the examples he shows are from countries other than the US.While I thought the earlier doc had more to say about the development of film as an art form (for the curious, TCM is running this doc on Mondays at 10 pm, along with many of the films cited in the documentary), there is much on offer here. Recommended for fans of cinema.

Only Lovers Left Alive

Last night's screening of Jim Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive" provided the first "rock star" moment of the new TIFF. That it was for Jarmusch wasn't a surprise. Jarmusch continues to epitomize a degree of cool even though he's moved into the latter part of his career.

Lovers is his take on a vampire story, set in Tangiers and, mostly, the decayed core of Detroit. It focuses on two vampires, played by Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, facing the passing of the nights.

The rock star moment came mostly from the presence of Hiddleston at the screening and in particular from a contingent of fans of his work as Loki in the Thor and Avengers movies (in the line outside the Ryerson, I saw a variety of Thor merchandise in the arms of patrons, including one Loki action figure!

He's quite good in this, playing a Byronic musician holed up in a studio of analog equipment -- reel-to-reel tape recorders, old turntables and big tube-driven amps and speakers. His relationship with Swinton is beautifully drawn.

In many other respects, this is a beautifully drawn movie. With the exception of the music, it's a very quiet movie with lots of grace notes. The music is powerful, with old 45's and feedback-laden guitar instrumentals predominating, some of it from Jarmusch's new band Sqürl. Unfortunately, the end result is a little underwhelming. It felt like there needed to be something more to the story; that there was something missing that was needed to add some drama to what was there.

Waiting for shivers...

From the rush line for "Shivers"...

David Cronenberg was the first feature film director that I saw in the flesh. Several (many!) years ago, I had wandered into the Book City location that was just south of Charles on the east side of Yonge. Cronenberg was doing an in-store there for a book launch and I stood and listened to him talk about the sound design for his most recent film (I'm guessing either Scanners or Videodrome).

Over the years, I've seen him speak at screenings of his own films, at the opening of an exhibition of pieces from his films (c. "Naked Lunch) and introducing a screening of Todd Brownings "Freaks" at a previous TIFF. He's always been an engaging and informative speaker and I'm looking forward to hearing him again.

Continuing with this idea of hearing directors, the first director I saw do a Q&A was Derek Jarman at the Festival of Festivals in 1977. Also a great speaker, he (and the film he presented, "Caravaggio") sparked a brand new interest for me and was a key reason why I've developed this little hobby in September. I saw a number of films over the years and, though he died many years ago, his influence lives on. Tonight I will be seeing Jim Jarmusch's latest film, "Only Lovers Left Alive", starring Tilda Swinton, who was often described as Jarman's muse.

Beyond TIFF

Besides the movies, there are a couple of good exhibitions in town right now.

The Mesopotamia show at the ROM has a wealth of material on the ancient civilizations of Sumer, Assyria and Babylonia. As societies that documented their world extensively (if not excessively), they reach across time to their brethren using Facebook, Twitter and the like.

Last night we took in the Ai Weiwei show at the AGO. The integration of traditional techniques of construction with a strong social and political conscience made for a spell-binding exhibit. The image below is from the show. A series of large wooden chests provides a portal in which all the phases of the moon are visible. Beautiful.

And we're off!

Beautiful day to kick off TIFF 2013 this week. The sun is shining and, protected from the wind, it's quite warm; in the gusty winds (or in the shade of a building), the coming fall is very present. It's supposed to drop to 8C tonight. The line-up outside the Ryerson Theatre later is going to be cool!

So much for the weather. I came down early today to try to sang a rush ticket to a screening of David Cronenberg's "Shivers". Although I'm a big fan of his work, I've actually never seen one of his early horror films. With TIFF offering a big programme of all things Cronenberg this fall, it's time to correct that deficiency.

TIFF doesn't start rolling until this afternoon, so I had time to check out a show of Ralph Steadman's work in the Film Reference Library at the Lightbox (there is a documentary on Steadman at TIFF this year and the show provides an opportunity to see some of the work highlighted in the doc).

The show is a mix of his work and life collaborating with Hunter S Thompson, along with some of his photography and more political work. It was the latter that had the greatest impact on me. Some of his work, notably illustrations of Henry Kissinger and Osama Bin Laden, that were chilling. A gonzo take on Picasso's Guernica showed flashes of humour within the darkness.

The show is on only during TIFF. It's in the Film Reference Library on the fourth floor of the Lightbox.

4 Sleeps to go til TIFF2013

Labour Day weekend in Toronto means many things. It's the end of the CNE and, by implication, the end of summer (as I type this, I hear the occasional roar of jets passing over Bloor West Village to thrill the spectators at the Air Show). For many, it's the last weekend before school starts up. I was out for a ride this morning and passed a number of cars delivering students to residences at the U of T Mississauga and Humber College along the Lakeshore.

And for me, it's TIFF. Over the past week or so, I've received and reviewed the catalog and made my choices. The tickets are waiting for me downtown and the fun begins on Thursday afternoon, with a free screening of David Cronenberg's "Shivers" (TIFF is presenting a massive program of Cronenberg's work in October, making this the early launch of that exhibition).

So how does one go about choosing a set of films for TIFF? For me, the catalog is like a giant bis of coloured tiles and glass and the calendar is the frame. A first pass through the catalog produces a collection of bits that far exceeds the space available; over a period of a few hours last week, I looked at each piece, compared against the rest and tried to build something that "fit".

I'm at that stage now, where the image is in place, although it's not yet clear which pieces will actually become the focal points for this year. While I hope that all of my choices will be good, I know that some just won't make the grade while others which didn't stand out may actually produce the biggest impact of the festival. It's the surprises that are often the most memorable.

Looking forward as the lights dim, the curtain rises and the images begin to flicker in a few days' time.

It's a Wrap!

Yesterday was the last day of TIFF 2012 and, as usual, there was a brunch to present the list of award-winning films for this year.

TIFF is not a competitive festival, so many of the awards are "people's choice" awards (i.e. there is no competition section as there is at Cannes and there is no jury which oversees the selection of awards). This approach has helped solidify TIFF's reputation as a good barometer of what will be successful in a commercial run and they constantly reference films like "Slumdog Millionaire", "The King's Speech", "The Big Chill" and others as proof of this. 

Also as per usual, my selection did not include any of the big winners (although I did see "Antiviral", which tied for Best Canadian First Feature. 

Interestingly enough, the overall winner was "Silver Linings Playbook", by David O Russell. I don't recall anyone saying anything, good or bad, about this film, but that's not that unusual. Given that at its heart it's about a family with a passionate interest in the Philadelphia Eagles football team, it seems particularly apt given our mayor and his adventures over the past week. 

The TIFF awards list is here. 

My unofficial, unscientific take on what generated the most positive response in lines are the following films:

- "The Deep", 4 or 5 mentions (I wrote about this earlier)

- "Storm Surfers 3D", 2 or 3 mentions (a film about surfers searching for the biggest, baddest wave off the coast of Australia)

- "The Sapphires", 2 or 3 mentions (a film about a girl group in Australia in the 60's)

I have a few more comments on some of the other films that I saw over the past week and a half, which I will add later this week. 

Cloud Atlas

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I approached this film with an equal mix of curiosity and apprehension. After seeing it Saturday morning, both feelings were turned out to be valid. 

David Mitchell's novel is a set of six stories that are presented in a ladder format (i.e. the first half of each story is presented in sequence until the final story, at which the second halves are unveiled in reverse order. The stories are not entirely self-contained and details start to cross over and get reinforced as you move through the book). 

