Craig at the Toronto International Film Festival

TIFF 2006 Day 4

This festival is going very well so far. Sure every film has started at least a little bit late, BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! being the worst offender, (late enough that I had to miss the end of a very special presentation, what with the live score and sound effects - are apologies from the festival enough? or should they try to reschedule when such fiascos occur? ‘make-it-up to the paying audience day’ sometime maybe…) and then there was that BORAT brouhaha that they should compensate for (free tickets when it opens?), but overall, what are a couple of late starts when the films have been so good?

Oddly enough today was dueling themes day, those being deceptively languorous summers, and suicide. In fact a full three of the five films occur during those lazy days when summer lulls you into a false inertia while underneath it all, things are changing, and all five films deal with death in some way - two of them concern suicides. Sound fun? It was another terrific day…

Summercamp

If you’re going to make a documentary about the kind of things that go on at summer camps, you might as well 1) introduce the film by having the audience stand up and sing along with and follow the actions to Baby Shark do do do Baby Shark do do do Baby Shark do do do Baby Shark, Momma Shark do do do Momma Shark do do do, etc., and 2) call the film SUMMERCAMP!

SUMMERCAMP! is, naturally, a searing exposé that rips the lid off what really goes on in those exclusive northern outposts. Okay, truth be told, it’s not sensationalized at all, but this documentary does chronicle what three weeks of camp was like for a handful of mostly 11-year olds one summer in Wisconsin. These kids are full of public bravado while simultaneously being terribly insecure, they love the laughs at camp but still cry from homesickness, they forge new friendships while still feeling lost and alone in the woods - you know, they’re kids.

Co-Directed by Sarah Price, who made a recent fav of mine, YES MEN, along with Brad Beesley, SUMMERCAMP! follows the trials, tribulations, and triumphs (relatively few of those, but they can be significant) of these kids who are a long way out of their element, and who battle to make the best of their camp experience. It is a real battle for some of the kids; away from their parents, some for the first time, each of the children we follow express their hopes and fears about being on their own. One suffers from the curse of being too smart, two are highly-medicated ADD types, another two would rather spend more time chasing the wildlife than interacting other campers, and there’s always that quest for a summer boyfriend/girlfriend to complicate it all. SUMMERCAMP! is sensitive, fun, and even a little moving, and nostalgia for my years at summer camp washed back over me and many in the audience as it rolled along.

L’Homme de sa Vie

L’HOMME DE SA VIE is absolutely the most beautiful film I have seen yet at this year’s festival. Set at a villa in the south of France, the cinematography revels in the plentiful beauty of the land and creates a very lush and seductive milieu for the events of the film to unfold. Frederic (Bernard Campan) and Frederique (Léa Drucker) are swept away in love with each other, they have a rambunctious four-year old son, and a villa to share with friends over ‘les vacances’. Hugo (Charles Berling) is the mysterious new neighbour who swims nude in his pool next door. Frederique thinks inviting Hugo to dinner one night would be a good idea. Is she right?

L’HOMME rotates around a fateful after-dinner conversation between Frederic and Hugo that changes both their lives. At the beginning of the story each man is happily doing what he wants to in life, having worked out the kinks to be in situations in which they thrive. One meeting of the minds later, and the foundations of their beliefs are exposed as surprisingly shaky, and unable to withstand the impact of the other’s foreign thinking.

With layers and layers of visual imagery beautifully realized through great camera work, clever writing and exquisite aesthetic style, we see two lives unravel under the microscope of the honest moments they have allowed to pass. French actress/director Zabou Breitman has created a very thoughtful and engaging film that seduces the characters and viewers alike, and impresses in many ways.

THE HOST, unspooling 45 minutes later and in the very same theatre, was no genial party-giver this time. This time the host crawled out of Seoul’s Han River and devoured every morsel of food it could catch, all of it human. This manic picture introduces a Godzilla for Korea, and for this age of environmental concern and viral-pandemic paranoia. With good effects, (up until the end at least), dashes of smart humour and plenty of adrenalin, THE HOST was, oh heck, good enough to have become the top grossing Korean film of all time, but I dunno, not THAT exciting. Still, it was an enjoyable break from all the worthwhile stuff I’ve been seeing.

Falkenberg Farewell

FALKENBERG FAREWELL was the day’s third film focused on events forced into action by too languorous a summer. Falkenberg is a seaside town in Sweden’s southwest, and, it would seem, the summer residence of many of the country’s most bored and dissolute youth. What will it take to rouse some from their stupor? A suicide maybe?

Sweden, whose government is laboring to disabuse the world of the popular myth that the country has a high suicide rate, takes another blow in this slacker mini-epic. Despite its insights and sensitive execution, FALKENBERG FAREWELL left me bored… and considering a little dissolution myself.

ShortBus

I finished the day with SHORTBUS, one of the most controversial, most hyped, and most anticipated films of the festival, but I do not have the time to do it any justice now. SHORTBUS delves deeply enough into often taboo subjects that anything I could write quickly would not be either enough, or well enough said. Initially too tired to finish before sleeping, and with too little time before today’s films, right now I can only say…

It’s very good: the packed audience cheered loudly at the end. It’s somewhat overwhelming and gives one lots to think and talk about, while there are many people who will not appreciate it at all. I’ll try to get back to it later.

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