our ongoing TIFF adventures
Helen Mirren & Donald Sutherland at the Leisure Seekers premiereI've hit a brick wall here on Day 5 for which I blame the parties of days 1 through 4... or rather my eagerness to attend them. As with most week-plus long festivals much of the press and industry vanishes after the first half of the fest so... grab the free drinks, scrumptious eats, and celebrity chatter while you can. Saturday night's Sony Pictures Classics dinner presented the opportunity to congratulate Donald Sutherland on his Honorary win. Which I took don'cha know...
I made sure to tell him that my favorite of his features was Klute (1971) because I rarely turn down the opportunity to mention Klute. (Our podcast mate and dear friend Katey Rich happened to be seated at Sutherland's table and right next to his Leisure Seeker's costar Dame Helen Mirren at that!)
I was at the table for the Russian Cannes hit Loveless so talked up "favorite Russian films" with Andrei Zvyagintsev. Mine? Easy that's The Cranes are Flying (1957) and Ballad of a Soldier (1959). Zvyagintsev shared that his lead in Loveless is the granddaughter of one of the Ballad of a Soldier stars -- Imagine that! As for Zvyagintsev's favorite Russian film he was adamant that Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev (1966) is where it's at. (I have to admit that that's a Tarkovsky I haven't seen -- the 3½ hour running time keeps frightening me away). We'll know whether Russia selects Loveless to represent their country at the Oscars by September 21st but the team is hopeful given their previous Oscar nomination for Leviathan (2014).
"This is my wife, Kate Mara" Jamie Bell said as soon as I introduced myself to him. It is a strange sentence to hear spoken aloud. I was just whisking myself by him to thank him for his remarkable performance in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. Since the film is a romantic drama I'm 100% sure that Annette Bening will receive all the praise but Jamie Bell is stunning, too. At least Kate Mara agrees with me, saying 'he stole the movie!'
I wouldn't go that far. I mean it already is his movie in a way; the biggest surprise about the film is that he's got a (slightly) bigger role than Bening and it's mostly from his perspective but for an entirely riveting sequence of scenes in which the screenplay shakes this up.
I'm already bristling every time I hear it compared to My Week With Marilyn because literally the only thing they have in common is the very basic premise of 'civilian falls for famous film star' It is much much better as a movie in all respects, including the performances (which is the one thing MWWM was excessively praised for)
Finally I spent a little time with the actress of the Chilean trans hit A Fantastic Woman. I didn't know what the director Sebastian Lelio looked like (auteurs can be anonymous until they're very famous!) so Daniela Vega assisted me in the introduction. After babbling about my intense love of his last picture Gloria, I confessed to him that I expected some American actress would try to snatch it up for a remake but it's already perfect so...
He interrupted me with a surprise (did I know this? had I forgotten?)
That's already happened. It's going to be Julianne Moore. And I'm directing it.'
Whoa. I never think remakes of excellent movies are a good idea but if it has to be remade then Lelio + Moore sounds hard to resist.
As for his current star, Daniela Vega, she's going to do just fine on red carpets this season. She immediately asked if I liked her dress and we chatted about how many festivals and how much travel they've already done with the film. She's choosing what to wear to events on a very "mood" basis.
"Tonight, I'm feeling very 'Spring'!" she said with so much sparkling personality that I immediately wanted to see her in an Almodóvar picture.