Settings range from the South Pacific of the 1850's, to 1930's Belgium, 1970's California, present-day England, a futuristic Korea and a post-apocalyptic Hawaii. Each story is also handled in a  different literary style. 

The movie was directed by Tom Twyker ("Run Lola Run") and the Wachowski siblings (the "Matrix" trilogy). The Wachowskis handled the first story and the last two; Twyker directed the other three. The principal cast included Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent and others. 

In the transition from page to screen, they made some changes to the story lines and also abandoned the ladder approach, cutting between stories throughout the film. At times, the cross-cutting was useful in establishing the echoes between the stories. When it worked, it worked very well. 

To reinforce the idea of inter-connection between the stories, they used the same principal cast to play roles in each stories. For example, an actor might play the "lead" in one story, but a minor role in another.  The roles crossed racial and gender boundaries. 

I found this approach worked well in only a few cases and some of the combinations were appallingly bad. The English actors tended to handle the differing roles most effectively; the Americans less so. Hanks probably came off as the worst of the bunch, He was not only unable to create realistic characters in a couple of the stories but he was also saddled with make-up effects that accentuated the failure). 

The other problem with the film was that it tended to underline the themes of the novel in a very ham-handed fashion. Particularly in the Neo-Seoul section of the movie, it was a little too reminiscent of the worst excesses of the last Matrix movie. 

Overall, the movie was an interesting, if very flawed attempt at filming what some felt was  "unfilmable". I don't agree with that view and, if anything, the best approach might have been to approach the novel as a mini-series for television. It would have given each story the time it deserved and could have been handled in a way that allowed the different stories to be shot in a variety of styles as was done in the book. 

The Master

For someone with a relatively small back catalogue, Paul Thomas Anderson has maintained a very high standard of quality.

"The Master" is his take on the relationship between a charismatic preacher played by Philip Seymour Hoffman and an alcoholic veteran (Joaquin Phoenix). Hoffman's philosophy/creed is represented by a book called "The Cause" and it's easy to draw parallels between his character and L Ron Hubbard and his Dianetics work.

The relationship between the two men is the emotional core of the film and is fascinating to watch. Amy Adams plays Hoffman's wife and she also holds her own, displaying a quiet ruthlessness to anyone she perceives as a threat.

The film is full of treasures beyond the performances. The cinematography is luminous and benefited from the 70 mm presentation and there was a great use of period music combined with an orchestral score by Jonny Greenwood (Greenwood was also responsible for the soundtrack of Anderson's "There Will Be Blood").

At the end my feelings were reminiscent of seeing "Magnolia" for the first time, that there was much to be gained from another viewing.

As a sidebar, "The Master" was awarded the prize for best direction (Anderson) and acting (shared between Phoenix and Hoffman) at the Venice Film Festival.

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Thale

Two friends who work as cleaners at crime scenes unearth a deadly secret in a basement at a remote country house.

An assured debut horror film from Aleksander Nordaas, made all the more remarkable given the ultra-low budget ($10k for the shoot) and a prolonged shooting schedule (to reduce costs, they shot footage as time and people permitted). The director and producer also played multiple roles in the production and friends also contributed.
In terms of the results, it was very reminiscent of "Monsters" from a couple of years ago. Clearly a talent to watch.
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The Suicide Shop

"The Suicide Shop" is the first animated feature from director Patrice Leconte, whose previous work includes films like "Monsieur Hire" or "Man on a Train".

Shop is nowhere near as good, but it's a lighthearted trifle about a family that owns a store that specializes in the instruments of self-destruction. It's also a musical.

When the youngest son decides to embrace life, rather than help people end it, it sets in motion tensions that make the family question themselves and their occupation.

It was described in the post-film Q&A as a marriage of Tim Burton and Jacques Demy. There's also a lot of Charles Addams in it as well -- the father, Mishima, is essentially a Gomez Addams clone.

Unfortunately, it's also a film in 3D. The glasses used in the theatre were produced by Dolby and were the most uncomfortable specs I've had the misfortune to wear. I took them off several times during the screening and found that I could watch the images unaided with little interference, but the subtitles were very fuzzy. Although the French was, for the most part, easy to follow, I did need the subtitles from time to time and had to put the glasses back on. As the film did not particularly rely on a 3D presentation, I can only assume that the decision to show it in 3D is a commercial, rather than aesthetic, decision.

That said, it's a cute little film that's worth seeing (in 2D). Not really a cartoon for kids though -- teenagers would likely be the youngest age group that would enjoy it.
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Imagine

Every year, the schedule starts with a foundation of "known quantities" -- a director I've followed over the years, something I've read about in the months preceding TIFF or a story I know.

And then there are the wild cards. The films with no history beyond the description in the catalog but with a hint that there may be something there that I'd enjoy.

"Imagine" falls into the latter category, a story of a blind man who attempts to teach blind kids are to live without the need of a cane or other aids.

I was curious how a visual medium like film could be used to tell this story and put it in the schedule.

It turned out to be a very good choice. A strong ensemble cast (led by Edward Hogg as the teacher) and a quiet, graceful narrative made for a beautiful film.

Highly recommended.

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Sightseers

Last year, the closing night of TIFF was "Kill List", a film that revelled in creating an atmosphere of dread in its opening frames and carrying it through to its horrible conclusion.

The director, Ben Wheatley, has offered a release of sorts with "Sightseers", a blackly comic movie about a pair of frumpy British holidayers who embark on an increasingly bloody trip through the Midlands.

The script grew out of a creation of two English sketch comics and the film at times feels like an extended improv act. That said, it is nasty, gory and, at times, very, very funny.
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Byzantium

A mother and daughter, both immortal, settle in a decrepit hotel on the coast and are confronted with threats from their past and present.

Neil Jordan's latest film borrows many elements from vampire lore, although he has attempted to build a story that goes beyond the usual things.

It's a beautifully elegant film, driven by strong performances by Gemma Arterton as the wilful, sexually aggressive mother and Saiorse Ronan as her prim, introspective daughter.

I had written earlier about the two Spanish films that started with good ideas but couldn't follow through in any satisfying way. "Byzantium" shows what can result when you do follow through -- the mythology of the immortals has an internal consistent that supports the overall story.

A solid piece of work from Jordan.
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Spain x 2

I saw a couple of Spanish films on the weekend that fell into the category of suspense or horror. They shared some similarities, so I thought I'd deal with them together.

"The End" is a thriller about a group of friends who gather at a home in the country, just as "something" starts to happen. All electrical devices and clocks stop. As they struggle to determine what is going on, members of the group start to disappear.

"Painless" is a horror film about a group of children, confined to an orphanage / medical lab during the Spanish Civil war. Their isolation is due to their gift of being impervious to pain. Their history is revealed through the eyes of a doctor in the present day who has a connection to them.

In both cases, the films started with an interesting premise, but failed to achieve the potential of the opening. It didn't seem to me that they thought enough about the implications of the premise and the stories suffered as a result.

"The End" tried to introduce a supernatural element through the character of "The Prophet", a friend of the group who seems to have brought the group together for some unexplained purpose and whose apocalyptic visions are captured in a sketchbook that the protagonist finds at a car crash site. It doesn't seem to perform any specific purpose in the story.

"Painless" tries to try the monstrous aspects of one of the kids to the larger horrors of the civil war, but the reality is that it's been done much better by other films.

