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THE FESTIVAL DAILY
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 0 5
P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E T O R O N T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L F I L M F E S T IVAL GROUP Hey, you,
get onto
my Cloud,
PAGE 4
9
DAY
L e g e n d a r y d o c u m e n t a r ian Alber t Maysles (left) with moderator Rober t Coehler at
We d n e s d a y n i g h t ’s M a vericks session at the Isabel Bader Theatre.
Photograph: Davida Nemeroff
Who you
callin’ funny?
Reitman’s
Mavericks,
PAGE 5
WWW.BELL.CA/FILMFEST
Winding
Refn’s audacious Pusher
trilogy,
PAGE 7
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 0 5
The Festival Daily
Editor-in-Chief
Nicholas Davies
[email protected]
Today’s Festival highlights
BY JON DAVIES AND SARAH BARMAK
Managing Editor
Andrew McIntosh
[email protected]
bedrooms and sports cars of Marock’s
spoiled protagonists, anything and
everything goes. JD
Manager, Print Production
Justin Stayshyn
[email protected]
A culture on
the brink of
eradication
Photo Editor
Katia Taylor
[email protected]
Assistant Editor/Senior Staff Writer
Jonathan Doyle
[email protected]
OBABA
Sept. 9, 9:45pm, Isabel Bader Theatre
Sept. 17, 9:00am, Varsity 6
Staff Writers
Sarah Barmak
[email protected]
Jon Davies
[email protected]
T
Copy Editors
Simon Osborne
[email protected]
Alison Reed
[email protected]
Image Coordinator
Tyler Clark Burke
[email protected]
Production Coordinator
Amanda Jekums
[email protected]
The House of Sand
Photographers
Haidee Malkin
Davida Nemeroff
Aristea Rizakos
Isaiah Trickey
The shifting
Sand of fate
Anything goes
in Marock
2 Carlton Street, Suite 1600
Toronto, Ontario
M5B 1J3
THE HOUSE OF SAND
Sept. 10, 3:00pm, Ryerson
Sept. 12, 6:00pm, Cumberland 2
Sept. 17, 8:45pm, Varsity 1
MAROCK
Sept. 10, 6:00pm, Cumberland 2
Sept. 12, 9:00am, Cumberland 2
Sept. 16, 6:30pm, Varsity 2
T
M
Copyright 2005 © Toronto International Film
Festival Group. All rights reserved.
Printing and distribution by Solisco
“The Festival Daily” would like to thank
Olympus for its support.
Toronto International
Film Festival Group
Information
The Toronto International Film Festival Group
consists of several divisions that educate and
entertain audiences ages four and up.
Cinematheque Ontario is a year-round screening programme that celebrates the history and
achievements of cinema.
The Film Reference Library is a collection which
documents, conserves and catalogues information
on cinema and makes it available to the public.
Film Circuit is a national film exhibition programme designed to bring films to communities
across Canada.
The Toronto International Film Festival is an annual ten-day public film festival of international
and Canadian films with an industry component.
Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival
for Children is an annual film festival programmed for families with children ages 4
to 14, designed to foster and encourage understanding of global culture through cinema.
Other programmes, including Talk Cinema,
Canada’s Top Ten and Industry Programming
and Services, bring film-related activities to the
community.
he House of Sand is the epic story
of three generations of women
forced to live in the barren sand dunes
of Brazil’s Maranhão region. In 1910,
the pregnant Aurea is dragged to
this harsh desert wasteland (with her
mother) by her violent, somewhat mad
husband, Vasco, a man determined to
make a new life for his family.
When Vasco unexpectedly dies,
Aurea begins planning for her and her
newborn daughter’s escape from this
isolated outpost. Unfortunately, her
best-laid, most desperate plans always
seem to fall through. Eventually, she
finds help and companionship in the
arms of a widower named Massu (The
Life Aquatic’s Seu Jorge), one of the
only living beings for miles around.
Director Andrucha Waddington
uses pensive long takes of the jawdroppingly empty, bone-dry landscape
to express her weathered female
characters’ feelings of deprivation and
alienation. The expressions on their
faces when they discover that a world
war is going on or that man has walked
on the moon are quite a sight. Set
against the arid plains of fallow hopes
and dreams, this is a brazenly minimalist, yet wrenching exploration of the
shifting sands of fate. JD
SPL
Sept. 16, 11:59pm, Ryerson Theatre
Sept. 17, 6:00pm, Varsity 1
A
gritty, dark thriller that classically
pits good against evil and cop
against gangster, Wilson Yip’s SPL
delivers some of the most intense
martial-arts sequences in recent years,
reaffirming Hong Kong’s complete
dominance of the genre.
Chan (the under-appreciated Simon
Yam) is a senior detective nearing
retirement who has been doggedly
trying to take down ruthless crime boss
Po (the hefty yet mobile Sammo Hung
from the classic Enter the Fat Dragon),
but is gradually losing his resolve. He
agrees to protect the daughter of a
witness murdered by Po before being
replaced as head of the serious crime
unit by the supremely skilled, ultraviolent Ma (the incredible Donnie Yen
from Hero and Blade II).
When an undercover cop is found
dead, Chan immediately blames Po
and sets out to take him down one last
time. But his desperation to put Po
behind bars puts him at odds with Ma,
who finds himself drawn into a deadly
battle.
The initials “SPL” stand for three
Chinese astrological symbols represented by Chan, Po and Ma. Individually, they stand for dangerous qualities,
but may be auspicious when aligned.
SPL is a good luck charm for Chinese
action cinema, providing a lively
antidote to Hollywood’s watered-down,
slick imitations. SB
SPL
September 16
BOX OFFICE LOCATIONS + HOURS
Year-round Box Office:
Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street W
(main floor, north entrance) Hours:
Sept. 8 to Sept. 16: 7am to 7pm; Sept. 17: 7am to 5pm
HOW TO BUY TICKETS
1. Online
Visit the Official website at www.bell.ca/filmfest to purchase tickets. Online
tickets are available for the next day’s screenings up to one hour prior to the
start of the film.
2. In person
Visit our year-round Box Office. On the day of the screening in-person tickets may also be purchased at the Theatre at which the film you wish to see
is playing (subject to availability). 3. Rush tickets
If rush tickets become available, tickets will be issued at the theatre approximately five minutes before the screening. ALL SALES ARE FINAL.
arock is a decadent portrait
of the vibrant (if bratty) youth
culture that flourished in director Laïla
Marrakchi’s hometown of Casablanca
around the time of Ramadan in 1997.
