Day 9: Grassy Knoll Revisited

Celebrity sighting #2: Bryan McCabe walking with his wife and kid along Cumberland. Exciting, I know.

Nue Propriete

Good film. Reminded me a little too much at times of my own childhood, what with all the fighting - between brothers, and between the mother and (divorced) father. P-Giddy and I almost came to blows before the movie even started, arguing about the relative merits of Isabel Huppert and Juliette Binoche.

Seraphim Falls

Watch Liam Neeson chase Pierce Brosnan around the wild west. Fascinating, even tho you dont really find out why until near the end of the film. The Elgin was surprisingly empty for this - I suspect that they underestimated the kind of crowds they'd be getting for this.

Death of a President

After some reflection, I figure that this is a film that Kilgour Trout would have made. 9.5 out of 10 for idea, 2 out of 10 for execution. There are many levels that you can evaluate this film on, and frankly, I thought it was poor on most of 'em. The big killer was that most of actions that they suppose happening dont pass the smell-test for believability.

And it didnt help that I was sitting next to this twit who a) insisted on talking during the entire film and b) actually had the temerity to clap with glee at the part in the film where they announced that Bush had succumbed to his wounds. Tres tacky.

Princess

For some reason, I thought this would have been a lot more disturbing than it actually was. Not that it wasnt disturbing, I just thought it would be more so.

Day 8: Snorting Plutonium

From an intrepid reader, who answers my question about Big Bang Love, Juvenile A:

46 oku nen no koi = 46 things to always remember about love
Or 4,600,000 thoughts about love.

No quatloos until you can tell me how they got Big Bang Love, Juvenile A from that.

Furthermore, someone must have been reading about my mother's clever 'go to wrong theatre' plan for they've come up with an intriguing twist on it.

The revised plan goes - go to the theatre corresponding to your ticket. Drop your coat/bag on the seat, and then go out for popcorn. Upon returning from the concession stand, go to a different theatre, and flash your ticket stub for admittance. The shaved monkeys wont look that close.

Bonus points: Make a big deal about looking for your coat/bag, since it obviously wont be where you left it. Claim that it 'slipped down behind the seat, or something'

Primo Levi's Journey

Primo Levi was a Jewish-Italian author who, during the war, found himself with an all-inclusive vaction to a eastern Polish resort, courtesy of Il Duce.

After being liberated by the Russians, he took a rather round-about route back to Turin, as the Russians shipped him through the Ukraine, Belarus, Moldovia, Hungary and Austria.

The movie retraces his steps on that journey, but instead of showing the conditions in '45, takes a modern look at various stops along the way. Rather interesting.

Renaissance

Excellent visuals (think Sin City meets Blade Runner). Rather straight-ahead plot. Questionable writing. Poor voice acting.

Enjoyable nonetheless.

The Half Life of Timofey Berezin

How do you measure the half life of a human? Like seriously? A person is an atomic unit - you cant really have a fraction of a person. Well. You could, but that wouldnt be due to a decaying process. More like a chainsaw process.

Anyways. I really, really enjoyed this film - story of a Soviet nuclear technician selling plutonium.

Invisible Waves

P-Giddy liked this one more than I did. It was a bit too... slow for me. Perhaps I'd like it more in a different mood - I was getting hungry.

Red Road

Winner of this years 'most curious use of subtitles' award. The film is directed by an English director. Set in Scotland. Everyone speaks English. Yet, there are subtitles. Even for foley actions - (distant babble). Sheesh. Odd.

Its inconcievable what they get away with in the UK. According to the director, there are something like 16 million CCTV's in the UK, and its a matter of course for pretty much all the major downtown city cores to be under constant surviellance.

It just boggles the mind what would happen to North American politicians if they tried to propose something of a similar scale here. Which reminds me. I have to write Steve a letter. Got a great idea for him.

Day 7: "Fuck Mr. Tumnus"

Rain and an incipient head cold. Always a joyous combination at the Festival.

Mon Colonel

This has got to be like the 5th film on French-Algerian subject matters in the last 2 years of the Festival. And I keep on seeing most of 'em. I dunno. I have an odd fascination with the era.

Decent - will inevitably kick of comparisons to Iraq. But what doesnt these days.

Pan's Labyrinth

In the words of the director, its an "anti-fascist fairytale". Fair enough. Wasnt bad, but the fascinating part was the Q&A afterwards. Del Toro takes a simple question, and turns it into a 30 minute monologue. A funny monologue, but a 30 minute one, nonetheless.

