September 17, 2002
Hi! It’s wrap-up time.
As you saw in the awards list I sent out yesterday, I didn’t see a lot of the winners at this year’s festival. No matter, I loved it like always!
With 345 films showing, someone who sees only 41 of them isn’t guaranteed of seeing all the “buzz” shows. It just means that I’ll be watching for the good ones I missed to appear at cinemas in the next year.
Below are general rankings for what I saw. (Fr w sub) means “French with subtitles”, and so-on. Films with “*Mtl” were ones I saw at the World Film Festival. I oughta write about those too I suppose…
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Craig’s Choice Award for best fiction film
MA VRAIE VIE A ROUEN - 16 yr old films a year of growing up (Fr w sub)
Most stunning technical achievement
RUSSIAN ARK - 96 minutes, one take, 1000 cast members, Wow! (Russian w sub)
Good fiction with subtitles (no particular order, I enjoyed all of these)
MEISJE *Mtl - Country girl runs to Brussels for new life (Flemish w sub)
THE WAY HOME - Young boy learns life lessons from grandmother (Korean w sub)
TAKE CARE OF MY CAT - 20 yr old girlfriends grow up and split apart (Kor w sub)
CORTO MALTESE *Mtl - animated adventure in Hong Kong, Siberia 1918 (Fr w sub)
MARRIAGE DERAILED *Mtl - railroad romantic dalliance (Swed w sub)
8 FEMMES - musical comedy murder mystery stocked with divas (Fr w sub)
LA TRILOGIE: CAVALE - engaging thriller with radical politics (Fr w sub)
MADAME SATA - drag artist fights opression in Rio 1930s (Portuguese w sub)
THE MAN WITHOUT A PAST - amnesiac finds a quirky new life (Finnish w sub)
Good fiction, partially subtitled
BOLLYWOOD/HOLLYWOOD - good silly fun Indian/Cdn courtship (Eng or Hindi w sub)
HEAVEN - good thriller, great acting, beautifully filmed (Eng or Ital w sub)
Good fiction, no reading
LAUREL CANYON - conflicting lifestyles seek harmony in la la land
THE QUIET AMERICAN - Michael Caine digs for trouble in Viet Nam, 1952
BUBBA HO-TEP - wacky b-movie about Elvis, JFK, and a Mummy
I’m Non-commital
FOOD OF LOVE *Mtl - uneven gay coming of age story
EXXXORCISMOS - guy deals with ghosts in his past (Spanish w sub)
YELLOWKNIFE - melancholy cross country search for better life (Eng or Fr w sub)
DIVINE INTERVENTION - absurdist middle eastern comedy (Arabic w sub)
RUB AND TUG - initially funny comedy about a massage parlour
BLISSFULLY YOURS - laaaaanguid picnic in the jungle (Thai w sub)
BIG SHOT’S FUNERAL - occasionally funny comedy about a tv funeral
AUTO FOCUS - mostly depressing docudrama about Bob Crane’s fall from grace
PAST PERFECT - mostly miserable, sometimes comic story of couple in trouble
Not my cup of tea
BELLISIMA - miserable mother pushes kid into modelling (Polish w sub)
THE BARONESS AND THE PIG - inept overly earnest costume drama (Eng or Fr w sub)
SUXXESS *Mtl - ideal company taken over by bottom line manager (Swedish w sub)
TEKNOLUST - futuristic drivel
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Best freakin’ documentary
BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE - guns in America, in a class by itself
Good documentaries
SPELLBOUND - terrific characters, clever dialogue, lots of tension, all true
THE TRUE MEANING OF PICTURES: SHELBY LEE ADAMS’ APPALACHIA - thought provoking
LOST IN LA MANCHA - funny, impressive
PROM FIGHT: THE MARC HALL STORY - well told underdog story
LES ROSSY - good short never-give-up story (English, some French w sub)
Okay documentaries
FOLK - unblinking home movie with eye on family caught in sorry circumstances
BLIND SPOT: HITLER’S SECRETARY - dull film, but compelling material (Ger w sub)
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That’s it - cheers!
Craig James White
Toronto - show me the movie!
Posted by rae under reviews | Comments (0)
September 16, 2002
It’s Sunday night. Friday seems like days and days ago, and the fest is over, so I’m going to be pretty darn brief:
I went to three screenings on Friday.