The world of these aimless, beautiful teens primarily revolves around
conspicuous consumption and wanton
pleasures: alcohol binges and BMW
racing (often combined, with disastrous consequences), partying at clubs
and having sex. Parents are virtually
absent – when adults are around at
all, they are usually the family servants
– but high school exams loom large,
the formidable gauntlet to every moneyed young Moroccan’s birthright: a
European university education.
Even more captivating than the
steamy central romance between
Muslim Rita (Morjana Alaoui) and
Jewish Youri (Matthieu Boujenah) are
the frequent, tense clashes between
the cosmopolitan city’s more pious
forces of Islam – including Rita’s newly
religious or “beardie” brother Mao
(Assaad Bouab) – and the devoutly
secular, hedonistic elements. A man
prays in an empty parking spot at a
popular make-out site where couples
can be arrested for smooching if they
are not married, while Mao (with his
“rich boy’s Islam”) faces the wrong direction during his prayers. In the clubs,
he culture of the Basque Country is
among the most fascinating in the
world. Despite the absence of known
ancestors and Franco’s genocidal attempts to destroy them, their language
survives. Inspired by what is perhaps
the most famous Basque book by the
prestigious Bernardo Atxaga, Obaba is
a spellbinding elucidation of a complex
subjective geography that Atxaga
describes as “an interior landscape…
the country of my past, a mixture of the
real and the emotional.”
In master director Montxo
Armendáriz’s self-reflexive interpretation, Lourdes (Bárbara Lennie) is a
twentysomething woman visiting the
(fictional) small Basque town of Obaba
to record its residents with her digital
camera. But Obaba is a place of pure
wonder that cannot easily be documented. Time seems to have stood still
here, and the entire town is suffused
with an air of disquiet and mystery.
Obaba is filled with strange,
unforgettable characters that appear
as if from a dream. The potentially carnivorous green lizards that infest the
town are a wonderful, multi-faceted
metaphor for the surreal, unsettling
experience of a living and breathing culture constantly on the brink of
eradication. JD
A triumph of
Hong Kong
action cinema
THIS DAY IN FESTIVAL HISTORY
HOW TO FESTIVAL
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1989 Michael Moore’s
Roger and Me wins the
John Labatt Classic Film
Award for most popular
film.
1989 Upon receiving the
Toronto-City Award for
Excellence in Canadian
Production for Roadkill,
director Bruce McDonald
announces at the awards
Bruce McDonald (centre) receives award for
best Canadian film
ceremony that he plans
to spend the $25,000 prize
money on “a big chunk of hash.” He actually uses it to help market the film in
Germany, Japan and Australia.
1995 Marleen Gorris’s Antonia’s Line wins the Air Canada People’s Choice
Award.
1995 Carl Franklin’s Devil in a Blue Dress has its world premiere as the closing
night gala.
2000 David Gordon Green’s debut feature George Washington wins the Volkswagen Discovery Award.
THE FESTIVAL DAILY P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E T O R O N T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L F I L M F E S T I VAL GROUP
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2005
Compelling and kinetic Kinetta is unique and ambitious
… though its director begs to differ
BY MICHAEL LEO
E
very director wants to make
movies in his or her own
way, but Yorgos Lanthimos
takes the claim further than most.
His film Kinetta, which he directed
and co-scripted with Yorgos
Kakanakis, is definitely unique and
defies genre categorization.
Kinetta deals with a nameless
trio of characters: a policeman who
is investigating a string of murders,
a photo-store clerk and a hotel
maid. These three play out a series
of ritualized re-enactments of the
crimes, ostensibly to help the cop
solve them. But as the pantomimes go
on, the threesome develops a personal
investment in the interaction, one
that is never discussed.
This description suggests Kinetta
might be a naughty kink-fest. But
there’s a stony calmness to it, with
little dialogue or music and no firm
conclusions. The film is, by turns,
harsh, mysterious, obscure, striking,
involving and compellingly driven.
At times it appears to be about
nothing; at other times, it addresses
numerous possibilities.
All this is just as Lanthimos
planned: he wants his movie to be
as many different things as possible.
How does one set out to make a film
like this, and why?
“It was the idea of these three
lonely people, and what tied them
together,” he says. “It was also my
discovery of this area, Kinetta.
It’s a resort area outside Athens,
very popular in the sixties and
seventies. There were many
Kinetta (inset) Yorgos Lanthimos
hotels and beach houses, and
now it’s become very decadent
and most of the hotels are empty
and not renovated. There’s a
highway at the back of these
hotels and houses now, going
to other destinations. So when
I went there, it did something to
me. I thought it would be a nice
idea to place these characters
there; it tied things together. So I
discussed it with another writer.
We worked out a 20-page script,
and it evolved from that.”
Born in 1973 in Athens,
Lanthimos had previously directed
music videos, short films and
experimental theatre. In 2000, he codirected the feature My Best Friend.
But Kinetta represents his own
approach to cinema, and though it
sounds ambitious, he begs to differ.
“It was just my way of making a
film,” he says with a smile. “It didn’t
seem ambitious. I like to develop
through an organic process, rather
than have a full 90-page script. I
like to interact with reality and
absorb things from that.
“It was interesting for me that
the characters could become close
from a thing that wasn’t personal but
became very tactile and violent and
intense, without any conventional
way
of
communicating,”
he
continues. “But I like to keep things
really simple. I don’t like to impose
feelings on the story or the audience.
I like to let the audience get in there
and have their own emotions.”
It’s tempting to wonder what
this oddball trio would do if the
murders were solved – at least, one
might assume they go unsolved,
since no resolution comes forth.
“You don’t really get the answer if
the murders are solved,” Lanthimos
notes. “Maybe they are, and the cop
just wants to re-enact them. Maybe
they would go back to old cases, or
they would create their own, or they
would find a way to do something
similar. You just assume that this
thing is still going on, so it’s probably
unsolved. But that’s really not the
point. It’s not a whodunit.”
Kinetta was shot with a handheld camera, one that wobbles and
glides and occasionally misses the
actors; again, part of the design.
Lanthimos wanted the camera
“to really interact with the actors
and improvise as they did. It was
also about letting mistakes in, and
not really being stylized about
framing, to let it be spontaneous,
not perfected in every area. Which
in the end makes it stylized.” He
laughs appreciatively at the irony
– and the challenge.