Best quote: "Child actors are a mutant breed which need to be exterminated". I need to tell my brother about that.

Little Children

Rather enjoyed this film, despite the subject matter - suburban adultery, with a dash of child molester thrown in for good measure. Todd Field must be an NFL films fan, as there was a scene in the movie which was a note-perfect reproduction of any number of John Facenda clips.

My Life as a Terrorist

Tale of a reformed terrorist. Klein was part of the group that attempted to kidnap the OPEC oil ministers in 1976. After being on the lam for 20+ years, eventually turns himself in, and is now farming in Normandy.

Interesting - the man is hardly a raving ideologue. Actually seems contrite for his part in the proceedings.

Bugmaster

I didnt understand this. Thats all I'll say.

Day 6: Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?

Today's lesson is entitled "How to get into any film in the festival, even if its sold-out", and is based on some sterling.. ahhh... 'research' by my mother. Its quite a cunning plan. First, buy a ticket to some film. Doesnt have to be on the same day, or even in the same theatre. For best results, make sure its a film that nobody wants to see, like The Complete History of Yugoslavian Ditch Digging.

Take that ticket, and go to the film that you really want to see. Present the ticket to the shaved ape at the door. They'll just tear it off without looking at it. Presto! You're in a sold-out film!

For bonus points, make sure you proceed to phone your notoriously sarcastic son, and try to convince him that you're in the right place, at the right time.

The Last King Of Scotland

Forrest Whitaker has come a long way from being ordered to requisition a new name. In this biopic of famed dictator Idi Amin, Whitaker chews up pretty every bit of scenery he can get his hands on. Truly a rivetting performance.

The movie itself is pretty good. Worth a look.

Catch a Fire

A film doesnt exist in a vacuum - it exists within the context created by the events and culture of the time that it is released. In that sense, I cant help but think that this is more than just your standard run-of-the-mill apartied film.

If I can be snootily intellectual for a moment - superfically the movie tells the (true) story of Patrick Cambasso, a coal plant worker outside of Johannesberg. After an explosion at the plant, he's caught up in a sweep and falsely accused of involvement in terrorism. After much torture, he's released for lack of evidence.

And of course, immediately wanders off to Mozambique to join up with the ANC's special op squad, and procedes to bomb the plant he worked at.

However, given the troubles that the Bush administration is experiencing in Iraq over interregation techniques and handling the insurgency, I cant help but draw parallels between the behavior of the South African police forces, and US troops in Iraq - that is that hard methods dont lead to information, just to eroding your own authority, and propping up the insurgency.

Food for thought, at any rate.

Quelque Jours en Septembre

A French spy film that takes place in the days leading up to 9/11. I need to emphasize the French part. This means that there are no car chases. No explosions. No nifty gadgets. No Bourne or Bond.

Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the film.

Alatriste

Spanish historical epic that was about 45 minutes too long. Suffered from trying to condense 7 books worth of material into a single movie. As a result, the entire thing was a bloated mess that lurched around with very little sense or coherency. Typical, really.

Who knew that Viggo spoke Spanish anyways?

Day 5: Puppets!

If it seems that all my amusing stories are coming by way of other people... its well.. because I'm leading a boring life here at the festival. Nothing all that interesting is happening to me. Possibly a good thing, as interesting in this context tends to mean 'blood-pressure elevating'.

Today's amusing story comes from noted correspondent, the Notorious P.E.G. who had... err... fun at the screening of D.O.A.P which has been getting some buzz due to its subject matter - ie, fictionalized assassination of Bush the Younger.

Now. Everything that occurs really can be laid at the feet of whichever maroon decided that there wasnt going to be a press screening for the film. Which made the screening the other day the very first chance that hordes of frustrated journo's had to see the picture. And you dont want to be in between frustrated journo's and pretty much anything. There were reports that people were selling their tix to others at $200 a pop.

So. You can imagine that entry into the theatre (Paramount) was a zoo. Even more so when they went in full-on 'treat customers like criminal' mode, and had bag searches on the way in. Somehow, some wiley industry types had sneaked in without a ticket (they have passes), and by the time that PEG got in, there were like 40 people milling about the theatre, with no seats to be had.

They eventually wound up breaking out folding chairs for people to sit in, all the while the minders where going apeshit on how there could be more people than seats.

Anyways. Film starts and ends. Q&A starts. Which all the press in the audience start treating like a press conference. Much to the extreme agitation of the festival wonk running things. Tensions were apparently running real high.