YELLOWKNIFE is a bilingual Canadian flick that follows six offbeat, down-on-their-luck, and melancholy characters as they cross the country from Moncton to the Northwest Territories. It didn’t arrive at the festival with a distributor and I’ll be surprised if it gets one. Were it more likely to come out, I’d tell you more - it’s more likely to show up very late one night on CBC.
I followed that with a screening of three Canadian short documentaries:
- LES ROSSY, the story of a go-get’em couple that run a 59 department store chain in Quebec (fun),
- FOLK, one of those home-made camcorder films that I’ve been wondering when we’d see, here a Toronto guy turns the camera on his depressed grandmother, and his mom and dad who are preparing to have to put down the family dog, and
- PROM FIGHT: THE MARC HALL story, exactly what you think this is about, this is a well edited encapsulation of the story about the Oshawa kid that wanted to be able to take his boyfirend to the prom.
Finally, my festival ended with EXXXORCISMOS, a Mexican film from legendary director Jaime Humberto Hermosillo about a man who attempts to rid himself of the ghosts of his past. This is an only-at-a-festival kind of film.
These screenings acted nicely as an early denouement for my festival. (I spent my weekend very enjoyably in Muskoka.)
In the end I went to 31 screenings for a total of 41 films seen including shorts. While I saw BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE, one of the leading contenders for the audience favourite award, I wasn’t convinced it would win because of its controversial subject matter. As you’ll see below in the press release I’ve copied from the festival’s website, it came in as a runner up. The release lists all the awards handed out, and is copied from the following website: http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2002/mediacentre/release.asp?id=93
Tomorrow I’ll go through my favourites. Cheers!
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Toronto - With a final tally of 345 films (including 180 world and North American premieres) from 50 countries, unspooling over 10 days, the 27th Toronto International Film Festival wrapped on Sunday, September 15th with its annual Awards Brunch at the Four Seasons Hotel Toronto.
AGF PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Sponsored by one of the Festival’s major supporters, the AGF People’s Choice Award is voted on by Festival audiences - known worldwide for their enthusiasm and love of cinema. The 2002 award goes to Niki Caro’s WHALE RIDER, a beautifully realized story set in New Zealand that follows a young girl whose destiny is irrevocably bound with the cornerstone myth of her patriarchal tribe.
The runners up are Michael Moore’s BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE and Gurinder Chadha’s BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM. BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE takes a satirical and poignant look at America’s gun culture. BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM follows a strong-willed and talented soccer-playing girl who must choose between her love for the game and the impositions of her disapproving family.
VOLKSWAGEN DISCOVERY AWARD
The press corps, which consisted of about 750 international media, voted on the Volkswagen Discovery Award. The recipient of the Volkswagen Discovery Award is the riveting THE MAGDALENE SISTERS, directed by Peter Mullan. The film depicts the living nightmare four young women endure after they are wrongfully condemned to an asylum by their families and the Irish Catholic church.
AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM
The jury was composed of three Canadian filmmakers: Elida Schogt, Sarah Polley, and Pierre Hébert. The Award for Best Canadian Short Film, a $10,000 cash prize, was presented to Ann Marie Fleming’s BLUE SKIES, “for its subtle, decisive and innovative way of conveying the complexity of human experience.”
The Special Jury Citation was awarded to SHORT HYMN SILENT WAR directed by Charles Officer, “for its strong, emerging voice, that elicited a sense of urgency about its subject matter.”
CANADIAN FEATURE FILM AWARDS
The Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film and the Toronto - City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film were selected by an international jury of industry professionals comprised of: Ellen Baine, Director of Programming, Citytv, Star!, FashionTelevisionChannel and SexTV: The Channel; Kyle Rae, City of Toronto Councillor; Anne Thompson, Senior Writer for Entertainment Weekly; Christoph Terhechte, Director of International Forum of New Cinema; and Canadian filmmaker Bruce Sweeney.
CITYTV AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM
Established by sponsor CityTV, the award carries a cash prize of $15,000 and is presented to a Canadian filmmaker whose first feature film is considered exemplary. This award acknowledges the fresh new talent emerging within Canadian cinema.
The Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature goes to Wiebke von Carolsfeld’s MARION BRIDGE, “for its precise realization and von Carolsfeld’s direction of an expressive acting ensemble.”
TORONTO - CITY AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
Presented annually at the Toronto International Film Festival and generously co-sponsored by The City of Toronto and Citytv, the Toronto - City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film carries a cash prize of $25,000.