Michael Leo is a writer and
producer for television, a journalist
and broadcaster.
KINETTA
Sept. 16, 4:00pm, Varsity 4
Flaherty’s documentary legacy
BY PETER RAINER
R
obert Flaherty’s Nanook of
the North was by no means
the first documentary ever
made, but it was perhaps the first
to attempt a conscientious look at
peoples from an “exotic” culture.
I say “attempt” because, in 1922,
even someone as schooled in the
ways of the Inuit as Flaherty – who
spent years in the far reaches
of Northern Ontario working as
an explorer for the mineral and
railroad interests – could not help
but simultaneously romanticize
and patronize his subjects.
Flaherty’s great legacy was
bringing a vast humanism to the
documentary genre, but Nanook is
nevertheless a weirdly bifurcated
achievement. Images of great
dignity – such as the close ups
of Nanook’s etched, bronzed
features, as pronounced as a death
mask – clash with intertitles
proclaiming that Eskimos are
“the most cheerful people in the
world.” Since we are also told
(and certainly shown) that they
constantly battle starvation, one
wonders what there was to be
so cheerful about. In fact, the
movie’s introductory titles inform
us that Nanook died of starvation
two years after its completion.
Cheerfully, no doubt.
Flaherty fulfills his romanticized
notions of the Inuit existence
by staging scenes for maximum
photogenic effect. Nanook, for
example, is shown harpoon
hunting when harpoons were
no longer being widely used; a
seal-killing is recreated with an
already-dead seal. He imposes a
narrative on the lives of Nanook
and his family that is at times very
IN FOCUS
“Hollywood.” (The family must
make it back to their igloo before
the night freezes them, etc.) Such
incidents are jarring because they
introduce a note of melodrama
into something powerfully “real.”
But I don’t believe Flaherty should
be held to the impossibly high
standard of purity we reserve for
documentarians.
Documentary films are as prone
to the fakeries and agendas of their
creators as any other dramatic form.
It is naive to assume that they are
more “true” than all other types of
movies. Nor should they be: a great
documentarian is not some exalted
overseer recording with dispassion
the passing parade. Even the films
of Fred Wiseman, which dispense
with narration and are often highly
impressionistic, burn with a social
activist’s outrage.
One cannot be an artist and be
“objective.” A great documentary
– and despite the shortcomings
discussed above, Nanook of the
North is still one of the greatest
– is as much an emanation of
the filmmaker’s sensibility as
any dramatic film. This does
not represent a violation of the
documentary art. It is, on the
contrary, what makes it an art.
The real violation, it seems
to me, lies with all the current
documentaries that, taking off
from the techniques of Reality
TV, structure their stories into
contests: spelling bees, ballroom
dancing competitions, wheelchair
sports, etc. The current so-called
Renaissance in documentaries
owes a lot to this syndrome. Even
Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11
posits a kind of contest: see this
movie and beat Bush at the polls.
As entertaining as many of
these movies are, I would be much
more encouraged if movies like,
say, Ross McElwee’s great family
memoir Bright Leaves were causing
a stampede at the box office. But
for those of us whose love of
documentaries predates the current
craze, the commercial upsurge of the
genre is heartening because it allows
for the possibility that an artist with
something new to show us will
not have his work relegated to the
backwaters of cable television or
– dare I say it – the festival circuit.
Peter Rainer is a correspondent for
National Public Radio (NPR) in the
United States. He was a finalist for
the Pulitzer Prize in criticism in
1998.
People’s Choice Awards
The Toronto International Film Festival is known worldwide as the Festival of International
Discoveries. Films that screen at our Festival often go on to garner great critical acclaim and
win prestigious awards around the globe. We like to think that we have a knack for finding the
most promising films from both new and established filmmakers, and we take great care to find
an ideal balance between our Canadian and international content. The Toronto International Film
Festival is also widely considered to be the launch pad for awards-season hopefuls, and getting
a good reception at our Festival often translates into good buzz going into competition.
As a way of keeping our audiences involved in deciding which films deserve special attention,
every year we hold our own People’s Choice Awards. Last year’s People’s Choice Award. winner, Hotel Rwanda, went on to garner three Academy Award nominations, and the 2003 winner,
Takeshi Kitano’s Zatoichi, was released to great critical acclaim.
Everyone can vote for the People’s Choice Award. Ballots will be handed out at the end of every
feature length film screening. Volunteers will be available to collect the ballots, and on September 17, the People’s Choice Award winner will be announced. So take a ballot and have your say
in determining this important prize. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 0 5
P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E T O R O N T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L F I L M F E S T IVAL GROUP THE FESTIVAL DAILY
Fare thee well, Susan, Liz and Gab
T
his year’s Festival will be the last for three long-time, muchadmired TIFFG staff members.
Susan Oxtoby, Director of Programming for Cinematheque
Ontario, has been with the Group since 1993 and is leaving for a position
with the Pacific Film Archives in San Francisco. Canadian Programmer
Liz Czach is departing following her eleventh Festival to concentrate
on her teaching and academic pursuits. Gabrielle Free, Director of
Communications, is leaving after ten years with the Group to manage
communications for women’s issues at the Ministry of Citizenship and
Immigration.
Some of our staff, as well as a few close friends, took a moment to
share their thoughts and memories.
GABRIELLE
FREE
Director,
Communications
SUSAN OXTOBY
Director of Programming,
Cinematheque Ontario
“Cinematheque Ontario owes Susan a deep debt of gratitude for her inspired programming of experimental
cinema, her impeccable standards of technical presentation and her uncompromising belief in film as an art form.
Aside from her lovely, tender care of Warren Sonbert on his last visit to the Cinematheque and our passionate
talks and debates about films, my warmest memory of Susan will be her introducing me to the films of Peter
Hutton and Nathaniel Dorsky – which I loved. As certain aspects of film culture vanish, that kind of discussion
becomes ever more precious, and I shall miss our talks immensely.”
– James Quandt, Senior Programmer, Cinematheque Ontario
“Susan has two virtues no good programmer can do without: curiosity and diligence. She quietly worked her
ass off digging into the corners of world cinema. She flew the flag of formalism. And she helped me make peace
with the church of Stan Brakhage.”
