It's safe to say that from the first 20 minutes I knew it was not exactly my type of movie. If I were a director I could hardly shoot like this. I could not combine sadistic cruelty with a fairy tale. (It's interesting if the film will get changed in order to allow younger audience.)

But it's also safe to admit that the impression, left by the film, was immense. Del Toro directs with a bold hand, he doesn't lose time, guns shoot and knifes strike without too much sentiments preceeding. Actors do a good job, especially the young girl and one of the European best - Sergi Lopez - the protagonist and the antagonist of the story, we may say. Lopez plays a complete villain here. Maybe, his character is portrayed this way, because the director doesn't want us to feel anything except hate towards him. Showing the settings this way also makes us sense that nothing good is likely to happen to the characters of the movie, and if it will - then only by the price of a sacrifice. One can even take some details of the film's mythology and associate the the girl with the Christ-like figures in literature.

As for the magic part of the story, the viewer is free to decide for himself whether it happens really or only in the imagination of the girl.

Challenges and monsters of the real world undergo transformation into the fairy world indirectly, almost unrecognizably. It's important that the girl doesn't see the most horrible events that are happenning around. The reality, that she sees, forms the tale for the girl; but also the tale not only reflects, but changes the reality, bringing tragic ending to some lives, but salvation and hope to the other. Also, it's interesting that some events in the real world happen later than similar challenges in the imaginary one; so the imaginary world kind of prepares the character for the real world situations. They say, by the way, that, when we sleep, our dreams serve the very same purpose. In the climax of the movie the reality and the imaginary world collide.

Despite all the cruelty, it looks like Del Toro is a great humanist. The consequence of events concludes in saving one innocent life in the end.

Guillermo Del Toro happened to be a very nice person in close encounter. He stayed for about an hour after the end of the screening to talk to movie fans and sign autographs. For EVERY fan, when signing, he was also drawing a caricature portrait of himself. His talk has to be censored, though, in order to meet PG-13 criteria, too.

Ron Perlman (The Hellboy) was present at the theatre, he and Del Toro had some plans together, evidently, - so he waited patiently and gave autographs, as well.

I asked him, if he remembered working in Police Acadamy in Moscow. He replied that he remembered, not looking very pleased, though. But when I told him that Police Academy was one of the first American movies I saw in the Soviet Union, he said with a laugh: "Oh, you're from there!" - and proceeded being in a good mood. He was indeed a recognizable actor at those times. Some girls, though, didn't recognize him and when Del Toro asked if they want him to join the picture, thay said "no". The next person to take pictures wanted Ron Perlman in, and so Ron Perlman remarked in a perfectly hellboyish tone: "Finally, somebody wants me"

OK, it took me much longer than expected to put up the post. Sorry to all the friends, who are reading this. I think, you can subscribe to updates, if you have your own MSN Live Space. Anyway, let's proceed.

You never know, where you lose and where you find at TIFF. Rescue Dawn, that was my second choice, turned out to be the most rewarding experience so far. First, because the movie is very well done: classic and traditional it is, but in the same time very personal, realistic and intimate. Second, the director, 2 actors, crew showed up for the presentation, hanged around after for the Q&A session (that was quite long), were in good mood, honest and funny. And third, it had the feeling of a premiere: 0.5-km line, Ryerson theatre full packed, again, people, responsible for the movie, present. There was even the family of the protagonist in the audience.

Christian Bale outdid himself. Honestly, I never expected that from the Batman. True, he starred in some inordinary movies, but it's his portrayal of the Knight, that left me cold and made me sceptical about him pulling out Rescue Dawn. But it proved to be wrong assumption. Pushed to a limit physically, challenged to portray very difficult emotions, he was great. I think, he should definitely get a nod for this performance. By the way, in real life Christian seems to be very modest, corteous and intelligent person.

The movie is based on a real-life story of Dieter Dengler, a friend of Herzog's, who got into prisoner camp after his plane was gunned down while on a mission over Laos in 1965. Werner Herzog already made a critically acclaimed documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly on the same subject.  The whole film is a story of capture, escape and survival of this regular pilot of German-American background and other soldiers, no supermen in any case. The enemy is also shown without usual now political correctness, just as the protagonist sees him.

The director doesn't make any anti-war statements, he just tells the story of his friend in a very intimate way. The story of the extraordinary man in extraordinary circumstances, in whom his natural optimizm, hopefulness and will for life, often attributed to immigrants, invoke courage, decisiveness and survival instincts, that he himself never thought of and doesn't even notice.

The supporting ensemble of actors, especially Steve Zahn (!) and Jeremy Davies, help Bale to pull the weight. The score and cinematography deserve a special nod: Herzog uses modern classical music in a very impressive way.

But because the movie is not anti-military or political, which is usually not approved now, it may not be awarded anything. Although, it probably won't bother Herzog. He made a great tribute to his friend.

Time demonstrates the lyrical face of the director. It's Kim Ki-duk's poetic exercise on the topic of plastic surgery. What the film probably asks is should we change ourselves in order to improve our relationship, and what it is really that attracts people to each other. That is, the question of chemistry and its ingredients. It looks like Kim Ki-duk thinks it's personality as a whole: the form is as important as the content. So, Time is an urban fairy tale is the way 3-Iron is, although sadder, less realistic and much less magical. But always a pleasure to watch and very entertaining, especially, if you accept the rules and leave the scepticism behind.

It's cinematographicaly beautiful, although has some disturbing images. There are actually some funny connections to 3-Iron. Look at the first picture (or was it a film frame), shown on the screen of the protagonist's monitor.

Kim does his job masterly: he can take a simple plot, that can be summarized in two lines, and create a poetic tale out of it.

Verdict: for Kim Ki-duk's fans - 4.5/5, for the rest of us - 3.5/5.

