TIFF (TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL)

... five days watching movies at the toronto international film festival...

 

 

 

my first film at this years festival was also one of the ones i was most looking forward to seeing. director koen mortier's first film was the movie Ex-Drummer, which i had seen (and talked about on the site and podcast) earlier this year. i had been quite impressed with that movie and so, when i saw that his new film, 22nd Of May, was going to be showing at tiff, i had to check it out. and i must say that i am again impressed. the film takes a look at the victims of a devastating disaster - after the disaster.

in what i could only assume is some kind of purgatory, the victims of a mall bombing relive the certain aspects of their lives and the moments leading up to the disaster. they all also take the security guard along with them - blaming him for not having been more aware and stopping it from happening. not that he could feel anymore guilty.

the film is slow and almost meditative in its use of a bleak visual style and sound (and sometimes the lack thereof). in one way this is a complete 180 from Ex-Drummer which used a much more aggressive visual style and music. however, both films show a real vision that works for the story being told. the final scene - the voice overs laid on top of beautiful slow-mo images of the explosion -verges on corny/melodrama, but it is a powerful visual moment and the film up to that point had earned the benifit of the doubt. i can't wait to see what mortier does next!

 

as i walked out of the 22nd Of May screening a blond woman with a belgian accent (i assume it was belgian since that was where the movie was from) stuck a microphone in my face and, as the cameraman behind her focused his lens on me, asked me what i thought of the film. She caught me a bit off guard as i was in a rush to make it to my next film, but i think i sa id something at least somewhat intelligent and coherent about how much I liked the movie.

After my 20 seconds of fame on belgian tv (actually i have no idea if or where it might be broadcast) i rushed outside, hopped in a cab and within 40 minutes was sitting in another theatre watching Balada Triste De Trompeta (A Sad Trumpet Ballad).

i went from a slow and meditative film about guilt and regret to a film about a circus, love, revenge and a phsycotic sad clown in the franco years of post-war spain. and yes, it is as wild, over-the-top and original as it sounds.

director alex de la iglesia won the best director award at the venice film festival just a few days ago - although there was some controversy (as we discussed recently on the podcast) as some claimed favoritism from his friend and head of the jury, quenten tarantino. i didn't buy into those reports when i first read them and now, having seen the film, i definitely don't. if tarantino was going to make a movie about clowns and revenge in post war spain, this seems pretty close to the film he would have made.

the movie is very violent. it is at times horrific, funny and absurd and there are overt references to other film makers (in this case, hitchcock). like it or not you will have a reaction - probably a strong one - to this film.

 

The Debt is the latest film from Shakespeare In Love director john madden. the movie is a remake of an israeli film and a political thriller about three mossad agents sent into east germany on a secret mission to kidnap a nazi war criminal and bring him back to israel for trial. the film cuts back and forth between the 1965 mission and 1997 with all three members living with what happened over 30 years ago.

in the q&a following the film, madden talked about how the film we saw was pretty much exactly as it was on paper. and while that is not always how he rolls (my words not his), for a film like this it had to be so - given how and when certain plot points and information had to be revealed, etc...

so far this is the most accessible film i've seen. but i don't mean that to sound derogatory in any way. hellen mirren is great and so is the actress that plays the 1965 version of the character. all-in-all this is really a good political thriller.

 

the next two films i saw happened to be playing on the same night back-to-back in the same theatre (this was nice, since it was raining outside and it meant i didn't have to rush out of the first one to get to the next one since i only had 45 minutes to an hour between them). my first film for the evening was a polish film called The Christening. after that was done i headed out of the theatre and got back in line for my second movie (first i picked up a deliscious soft pretzel), a film from Romania called Outbound. it is of course total coincidence, but both films i saw that evening stick out in my mind because of their ambiguous endings (don't worry, i am not going to give anything away).

as for The Christening, according to the director, marcin wrona (who did a really good q&a session after the screening) the ending was presented in that way on purpose, in order to leave it up to the audience to determine why they think things transpired as they did (bogdan george apetri, the director of Outbound had had to leave the festival earlier and wasn't at the screening).

on a side note, The Christening is based on true events and i'm sure you're thinking that might explain the desire to leave the end open ended since maybe they just don't know exactly what happened and/or the motivations of those involved could be unclear. but actually the way the film ends isn't the way the real story goes.

audience members had previously asked the director about his non-hollywood ending and then one pointed out how the true version of the events is more "hollywood" then the film version - which got a big laugh from the we-think-we-are-so-smart-we-are-watching-a-foreign-film-at-a-festival-and-hollywood-movies-are-bad theatre crowd.