– Cameron Bailey, Programmer
“Gaby’s special and unique abilities became apparent to me in 1995
around the launch of Sprockets. Her personal, dedicated commitment and
obvious passion for this new direction the Group was taking was inspirational
to me. As the person responsible for the Group’s marketing initiatives at the
time, I was honoured to be able to work side-by-side with someone whose
whole attitude was ‘Never say never.’ The trepidation I might have felt in
launching something so unfamiliar was completely eradicated by Gaby’s ‘if
we build it, they will come’ confidence.
“Gab is a woman of true character, who applies unbound energies to that
which she believes in.”
– Lori Willcox, Senior Director, Development and Marketing
“Gab is a powerhouse who does not suffer fools gladly, yet will back
you up any day, anytime. She’s intimidating, endearing, charming and
uncompromising. Her generosity is astounding, and her influence farreaching. She is the first to congratulate you on any personal success and
sing your praises. She will also take over planning your vacation whether
you like it or not, and she will force you to lip-synch into a broken lamp to
the Bee Gees during staff retreats. I learned the most from her during our
one-on-one power meetings. I will always be immensely grateful to her for
everything she has taught me.”
– Naoko Kumagai, Senior Coordinator, Communications
“I’m sure that the Immigration Service will benefit mightily from Gab’s
expertise and equipoise. But for those of us who emigrate to this country
for just 10 days a year, Gab is our first and favorite Face of Canada. The
Festival’s reputation as the world’s friendliest, most efficient film festival
is due in no small measure to the Gabster’s resourcefulness, good humor
and patience with that lowest form of plant life, the entertainment press.
Her departure leaves a big hole in the heart of this festival, town and
industry. Without her, Toronto will still be a terrific place to see movies,
but it will no longer be... Free. I almost forgot to mention: she’s also a babe.”
– Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine
“I love Gab: for leaping into the roll of Press Office Asst. Director in 1996
and making it her own; for championing the smallest films and filmmakers
and shining the international media light on them; for putting together the
best damn media relations office of any festival in the world; for pulling an
all nighter with me as my son was born 2 hours before the Awards Brunch in
1997 and still managing to get her job done; for her home-cooked meal each
year in Cannes for a small group of 150; for her dedication to the international
media and servicing them better than anyone ever could imagine; for being
my friend.”
“Cinematheque Ontario is considered the leading institution of its kind in North America. With great
resolution, Susan spread the word about what the division was doing and provided a safe home for forwardlooking curation. While I was distributing films in New York I heard first-hand the awe with which Cinematheque’s
programme was received at MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Centre, among so many other institutions.”
– Noah Cowan, Festival Co-Director
“Try as I may, I could scarcely walk pass Susan’s office without her calling out to me. Nine times out of
ten, it was an invitation to listen as she enthusiastically sounded out her programming strategy. She would
systematically go over the pros and cons, all the while slipping in a typically astute observation (and prophecy!).
Her knowledge and passion for the avant-garde is unmatched. I will miss those impromptu, unconventional and
inspiring lessons – and those shout-outs from her office!”
– Andréa Picard, Researcher, Cinematheque Ontario
LIZ CZACH
Programmer,
Canadian Feature Films
“Liz kept the Canadian programming smart and grounded. Coming from the underground film world, she
fought for personal filmmaking and for all the scuzzy, weird, non-generic movies that make Canadian cinema
great. She also paired her programming with her ongoing Ph.D work, which meant she could deconstruct when
she had to. Impressive.”
– Cameron Bailey, Programmer
“Liz has been a powerful advocate for Canadian women in the arts. From her position on the selection
committee, she has brought to light and championed many of our most significant women artists. She has been
a real trailblazer and her legacy is unquestioned.”
– Noah Cowan, Festival Co-Director
“Liz Czach is an extremely generous and empowering person to work with. She created a familial work
environment in the Perspective Canada department, based on trust, respect and an unabashed love for Canadian
cinema. Liz always made me feel I had something to contribute and provided me with ample room to learn from
my mistakes. Liz has been a true mentor to me and her knowledge, experience and tireless support of Canadian
film and filmmakers has inspired passion and commitment in many people in this organization.”
– Angie Driscoll, Short Cuts Canada Programmer
– Michèle Maheux, Managing Director
“Gabrielle Free is the best facilitator the Festival could ever have. She
makes everything happen. She helped me track down Piers Handling at a
bed-and-breakfast in England. She helped me interrupt Noah Cowan’s dinner
on the other side of the world. She smoothed over countless journalistic
hissy fits. She was a tireless promoter of the Festival. I don’t think I ever
heard a word of complaint from her. She’ll be missed.”
– Peter Howell, The Toronto Star
“Gab was always my go-to person: for advice (“what should I say/do/
expect/wear/buy?”); for toothpaste; for help, support and good grammar. She
slaved away to help get the Group the attention it so richly deserves, but
never forgot about giving her friends what they all needed: a piece of her (and
sometimes a piece of her mind). She’s the only person who’s ever called me a
honky-tonk man. And she made me believe it. She’ll be sorely missed.”
– Nicholas Davies, Director, Publications and Print Production
“Liz is a pleasure to disagree with! She’s sharp, opinionated, respectful and unwavering. She will listen with
patience and intelligently process your opinion but be quick as lightening to retort – amicably. I will miss our
mini hallway ‘débats.’” – Andréa Picard, Researcher, Cinematheque
“Liz’s dedication to Canadian cinema has been unparalleled and she helped broaden the nature of the
programme immeasurably. She has never been afraid to make tough calls. During her tenure here, she has dealt
with everyone from the most powerful people in the industry to utter neophytes, treating all with grace and
equanimity.
“Liz has been instrumental in furthering the careers of countless Canadian filmmakers and championed some
of our finest, including Catherine Martin, Velcrow Ripper, Bruce LaBruce, Gary Burns, John Greyson, Bernard
Émond, André Turpin, Mike Hoolboom, Manon Briand, Robert Lepage, Guy Maddin and Léa Pool.
“Discussing films with Liz has always been an exhilarating experience. She looks at films with a keen eye
and brings a vast amount of historical knowledge and an insatiable curiosity, referencing everything from Maya
Deren to Angelina Jolie.
“Few have given so unsparingly to the promotion and cultivation of our cinema, for which the Festival
owes Liz an enormous debt.” – Piers Handling, Festival Director and CEO
THE FESTIVAL DAILY FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2005
P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E T O R O N T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L F I L M F E S T I VAL GROUP BY KATE LAWRIE
A
ny organization inevitably develops
a lexicon of esoteric jargon, but
Festival-speak is especially opaque:
our daunting internal vocabulary is infamous
for such mouthfuls as “You’ll have to talk to
FOHA,” or “What’s the ETA for the film at the
AGO? I’ve got NC for the intro and HL for the
Q & A.” This can inspire blank stares – even from
co-workers. My job during this year’s Festival
presents yet more perplexing patois for the
outside world to wonder after: for two weeks
now, I have been Piers Handling’s shadow.
