The 29th Toronto International Film Festival: Sight Unseen
By Aaron Licht

 

The following are random thoughts on a random selection of features from the 29th Toronto International Film Festival.  I wrote most of this column sometime between finishing my poutine and my next coffee.  I hope you get something out of it, and I’ll see you at the festival!  Then I’ll see you again over the next year, when most of these films see distribution.

The Motorcycle Diaries (dir. Walter Salles)
Walter Salles (Central Station, 1998) is a master of affecting the audience with his emotional and highly motivated characters.  His latest eases us into the life of Che Guevara without being overly political, and instead mainly inspirational.  I’m looking forward to finally learning something about Che.  (A prize goes to the first person who knows the second festival film to ‘star’ Che)

Notre Musique (dir. Jean-Luc Godard).
Godard.  Enough said.  Want some more?  Three segments: hell, limbo and heaven.  That should be enough.

3-Iron (dir. Kim Ki-duk)
Yes yes, oh yes.  I’ve only discovered Kim Ki-duk this past summer with his most recent feature, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter ... And Spring, but I’m drooling over his new release.  He uncompromisingly dissects whatever he tackles.  There’s been a lot of goodness coming out of South Korea recently, and we North Americans seem to enjoy it more than the country’s domestic audience.

The Limb Salesman  (dir. Anais Granofsky)
Remember Lucy from Degrassi?  She’s bringing her third directorial effort to the festival.  To be honest, I’m not going to see it, but all Lucy fans out there shouldn’t miss this one.

Mysterious Skin (dir. Gregg Araki)
Yes!  Araki rocks!  Dubbed the bad boy of 90s Queer American cinema, his films mix violence and the apocalypse with sweet and romantic relationships.  Not an easy mix to pull off.  Not many have heard of him, and I know very little about Mysterious Skin, but I know it’ll be fun.  I’ll be there. 

Siblings (dir. David Weaver)
Weaver’s first feature, Century Hotel (2001), was filled with Canadian greats Colm Feore, David Hewlett and Earl Pastko.  Perhaps a shaky story, but it got me in the end.  Siblings is a black comedy/drama about two psychotic siblings in a disturbing family.  It is sure to be a laugh riot! 

Wilby Wonderful (dir. Daniel MacIvor)
MacIvor rules!  Canadian favourite, star of Twitch City (1998).  This film has every major Canadian star in an eclectic story line.  I don’t know much about it, except that “MacIvor underscores the familiarity of life's everyday dramas.”  It is sure to tackle our most familiar themes and is a must see for any Canadian lovin’ sonnabitch. 

Phil the Alien (dir. Rob Stefaniuk)
My initial reaction was ‘huh’?  At the swanky Canadian Press Release conference, this small Canadian feature was a top bill.  “An alcoholic alien makes friends with a talking beaver (played by Joe Flaherty).  Yeah.  Don’t get me wrong, silly Canadian humour is excellent.  Over the past few weeks, there’s been a lot of local buzz gathering around this ultra silly laugh fest.  Both EYE and NOW Magazine loved it.  And we get to have the director’s festival experience on his Festival Blog.  I’ll be there.  Here’s hoping he has a success.

I ’heart’ Huckabees (dir. David O. Russell)
An absurdist comedy from David O. Russell, director of the hilarious Spanking the Monkey (1994) and surprisingly effective Three Kings (1999).  An existential detective agency is hired by a doubting environmental activist.  An excellent cast (Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Dustin Hoffman, Mark Wahlberg) promises to provide silly fun and a little something special about self-discovery.

The Woodsman (dir. Nicole Kassell)
Wow.  Controversy is all around this one.  Nicole has tackled the child molester, the most despised of all criminals.  Kevin Bacon plays a pedophile returning to his home town after twelve years. 

Turtles Can Fly (dir. Bahman Ghobadi)
Beautiful and intensely topical.  Abbas Kiarostami’s assistant director, Bahman Ghobadi, has learned a lot about convincing child performances and using the natural beauty of his locations to help tell his story.  You’ll feel for these kids, scrambling to hear news about the war in Iraq and selling mines back to the US to rent a machine gun for the impending invasion.  I saw it, I cried.  Don’t miss it.

Bad Education (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)
Despite the critics, I wasn’t impressed with Almodovar’s previous feature Talk To Her.  His new story seems more interesting: following two old friends/lovers and investigating their past sexual abuse at a strict Catholic school.  The premise involves both sex and the cinema and it sounds quite meta-interesting.