By comparison, I saw a film this morning called "Byzantium" that did its homework and largely succeeded. More on that film shortly.
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The Act of Killing

Another day, another documentary. Monday morning began with "The Act of Killing", by Joshua Oppenheimer.

A military coup in Indonesia in the 60's led to mass assassinations of accused communists and other "enemies of the state". Many of the killings (estimated at about 2.5 million) were committed by local gangsters and paramilitary organizations, with the support of the State.

In the film, the director meets with a gangster named Anwar Congga and his associates. They recreate scenes from their killings as a film, becoming enthusiastic participants in the production.

The film is surreal and horrifying in equal measure. it also brings into question how much of their remembrances are genuine and how much is glorification inspired by the attention of the film crew and raises questions about the extent to which the director is complicit in their representation (a question which he acknowledged during the Q&A).

Even though the events took place nearly 40 years ago, it's clear that their impacts are still very much active today. The relationship between the government and the paramilitary is very much alive.

As a coda, when I left the Bloor Cinema this morning, I immediately saw two limos with diplomatic plates and a collection of very stern Asian gentlemen. Apparently there were representatives of the Indonesian Embassy at the screening.
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Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God

I've been doing well with docs this year. The trend continued Sunday afternoon with Alex Gibney's "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the house of God".

The film's primary focus in on St. John's School for the Deaf in Wisconsin and a long history of sexual abuse of numerous boys at the school by a priest named Father Lawrence Murphy.

When three of the boys attempt to have Murphy removed from working with young children, it starts a chain of events that leads into the highest reaches of the Vatican. What starts as a story about the abuse of children becomes an expose of the lengths to which a monolithic organization like the Catholic Church will go to protect itself. And, in the end, it goes back to the men who suffered at the hands of Murphy and are still dealing with it today (Murphy died in '98, so his voice is truly silent).

Their testimony in the film is delivered using both signing and through voice-overs using people like Ethan Hawke and Chris Cooper. Even without the voice-overs, their emotional pain and anger comes through loud and clear.

The film is a devastating portrayal of personal and institutional abuse. After the screening, the three men participated in the Q&A, a moving experience on its own.

Every year at TIFF, there are one or two films that demand space for quiet reflection after the screening. "Mea Maxima Culpa" was one of those films.

Although this is an HBO production, I suspect that this will be a doc that will receive a big promotional push in order to get it on the Oscar list for next year.
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Connections

Walking along Queen Street yesterday evening, I spotted the Wachowksi siblings about to cross the street just as a streetcar passed by with an ad for "Cloud Atlas", their latest film.

We're seeing it on Saturday. I read the book earlier this year and loved it. I must admit I'm both curious and somewhat apprehensive about the adaptation -- much of the beauty of the book is due to the subtle interplay of its multiple story lines and it will be a huge challenge to translate this to a three-hour film.

More on this later this week.

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Going North

A bit of a catch-up day. My BB's battery died just after lunch time (ironically, I think it might have been the TIFF app that killed it).

I saw back-to-back Nordic films on Sunday morning.

Baltazar Kormakur's "The Deep" was based on a true story of a seaman who survived several hours in the water of the North Atlantic in the winter of 1984, after his ship capsized just off the Westman Islands of Iceland. It was (and is) considered a medical miracle.

Mika Kaurismaki has been a fixture at TIFF for some time (I remember discovering him and his brother Aki at a spotlight many years ago). They have a blackly comic sense of humour but manage to do this while still respecting the basic humanity of their characters.

"Road North" concerns a concert pianist who is confronted by the father who abandoned him when he was three. Together they embark on a road trip to northern Finland and he discovers much about his family and himself.

I'm a fan of both directors but my reaction to the films was quite different.
"The Deep" was suspenseful, engaging and, in the end, quite cathartic. The location shooting on the boat and in the water (particularly during the capsizing) were very impressive.

On the other hand, "Road North" was superficial. The emotional payoff didn't really come off at the end.

Looking back at the two, the impression I was left with was of one film that tapped into some universal themes by being aggressively local ("The Deep") while the other was rootless. I sat in the screening imagining an American remake and how it could be done with almost no changes beyond the language and place names. I found that very disappointing as Kaurismaki's films have been so much better than this, by being true to their roots.

"The Deep" is the one to see.



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Dredd 3D

Some may remember a terrible science-fiction film with Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd, a cop with high-tech lethal weaponry who acts as police, jury and executioner in a dystopian world of the future. The story was based on a British comic book.

Dredd 3D is an attempt to pay homage to the original source and erase the bad memories of the Stallone mess. Starring Karl Urban (whose face is almost completely obscured by his helmet and opaque visor), the film worked in its own limited way.

A drug lord based in a 200-storey high rise is distributing a new, lethal narcotic called slo-mo. Dredd and a new partner with telepathic abilities are sent into the building to arrest her. The drug lord retaliates by locking the building down and unleashing her minions on the two "judges". Mayhem ensues.

While there is a little black humour, the film is mostly just an exercise in pyrotechnics and design. The 3D added a hyper-real feel to the film that accentuated its comic-book origins and the overall look-and-feel was good, but in the end it was fairly forgettable.
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Sharing is good!

The first screening on the Sunday of TIFF has always been a bit of a challenge to get to, given that the subway only starts at 9. There are buses, but they are usually stuffed to the rafters and move at a snail's pace along Bloor.

Car2Go is a new car-sharing service in Toronto which is designed for short one-way trips. I added it to the arsenal this year. Home to Yonge & Bloor in 30 minutes, leaving enough time for some damn good coffee before the first film.

The view is also a lot nicer than it was 24 hours ago.

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Far Out is Not Far Enough

Saturday morning started with a great documentary on the life of children's author and illustrator, Tomi Ungerer.

I didn't read much kidlit when I was young, but his images of robbers, pigs and other animals were instantly recognizable.

What I wasn't familiar with was his career as a magazine illustrator in the 50's and 60's, political postering in the 60's and erotica from the 70's onward. It was the connection with the last that resulted in him being effectively blacklisted for nearly three decades.

Ungerer is the primary voice of the film, both through his art, through extensive interviews and animated sequences of his work. His joy in making any and all kinds of art is palpable.

Also included are interviews with Maurice Sendak and Jules Feiffer.

A captivating documentary... The best of the docs so far this year.
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From "Ship of Theseus"

What's the best email to reach cyber enlightenment?

One with no attachments.
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No Bixi today

Woke up to pouring rain this morning. Lots of memories of queuing in front of the Uptown or Cumberland (RIP), the many assorted umbrellas providing a crude canopy for those unlikely enough to be without.

It's possible now, using buildings and the PATH system to spend almost the entire day indoors. Today is one of those days in my schedule.
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The Pervert's Guide to Ideology

The "pervert" is Slavoj Zizek, a philosopher with a fan base of rock star proportions and who, with director Sophie Fiennes, had previously made "The Pervert's Guide to Cinema" (it was also at TIFF, seven years ago).

Both films feature him as the sole voice, interpreting the messages of classic films in his own fashion. The hook is that through clever editing and set design, Zizek is inserted into the scenes.

In "Ideology", he expounds on the implicit ideology of film, using scenes from "Full Metal Jacket", "They Live", "A Clockwork Orange" and "The Sound of Music", among others.

Although he can be quite witty and incisive, the overall effect is of being trapped on a trans-Atlantic flight with a seatmate that has way to much to offer and no inclination to provide time for reflection.