The whole “shadow” concept was a bit
unclear – a bit mysterious – when I first heard
the phrase used by the Prog Admin (that’s
Programme Administration, for those keeping score at home) department in 2001. It had
an aura of intrigue. Did the Shadow wear a
cape? Crusade for cinema justice? Bust up
fights over seats?
I think that’s the image it inspires in a lot
of people. When I met with the Quay Brothers
before introducing The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes last Friday evening, for instance, the
idea tickled Timothy Quay. “I’m Kate Lawrie,”
I said, adding, “Piers Handling’s shadow.” The
tall, bright-eyed filmmaker seemed shocked,
responding “You’re the wot?” in his lovely
Pennsylvania-cum-British accent. I sheepishly
explained that this was, in Festival parlance,
the unofficial title for the team members who
support the Festival’s head programmers Piers,
Noah Cowan and Michèle Maheux, liaising
with the directors they invite to the Festival
and zipping between cinemas to introduce the
filmmakers before the movie and moderate
question-and-answer periods afterwards.
Piers has selected over thirty films for the
Festival, and that’s not even counting the
galas. Each has two, if not three, public
screenings and, unless the filmmaker is
unable to attend, that pushes the number of
intros and Q & As into triple digits (!). Needless to say, the director and CEO of the Festival
cannot be everywhere at once, especially
during our 10 busiest days of the year, so his
shadow takes some of these appearances off
his plate.
This was the explanation I offered Timothy
Quay amid the neon glow and popcorn
aroma outside cinema 3 at the Paramount. Still,
he seemed beguiled by my alias and quickly
drew his twin into the discussion: “Stephen,
she’s the shadow… isn’t that mahvelous?”
In truth, it is a fantastic job, long days and
blisters aside. It doesn’t just come with a
thrilling name, but an elaborate set of tools
(sans utility belt, sadly). I wield a purse big
enough to carry all the usual necessities
alongside a cell-phone charger, “meals” that
look suspiciously like protein bars, bandaids,
slippery elm lozenges (to fend off Festival
laryngitis) and a binder holding information
about films, publicists, screening times,
dinner details and both Piers’s and my
micromanaged schedules.
One typical day’s spreadsheet itinerary
has me pinballing around Festival village
between the hours of 9:00am and midnight
as follows: the Varsity cinemas, the Prog
Admin office, the Cumberland, the Varsity,
the Cumberland, the Paramount (for three assignments!), the office, the ROM, the Cumberland, the Ryerson, a filmmaker dinner hosted
by Piers, Michèle and Noah, the Paramount,
and finally back to the dinner just in time for
dessert. And at every stop, I have to be collected enough to get the names right. Crazy,
PHOTO BY ISAIAH TRICKEY
Only the shadow knows
Kate Lawrie (left) and Piers Handling
sure – but Piers’s schedule is even more frenetic, and the opportunity to meet with so
many acclaimed filmmakers makes it more
than worthwhile.
Though the term “shadow” may evoke
espionage, glamour or some variant on that
crooner classic – you know, “me and my
shadow go strolling down the avenue” – the
reality is pretty different. In fact, the assignment is really to be where one’s programmer
cannot; I even feel a minor panic whenever
Piers and I find ourselves at the same venue.
After all, when he is giving an interview at
the Sutton, I am supposed to be introducing a
film at the AGO. When he is en route from a
gala to the Elgin, I should probably be diplomatically marshalling a director who doesn’t
see the need for a microphone in a theatre
full of people. So shadows must evade being
seen anywhere with our programmers. But
really, sprinting across Bloor Street in heels
to make a tight turn-around from one Q &
A to another is best done alone – under the
cover of darkness...
Kate Lawrie is completing her doctorate in
Critical Studies in the Film, Television and
Digital Media department at UCLA. She may
be a mysterious masked heroine, but her feet
are really, really killing her.
Look at Cloud from both sides, now
Tsai Ming-liang’s latest film changes the world
The Wayward Cloud
BY SHELLY KRAICER
T
sai Ming-liang is one of the very few
filmmakers working today whose
films can change our world. This is
not mere hyperbole: Tsai’s body of work,
from Rebels of the Neon God to his new The
Wayward Cloud, has refashioned interior
landscapes, remapped the psychic topography
of film narrative and redefined our post-urban
existential condition – and done so with formal
daring and a relentlessly radical outlook.
Of Chinese-Malaysian background, Tsai
settled in Taipei to write screenplays and direct
television dramas. He then began filming a series
of deceptively slow-paced, virtually dialoguefree films set in the rain-drenched, eerily
depopulated urban wilderness of Taipei. The
films feature a remarkably consistent “family”
of actors led by Tsai’s muse, Lee Kang-sheng.
In the world that Tsai’s films unveil, individ-
uals are constantly thirsty: for contact, for love.
An anguished despair rooted in solitude simultaneously fuels and tortures his characters,
who take solace in fetishistic consumption and
obsessive, solitary, ritualized activities (sexual
and otherwise). Each of his films depicts
acutely sensitive and honest characters whose
responses are completely unencumbered by
artifice or dissimulation. They face an unresolvable predicament: the only needs that can
sustain their existence – love, intimacy, family
– are precisely what is inaccessible to them.
In Tsai’s What Time Is It There?, Lee Kangsheng and the great young Taiwanese actress
Chen Shiang-chyi embody two archetypically
yearning figures, each in his or her own prison
of solitude. Her act of buying a watch from him
triggers a mutually obsessive connection verging
on insanity – or is it love? But when she leaves,
he reverts to a pure state of anomie, where
fantasy (i.e. madness) is the only way out.
The Wayward Cloud continues with the
characters of What Time Is It There? while
changing their circumstances greatly. Shiangchyi is back in Taipei, and Hsaio-kang (Lee) has
given up sales for a career as a porn actor. There
are certainly audiences who won’t be willing to
tolerate Tsai’s matter-of-fact direction of these
brutally affectless making-of porn scenes, but
they are counterbalanced – in an oddly charming
way – by several elaborate musical production
numbers, capped by a hilariously erotic homage
to a rather unresponsive statue of Taiwan’s
founder, Chiang Kai-shek.