Eros (Dir. Wong Kar-wai, Steven Soderbergh, Michelangelo Antonioni)
WOW!  I’ve been anticipating this one for a long time.  An unusual team of three cinematic masters come together to tell three separate love stories.  I expect equal parts of slow burning sensuality, humour and bitter resentment.  I’m very curious to see what each director accomplishes with a shorter running time and freedom from conventional box office demands.  A cinephiles’ wet dream.

Sucker Free City (Dir. Spike Lee)
Nah, I’ll pass.  Spike Lee has ceased to excite me.  He’s made some great films, but it seems like there are now others doing what he pioneered.  This outing was created as a pilot for a new television drama.  I hope he surprises me.

Moolaad (Dir. Ousmane Sembene)
Sembene is the granddaddy of African Cinema, and opens the 10th anniversary of the festival’s Planet Africa programme.  His latest project investigates the horrors of female genital mutilation.  Such a topic may be difficult for some to watch, and that is probably why Sembene was driven to educate his audience.  This made a huge impact at Cannes.

Land of Plenty (Dir. Wim Wenders)
Down with America!  Subtly, but surely.  Wenders’s Paris, Texas (1984) rules.  I’m excited to see his insight into the current American climate.  (No overt pedagogic crusade a la 9/11 but back to an understate narrative)

Calvaire (Dir. Fabrice du Welz)
Buzz in Europe calls Calvaire Belgium’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

Creep (Dir. Christopher Smith)
Extreme terror in the subway, starring Run Lola Run’s Franka Potente.

The Machinist (Dir. Brad Anderson)
Christan Bale (Christopher Nolan’s future Batman) lost fifty pounds for this role.  He plays a machinist who hasn’t slept in a year.  I don’t need to tell you that he goes insane.  Looks great.  Brad Anderson’s last feature Session 9 was surprisingly disturbing.  Bale’s performance should be reason enough to see it.

The Raspberry Reich (Dir. Bruce LaBruce)
An extreme group of German terrorist/commies believe that everyone should realize their bisexual potential so an explosion of orgasmic energy will spread joy around the world.  Prepare to be assaulted with gay men sucking off shotguns, bursts of revolutionary propaganda and long stretches of hardcore porn.  And learn why eating meat is bad.  Don’t be embarrassed if you have a whole lot of fun.  “The revolution is my boyfriend!”

Andrew and Jeremy Get Married (Dir. Don Boyd)
Hmmm, could this be more than is seems?  It could promise to be a historical significant festival experience, with Andrew and Jeremy in attendance and crowds politically supporting gay marriage.  I just hope it moves beyond cheesy sentimentality and ‘home movie’ style footage.

Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat (Dir. Zev Asher)
There has been much controversy around this doc, which is about two Toronto “artists” who slowly peeled the skin off a cat to, uh, make a point.  To learn what they could possibly have accomplished, I guess you better watch this film.

Darwin's Nightmare (Dir. Hubert Sauper)
COOL!  “A reminder of the consequences of capitalism”  Seriously though, sounds cool.

A Hole in My Heart (Dir. Lukas Moodysson)
Moodysson has built himself quite an international reputation his previous features Fucking Amal (1998) and Lilja 4-ever (2002).  Now he allegedly “blowtorches the boundaries of subject matter” with A Hole in My Heart.  Hard-to-watch movies are usually worth watching.  It’s something about a father dabbling in amateur porn.

Anatomie de l'enfer (Dir. Catherine Breillat)
Breillat is a master at examining sexuality in a cold but honest light.  In A Ma Souer, a painfully long scene about a young teen being coerced into sex caused quite a storm at the 2001 festival and was kept out of Toronto theatres for many months.  I haven’t heard much about her new feature, but they always made an enormous impact on me.

The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess (Dir. Bruce McDonald)
Bruce McDonald everyone!  Known for his Canadian classics Highway 61 (1991),  Hard Core Logo (1996), and one of our best television series Twitch City (1998).  His new feature again stars Hugh Dillion of the Headstones with another brand of Canadian losers.  I’m curious to see his current multimedia mix.

Trauma (Dir. Marc Evans)
From the director of the excellent 2002 horror film, My Little Eye, comes a psychological horror staring Colin Firth and Mena Suvari.  A highly effective psychological twister that places you firmly inside the protagonist’s puzzling state of mind.   Evans holds back pieces of the story for so long that you may wonder why you should care at all.  But like I said, it is very effective.  So there.

For further TIFF info visit http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2004/default.asp

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