As it turned out, the most interesting thing he said was in the first words of the Q&A after nearly two-and-a-half hours of the film (he used a couple of anecdotes to illustrate the changes in how people treat public space as private space).

A film best experienced in small doses.

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Ship of Theseus

A set of three stories written and directed by Anand Gandhi, the film reflects on the story of the ship of Theseus and the question of whether a ship that has had its entire structure replaced by other parts can still be termed his ship.

In the three stories, the protagonists (a photographer requiring a cornea transplant, a monk in need of a new liver and a man who may have received a stolen kidney) are faced with the question of whether a necessary organ transplant changes something fundamental about them.

Of the three, the middle story of the monk was the most powerful. It raised some interesting moral questions and had the strongest cast of the film.

The ending found a way to link the stories in a way that felt a little too "neat" to me, but overall it was a strong film.

"Ship of Theseus" is part of this year's spotlight on the city of Mumbai.
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Who needs a limo...?

Over the past few years, the heart of the festival has moved south from the Bloor-Yorkville area to a line from the Lightbox over to Yonge and Dundas.

The new geography presents its own challenges for the dash from a theatre in the west to one in the east (or north to the two remaining holdouts along Bloor). Street traffic is too congested and the subway has its limitations, despite what our mayor believes.

The answer to the above comes on two wheels. There are Bixi stations near to most of the theatres. Even though they drive like tanks, they're still faster than the rest of the transportation options. Eaton Centre to Bay and Bloor took 10 minutes in rush hour. Perfect for the Premiere Rush.


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The End of Time

Peter Mettler is a Canadian director and cinematographer whose entire catalog has been shown at TIFF over the years. He's made several documentaries (most recently "Petropolis", about the Alberta oil sands) and his latest, "The End of Time", is a continuation of the approach he's taken in previous work.

"The End of Time" is an exploration of time from astronomic and geological time scales down to the fleeting life span of sub-atomic particles (the first section includes a tour of the Large Hadron Collider at the CERN research facility in Switzerland). One of the most striking scenes is of lava flowing on one of the Hawaiian islands; geology operating at human time scales.

The photography and sound-design was exquisite. In some respects it was a good companion to "Sans Soleil" earlier in the day.

"The End of Time" will be shown again at the Lightbox in December.

All in all, a good start to TIFF 2012.

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Kinshasa Kids

From the elegance and control of "Sans Soleil" to the chaos of "Kinshasa Kids", a film about a gang of street kids who dream of hitting the big time as a band.
The film is an interesting hybrid of fiction and documentary; at times, the action stops dead or changes direction abruptly due to an event somewhere near the scene. The squalor of the place is devastating and it seems the kids are the economic engine of the place, although mostly a result of petty theft.

The music is the high point of the film, bringing joy to the lives of the kids and to the audience.


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Study in Contrasts

As I stand in the line in front of the Lightbox, Christopher Cross (Sailing, of course) is playing at one of the bistros across the street.

In front of me passes a man in his 60's (perhaps, 70's) in a KMFDM T-shirt.

I'm on his side.
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The Fallability of Memory

Kind of apt that in remembering two films by Chris Marker about time and the fallability of memory, that I misremembered that Sans Soleil was being shown solo, not with La Jetee.

That said, Sans Soleil was a terrific start to the year, a very poetic ode to time, focusing on Japanese and African culture and drawing parallels between the two. The film is bookended by scenes of Iceland, which re-awakened memories of my own from last fall.

Aside from the visuals, the editing and sound design of the film was magnificent, with a great electro-acoustic score by Michel Krasna.

Spending the time before the next film (back to Africa for "Kinshasa Kids") enjoying a beautiful early fall day in Toronto in David Pecaut Square.

The square is a maze of sponsor structures (there's a huge tent/mansion at one end of the square and people walking around dispensing bags of junk food from garbage bags. Hmmm...

At the periphery are a platoon of workers protesting a lockout by one of the major sponsors. This is the second labour dispute to hit the festival this year; the other is related to TIFF's use of a third-party to handle their print processing.
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View from the first line

The first screening this year is a pair of classic films by Chris Marker -- La Jetee and Sans Soleil.

The screening is at Jackman Hall at the AGO, nicely appropriate as the venue was the home of the Cinematheque for many years. Lots of great memories of seeing many other classics here.

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They're at the post...

It's less than 48 hours to the first film of TIFF 2012. Time to re-awaken the blog for another year of sensory overload.

As it turns out, the New York Times had a piece on the just-completed Telluride Film Festival. There is definitely a "circuit" for films and festivals; all of the films listed in the article are also part of this year's schedule and, as it turned out, almost all of them were on my "long list" of possible films to see. My final list of 40-odd films includes "No" and "The Act of Killing". More on those films in the days to come.

Initial impressions? This year's list includes a number of longer films than last year, with a few films stretching three hours or more. It's probably one of the more expansive schedules I've put together, with contributions from all but a couple of the festival's programs.

The fun starts Thursday at 12:00 with a double bill of Chris Marker films.

Catching Up

I went immediately from the end of TIFF to a four-day work meeting in Gatineau, so my good intentions of catching up with the end-of-festival films went unaddressed. Finally have a moment to start to add to the record of this year.

Since getting back to the "real" (as opposed to "reel") world, I've been asked several times one of the following two questions:

1) What was my favourite film?
2) Was TIFF 2011 better than previous years?

After seeing about 45 films this year, there was no single film that stood above the rest. The year's experience is more like a classic bell curve -- there are a few really good films at one end; a few poor, if not terrible, films at the other and the bulk of the films rest somewhere in the middle. The hope is that more films occupy the first group than the third.

Fortunately, there were only a couple of films ("Goon" comes to mind) which truly underachieved. While not very good, "Killer Elite" and "Hard Core Logo 2" were more of disappointments than outrages -- there was potential, but the end results fell short.

The final impression of TIFF was that it was comparable to previous years. There wasn't a comedy on the level of "The Trip" last year nor was there a film that really pushed like the envelope like films I've seen in the past. That may be a result of the (good or bad) choices I made, but the overall impression was that it was "pretty good".

I'll add a few more entries on some of the other films I saw this year. Stay tuned.


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Killer Elite

Based on a true story involving SAS and private sector assassins, "Killer Elite" boasted the talents of Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro and a lot of ammunition and explosives (i.e. this was a guy's film).

The editing and even the title sequence suggested that they wanted to capture some of the magic of the two Bourne films directed by Paul Greengrass. Unfortunately for them, they did not have the facility for shooting action that he has.

While there was nothing overtly wrong about the film, it just became increasingly tedious and predictable as the story wore on.

Something to watch if there's nothing else on TV.
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Surviving Progress

"A Short History of Progress" was critically acclaimed piece that had a life as both a Massey Lecture and a best-selling non-fiction book. It's now been adapted as a documentary for the NFB.

The basic premise is that "progress" is not always a positive step and that there exist "progress traps" where a perceived improvement actually makes things worse. Traps may become so serious that they lead to the downfall of a civilization. The types of traps he describes include over-consumption of natural resources, over-population and the excessive concentration of power and wealth in the hands of oligarchs and elites.

It's the last one that becomes the central theme of the film. Although a number of the interviewees come from an environmental / biological perspective (for example, Jane Goodall and David Suzuki), the overwhelming focus was on economic arguments.

For me, this was ultimately disappointing. It felt a bit like a classic "bait-and-switch" tactic -- I was intrigued by the notion of progress traps and wanted more of that beyond a simple definition and ended up with 90 minutes on the description of wealth.
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Samsara

"Samsara" is a documentary by many of the principals who worked on the film "Baraka" from a few years back.