Tsai’s films often feature urban plagues that
serve as metaphors for profoundly disturbed social states. In The Wayward Cloud, Taipei is in the
grip of a water shortage which forces everyone to
drink the only liquid plentifully available – watermelon juice. Shiang-chyi and Hsiao-kang meet
and, with a kind of transcendental grace, they
connect. The film is a celebration of this small
miracle: human connection is possible after all.
But it is a celebration laced with satire and
revulsion; connections are always constructed
in relays – through third parties, fetishes,
permeable watermelons, even the bodies of
others. If Hsiao-kang and Shiang-chyi have
indeed found a bridge to intimacy, it’s a
bridge built of the most appalling materials.
Pornography becomes the keystone to an
ending that is one of the most shocking – and
profoundly moving – in recent cinema.
A film that is at once provocation and
consolation, The Wayward Cloud offers both
radical diagnosis and prescription. The film
offers a gift, and dares its audience to accept it.
Based in Toronto and Beijing, Shelly Kraicer
is the editor of the Chinese Cinema Digest.
Entre la mer et l’eau douce
Drifting toward
a classic
ENTRE LA MER ET L’EAU DOUCE
Sept 16, 4:45pm, ROM
Sept 17, 3:45pm, Varsity 2
CANADIAN HIGHLIGHT
W
idely regarded as Michel Brault’s most poetic
and richly complex feature, Entre la mer et
l’eau douce (which translates as Drifting Upstream)
is a daring marriage of direct cinema and fiction filmmaking. Brault strikes a perfect balance between
scripted and improvised situations, professional
and amateur performances, reality and myth.
Claude Tremblay (Paul Gauthier) leaves his small
town for Montreal, where he falls in love with a waitress, Geneviève (Geneviève Bujold). Tremblay enters
a singing contest that launches his career, but as he
becomes more famous, he and his lover drift apart.
Evocative and engaging, Entre la mer et l’eau
douce is as seminal a work in Quebec as Goin’
Down the Road is in English Canada. The film’s
themes — the city as a place of material success
but emotional loss, nostalgia for a forfeited
harmony with nature, and the impossibility of
regaining lost innocence — are forcefully
articulated in this consummately Canadian work.
(This review can be found online at
www.canadianfilmencyclopedia.ca)
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1 6 , 2 0 0 5
THE FESTIVAL DAILY
P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E T O R O N T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L F I L M F E S TIVAL GROUP The maternal side of Miou-Miou and Moreau
BY JON DAVIES
T
he vitality and versatility of French
cinema is embodied by the sheer range
achieved by Jeanne Moreau and MiouMiou. Both appear in films at this year’s Festival as maternal figures with extremely intense
relationships with their young descendants.
Moreau plays the warm, plain-spoken
grandmother of Romain (Melvil Poupaud), the
selfish and casually cruel young protagonist of
François Ozon’s Le Temps qui reste. Fashion
photographer Romain discovers that he has
fully metastasized cancer and has only a few
months to live. Choosing not to undergo treatment, he refuses to share the news with any of
his loved ones (except his beloved grandmother) and clashes with them repeatedly as he realizes he is no longer bound by responsibilities and rules – including those of etiquette.
The primary theme emerges as Romain
– who is gay – grapples with his own mortality, which is manifested through his sudden
and consuming realization that perhaps he
does want to have children after all. In his
mid-twenties, he never thought it desirable
or possible, but he is haunted by memories of
his own childhood. When he receives an unexpected offer of no-strings paternity, Romain
decides it is important for him to procreate.
Poupaud manages to turn an unsympathetic, selfish, careerist jerk into an intriguing, layered character without succumbing to
any clichés. The moments between Poupaud
and Moreau are superb in this regard, totally
believable and unexpected; the older woman
– her face weathered by a worldly life – loves
her grandson openly and purely; their bond
is clearly an intimate one and we see them
compare medications and share jokes with
brutal honesty. The decisions both life-altering and minuscule that Romain makes when
Le Temps qui reste
he is feed of social obligation are presented
matter-of-factly and without judgment or
lofty explanations.
This is a credit to the talents of Ozon, one of
the finest, most prolific and eccentric French
directors working today. Equally adept at
comedy and drama – which are consistently
surprising and fanciful, with a pronounced
dark streak – he has maintained a singular
cinematic focus that combines intense scrutiny with deference, intimacy with detach-
ment. His characters are often observed in
close-up, but one never gets the sense that
they exist only for Ozon’s camera. They behave unexpectedly and are filmed the same
way whether their behaviour is mundane
or perverse and irrational, creating a subtly
political, unique voice in queer cinema and
world cinema in general.
In Anne Villacèque’s second feature, Riviera, Miou-Miou gives a fascinating performance as the tightly-wound, sexually re-
pressed mother whose skewed fixation on her
daughter’s exploits is the kind of constricting
family scenario that Ozon’s Romain could
imagine only in his worst nightmares.
Antoinette is a middle-aged single mother
and maid at the Grand Hotel on the French
Riviera. While she is rarely present in the
same frame as her beautiful daughter Stella
(Vahina Giocante), for whom she is bursting
with pride, they have a disturbingly strong
relationship. Antoinette is excruciating
lonely and prone to panic attacks; she lives
for and through her daughter, experiencing
pleasures of the flesh vicariously through her
only child, even procuring men for Stella,
whom she considers beyond perfection.
One of the men she baits is Jean-Michel
(Elie Semoun), a middle-aged, not very
attractive – but very rich – hotel guest with
“sad eyes.” When the budding relationship
between Stella and Jean-Michel takes a
dangerous turn, Mummy is there to step
in for her precious progeny, by whatever
means necessary.
Riviera is languidly paced, filled with
silences where the camera lingers on telling
details: a striptease, a housecleaning ritual, a
car ride. The bodies of Antoinette and Stella
— their clothes and the spaces they inhabit
— are constantly contrasted, but Antoinette
desperately needs her daughter and the
youthful exuberance, decadence and sensuality that she represents. Villacèque’s gaze is
penetrating and observational but also quite
willing to bravely dip into the grotesque
and shocking.
LE TEMPS QUI RESTE
Sept. 17, 9:30am, Isabel Bader Theatre
RIVIERA
Sept. 17, 9:15am, Varsity 4
UNDER THE INFLUENCE: A tantalizing alliance of
Canadian comic talent
Dionysius Zervos
BY ANDREA JANES
Which film first ignited your love of cinema?
