TIFF Begins... Tonight

The Venice jury hasn't even handed out their prizes yet (Will Shame win the Lion?) but Toronto kicks it off tonight with their opening presentation of Davis Guggenheim’s From the Sky Down, a rock documentary on U2. It's actually the first time a documentary has opened the 36 year old film festival. I'm personally going to be incommunicado this weekend. Perhaps it sounds like bad timing but I knew I'd need to be away from NYC this weekend (can't take all the 9/11 obsessing). More importantly, it's my last breather / eye rest (begone computer screens!) for the next six months until the post-Oscar ceremony wrap-ups. 

Paolo and Amir. The Film Experience correspondents for TIFF 2011

Just as with Venice, I've enlisted some correspondents. You'll be hearing from Paolo (who you've already met) and Amir (of Amiresque) as they hit the fest. That's them above so stay tuned!

I'm here until tomorrow and I'll be back Monday late night. You won't even miss me. 

Sixteen from Toronto. (And Your Input, Please.)

Festival season heading your way out there in the dark. Even if you only experience film festivals through blog mania for the same, that's still something. That's how most of us experience Cannes each year, yes? This year TFE will be doing a lot from NYFF as it's close to home (5 stops on the subway close!) and quite inexpensive since there's already a bed to sleep in: one's own! But we have lined up a few foreign correspondents to give you bits and bobs from Venice (Aug 31st-Sept 10th), Toronto (Sept 8th-18th), and London (Oct 12th-27th). Quite often commenting is light on film festival pieces, which one assumes is because of the unfamiliar factor of the films, though sometimes it's quite distressing -- I even drew you cartoons from Nashville and there was nary a peep! --  so some feedback would be greatly appreciated:

What interests you and what doesn't about film festivals?

Bizarre Typecasting Alert! Saoirse Ronan is playing her second consecutive teenage assassin in "Violet and Daisy"

The full Toronto International Film Festival schedule is up at their website. I won't be there but I am leaving town right about then because I do not want to be anywhere near Manhattan when the 10th anniversary of 9/11 rolls around. That's just going to be a nightmare and I don't mean in the fear-of-terrorism sense. Someone on TV the other day was theorizing about small scale terrorism as they do -- fear being our great masochistic national addiction -- and deadly gas or whatnot in crowded places came up. Movie theaters were mentioned. I know it's perverse but my immediate unbidden thought was  this: 'If I have to die by terrorism, that'd be an awesome. At least I'd be enjoying myself when the end came!'

Oh but Toronto, yes, yes. Rather than attempting to type up their entire 200+ film list, after a very quick glance through of the titles and summaries here are 16 that I'd probably try to snag tickets for had I gone this year. Festival moviegoing is much different from regular moviegoing in that you have to not only consider your normal desires but balance those out -- you can't go all drama or all France or even (gasp) all actressy -- and you have to immediately rule out films you'll be able to see in a week or two after you get back like all the NYFF titles.

So here we go...

Auteur Lust
Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank was so mesmerizing and incisive that I'm naturally curious to see her follow up Wuthering Heights, even though I prefer it when wonderfully contemporary filmmakers tell original stories. Despite reservations that come with yet another Bronte adaptation the TIFF write up promises a stripped down power... "No starched lace, no panoramic views, no sweeping score"; After Reprise Joachim Trier should win automatic eyeballs for Oslo, August 31st which might be Norway's Oscar submission; I hadn't realized until just now that A Funny Man, one of Denmark's Oscar finalists, is by the director of Applause Martin P Zandvliet. Though the praise for that film was mostly directed at Paprika Steen's shattering lead work, if Zandvliet can work similar magic with Nikolaj Lie Kaas who takes center stage here perhaps we'll have to regard him as one of the world's finest directors of actors?; Yorgos Lanthimos's follow up to Dogtooth called ALPS sounds juicily provocative "A mysterious underground outfit, going by the name of ALPS, offers bereaved individuals a very unusual service: they stand in for their dearly departed." Yes, please. If you can already surprise just from a concept line, I'm in.

