Day 3: In Socialist Germany, Film Watches You

This is going to be a slightly abbreviated entry - its late and I'm dog-tired. Dont have time for hours of witty repartee.

From a strictly shoe-leather point of view, today was completely different from yesterday. Paramount - Isabel Bader - Paramount - Ryerson. The only saving grace was that I had a fair amount of time between films, so I could get between venues at a leisurely pace.

Today also saw its first spontaneous celebrity sighting - none other than Gary Burns. Well - I guess its a celebrity if you're into Canadian cinema. Not quite so much otherwise. He was in the screening of Manufactured Landscapes, along with what seemed to be most of the Toronto film establishment.

Not seen by me, but seen by people I know - the special guest at US vs John Lennon was Yoko Ono. And noted attention-whore Michael Moore. Shit. That guy's everywhere.

The Lives of Others

A truly excellent film - the lead actor does a fantastic job as the Stasi in charge of surviellance of a noted writer. Its not that the writer is a raging subversive - he's not. He's actually held up as the model servant of the state. Its just that the writer's girlfriend (a raging hottie, I should point out) is actively being lusted after by the Minister of State Security.

Who then proceeds to abuse the security apparat to try to dig up dirt on the writer, thus disposing of his competition. Nice touch, that.

Anyways. Excellent story. Great acting. Good directing. If it comes out, highly recommended.

Manufactured Landscapes

Documentary on Ed Burtynsky and his photo's. Well. Really, the film acts as means to provide context for much of Burtynsky's work over the last 4-5 years.

Really, if you're a fan of Burtynsky, you should see this. If you arent a fan, then start here, and then come back and see the film.

You really should be a fan of Burtynsky. He's quite good.

Hula Girls

Yearrrrrgggghhh.

This reeked like a Japanese version of a Sunday afternoon Disney movie. If the director wasnt telling all the actors to play things buffoonish, then the movie contained the worst collection of talent since well.. this piece of crap.

Left early to go find food. Seriously. Crap.

Rescue Dawn

Rescue Dawn is Werner Herzog's Lord's of Dogtown. That is, a fictionalization of a documentary that he made previously, one with the snappy title of Little Dieter Needs To Fly.

Its a standard-ish escape from Vietnam movie. Which begs the question. Who the hell makes Vietnam films anymore? Like seriously. While decent, there's nothing particularily compelling about it.