Day 2: The Joy That Is Paramount

One of the goals that we are all striving for is to schedule a day where all the films are in the same theatre. Preferably the Paramount, tho the Varsity comes in a close second (due to its proximity to the Greatest Public Washroom in the World). The advantages of everything in a single location are well.. obvious.

Only a single film in the Ryerson kept me from festival nirvana. Curses.

In other news.

• Something that seriously surprised me. The presenters started pimping an additional showing of Borat at the Elgin tonite. I'd never heard of a Midnite Madness screening selling out before, and certainly hadnt heard of them scheduling an additional screening.
  
  Of course, there was the catch. My intrepid agents informed me that tonites screening was actually a replacement screening. Turns out that the Thursday screening broke down 20 minutes in. While Borat (accompanied by, no joke, a donkey, a cart, and some female peasants) did an impromptu Q&A, none other than Mikey Moore wandered upstairs to try to fix the projector. Had about as much luck at that, as he did getting Lou Gerstner to format a floppy.
  
  
• After the delays of yesterday, I was pleased with the way that all the screenings today were starting on time. Right on up to the 4th film of the day. Which inexplicably and most irritatingly started 25 minutes late. No announcement of why. And to aggrevate things, the programmer brought up the director and an actor to prattle on a bit. Dear Lord.
  If there are any TIFF mandarins reading this: For the love of fnord, start the films on time. And if you're not, then say so. Sheesh. Its not that hard, now is it.
  
  
• If you're ever in the neighborhood of the Paramount, and in need of cheap yet tasty grub, then might I suggest Burrito Boyz? Very tasty. Jsoh Approved.
  
  
• ITS NOT PIRACY. ITS COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. THANK YOU. THAT IS ALL
  

Big Bang Love, Juvenile A

A cool 1 million quatloos to anyone who can explain why the film is called what its called. The Japanese title has a '46' in it, for some bizzare reason.

Its a prison who-dunnit. But since its directed by Miike its looped past the end of 'odd' and into the land of 'wtf'.

Tho, in a nice tip of the cap to the sure-to-be-bewildered audience, the film includes a helpful wrap-up of all the salient plot points near the end.

Time

The latest from Kim Ki-duk who's previous two films at the Festival - 3 Iron and Spring, Summer, and a bunch of other seasons I immensely enjoyed. Time didnt quite have the same level of... well... whimsy as his other efforts.

In fact, this is another film who's title seems to have been badly translated. As far as I can tell, it really should have been called ' Batshit insanely jealous woman engages in serious mindfuck of her boyfriend, and reaps the inevitable consequences. A film sponsored by the Korean Association of Plastic Surgeons'. No. Seriously.

Not bad, but not only did it drag on just a little too much, the ending had a serious "hunh" factor going on.

Climates

Continuing in our daily theme of "Films By Directors That Jsoh Has Previously Seen At The Festival", we have Nuri Bilge Ceylan's film, who's pic Distant I saw several years back.

Ceylan is what you'd generously call... a challenging director. I couldnt help but notice that he seemed to be lacking any camera operators or equipment whatsoever. Save possibly, a tripod. The film is conspiciously devoid of almost any moving shots, jump cuts, or handicam work.

Shots from a single, stationary camera are the order of the day. And not short ones either. He'll toss takes which are 5-6 minutes long.

Yet, he makes up for that by coming up with the most amazing bits of cinemagratophic legerdemain. While Climates doesnt quite have the same amount of panoramic beauty as Distant had, there are still some fantastically beautiful cinema here. In particular, his shots of snowfall. Big, fluffy snowflakes that seem to twirl, and leap off the screen.

Really. Its quite something.

No car chases, so I know a certain segment of my readership will never watch it :)

Born and Bred

Man, wracked with grief, after losing his family in a tragic accident, gives up his upwardly mobile white-color career and relocates to a life of simplicity in Patagonia.

Truly, a tale that is as old as the hills. Or something.

Its quite interesting to contrast the film styles of this and Climates. Whereas Climates exuded a degree of.. languidness (for lack of a better word) with its long static takes, Born and Bred was a veritable twitchfest of quick cuts, zooms, pans, scans and tracks. I cant help but think that a more appropriate mood could have been crafted with a little more care in the shooting.

But damn is Patagonia nice looking for a wind-swept desolate hunk of austere nothingness.

Jade Warrior

This aint something you see that often - a Finnish wuxia film. Reasonably enjoyable, tho I kinda wished there was a little bit more of the chop-socky in it. The story was a pretty decent yarn, which while drawing on Finnish folk tales/legends, was (in the words of the director) "based on completely made up facts".

He's a Finn who speaks better English than I do Finnish. I'll cut him some slack on that.

I could have sworn that the chief antagonist was the same guy that was in Aki Kaurismäki's Man Without A Past.

Hey! Look! I was right. Neato.

(and just to continue with today's film, Kaurismaki has another film at the festival, which yes, I'm seeing)