Like its predecessor, it's a collage of imagery from around the world, combining natural wonders and exotic culture (both traditional and modern), set to a world-beat soundtrack, this time composed by Lisa Gerrard and Michael Stern. Advances in technology allowed the film to be shot in 65 mm and projected as a 4K image -- the colour saturation is, as a result, intense.
Due to a late start and a tight schedule this afternoon, I only saw about 3/4 of it. What I did see was a collection of impressive images but without any overall cohesion. It made for a somewhat disconnected experience. As many of the images did not include movement, it felt like flipping through a high-definition National Geographic without words; in effect, it was a coffee table film. I suspect it will do well as a Blu-Ray release or as a demo disk for hi-end TVs.
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Heard on the street

I passed a guy on a cell. As I passed by him, I heard him say...

"This has nothing to do with common sense. This is cable!"

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The Story of Film

Once again, one of the better films this year is a documentary. "The Story of Film" is a 15-hour "odyssey" across the length and breadth of film history.

TIFF is showing the entire piece in chunks during the festival and I saw the first three hours of it Monday morning. Although it's not strictly speaking a chronological history, the segments I saw took the story from the beginning work of Edison and the Lumiere Brothers up to the end of the silent era.

The creator is Mark Cousins, a film professor from Scotland and is based on a book by the same name. His intent is to give credit to the innovative work down across the globe and the portion I saw this morning provided several examples where a new approach in, say, editing, appeared in a country many years before it was adopted by the Hollywood studios.

If the first three hours is any indication, it's an engaging journey through cinema, suitable for the casual film goer as well as the hard-core cinephile. It's hard to say what form it will take, but it could appear as either a series of episodes on TVO or PBS or as a DVD set. During the Q&A, Cousins also spoke about developing material for the web to expand on the examples shown in the film.

Highly recommended.

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Monsters Club

A rather odd little film "inspired" by the Unabomber's published manifesto.

A young Japanese man, obsessed by the failure of modern society, sends mail bombs to the heads of various corporations from a remote cabin in the forests of Japan. He discovers that he is not alone and is visited by creatures who challenge his ideas and philosophies.

The film had a bit of a Twilight Zone quality about it but was better at setting up the story than ending it.
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Wuthering Heights

Normally this would be the kind of period film that might make my long list for TIFF but would very rarely make the final cut.

What made the difference for me was the director. Andrea Arnold had previously shown her films "Red Road" and "Fish Tank" at TIFF and her visceral style of film-making seemed perfect for modern, kitchen sink dramas, but how she would approach the story of Catherine and Heathcliff was a mystery that had to be solved. I should also note that my knowledge of the source material and its many adaptations was slight at best, so it represented an opportunity to see a classic work with open eyes.

The film emphasized the brutal beauty of the Yorkshire moors in a way that mirrored the emotional brutality and cruelty of the story. She applied the same approach to selecting images and editing them into the story that was consistent with her earlier work which worked very effectively with the story of the protagonists. Using mostly non-professional actors, they provided a grittiness that a more seasoned group might have abandoned.

The problem for me was the story as the plot advanced, the actions of the characters made less and less sense. This may have been my issue but In the Q&A following the film, Arnold mentioned that certain things in the novel "confounded" her. I felt the same way when it ended.

That said, my overall impression of the film was positive. I thought she brought a fresh perspective to the story that a more traditional approach would have missed. Worth a look.

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Goon

It's not uncommon for multiple films on the same subject to appear on the schedule at TIFF. We have a couple of these this year -- there are four rock documentaries (on U2, Pearl Jam, Neil Young and Paul McCartney) as well as three or four films about hockey.

"Goon" is one of those four, a comedy about a good-hearted but terribly dim bouncer who finds himself hired as an enforcer to protect a minor league team's flamboyant yet fragile star player.

A film like this should offer great opportunities for character actors to go to town on, but too many of the roles are one-dimensional. Most of the humour comes from the gleefully profane dialogue, but it's really not enough to sustain a feature.
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The Hunter

A film that looked more promising in the catalogue than it was in its execution.

Willem Dafoe receives a contract by a mysterious biotech/military company to hunt, kill and collect samples from the last known specimen of a Tasmanian Tiger. Most of the film takes place in the remote Tasmanian jungle.

The film never built any kind of momentum and, as a result, any problems in the screenplay were magnified (and there were a few). An average film at best.
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Urbanized

2011 has started with an emphasis on documentaries and Friday afternoon brought another terrific one to the table.

"Urbanized", directed by Greg Hustwit, is a survey of current thinking on urban planning and design around the globe. Given that it is estimated that 75% of the world's population will reside in urban environments by 2050, it's a very timely film on an important subject.

The examples provided span every continent except for Australia and Antarctica, highlighting cities ranging in size from 200,000 up to 36 million (the latter is Mumbai, whose slums have a population the size of New York City).

For the most part, it was a terrific film, offering some examples of some of the forward thinking at play in cities like New York, Capetown and Bogota (the mayor of Bogota talked at length about their approach to public transit and cycling infrastructure to which the audience responded enthusiastically). The tone was mostly positive, although they did touch on some of the "mistakes" of urban planning (for example, the stunning architecture of Brasilia was contrasted with its terrible transportation infrastructure). One of the striking visuals was an elevated train ride through downtown Detroit. Detroit's population has plummeted over the past few years and it is some time in the sequence before you see a single person on foot -- it's a modern ghost town.

The only flat point of the film involved a transportation project called Stuttgart 21 that involved pitched confrontations between the city government, developers and citizens over a transit project. It was the one time when it felt like there wasn't enough context to the story to understand the visuals.

In the Q&A that followed the film, the director was well aware of the controversies on urban issues at play in Toronto. Both his responses as well as the examples provided in the film demonstrated the degree to which our mayor is completely out of touch on current thinking.

Highly recommended.
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This is Not a Film

The story behind the film…

Jafar Panahi is a renowned Iranian director who has frequently irked the government in Iran. For his “crimes”, he has been banned by the government from making a film for 20 years and, during the time period of this film, he was also facing a possible prison sentence of upwards of six years.

Last year, a colleague (Mojtaba Mirtahmasb) came to his apartment and Panahi described the film that he would have made if he was able, reading sections from a produced screenplay, mapping out how the film would be set and illustrating some of the themes using sections of his previous films, which he projected on his flat screen TV. The resulting film was shot on digital video as well as with an iPhone and was eventually smuggled out of Iran on a USB stick baked in a loaf of bread. The film, co-directed by the two men, was shown at Cannes and, subsequently, Mirtahmasb was also placed under similar restrictions by the Iranian government.

TIFF is making available the film as a free screening this week, a political as well as a cultural act. While the final product is very rough, there are many echoes between Panahi’s situation, the plot of the proposed film (which is a story of a young girl being prevented by going to university by being kept under house arrest by her family) and ambient sound from the street outside his building which apparently includes gun fire and, at the end, fireworks. It was quite compelling.

Pina

A beautiful start to TIFF '11, Pina creates a portrait through four of her dance pieces combined with short clips of her dancers describing their experiences working with her.

The 3-D was fairly unobtrusive although it sometimes reinforced the spatial relationships between the dancers, at other times it simply added a hyper-real quality to the film. It'd be interesting to see how this would work in 2-D. This was only the third digital 3-D film I've seen and, unfortunately, I still find the combination of my progressive lenses and the 3-D glasses a bad combination -- towards the end I was starting to experience the headaches I'd had in "Avatar" and "Cave of Forgotten Dreams". Either the technology will have to improve or I do.

