Tuesday, September 13, 2011

A Great TIFF Day

So, I'm a little too bagged to blog properly... I will get caught up and talk about this year's films properly, but I did have a really great day today. It was a five ticket day. I can't say five film day, because one of them was a "Maverick" talk, not a film, but we did see a film clip as part of it...

My day started with Rampart, starring Woody Harrelson. I will post more about this film... Overall: great performances, interesting, too long. At least that's what I think was "wrong" with it for me.

Then I went to a talk between Indian-born, Canadian filmmaker, Deepa Mehta and Salman Rushdie. She is currently making a movie of his book Midnight's Children that will be out in October 2012. It was a pretty cool talk. I haven't read the book, but the talk made me really want to see the movie and tackle the book, too. Sounds like my cup of tea... No pun intended. Seriously. I did not intend that almost pun.

Then I saw a screening of Anonymous. Very good. I think I'll see this movie again when it comes out (soon). I was distracted by very annoying people sitting next to me who when they weren't talking to each other, one or the other of them had their phone out. That kind of behaviour is rare at TIFF and I wanted to kill them. But LOVED the film's theory on Shakespeare. Loved it.

Then came Pariah, which I understand was one of the darlings of Sundance last winter. And often those films don't do as well with a "real" audience vs. the industry audience at Sundance, but I loved it. I'll talk about this one later, too... But I was riveted. Touching coming of age story at its core. Stunning performance by the lead.

Then my last film of the day was Martha Marcy May Marlene. VERY interesting and tense. Loved it. Again, a stunning performance by the young lead (who happens to have very famous older twin sisters... named Olsen...) A non-hollywood ending that will make some people crazy (a few people swore aloud) and had me sitting stunned through the credits while the theatre cleared out. I have a new theory about the ending... Now can't wait for someone else to see it so I can discuss. :)

Sorry for the very vague references and incomplete reviews. I promise I will talk more about these films and post some pictures as soon as I get some sleep!

2 comments:

Alli Sinclair said...

Oooh Midnight's Children the movie? I never knew it was planned. Hmmmm.... It took me three goes to finally finish the book and it was well and truly worth it in the end. I'm not one to perservere so much with a book, but something told me to keep at it. I highly recommend you do the same. :-)

Maureen McGowan said...

I actually just bought it for my kindle. During the talk, Deepa Mehta admitted to Rushdie that it took her a few tries to actually get through the book, too... But it sounds pretty awesome. I think the movie will be great, anyway. It was interesting to hear Rushdie talk about adapting it. He thought the 30 years of distance (from writing it) were very helpful because he could find the throughline more easily and cut mercilessly. Originally they were thinking of breaking it into two films, but couldn't get financial backing...

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