I
van Reitman’s early collaborations are the
stuff of legend. The populist and cult figure
is renowned for working with the SCTV crew
and exposing the world to the mythic comedic
talents of Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Dan Aykroyd
and others. His latest venture takes on the underground hit “Trailer Park Boys,” whose stars are
Theo Angelopoulos’s Landscape in the
Mist really affected me: the children’s search
for the father who abandoned them, their
isolation from the world and their love for
each other. They flee to the border to join
him sneaking into trains, hitchhiking in vans
and suffering poverty, rape and exploitation.
They make a dangerous leap of faith. It’s a
shattering film.
Which films have made the strongest impression on you and influenced you the most?
Which filmmaker has influenced you most?
Bresson. He was searching for the truth
in society.
Do you find particular inspiration in a certain
era, genre or national cinema?
In school we studied the great directors
of the ‘60s and ‘70s: Fellini, Bergman, Godard, Truffaut, Tarkovsky, Bresson, Buñuel,
Wenders, Fassbinder and Pasolini.
How did your environment when you were
growing up influence you as an artist?
My first impression of film was an illuminated X-ray at my father’s radiologist office. I
was 7 years-old I think and I studied the Xray and wondered, “Is this the soul?” What
is inside the human being? I would like to
know. How can I film it? And my mother was
an artist. I studied the large, opened books
left on the kitchen table containing artwork.
Where did you go to film school, and was your
experience there a valuable one?
I went to school at UCLA, but I started
The Shore
filming commercials my junior year and
was never able to graduate. I think practical
experience helped me prepare for life as a
filmmaker. The academic experience helped
me think of theory and the possibilities
of cinema.
Has filmmaking changed your perspective as
a filmgoer?
I want to know more than what’s on the
screen. So I study the film and examine what
the filmmaker is searching for.
What films or filmmakers have influenced your
current film the most?
Knife in the Water, Landscape in the Mist,
Red, White and Blue.
What is your favourite film moment?
The two children running into a mist
towards a tree in Landscape in the Mist. In a
chaotic world, they search for God.
THE SHORE
Sept. 16, 6:30pm, Cumberland 4
PHOTO BY ISAIAH TRICKEY
Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar,
Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up, Roman
Polanski’s Knife in the Water, Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Red, White and Blue.
Ivan Reitman
arguably icons in their own right, as he produces
their highly anticipated feature film.
At Tuesday night’s Mavericks session, Reitman
recalled the rough-and-tumble glory days of
Canadian cinema in the early seventies and
acknowledged the talents of his collaborators.
Later, the comedy powerhouse was joined on
stage by “Trailer Park” helmer Mike Clattenburg
– with Ricky, Julian and Bubbles in tow.
The mood was decidedly different from previous
Trailer Park Boys appearances, such as this
winter’s live appearance at the Bloor Theatre,
where a rowdy crowd was most vocal in their
appreciation of the Boys. What emerged amid
Reitman’s film clips and Clattenburg’s sneak preview
was not so much the near-riotous joy unleashed
at this winter’s outing, but more a glimpse at the
astonishing talent and genuine rapport shared by
these two filmmakers.
Both directors share a love of the low-budget
aesthetic, both engage in symbiotic collaboration
with crews of gifted actors and both share an
almost Zen approach to comedy that works on a
bizarre combination of camp and deadpan subtlety. First-time viewings often evoke the strange
feeling of not knowing at first whether their work
is “funny,” followed by a resounding affirmation
that it is, indeed, hilarious.
Clips from the upcoming movie were few, but
tantalizing. The film promises to be more than just
an extended episode. With character revelations
and the luxury of more screen time, Clattenberg
predicts that the film’s style may diverge from the
vérité format of the show. Cameos from Canadian
idols such as The Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie and
Rush’s Alex Lifeson bode well for what promises
to be an iconic Canadian comedy. We would
expect nothing less from the pairing of these two
outsized talents.
THE FESTIVAL DAILY P U B L I S H E D B Y T H E T O R O N T O I N T E R N AT I O N A L F I L M F E S T I VAL GROUP Pusher under pressure
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2005
VOLUNTEER SPOTLIGHT:
JOYCE GONG
BY ERIK SPAANS
I
’m the Angel of Death – Pusher
III, the hotly awaited third act
in a trilogy set in Copenhagen’s
drug underworld, not only provides
its army of cult fans a chilling,
somewhat melancholy finale to the
twisted lives of Frank, Tonny and
Milo, it confirms Nicolas Winding
Refn, the series’ 34-year-old Danish
director, as one of the most audacious filmmakers working in Europe
today. In a recent interview, Refn
provided a characteristically terse
definition of his films’ unifying
theme: “It’s not about drugs, it’s about
pressure. People under pressure.
That’s my definition of what makes
great drama.”
The Pusher saga begins with Frank,
a small-time drug dealer who loses
both the money and merchandise
in a heroin deal gone wrong, leaving him deeply in debt to affable but
ruthless Balkan drug baron Milo. As
events turn from bad to worse, Frank
suspects his crazed sidekick and best
friend Tonny has betrayed him, and
the resulting violence leaves Frank
behind the eight ball. In a closing
shot that became a trademark of the
series, Frank is frozen in his tracks
on an empty street, with nowhere to
run and nowhere to hide.
Released in 1996 and shot in
chronological sequence by the then
24-year-old, American-educated Refn
(something of a gambler himself,
Refn bailed on film school in order
to shoot the film), Pusher, with its
driving, wall-to-wall rock score and
abundant plot twists, became an
instant hit.
Eight years later, Refn picks
up the story in With Blood on My
Hands – Pusher II, focusing on
Tonny, who is released from prison
only to learn that his sluttish wife
has given birth to his child and that
his father, a vicious gangster, views
him as a loser. As Tonny struggles to
earn his father’s respect, his growing humiliation and immersion in a
world based on revenge and reprisal leads to one of the most morally
repugnant deeds in the series and
sets the stage for another of Refn’s
open-ended final shots.
With “RESPECT” tattooed on the
back of his shaved head, Tonny is
the trilogy’s most vulnerable and
psychologically damaged character.
Mads Mikkelson (Adam’s Apples,
Open Hearts) established himself
as the greatest Danish actor of his
generation in the role.