The film boasted a wonderful score as well as some striking locations from the Wuppertal area where Bausch's dance company makes its home.

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Show Time!

And so it begins.

The opening film this year is "Pina", directed by Wim Wenders, a tribute to the legendary German dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. And it's in 3-D!

In line at the Lightbox right now, waiting for the theatre to open. It's the first time this year that the crowds have really come together in any significant way. Lots of buzz right now and enthusiasm.

While I was standing here, Roger Ebert walked by, as the crowd left from the real first film of the festival, a 5-hour German film called "Dreileben" (actually a trilogy of inter-connected films). It sounded interesting, although I couldn't make it fit in the schedule.

A block away, the crowds are starting to come together for the opening gala, a rock documentary on U2. That will be loud.

With TIFF 2011, the festival has almost completely severed its ties to the Bloor-Yorkville area (only one theatre is in use up there this year). The Entertainment District and Yonge between Gerrard and Queen are now the focal points.

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And so it begins

The catalogue for TIFF 2011 (#36) was released this morning. A beautiful late summer day in Toronto -- cool in the morning, no humidity and lots of sun. Perfect for planning 10 days in darkened rooms, (hopefully) lit only by the light of film projectors and not by assorted iPhones, iPods, iPads, BBs and the like.

I've got about a quarter of the schedule in place right now. Will drop off my picks by the weekend and put my faith in hands of the box office staff. The fun begins on Sept. 8.

Two Questions

Inevitably, post-TIFF conversations involve being asked two questions:

- What did you see? (this blog is primarily an attempt to provide an answer to this question)
- Who did you see? (although given my interests, providing a list of who I saw would produce little in the way of recognition and many more questions. The biggest "star" I saw this year was probably Steve Coogan).

I was thinking about the latter on the weekend while reading the obituary of the actor Jackie Burroughs, who died earlier this month. Aside from appearing in a number of films that made an appearance at TIFF, Burroughs was a near constant presence in lines and theatres for many years.

In my early pilgrimages to the festival, it wasn't unusual to see several Canadian celebrities lining up to see films. Besides Burroughs, I remember seeing Geddy Lee and Bruce McCulloch at TIFF screenings.

That seems to happen a lot less now, although for what reason(s) I have no idea.

Back to Porridge*

TIFF 2010 ended yesterday with a full slate of screenings (this is something they used to do in the "old days", although at that time, the last day's schedule was released on the final "official" day of the festival. The idea was that the last Sunday represented a collection of fan favourites). For me, it was a day for resetting myself and getting ready for the return to work.

Sunday was also the day when various awards were handed out at a end-of-TIFF luncheon. The People's Choice award for feature was "The King's Speech"; as in most years, I did not have this on my list of films, so I can offer no comment, nor did I hear any comments about it in the lines).

The best documentary was "Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie" and the People's Choice in the Midnight Madness program was "Stake Land". I was three-for-three, not having seen any of them.

However, I did see "Incendies", which was given the award for Best Canadian film, an excellent choice and easily the best of the few Canadian films that I did see.

The last couple of days of the festival were full of a number of interesting films, including two of the best that I saw this year. Over the next few days, I'll provide a few comments on some of the more notable films.

(* a favourite expression of my father's, meaning the special time has ended and it's back to the daily grind)

Rare Exports

A unique Christmas story from Finland, less Miracle in 34th Street than Lord of the Rings.

In the lead-up to Christmas, a mining expedition in Lapland determines that a mountain is actually a large burial mound. Their attempt to extract an object from the mound creates havoc on the nearby village and especially the children.

Although it has an engaging performance from a young actor, this is not a film for young children. That said, it was good fun for the audience.
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Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Werner Herzog has produced a number of excellent documentaries over the years (his doc on Antarctica, "Encounters at the End of the World", was a highlight for me at TIFF from a couple of years ago).

His latest is a voyage into the Chauvet caves in France, a treasure trove of cave art from 30,000 years ago). The trip into the caves is enhanced by the use of 3D camera equipment.

The use of 3D accentuates the confines of the cave and its features -- the stalagtites and stalagmites; the ridges formed by the accretion of calcite on the cave floor -- as well as how the artists placed their work to take best advantage of the contours of the cave walls. Parts of it work very well to provide the immersive experience sought by many directors of 3D films.

The narration is provided by Herzog along with commentary from a number of the research scientists who work on and in the caves.

I was fortunate and was able to get a seat dead centre in the theatre, which should have been in the "sweet spot" for viewing.

Unfortunately, I had the same experience that I had with Avatar -- at its best, 3D is a novel viewing experience but the combination of the 3D glasses and my own induced a pretty nasty headache by the end of the film. It appears that barring any improvement in the technology (or my brain chemistry (:->)), I will be sticking with 2D.

That said, the documentary is recommended -- worth a look in 3D is available, but I think it would still be entertaining with only two dimensions.
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Monsters

Every so often, a film comes along that really demonstrates the principle that good work does not require a budget of nine figures or A-list stars.

It's striking, though, when the subject matter requires the significant use of special effects. "Monsters" by Gareth Edwards is an example of such a film.

The premise is quite simple. Six years after a space probe containing evidence of extra-terrestrial life crash lands in Central America, the northern half of Mexico is a quarantined "infected zone". Two Americans must cross the zone to get home.

Using a mostly non-professional cast and an economical use of effects, the story focuses on the couple rather than unleashing the weaponry. Interestingly enough, the film breaks one of the cardinal rules of monster movies by showing the creature in the opening scenes of the film.

The film has a Canadian release date (Nov 5), so it will get a chance to be seen by a wider audience.

One other side note - while we were waiting outside the Ryerson theatre, a couple of people cam round and handed out T-shirts to the people in line. It's been a while since I've been at a TIFF where "stuff" ha been handed out. A pleasany surprise (especially since it provided an extra layer on a cool and breezy evening!)
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Potiche

"Poriche" was this year's version of the "odd man out" film for me -- a film where the response of the audience is overwhelmingly positive and which never came together for me in any satsifying way.

It's a French farce about a trophy wife (Catherine Deneuve) who takes over her family's umbrella factory when her husband/CEO falls ill. She discovers her passion and her spine and a battle of the sexes ensues when her husband tries to take control back.

Deneuve is the centre of the film about which everything and everyone revolves, surrounded by cliched characters and situations. A film for Deneuve. And Gerard Depardieu completists only.
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Back into the Lightbox

This is the reverse angle of a photo I shot a couple of days ago (in that photo, I was just to the right of the "Essential Cinema" neon sign I'm standing where the line of patrons crossed the frame of the first shot).

The red box is a control room for both the audio-visual presentations in the building (for example, the swirling projection on the right of the photo) as well as security. It gives the impression that it's floating in space.
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Ghosts of Toronto's Past

Used to be in the old days of the Festival of Festivals that the record stores on Yonge Street were open for extended hours during the festival. Sam's and HMV were great places to kill time between screenings.

No more. HMV's flagship is a shell of its former self (it used to have a decent inventory of music but those says are long gone) and Sam's is literally a shell...
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Buried

Probably the most commercial studio film I'll see this year, "Buried" stars Ryan Reynolds as an American worker in Iraq who wakes to find himself trapped in a coffin below ground. With a minimum of props (a lighter, a pen and a BlackBerry with a dwindling battery), the entire movie takes place within the confines of the box.