But wait. Thats not all. The exits out of the Paramount after the film were jam-packed. With press, trying to get interviews from anyone who saw the film. PEG was actually physically accosted by some producer who was desperate for 2 minutes of air time with someone who actually saw the film.

As for how it was - well. You'll have to wait for my review, later in the week :)

Ghosts of Cite Soleil

Excellent documentary, focusing on two leaders of a notorious gang from the slums (ie, Cite Soleil) of Port-au-Prince. After Jean-Bertand Aristide assumed power in Haiti he presumably found Papa Doc's guide to government, and started enlisting slum thugs to terrorize opposition figures

2pac and Bily were leaders in the Chimeres, that band of thugs. Also brothers. The movie tells their story during the early months of 2004, after Aristide was forced from power.

Excellent, excellent film, with a great soundtrack - primarily from Wyclef Jean (the Haitian who made good; according to the director, he's a literal God in Haiti) - but also from 2pac, who was a budding rap artist.

If it gets distribution (which I believe it will), see this. Make a double bill with L'Agronome, another excellent documentary about Haiti.

For Your Consideration

Fred Willard is my god. The man is too freaking hilarious than he has any right to be.

Which is my way of saying that FYC is a real hoot. But then again, its Chris Guest's latest film. So I guess you already knew that. The writing and the acting are just as good as in his previous movies. The movie itself wasnt quite as... 'tight' as, say, Best in Show. But whatever. Still a gas.

Even better than the film (how, you ask) was the Q&A afterwards. Unusual for a gala 2nd screening, the director and most of the cast were still around, and showed up for the questions. I do believe that I laughed harder during the answers, than I did during the movie. Example:

Q: Did you make this film (satire of movie industry) as a response to the recent spate of meta-Hollywood films out today?
A: Like what?
Q: Y'know. Films.
A: No. Seriously. Like what?
Q: Team America
A: (incredulous) Those are puppets!. I dont want to give away any trade secrets, but when you see strings attached to arms, it usually means they are puppets.
Josh: (tries not to fall off of balcony)

Sharkwater

Sharks! The murderers of the sea! Except. Not really. Despite what Jaws and the breathless media would have you believe, sharks (and Great Whites in particular) tend to scrupiously avoid humans. On average, there are only 5 human deaths attributable to shark attacks each year, and those are mostly of the "you look like a wounded seal. Let me taste" variety. Compared to 100 deaths caused by elephants.

Anyways, what started out as a seemingly run-of-the-mill nature doc (albeit with some stunning images), rapidly progressed into a screed on the evils of the shark-fin industry. An industry, which if you believe the movie, is a 1 trillion dollar industry.

Some of the footage of taking of the fins was extremely grisly. Even worse - after finning the shark, the fishermen will just dump the body back into the water. Despite bans placed on the practice by various countries, the product is so lucrative (cf: $US200/lb) that there is a ginormous illegal trade in it.

So. Uh. Say no to shark-fin soup. Its bad, m'kay?

The Last Winter

Suspense/horror with an environmental undertone in which people may or may not have been killed by a big moose thing. The description was a little misleading - I thought it was a thriller, not a horror. Meh.

Not horrible, but some squicky parts that I didnt really enjoy.

The White Planet

The phrase 'White Planet' was used so often, that I was half expecting Hooper X to start ranting on why is that that freaking polar bears are so special, and where are the black bears.

Other than that, the film taught me that polar bear cubs are the 2nd cutest entity on the face of the planet. I dont think I need to say what the first is.

Day 4: I Come From The Land Down Under

Uneventful day - only 3 films. Well. I had 4, but I bailed on one on account of a) fatigue, b) it wasnt getting good reviews and c) it might have caused me to be late for my next film.

For my sins, I got dragged up and down Queen St W., looking for this mythical wool emporium.

Palimpsest

Polish psychological thriller, which I claim was evocative of Jacob's Ladder, an observation which elicited hails of derisive laughter. The film itself was only so-so, but the score was quite compelling - really served to keep the tension jacked up for most of the movie.

The Q&A for this one was quite helpful, given the confused looks that P-Giddy and I were shooting each other after the film ended.

The Silence

Originally produced as a 2-part miniseries on Austrialian TV, The Silence is a tight little piece in the mold of an ep of Cold Case. Decent writing and acting. Nothing much to complain about.

The Scottish Play.. Err.. Movie

Its bad luck to mention the name of that play set in Scotland, dont you know. I guess I'll have to dance around that.

