Toronto Film Festival 2011
onetet
1,754 Posts
Here's the annual thread about one of the world's best film festivals, taking place September 8-18. The bulk of this year's line-up has been announced.
Off the top, already on board for this year's edition are new films from Werner Herzog, Lynne Ramsay, David Cronenberg, Frederick Wiseman, Kim Ki-Duk, Jafar Panahi, Lars von Trier (Melancholia, natch), Steve McQueen, Andrea Arnold... and, of course, hundreds of others, with their usually-juicy "Masters" and "Discovery" sections still to be announced. There's also, well, the Kilmer-starring Poe/vampire movie from Francis Ford Coppola featuring a (live?) Dan Deacon soundtrack.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/twixt
As usual, the web site could use some work.
http://tiff.net/thefestival/filmprogramming
Here's Indiewire's round-up of the announced titles thus far:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/tiff_list_2011_the_announced_toronto_film_festival_lineup/
Their City-to-City program this year focuses on Buenos Aires -- Argentine films both new and old. Anyone well-versed in that country's cinema care to weigh in?
http://www.tiff.net/thefestival/filmprogramming/programmes/citytocity
Who's attending? Either way, what films would you like to see?
As always, tips on new food (international, veggie), records, bars, etc are welcome. I'll be there for the duration.
Off the top, already on board for this year's edition are new films from Werner Herzog, Lynne Ramsay, David Cronenberg, Frederick Wiseman, Kim Ki-Duk, Jafar Panahi, Lars von Trier (Melancholia, natch), Steve McQueen, Andrea Arnold... and, of course, hundreds of others, with their usually-juicy "Masters" and "Discovery" sections still to be announced. There's also, well, the Kilmer-starring Poe/vampire movie from Francis Ford Coppola featuring a (live?) Dan Deacon soundtrack.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/twixt
As usual, the web site could use some work.
http://tiff.net/thefestival/filmprogramming
Here's Indiewire's round-up of the announced titles thus far:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/tiff_list_2011_the_announced_toronto_film_festival_lineup/
Their City-to-City program this year focuses on Buenos Aires -- Argentine films both new and old. Anyone well-versed in that country's cinema care to weigh in?
http://www.tiff.net/thefestival/filmprogramming/programmes/citytocity
Who's attending? Either way, what films would you like to see?
As always, tips on new food (international, veggie), records, bars, etc are welcome. I'll be there for the duration.
Comments
Thanks for the linkage above though. That will help...
I noticed the Andrea Arnold/Wuthering Heights joint - ??!! God I hope there's no Olde English dialogue...but I'm sure it'll be great.
I think it???s too late for the out-of-town selector package (or whatever they call it now). As an out-of-towner lucky enough for work to pay my way, for the last 5 years I???ve gone with that option and usually get all 30 of my picks. Before that I used to roll into town with no tickets in hand, and sometimes it was slim pickens.
I love Andrea Arnold, but I???m not sure this one???s going to be for me.
http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/crazyhorse
The Wiseman is about Crazy Horse (the Parisian adult cabaret establishment, not the Neil Young-R band). I don???t love his current films the way I do his 60s-80s material, but they???re always interesting and I never miss the chance to see him speak.
The Coppola looks rough. What a strange career he???s had. This is the film he???s supposed to be taking on the road and re-editing live on his ipad with Dan Deacon playing live music, but it???s unclear to me if it???ll be presented that way at Toronto.
individual tickets go on sale the morning of Saturday the 3rd.
Bassie, I remember Day Night Day Night being one of your major TIFF gems; director Julia Loktev has a new one, starring none other than Gael Garc??a Bernal:
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/loneliestplanet
The festival even has some :hayek: on offer:
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/americano
(in a film directed by Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy's son, apparently)
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/himizu
sushi or fresh/fressen. that's how i do on the veggie hustle.
Excited to have a schedule of mostly non-North American films from young directors.
Here are some trailers for a few films that caught my eye and fit my schedule:
Killer Joe (new Friedkin...follow-up to Bug, which blew my mind)
Romeo Eleven
Take Shelter (Michael Shannon scares me...also Bug-r)
The Education of Auma Obama (i used to live in Kenya, so i'm interested in learning about her community work)
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (apparently they're showing the original ending made before they found out that the west memphis 3 were released)
But that's me and my grumpy self.