From the opening credits (a homage to the great Saul Bass credits of the past), the film is a technical tour de force, not just for the camera work in the right space but also for its sound design. Reynolds is, with one exception, the only actor on screen, with other characters appearing only as voices on the phone.

Ironically, this is a film that needs to be seen on the big screen -- I doubt that the intensity of the film would survive a viewing in a living room.

Recommended.
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Stage & Screen

Last night I saw "Incendies" by Denis Villeneuve and "Of Gods and Men" by Xavier Beauvois. There's a link between the two that I'll get to in a moment, so I'll combine in a single entry.

The former had its genesis in a critically-acclaimed play by Wajdi Mouawad, also called "Incendies" in its original French version and "Scorched" in an English translation. The English version had two very successful runs at Tarragon here in Toronto.

Without giving away too much of the plot, the story opens the reading of the last will and testament of a mother of twins. In it, she directs the twins to find the brother and father they never knew.

The bulk of the story is set in Lebanon, both in the present and during the war of the 1970's..

It's a powerful story of uncovering and confronting the past. I had never seen the play, so the reveal at the end was a complete surprise.

As an adaptation, the director was given free reign to develop the story and he did a masterful job, aided by a strong cast. It didn't have the feel of a play that was adapted for film by adding a few exterior scenes; it was a film that used the medium to full effect.

"Of Gods and Men" won the Grand Prix and Ecumenical prizes at Cannes this year. It's about a monastery of French monks in Algeria who serve a small community. When Islamic extremists arrive, they are faced with a decision to either remain and face the potential of death at the hands of the extremists or flee. The film is based on actual events -- they chose the former and most were killed.

This is a film of small details. Each of the eight monks is allowed the space to establish themselves as people, through their words and actions. It's a good film that rewards the viewer, if you give the story time.

At the same time though, I felt that it would have been stronger as a play. The constraints of the stage would have heightened the isolation of the men and would have provided a stronger focus to their debates and characters. In some respects, the approach would have been similar to what David Young did with his play "Inexpressible Island", about the Shackleton expedition.

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Not sure this was what was intended

Before each screening a number of short ads are played, promoting TIFF and the role of some of its major sponsors (RBC, Bell, RIM et al).

Cadillac has been a sponsor for a few years now of the People's Choice (this is the biggest award at TIFF and will be announced on Saturday).

The Cadillac ad is a model of brevity. A black screen appears with the words "Some things you see once and remember forever"; followed by an iconic screen image; and then finally a short sequence of their CTS model racing along a tunnel.

They've created three of these -- in one, a smiling face of Peter Sellers as the mad doctor of "Dr Strangelove"; a head shot of the metal skeleton of "Terminator" and a screaming Janet Leigh from "Psycho").

As I've seen this about 20 times so far this year, I've had way too much time to think about whether this a successful ad for marketing the car and the answer is probably "no".

Usually when it appears there are a handful of derisive snorts from the audience (on the bright side, though, the snorts have not yet turned into loud comments; the sure sign that an ad has failed for a TIFF audience).

It does raise an interesting question of why they only chose images of a frightening nature, rather than similar more positive images (for example, a joyous Gene Kelly swinging off the lamppost in "Singing in the Rain"; Audrey Tautoo's smiling face in "Amelie", etc.). Are they suggesting that only images that frighten are instantly and permanently memorable and, if so, are they trying to link their car to this notion?
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The Atrium at the Lightbox

Taken from the ground floor of the new place looking up. Waiting for "Of Gods and Men".
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The Illusionist

Based on an never-filmed screenplay by Jacques Tati, this is Sylvain Chomet's follow-up to his "The Triplets of Belleville".

Like Triplets, this is a very traditional, hand-drawn animated film, set in the Edinburgh of the 1950's. A French magician ends up in Scotland to find work in a world where his craft is being superceded by the new media of rocknroll and television.

As a film about the dying of an age, it's terribly bittersweet. Consistent with Tati and Triplets, there is almost no intelligible dialogue in the film, but the quality of the drawings and an evocative soundtrack give you all the information you need.

Although I enjoyed it, I wonder how it will survive in the current movie distribution environment. It will be interesting to see how this film is marketed. It's probably too quiet to be a film for kids. It may be destined to be a film that will rely on word-of-mouth to succeed.


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The Trip

"The Trip" is a mostly improvised road trip through the north of England, featuring several inns, some mind-blowing geography and the comic talents of Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden, directed by Michael Winterbottom.

The three were also involved in Winterbottom's adaptation and the two films share a common spirit, although "The Trip" is more comic.

Easily the funniest movie I've seen at the Festival so far. It's the kind of film where good portions of the dialogue are obliterated by the laughter of the audience. A sequence where the two riff on a sort of Agincourt speech from Henry V is a standout. Many in the audience were in tears by the end of it.

A beautiful soundtrack by Michael Nyman complemented the scenery and a few more melancholic scenes which were interspersed through the film.
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Tabloid

The latest documentary by Errol Morris ("The Thin Blue Line", "The Fog of War", et al) is about Joyce McKinney, a former Miss Wyoming who became famous for two events in her life -- an incident in the UK in the late 70's known as "The Case of the Manacled Mormon" and a more recent event in which she paid a Korean company $150,000 to clone her deceased pit bull, Booger.

it's the first story that is the main subject of the film and which provides the title -- it prompted a battle in England between the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express on who could dig up the juiciest stuff.

In classic Morris fashion, she is the key and very willing participant in telling her story. What emerges is a portrait of a woman whose sense of romantic entitlement drove her to extreme actions. The first story including a kidnapping of her intended, a Mormon missionary, a sex-filled weekend in a cottage in Devon to deprogram him, flights from justice and a host of other details.

Each sequence of the film serves to add more detail of a woman who is, in the words of the Daily Express reporter who followed her story, "barking mad". Although this is arguably correct, it's also interesting to see the degree to which they were complicit in the legend.

Good fun and recommended.
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There's another world out there

A local backdrop to TIFF this year is the municipal election. Traditionally, the Labour Day weekend is the official start of the campaign, although candidates can file papers as soon as Jan 1.

This particular election will produce a new mayor, as the incumbent, David Miller, announced that he would not run. Five "serious" candidates are in the running at this time, long with the usual plethora of fringe candidates.

I had to get from the AMC to the Scotiabank yesterday afternoon, so set out along Dundas for the first leg.

At the Ryerson School of Management, I passed through milling clumps of supporters for each of the five, carrying signs and wearing the colours of their favourite -- purple for George Smitherman, red for Rocco Rossi, white for Rob Ford, etc.

I presume that there was a debate on when I passed, but hopefully there was more energy and passion in the room because there was neither on the street. There weren't that many non-supporters on the street, so they were spending most of their time circling each other without intent of any kind.

As I continued my journey westward, I saw a large purple Smitherman cube van coming south on Bay and a white Ford cube van coming along Chestnut behind City Hall. They were the only vehicles on the street at the time, odd for a Saturday afternoon. Add some minor chords and some good editing and a battle could have been arranged at the point where they would have met. (we weren't so lucky. The election grinds along)


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Lightbox Red Carpet for Trigger

Callum Keith Rennie works the red carpet.

Bruce McDonald, his wife Dani and daughter Charlie Yoko


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The Lightbox opens...