Anyways, one of those modern restagings of Bill's stuff, in which all the dialog hews to the original text. Or some elided version thereof. In this case, we've fast-fowarded to modern times, and the clan of murderous Scot nobility has been replaced with a clan of murderous Scot crime nobility.

You can see how difficult the task of the contemporary director is.

One of the more - shall we say intriguing - aspects of these remakes is seeing how the director integrates the two story lines together. Inevitably, they've got two stories to tell - both Bill's, and their own. The trickiness is that their story has to be told only through physical evocation, or by piggy-backing on the original text.

You wind up with these long stretches of action in which nothing is said, but people waving their hands about madly, "acting".

I liked the take on King Lear that I saw at the Festival several years back. But I'll give this one its due:

Any film which portrays the 3 witches as smokin' hot redheads with a penchant for clothing optional scenes will elicit a kind word from me.

Word.

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.

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)

Update on 'Barley'

The Notorious PEG (rightly) points out that some of my irritation with Barley is the overt partisanship in it. The movie is quite clearly sympathetic towards the Republican cause. I like my movies to be a tad more nuanced, rather than being overly one-sided.

Day 1: Bothersome Barley

And... we're off. Not without some complications, of course. Hope this doesnt serve as an omen for the rest of the festival. The Wind That Shakes The Barley was oh.. 10 minutes late in starting. Heck, it was like, 5 to 6pm before the the line started moving.

Completely inexcusable. Its not like there was a film in the Ryerson beforehand, preventing an early entrance. For the first film of the fest, there's no reason why everyone shouldnt be in their seats, 5 minutes before the posted start.

Bothersome Man was even worse. After 3 different people told me 4 different things about which line to stand in, I finally got into the theatre. Where I found out from my seatmate that there was going to be a 45 minute delay due to 'technical difficulties'. Uh. yeah. nice.

I suspect that the print had a roundabout trip to the Varsity.

*sigh*

Lets hope that thats the last of the... issues.

The Wind That Shakes The Barley

Ken Loach's latest film, which happened to win the Palme D'Or at Cannes this year. Not quite sure why - neither Paula or I think that this was anywhere near his best work.

Set in Ireland during the Troubles (1920's version), the film follows 2 brothers as they fight first, for independance from the British, and then against each other - one remains a firm republican, and the other becomes part of the Irish Free State

The film itself is much ... darker than Loach's previous body of work. Even granting that his subject matter isnt always the most chipper (yorkshiremen tossed out of work by british rail, anyone?), there's always a certain amount of upbeat tempo or levity. Not so here, given the lighting and the score, the mood is relentlessly down.

I couldnt really shake the feeling that there was a much better movie trying to get out. Not really character-driven (there's an obvious story arc), the film seems to lurch along, with excellent scenes leavened with long stretches of mediocrity. The female lead was a complete non-entity, while every single scene with a British soldier involved 110dB shouting. Meh.

The theatre didnt help things much. Combine the Ryerson's famous muddy sound-system with thick Irish accents... Well. I could have sworn that the first 5 minutes were in Gaelic. Booming *and* clipping. yay.

Dont get me wrong. It wasnt bad - I did enjoy it. It just could have been much better.

The Bothersome Man

At the risk of making too broad of a generalization, there are certain stereotypes about country's cinemagraphic efforts: Seen any non-kung-fu Chinese movies? Italian movies that didnt have a odd musical interlude? Romanian movies with half-drunk foley artists?

In the case of Scandinavia, they seem to have a lock on the dour absurdist pseudo-comedy. Bothersome Man is no different. Its just plain.. odd. The protagonist spends the vast majority of the film with this dopey dazed-and-confused look on his face, maintaining it even during multiple bouts of coitus. Y'know. Sex. The physical act of love.

He spends the movie in a city whose's inhabitants display a disturbing lack of affect - like an entire colony of Aspergers patients. Everyone seems to be massively unfazed by pretty much anything - a body impaled on a wrought-iron fence attracts the desultory attention of a single guy.

I found it rather enjoyable, tho I'm willing to admit that it wont be everyone's cup of tea. There couldnt have been more than 30-40 lines of dialog in the entire movie.

Waiting for Guffman

With the festival starting in just 2 days, we're in the calm before the storm. Of the 48 films selected, I wound up getting getting 47, with only Borat being the outlier.

Shame, but its coming out in November or so, so eh...

In any case, stay tuned for your daily supply of pithy reviews that'll make you cry out for Ebert and the twit.