Gender and Sexuality: Love and Bruises follows an international love affair between Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) and newcomer Corrine Yam. It's from Lou Ye, the director of Summer Palace and Spring Fever which were both successfully sensual and evocative pieces; Lost in Paradise is supposedly a sympathetic leap forward for gay depictions and characters in Vietnamese cinema; Leave it on the Floor is a coming of age musical about a young gay man in the vogueing underground ball circuit. That milieu, such a cinematic one, hasn't been center stage since what, 1992?; Finally the French Canadian Nuit #1 investigates a one night stand. Films which focus tightly on one event can often reap big rewards, because film is such a great medium for short stories as it were. Plus it's a debut feature (from Anne Emond) and festivals are a great place to discover new directors.

For the Actressing: Christophe Honoré's Beloved is about the love lives of a mother and daughter. They're played by real life mother/daughter Catherine Deneuve and Chiara Mastroianni (who also did that trick for A Christmas Tale) and  Ludivine Sagnier co-stars so this is must-see-times-three; Huh Jong-ho's crime drama about a collection agent and a con artist Countdown features Korean actress of the moment (and TFE obsession of the moment) Jeon Do-yeon of Secret Sunshine and The Housemaid fame.;  Albert Nobbs and We Need To Talk About Kevin... regarding both: I'm just impatient, y'all!

For the Variety: Friends With Kids is the directorial debut of Jennifer Westfeldt (Kissing Jessica Stein) who was once more famous than her husband Jon Hamm but hasn't been for some time now post Mad Men. Hamm is part of the ensemble cast she's collected for this comedy about a group of tight friends who begin to fall apart once children are in the picture. The film co-stars Adam Scott, Kristen Wiig, Megan Fox, Edward Burns and Maya Rudolph; Where Do We Go Now? is a Lebanese musical from the director of Caramel; Alois Nebel is a black and white rotoscoped animated film from the Czech Republic and the style would be enough for me in the festival setting (plainly different than everything around it!) though the content sounds interesting, too; Finally, I'm letting The Encounter stand in for avant garde programs in general. It's a short but I know I need to experiment with more that's truly experimental when given the chance ... and A list festival are that chance. In this film "a woman's synethesia transforms her vision into beautiful song." Wait, is this a Björk biopic?

But really, there are so many that I could do this for several more hours. Wrapping it up, now. Bye!

Peeking through the "Keyhole"

Andreas from Pussy Goes Grrr here, with some good news for cinephiles! Guy Maddin, the Wizard of Winnipeg, will be premiering his new movie Keyhole at TIFF. It's been four years since My Winnipeg, and for one of the greatest living directors, that's clearly four years too many. Here's the official synopsis for Keyhole via The Playlist:

A gangster and deadbeat father, Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric), returns home after a long absence. He is toting two teenagers: a drowned girl, Denny, who has mysteriously returned to life; and a bound-and-gagged hostage, who is actually his own teenage son, Manners. Confused Ulysses doesn’t recognize his own son, but he feels with increasing conviction he must make an indoor odyssey from the back door of his home all the way up, one room at a time, to the marriage bedroom where his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini) awaits.

All of Maddin's usual tropes are here: amnesia, psychosexual tension, overwrought family melodrama, and voyeurism (it's right there in the title). This time around, it looks like he's mixing in some noirish atmosphere and hints of the supernatural. Furthermore, he's stacked the deck by casting his favorite actress Isabella Rossellini along with Lars von Trier's lucky charm, Udo Kier. All in all, this sounds like about the most characteristically Maddin-esque movie that Guy Maddin's ever made.

Does that mean he's repeating himself, though? I doubt it. Over the past two decades, Maddin's proven himself extraordinarily inventive and versatile, jump freely between war dramas, musicals, and autobiographical "docu-fantasias." According to Rossellini, Keyhole is "crazier than a Turin horse." I can't wait to see it so I can figure out what the hell that means.

Udo Kier and X-Ray via Guy Maddin

Are you a fan of Canada's weirdest son? Which of his snowy dreamscapes have you visited?