Today is the official opening of TIFF's new home at King & John. The Bell Lightbox features five new theatres and will greatly expand the capacity of the Cinematheque and provide a focal point for film in the city.

They shut down the street for a block party this afternoon. I arrived in time to see the red carpet for the first film at the Lightbox -- Bruce McDonald's "Trigger". I'll be seeing Trigger next weekend and will have more on that later. I'll post a couple of snaps from the red carpet next.

If the proverbial bomb had gone off here this evening, it would have wiped out an entire generation of Canadian filmmakers -- besides Bruce, some of the folks at Trigger were Atom Egoyan, Patricia Roszema, Peter Mettler, Don McKellar and several others.
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A Piano in the Factory

A Chinese film about a soon-to-be-divorced father who enlists his friends in a series of schemes to provide his daughter with a piano.

There were some nicely played scenes between the characters but the overriding problem was that there was too little story to sustain its 2 hour running time. The last 20 minutes in particular were a mess -- while the necessary (and some unnecessary) plot points were addressed, the editing was so messy that it felt at times like the reels were out of order.

Could easily have lost a half hour without losing anything critical.
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The Edge

Another northern film (I've seen more snow in the past 24 hours than I saw in February in Toronto this year), set in a work camp in Siberia after the war.

An engineer arrives at the camp to work on one of two aging steam locomotives. The inmates of the camp were Soviet nationals who were captured by the Germans during the war; under the Stalin regime, they are viewed as collaborators with the Nazis and restricted to the camps.

A third train is discovered on an isolated island near the camp, along with a German woman who has newn trapped there for years and has become almost feral.

The middle section of the film is the rescue of the train and the woman by the engineer (note the order), culminating in a train chase that forms the climax.

The attention paid to the production values (and, in particular the three steam trains) is excellent; unfortunately the story never rose above the mediocre.

We were told at the beginning of the screening that this will be the official Russian entry for best foreign film at the Oscars. While visually impressive, I think it would be surprising if this made the short list of nominees. The story and characters are too under-developed to compete with the calibre of films that usually end up on the short list.
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Toronto is a big tent

On the way home on the subway last night, the car filled at St George with dozens of kids and a few adults. The kids were clutching programs and wearing the paraphrenalia of some kind of "wrestlemania" event somewhere downtown. They made quite a contrast to the crowds of people I spent my day with.

Just before I left the office, I was asked what people wore to TIFF. In some respects it depends on how much time people spend going to movies. The "frequent fliers" tend to favour comfort over style, careting their supplies and provisions in canvas bags and back packs.

On the other hand, those who tend to come for one film (these folks are more visibly on evenings and weekends tend to dress up more, even for the screenings in the regular cinemas (I have no direct experience with the Gala crowds; I can only imagine what that might be like!). The tendency here is a hybrid of high school prom and cluvland attire.


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Marimbas from Hell

Finished Friday with a bit of a shaggy dog movie from Guatemala about a marimba player who, in order to pay an unspecified extortion fee to someone else, decides that the route to freedom involves hitching himself to a heavy metal band.

It was an odd little film very underplayed by its non-professional cast but it did have some moments of sublime comedy. If anything, they stayed away from pushing the incongruity of the marimba and a traditional metal band -- if this was a Hollywood film, this would have probably ended up at a festival with thousands of screaming fans and pyrotechnics of KISS army proportions (I think I prefer the Central American approach.
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The Legend of the Fist

We started today's slate of screenings with "The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen", directed by Andrew Lau.

It was anything but opaque -- a full-blown martial arts extravaganza set in a divided Shanghai in 1925. As Chinese nationals, a Japanese occupying army and assorted Brits and Yanks vie for control of the city, one man fights for his people.

The best part of the film were the fight scenes, which were brilliantly staged to give a clear sense of where bodies were in space (as opposed to presenting a blizzard of rapid-fire edits that serve only to confuse the viewer.

Unfortunately, the film faltered outside of these scenes. Only a few of the characters were fully developed and the relationship between Chen Zhen and Kiki, the singer at the Casablanca night club was played badly.

Worth seeing for the fight scenes and an interesting prologue showing the role of Chinese labourers in the first world war.
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There's always something new (bureaucracy edition)

One of the challenges for the TIFF theatres is managing the line-ups for films yet to be shown. At the AMC theatre at Yonge and Dundaa' there are often helf a dozen discrete lines vying for space in the common area of the theatre. At its worst, it's like the old Ottawa airport on a Friday afternoon.

Tonight the line for "Marimbas from Hell" was put in one of the vacant theatres. We trooped into the theatre, some grabbing seats; others standing or leaning on the railing.

After about 15 minutes of this, a very perky volunteer captain came in and tried to organize us in the order in which we had entered it. It was probably only her sunny disposition that prevented people from unceremoniously throwing her out and locking the door.

The "real" theatre opened up after about five minutes of this and we all happily swarmed out of the staging area to find our seats.
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Life imitating Film

On the way home on the subway from the Godard film, I was struck by one of those little perfect moments that only seem to happen in film.

I was standing in the car as we moved north to Bloor. My iPod was on and, at that time, was playing Massive Attack's "Protection", featuring the sultry vocals of Tracey Thorn.

A couple of seats south of me, a young couple sat, turned in the seat so that their eyes were locked on the other's. They were holding hands but also executing something of a pas de deux with their fingers, gently stroking the other. The combination of a chemistry that was palpable three metres away, the slow, balletic movement of the hand, and a song that was beautifully synced to that motion was quite lovely.

Sometimes there is magic even on the TTC.

And so it begins...

TIFF 2010 began with a screening of Jean-Luc Godard's latest film "Film Socialism" at the Ryerson Theatre.

I arrived about 20 minutes before the screening and ended up following the line from Gerrard, down Church and on to Gould. Around us were many many students settling into Ryerson and a loud power trio tried gamely to entertain the crowds on Church (what they lacked in rhythm, they made up in volume).

The film started about an hour late. Fortunately, I had nothing else on the schedule, so it was simply a matter of soaking up the sights and sounds of a somewhat cool late summer's night.

But what about the film...?

According to the catalog, the film is Godard's "most dense, opaque and troubling film in years" (nothing like starting the festival with the easy stuff). Structured in three parts, the film is a mix of languages (English, French, German, Russian and a few others), film stocks (everything from high def digital down to cell phone cameras), obscure inter-titles and references to classic film like "The Battleship Potemkin". There were deliberate variations in the sound mix (from crystal clear to muddy) and no subtitles.

About a quarter of the audience bailed before the end. I decided to stick with it and let it wash over me. It was worth it for some of the visuals and for raising questions like "what is the llama doing at the gas station and why is no one paying attention to it?"

Tomorrow promises to be a little less opaque.

T-7 and counting

Just under a week to go before the launch of TIFF 2010 (by this time next week, I will likely be leaving the theatre after film #1 -- Jean-Luc Godard's "Film Socialism".

I went down to the box office tonight and picked up my stack of tickets. Of 48 selections, I received 47 (the only reject was Mike Leigh's new film, "Another Year". I'll figure out what to do with the hole in my schedule in the next few days.

This week was a good demonstration of the power of social media. A single tweet about bedbugs at the Scotiabank theatre turned into a media storm. From all the articles, one would have thought the theatres were over-run with 6' tall, bloodthirsty insects (on second thought, that might make for a good Midnight Madness film one day).

Turns out the whole thing was a mistake, but in the interim the 2010 edition of TIFF has its symbol for the week. I'm expecting lots of commentary on bedbugs in the screenings to come.