For “translating its character’s interior mental state into extraordinary visual terms, the Toronto - City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film goes to David Cronenberg’s SPIDER.
INDEPENDENT FILM CHANNEL VISIONS AWARD
The winning film was selected by a three-person jury made up of writer/director Alison Maclean (JESUS’ SON); writer/director/producer Whit Stillman (BARCELONA); and Wayne Clarkson, Executive Director of the Canadian Film Centre.
The inaugural Independent Film Channel Visions Award is presented to RUSSIAN ARK, by master filmmaker Alexandr Sokurov. A technical tour de force, this stunning film moves through 33 rooms of Russia’s St. Petersburg Hermitage in a single camera shot lasting 96 minutes. The award carries a cash prize of $20,000.
The jury awarded special citations to Fernando Meirelles’ CITY OF GOD and Gus Van Sant’s GERRY.
FIPRESCI PRIZE
For the eleventh consecutive year, the Festival welcomed an international FIPRESCI jury. This prize is annually bestowed upon a feature film directed by an emerging filmmaker and making its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The 2002 jury was comprised of Borislav Andjelic, Daily News Vercernje Novaste, Serbia (Jury President); Vanz Chapman, Word: Literary Calendar, Canada; Ronald Ockhuysen, De Volkskrant, The Netherlands; and Julie Rigg, ABC Radio National, Australia.
The FIPRESCI Prize is awarded to LES CHEMINS DE L’OUED directed by Gaël Morel (France) “for its political risk taking, for its power to disturb, for its portrait of the way protracted war destroys identity and the capacity of trust.”
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Craig James White
Toronto - show me the movie!
Posted by rae under reviews | Comments (0)
September 15, 2002
My early evening film today set such high new standards for ineptitude in filmmaking that I skipped my last film of the day to get home and get writing before my pain subsided too much, so in reverse order, here goes Day 8:
Then it was off to see one of my favourite actresses, indie diva Tilda Swinton, in a quadruple role as a scientist and her clones in TEKNOLUST, a second feature by University of California at Davis electronic arts professor Lynn Hershman Leeson. Leeson is also a “new media” artist and short film director who has won a bunch of awards you’ve never heard of. After seeing this film I’m convinced that those awards have all come from juries made up of deaf ward patients at the CNIB. I apologize for that, but there’s gotta be some explanation.
Our audience tonight might have given her an award. The majority at the screening seemed to enjoy the film, quite a bit in fact. I tell myself it was because before the film rolled the director told the audience that the film is funny, in case we weren’t sure, or maybe because Tilda Swinton has a cult following that are just so happy to see her on screen it doesn’t matter what else is happening, but mostly I’m scared that the theatre was chock full of the truly clueless. I didn’t realize so many are so lost.
Should I be asking myself if maybe I just didn’t get it? Ummm, nope, I got it, and it was crap. And I’m not totally alone in my assesment. I take comfort in the fact that my friend Scott who also saw it also sat stone-faced through most of it.
So, what didn’t we like?
Well, I’m always leary when a director introduces the film with a suggestion to the audience that they can laugh if they think something might be funny. I don’t need the encouragement personally. Something funny, I laugh. Isn’t that the same for everyone? Why does anyone need that encouragement? Has TEKNOLUST screened to an uneasy silence before? The odd suggestion felt more like a threat. Laugh!
Subsequently as the film rolled, there were certain people that laughed at everything: every line uttered, every movement on screen, would elict this odd, unconvincing and forced a-ha, a-ha, a-ha-ha. It sent chills up my spine as these maniacal sounds suggested that the in-bred were holding a convention and that I might be let out from the theatre into the back alley with them afterwards.
Then there was the material: Swinton plays DNA research scientist Rosetta Stone. She’s been a little overly efficent with her work and not only produced a paper on cloning, but three fully-grown clones of herself as well. All on her own. It could happen, right? The girls live in a secret, ultramodern, underground lair in Stone’s midtown San Fran house, have dataports in their fingernails, and need daily injections of sperm to survive (by syringe, please). Apparently they’re a bit “short on male chromozones”.
The sperm is collected by Ruby, the red attired clone. She mates with men: so that emotional attachments don’t develop, only three times before she’s off to find another willing donor. Olive (likes green) and Marine (dresses in blue) wait at home for their share, but dream about running around in the real world too. Too bad they start sneezing as soon as they leave the nest, poor immune systems and all. (Damn all those fatal flaws with clones!)