Related Articles:

• For a good Maddin primer, turn to Robert's "Modern Maestros" over at the old Film Experience site.
• If you're interested in Canadian cinema, Twitch has a detailed list of all the homegrown offerings that will be playing at TIFFL 

Toronto & Venice Lineups: Full of Contenders & Sleepers

Robert here (of Distant Relatives) with some thoughts on the lineups for the Toronto and Venice International Film Festivals which were announced Wednesday morning. And Oh Canada (and Viva Italia!) are they impressive.

Let's begin with Venice since it's up first.

VENICE
First up, the many films that will be vying for awards and spots on prestigious top 10 lists at the end of the year. I mention them first because while there's much to anticipate about them all, there's not too much left to say. They've staked their claim and now we must wait for word to start rolling in. So we can see if Roman Polanski's late career semi-resurgence can continue with the impressive cast of Carnage, or whether Steven Soderberg's Contagion can live up to that buzzy trailer. Meanwhile David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method sets out to prove that just because he doesn't make movies with gynelogical tools that look like alien lifeforms anymore, he's still a master of psychosexual pathos. George Clooney's The Ides of March will try to be more than Primary Colors redux and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (from Let the Right One In's Tomas Alfredson) may finally get Gary Oldman some recognition in the form of little statues. And of course Madonna reinvents herself yet again, this time as feature film director with W.E.

Meanwhile I feel like the lineup has reminded me of how many films have fallen under the radar so far this year. Did you know Jonathan Demme has made a post-Katrina documentary entitled I'm Carolyn Parker? Underachiever James Franco has found time to direct a film about Sal Mineo called Sal. Todd Solondz is back at it with the romance Dark Horse, which I'm sure will be more fun for the whole family. Further representing the ladies are Marry Harron who jumps into the vampire fray with The Moth Diaries, Andrea Arnold who gives us a new version of Wuthering Heights, and Marjane Satrapi of Persepolis fame who, with co-director Vincent Paronnaud presents her sophomore effort Chicken With Plums.

If that weren't enough there's Shame, Steve McQueen's follow up to 2008's Hunger which pairs Michael Fassbender with Cary Mulligan. If you liked 2007's sweetly sad The Band's Visit, director Eran Kolirin presents The Exchange. And if you liked last years not-so-sweetly sad Dogtooth, Giorgios Lanthimos is back with Alps. Plus new films from Philippe Garrel, Abel Ferrera, William Friedkin and more. Exhausting. The full list is available for your perusal at The Guardian.

TORONTO
Now on to TIFF, the official unofficial start of award season. Along with some films from Venice that will be here too (The Ides of March, The Dangerous Method, W.E.), we'll get our first look at "Sad Clooney" in Alexander Payne's The Descendants, "Angry Woody" in Oren Moverman's Rampart, and "Mathy Brad" in Bennett Miller's Moneyball. Rodrigo Garcia's Albert Nobbs rings the bell on the Glenn Close/Meryl Streep steel cage Oscar match we're all looking forward to and/or feeling conflicted about. Meanwhile Francis Ford Coppola continues the "we hope this one will be his big comeback" era of his career with Twixt.

Of course, Toronto could be comeback central. Fernando Meirelles is premeiring 360 in an attempt to put Blindness out of sight. Lasse Hallstrom is back (actually I can't remember if he went anywhere or if we all stopped paying attention). Anyway if he has his way the title Salmon Fishing in the Yemen will be on all of our lips. Also did you know that Roland Emmerich has apparently grown tired of destroying the world and made a film about Shakespeare called Anonymous... seriously. And his subtler and more stylish French counterpart Luc Besson has maybe put thrillers on hold for The Lady.

The list seemingly never ends, but I must. So I'll finish off with two films you might be anticipating if you enjoyed 2004's My Summer of Love and 2007's Away From Her. Pawel Pawlikoski is back with The Woman in the Fifth and Sarah Polley returns to the director's chair for Take This Waltz. As usual there's still plenty more and The Guardian has that list too.

Once your head has stopped spinning with the promise of a busy end of the year sound off. Which of these are you looking most forward to? Which are you having trouble getting worked up for?