Have a wonderful Festival!
no doubt. I am just not there yet...you know...emotionally
just picture the yuppies without their clothes on.
just picture the yuppies without their clothes on.
That said, I feel like I've still found a schedule built around obscure potential gems from around the globe, which is why I come here. Hopefully I'll have a non-slick, "pure cinema" experience this year as I have many times in the past. To start things off today, however, not so obscure: the new Werner Herzog (Into the Abyss, about a Texas death-penalty case) today at 6pm and the new Gus van Sant tonight at 9.
I have very high hopes for, among others, The Stones (Argentina), Oslo August 31st (Norway, from the director of Reprise), ALPS (Greece, from the director of Dogtooth), The Mountain (a neo-noir from Lebanon), Once Upon a Time in Anatolia (Turkey, from the director of the excellent Climates), Porfirio (true story from Colombia), and Bela Tarr's Turin Horse. Oh, and the Australian/Aboriginal-community doc Tall Man looks complex, intriguing, and angering as well.
If anyone has tips, I have 3 vouchers yet to cash in. Anyone heard anything about the new films from Iran this year (apart from the Panahi, which I'm up on)?
BTW the TIFF site froze/crashed on me several times as I typed this post.
VOLCANO--a small production from Iceland about a 60-something retiree who relies on his long-suffering wife for every detail, seemingly incapable of even heating up his own canned soup. Dark comedy turns to serious drama when she suffers a stroke, and he has to figure out how (and if) he can care for two, let alone himself.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/volcano
(trailer) http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/volcano
URBANIZED--a documentary from the director of HELVETICA collecting (mostly) success stories about cities responding to urban crises and overpopulation with new thinking -- urban gardening in Detroit, new approaches to bike lanes and public transport in Bogota, new approaches to lighting and public safety in South Africa, etc. The filmmaking is fine, but it's the stories and ideas in this one that will have people talking and thinking.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/urbanized
INVASION--a lost masterpiece from Argentina, co-written by Borges and rarely screened broad since its release in 1969. If you like films such as Melville's Army of Shadows and Bertolucci's The Conformist, this is a must-see. Godard's Alphaville also leaves a mark here, primarily through some bizarre comic notes and strident dissonance and blips on the soundtrack.
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2011/invasion
Anyone attending and see anything they loved?
I've only seen Killer Joe so far. It's the second William Friedkin-Tracy Letts collaboration, the first being one of my PMG classics, Bug. Killer Joe is a sharp little black comedy that's highly watchable, but it just wasn't my cup of tea in the end. (And, like Bug, the ending is something else...).
I loved it, gems like this are why we need repertory cinema. One word about the print/TIFF presentation though: it's a restored 35mm print that looks good, but with French subtitles attached. They were digitally beaming English subtitles above the French, which was a little distracting from the image at times, but more to the point it failed a few times (the English subtitles dropped out completely for a few minutes, and got out of synch several times). I can read French, so I was okay, but other audience members probably didn't fare too well. Hopefully they'll step that process up for the next screening.
Really enjoyed this. It's a straightforward coming of age story about a guy with cerebral palsy. Beautiful composition of sight and sound, and oddly, very suspensful.
My favorite new film at TIFF thus far was this sad, hilarious Canadian documentary about residents of a nursing home, filmed over 5 years. Many of the residents have dementia, so it gets into some dark and uncomfortable territory at times. Not for everyone, but I loved it.
The programming has been solid this year, even if I don't feel like I've uncovered any masterpieces... it says something that my least-favorite films so far have been lackluster efforts from two of my favorite directors, Werner Herzog and Frederick Wiseman.
The bourgie notes the festival sounds are increasingly loud, as Bassie noted, and I think it goes beyond the lofts and yuppie bistros of the Lightbox. It feels a bit less about the movies this year, even if there are still excellent films at the festival's core, and more about celebrities and parties and industry and buzz.
3 more days and 10 more movies to go, including the alleged final film from Bela Tarr.