The empathy Refn has for Tonny
extends to the less likely character
of Milo, who moves to centre stage
in I’m the Angel of Death – Pusher
III. Condensing Pusher’s action
from a week to one 24-hour period,
the third film follows Milo as he
attends his AA meeting (he is trying
to kick heroin), makes food for
his daughter’s 25th birthday party
and disposes of the corpses of two
PROGRAMMER PROFILE
Steve Gravestock
PHOTO BY DAVIDA NEMEROFF
Searing, audacious trilogy of Danish drug thrillers
I
I’m The Angel of Death — Pusher III
Polish pimps he bludgeoned to
death in a moment of blind rage.
With its searing violence, black
humour, kinetic editing and long,
hand-held camera movements, Pusher
III shares a common cinematic language with its predecessors but the
tone is distinctly darker; now, suspense has turned to dread. Milo, a
drug addict who can’t tell Ecstacy
from candy drops, is a dinosaur
relying on an outdated code of “honour
among thieves” while trying to
function in a new world of gangstas
and immigrants. Following a night
of methodical bloodletting, Milo’s
blank stare into an empty swimming
pool is the coldest “morning after”
moment Refn could have envisioned
for a series that started on such a high.
Among the most striking aspects
of the Pusher trilogy is the ethni-
cally-mixed landscape of the new
Europe. “Most of my actors are nonprofessionals and many of them are
not Danish,” says Refn. “A large
part of Scandinavia is not so good
at handling globalization and immigration but it is a fact of life now and
I wanted to get it into my film. And
after all, my film is a genre movie:
money is what binds all these characters together. What could be more
global than money?”
Ian Birnie is the director of the
Film Department of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and a
programme consultant to European
Film Promotion (EFP) and the Bangkok International Film Festival.
PUSHER Trilogy
Sept. 16, 6:00pm, Varsity 1 and 6
A haunting study of
childhood
“Don Owen: Notes on a Filmmaker
and His Culture” was recently
published by TIFFG and Indiana
University Press.
How long have you been programming
for the Festival?
Since 1997.
What film first ignited your love of
cinema?
PHOTO BY ISAIAH TRICKEY
Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs.
Steve Gravestock
Once serving as arts editor for “The
Varsity” (the University of Toronto
newspaper), Steve Gravestock is now
the Associate Director of Canadian
Special Projects at the Toronto
International Film Festival Group.
He has written extensively on
Canadian and international cinema
for numerous publications – including
“The Toronto Star,” “POV,” “Venue”
and “Now” – and he is currently
a contributor to “Cinemascope,”
“Festival” and “Take One.” His book
How many films, on average, do you
watch while programming for the
Festival?
Mother of Mine
350.
s one of the many children transferred from Finland to neutral
Sweden for protection during World
War II, nine-year-old Eero is wrenched
from his mother and placed on a train
amid masses of children with tags
around their necks and sealed letters
containing a phrase book and a letter
of introduction from the Children’s Aid
Society. His troubles are compounded
when he meets his adoptive Swedish
family and receives a bewilderingly
cold reception from Signe, his new
“mother.” Feeling like an utterly isolated misfit, Eero sinks into loneliness
and despair, and lashes out at the
terse, icy Signe.
Eventually, Signe’s hard shell begins
to crack, only to reveal layers of guilt,
secrets and deep regrets. Signe and
Eero make slow and tentative progress,
and each begins to open up to the pos-
What is your favourite Festival
memory?
Vincent Gallo singing “Happy
Birthday” to me.
Strangest Festival memory?
Drinking quarter pints with JeanLuc Godard at the Sheraton Centre.
I was too starstruck to speak to him.
What are your five desert island films,
the ones you watch over and over
and that bring you the most comfort?
Nashville, Outrageous!, Phantom
of the Paradise, I Know Where
I’m Going!, La Passion de Jeanne
d’Arc… and La Baie des anges and
Bull Durham.
What are your three all-time guiltiest
pleasures (films, that is)?
Times Square, Big Trouble in Little
China, SpaceCamp.
BY ANDREA JANES
A
sibilities of love. Signe soon becomes
protective of Eero, shielding him from
his mother’s disturbing letters. When
the time comes for Eero to return to
Finland, Signe can hardly bear it. After
a second shattering, emotional parting, it will take Eero years to learn the
truth about these two women, and the
true extent of their love for him.
Klaus Härö’s Mother of Mine is a
haunting study of childhood abandonment. Told in flashback and bookended
by a harrowing voice-over – a plaintive
“Do you remember, mother, what it
was like?” is shiver-inducing – Mother
of Mine evokes the deepest anxiety of
a child and ultimately delivers his longawaited redemption.
Andrea Janes is a freelance writer
based in New York City.
MOTHER OF MINE
Sept. 16, 4:30pm, Cumberland 2
n March, Joyce Gong made the
trip from Australia to Canada for
a working holiday. Little did she
know that her travels would lead to
a volunteer position at the Festival.
Currently splitting her time between
several Festival theatres, Gong appreciates the international flavour
of the volunteer staff. “It’s great
just working there with everyone
and meeting people from other
countries,” she explains. “I’ve met
people from the Philippines, France
and Germany. It’s great.”
Another part of Gong’s volunteer
fun has been the opportunity to see
a broad selection of films. “I liked
Water and Be With Me,” she says.
Before heading home in November, Gong hopes to travel around
Canada, the United States and
Europe. But for now, she’s savouring
the Festival experience. “I’m having
so much fun,” Gong says giddily.
“I’m making everyone jealous in
Australia.” JD
Festival
Daily
quiz
An important part of the Toronto
International Film Festival Group,
Cinematheque Ontario is dedicated to presenting the history
of cinema through curated
retrospectives, dynamic lecture
series, exclusive limited runs
and international programmes.
Located at Jackman Hall
at the Art Gallery of Ontario,
Cinematheque Ontario has long
been a celebrated institution in the
Toronto cultural scene. Highlights of the Fall season include a
retrospective on Japanese director
Mikio Naruse and on British silent
cinema, and a spotlight on the
exquisite French actress Isabelle
Huppert. For details and membership information, call 416-968-FILM
or visit www.bell.ca/cinematheque.
If you want to be entered into a
draw for a FREE pass to one of our
films, participate in our Festival
Daily Quiz by answering the following question:
Name the start and end
dates of the upcoming
Fall season of
Cinematheque Ontario.
Please email your answer to
[email protected] and
visit www.bell.ca/filmfest for
the answer.