Inexpliquably the girls also have, we are told, “the biggest portal on the net”. While guys visit them there, we’re not really sure what they do at the “portal”, but heck, it’s the biggest. So why doesn’t a single trick in the film recognize these famous net babes? And does Leeson think we’ll be more impressed because the girls’ website is “the biggest”? Claims like that only serve to highlight her lack of understanding of the internet.
And the men, the men are all as dumb as posts. A dozen of Ruby’s tricks show up pretty much concurrently at one particular Doctor’s office with a rash and barcode on their forehead and it takes them forever to realize that the cause of the odd rashes is that they’ve all had sex with the same woman. The doctor figures the cause of the barcode rashes is that the men have not just contracted a virus, they’ve contracted a COMPUTER VIRUS. One that can obviously “jump from screen to screen!” The future is here! The future is here!
In the Q&A Leeson was asked if they had any scientific advisors on the film. Lesson said “Yes, lots! They all quit!” No kidding they quit! Too bad B-movie director Ed Wood was no longer available for scientific consultations: he could have sorted things out, he would have enjoyed the screen credit for this dreck.
Tilda Swinton, an otherwise excellent actress, is stuck here playing the three automatons and an idealistic and completely earnest scientist. The clones, devoid of emotion, aren’t a stretch to play, and Stone, the completely earnest scientist isn’t close to being believable. Humans are emotional and have motive for their actions. Swinton’s not allowed to dig for those things here, and I blame Leeson for her lifeless performance.
Another thing: remember crosseyed Karen Black from the AIRPORT films? She shows up here to play a transvestite detective who works while dressed as Karen Black. ? ?? Why is that a good idea? It certainly highlights the total amount of stupidity in the film, in case the viewer hadn’t clued in to just how much of that there is.
I could go on, but in the end TEKNOLUST must be the dumbest look at the ethics of emerging biotechnologies ever slapped together. Leeson’s film doesn’t ask us to think, it warns us to think her way: DNA research will turn us into automatons. Here’s my thought: this woman is a pseudo-intellectual of the first order who will feed you all the garbage you care to swallow. I done had my fill.
Next was 8 FEMMES, an Agatha Christie style murder mystery that takes place in a French country home populated by, you guessed it, 8 women. Its stars include Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emanuelle Beart, and Fanny Ardant, all favourites of mine. It’s silly, playful, slightly surprising, but mostly slight. It opens before the end of September, and it’s worth a laugh. No stars or director showed for the screening. Tant pis.
First for today was DIVINE INTERVENTION, a very odd Palestinian comedy that unfolds with next to no dialogue, and no plot. It’s one of those “things happen” movies, where we watch daily occurances in corners of Nazareth, Ramallah, and Jerusalem. It is often funny, but understanding many of the film’s points requires more detailed knowledge than I have of the political culture and the obstacles to “normal” life that Palestinians face. Chalk it up to an experience you can only have at the festival.
The last film I saw yesterday was CAVALE. I intended to talk about it today after seeing one of the other two parts of the trilogy to which it belongs, but APRES LA VIE was the film I skipped tonight to type up the TEKNOLUST screed. Therefore…
CAVALE or ON THE RUN by Belgian writer/director/actor Lucas Belvaux tells the story of a political radical who has been jailed in France for nearly two decades for the killing of several people who got in the way of his class struggle. At the beginning of the film he manages a daring prison escape and runs to picturesquely alpine Grenoble, where he resumes his political terrorism and looks to exact revenge on those who gave him up to the cops. Belvaux is good at gradually revealing this guy’s character to us: a blank at first, we first are soon intrigued by his intelligence and mysterious ways, then gradually come to detest him as we build up sympathy for the people he blidly hurts. It’s a pretty decent thriller: you really get to hate this guy and look forward to his comeuppance.
CAVALE also comes with a comedy (LA COUPLE EPATANT) and a melodrama (APRES LA VIE) that interweave plot lines and characters. Minor stories in one part are the main thread of another. I would have liked to have seen the other two: schedule-wise it didn’t work out. If the trilogy as a whole is critically acclaimed and popular in Europe then there’s a chance they will play here one day. After seeing CAVALE I am hopeful they will.
One note: Day 9 won’t appear until Monday next week.
Cheers!
Craig James White
Toronto - show me the movie!
Posted by rae under reviews | Comments (0)