While i bunched both endings under the term "ambiguous" they are both so in very different ways. while The Christening's final scene can lead to two different interpretations of the reason for its occurrence, the last 30-40 seconds of Outbound left me simpley wondering what had just happened.

the film is moving along and then right after a scene that seems very important to the main character and her ultimate goal (that she has been working towards for the entire movie) there is a final dreamlike moment (could be a dream) and then cut to black - roll credits.

now, anyone who reads the website and/or listens to the podcast knows i appreciate films that take chances and treat the audience like an intelligent entity that doesn't need to be coddled or given all the answers directly - but in this case, at least to me, it just felt unfinished. and actually, as i thought about it after, it was the last moments that felt out of place with the hard reality of the rest of the film that bothered me more than the abruptness.

half way through my time at the fest - and 5 films in - Outbound had been looking like the first competitor to 22nd Of May for "best film i saw at the festival - but it just didn't get there. although, at this point it is a solid second place. and it would hold that position for a good 18 hours or so until after the screening of my next film, The Solitude Of Prime Numbers...

the italian film based on a very popular novel follows an intertwining story from childhood to adult hood of the two main characters, mattia and alice. the film initially takes us through the four main time periods in their lives and then proceeds to jump back and forth between then until the final act.

and i have to say that up until that final act this was looking like it was to supplant 22nd Of May fromatop the best of list. the performances were great - the kids playing the characters at different points in their lives are excellent. also, director saverio costanzo use of editing and cross-cutting across different time periods to build tension worked like a charm. not to mention the fantasticly grand, over the top/obvious score. it all worked so well to create a really visceral experience that was completely unexpected from the little write-up i had read that had made the film sound like a slow/quiet drama.

then there was the final act (it wasn't my intention to always talk about the endings of the films,but that's just been what has needed discussion with the last few movies i have seen). as the film cut to black and "seven years later" appeared on the screen i was loving this film. it had built itself up to create a powerful reaction and engagement up to that point and then "seven years later." this is where the film dropped out of first place!

this final act feels tacked on - and actually, as i watched it, and as we got dialogue/script hints as to what had happened over those seven years i kept wishing they hadn't been skipped. the state of alice seven years later almost doesn't make sense. i couldn't see how she had gotten to where she was based on who she had been throughout the film and where she was when we had left her seven years previous.

now, the film had been so good up to that point that the drop off of the final act (and, there are some beautiful moments in said final act) isn't enough to drop it below the number two spot at this point. but as i made the 30 minute walk to my next screening (it was a beautiful day out and i had a couple hours till the next movie) and later that evening when i was discussing it with friends, i did find myself getting frustrated when discussing what could have been.

up till this point i had yet to see a bad movie at the fest and was feeling pretty confident that the next one i saw this evening was going to continue that trend. well, i couldn't have been more wrong. Cold Fish, a japanese film about a tropical fish store owner/serial killer ended up being the worst film i saw all week. ya, i know what you are thinking... how can a film about a serial killer/tropical fish store owner be bad? well, let me tell you...

although Cold Fish is one of the most greusome and bloody films you will see, most of that gore and violence doesn't come about till the last 1/4 of the film. the movie actually takes the slow burn approach to its story telling - attempting to build up the tension till the final act which just goes crazy. this is a great idea that ends up being poorly executed.

the pivotal scene that occurs before the final is supposed to explain, and give reason, to what happens after, but it doesn't. instead it feels like an all too facile explanation and plot device. sure, the immediate violence that follows makes sense, but the rest is just ridiculous gratuitous. the film in that one moment goes from 0 to 60 without thinking we, the audience, deserves the 1 to 59.

don't get me wrong here, i am not hating on the film because of the violence. i am a fan of miike films and we all know how violent and bloody those can be. but, those films are generally much better executed and the violence is either valid or obviously over the top. with Cold Fish, the film looks to be taking itself too seriously for us to dismiss it as parody.

so my second to last night at the fest ended on a downer, but i had high hopes for the two films i was seeing the next day and felt confident that they would send me out of toronto on a high note. as it turns out, i was half right....

my first film the next day was an algerian film called Outside The Law. the film is a drama about the algerian fight for independence from france following world war II and to be honest, i don't have much to say about it. it was a solid piece of film making and it was well acted, but it just didn't grab me. you can see all the ingredients were good, but the meal just ended up a little bland.

now there was one film left to see. first i had something to eat, then walked over to the next theatre. at this point i still had about 90 minutes to kill, so i got in line, pulled out my pmp (personal media player) and watched an episode of The Wire (great show by the way). as the episode ended they started to let us into the theatre to see the australian film, Wasted On The Young.

the film is a teen drama about a private school, a party gone out of hand, bullying, accusations, revenge, cell phones and social networking... the movie is beautifully shot and has a really nice visual style to it that you might not expect from a "teen drama".

also, don't be fooled by the "teen drama" moniker. this isn't glossy and vapid. this is dark and smart and has a really keen eye on the way technology has engulfed a generation of kids for good and bad...text messages pop-up on screen around the characters, dreams/fantasies break up into pixels and digital bits, etc.

i also couldn't help but notice how there isn't one adult in the entire movie. this is a teen drama with all teens. not one teacher or parent is seen or heard in the film. even when one of the characters talks to his dad on the phone, we only here one side of the conversation (even though the characters brother is recording/eves dropping on the call).

i would have really liked a q&a with the director ben c. lucas after the movie, but this being the end of the festival, he had already headed back to australia (to start working on his next film). Wasted On The Young was his directorial debut and he has now given me another name to add to my directors to watch list.

interestingly enough, my week at the festival was bookended by the two best films i saw all week. and so there it was, the end of my tiff 2010 experience.... here is the final scorecard:

1: 22nd Of May/Wasted On The Young

2: The Solitude Of Prime Numbers

3: Outbound

4: The Debt

5: Balada Triste De Trompeta

6: The Christening

7: Outside The Law

8: Cold Fish