P.S. That was my first Rush Line during the Festival. The movie was shown in Paramount. After having latte and brownie in the hall after the screening, while reading Famous and writing down these impressions, I understood, that coffee is not enough and bought the poutine - something I never did before. And it was good! Then I have a little time to pay a visit to Chapters and to return back for Nouvelle Chance screening, which I described in this blog before.

Kenneth Branagh didn't come. So did Stephen Fry. And no one from principal cast. They chose Venice over Toronto - the movie was premiered simultaneously on both festivals. In Toronto came the cinematographer - Australian Roger Lanser. Branagh sent a video invitation, that was a pleasant surprize. I dont' remember anybody doing that before.

The Magic Flute is an adaptation of the last Mozart's opera, that engaged his genius in full and had masonic symbols all over it. The action is moved to something looking like WWI times. The opening was very promising: it was quite imaginative with uninterruptable flow of the video along with the Mozart's score. After that, unfortunately, the movie started to stumble. And the further, the more. Don't get me wrong: there was a lot of funny moments, the actors did a great job most of the time, and it's hard to spoil Mozart's music. It just was often a bit boring, which is what opera shouldn't be at any time! And the reason for this mishap lied, IMHO, in some strange cinematographer's and director's choices.

Branagh decided to make anti-war statement from a philosophical opera disguised as innocent adventure. So, that led him to use gray, washed up colours to underline the gloomy atmosphere. It's raining all over the movie, which might be a directoral trick to show the bad state of affairs in the world, but it didn't help to perceive the opera. Moving the subject towards more concrete things instead of abstract ideas also made the story simplified, incomplete and naive.

There are a lot of upleasant head shots. Magnificent Sarastro's palace is reduced to mere construction area. Computer graphics is used often, but not always in a smart way: that makes it look like an amateur's craft, quite tasteless, indeed.

For me the most frustrating was the realization of two beautiful Queen of the Night's arias - two outstanding opera pieces, done on the limit of the singer's vocal abilities. They just get washed up like the colours in the movie - the accents are just not set at all!

The Queen of the Night looks a lot like former Ukrainian premier Yuliya Tymoshenko - it's funny for Ukrainians, but I don't know if Branagh intended that.

To conclude all this: the movie had its moments, but, no matter how likeable Kenneth Branagh is, I don't thinks Mozart needed this adaptation. And to make a statement he should have better taken his own material, instead of experimenting on a well-known and loved classic.

Here's the list of movies, I watched during the Festival with my approximate ratings:

Line-up was very strong this year, and I managed to make a good selection. I also had a chance to meet and talk to people, who influenced my perception of cinema, as well as just meeting interesting people. If I take a vacation next year during the festival, I think, I may opt for Daytime Pass. It's perfectly possible to watch 25 movies in 10 days (especially, if the movies are good). Many reviews are still coming :)

I've finished the Festival with 3 movies from Asia. Unfortunately, they didn't meet the expectation. At least, 2 of them.

I watched Bugmaster on Friday, 2:45PM, in Paramount. I was almost late and had to run from Osgoode up to the theatre to arrive just when the lights were gone - so I watched the movie from the third row. It's not, that it was bad - some moments were quite mesmerizing - just, that you have to be really into this "mushi" mythology in order to appreciate this movie. Otherwise, some plotlines are hard to follow. Of course, for this screening nobody from the production team showed up to make the things clearer. Nevertheless, I have a sure feeling that the film could have been made much more exciting.

After the screening I jumped the subway on Osgoode and rode to Bay to Varsity. Hana was my second choice for the Day 1, but I got The Magic Flute and so, decided to try to catch in on Day 8. I arrived 10 minutes before the screening. In Varsity they made one rush line for all the films, which was pretty inconvenient. A guy suddenly popped up, selling the ticket for Hana - I bought it and rushed to the theatre, but the screening had started already, so I missed first couple of minutes and got my seat in the second row, as I remember.

Hana is a good movie. It shows the period of life of the colourful community in the slums of Edo at the end of the samurai epoch. One can call the film anti-samurai. It's funny and light. It's quite dynamic, as well. Nothing much new in it, except the idea of the sensitive samurai, reluctant to draw the sword, prefering teaching instead. He is the main character in the merry company of the slum folks, each of them being quite a personage! For me it reminded of household scenes in Kitano's Zatoichi, but I did not see a lot of Japanese "social" movies, so the association may be naive. Anyway, the direction is skilled, and the film is original by the departure from samurai code's morale and sending more universal, very humane message.

On Saturday, I saw The Banquet in Visa Screening Room. Oh, what a raspberry! I'm wondering are Chinese people ashamed of how their history is perversed in movies like this? I know, fighting scenes are inventive, although, the director's fascination with gore looks gaudy most of the time. But all this gigantism, pomposity, splashed over the weird plot and spiced with mostly pretentious philosophical bits (I liked the one about the mask)? Common! The characters are 1.5-dimensional. The movie could potentially be Chinese Queen Margot, but the actors just don't deliver. Ziyi Zhang has class, but for some reason I didn't like her in this role. The Emperor is not bad and I liked the actress Xun Zhou, who played Qing Nu, but it's not enough to love the movie. They say it's an adaptation of Hamlet. It's a little bit overstretched to compare.  For real, the tragedy repeats itself as a farce... Gorgeous-looking actors, not so gorgeous results.

That's how my festival ended. I went to College to buy a T-Shirt, but it was only one left - a girl's one! So, I'm left with two pins.

In the coming week I'll try to put online reviews of the movies, I saw, one review a day. I'll also will put the list of the movies with my rating, out of 10. 

 

Charlotte Gainsbourg was absent from Golden Door North-American premiere. What happened? Hey, TIFF folks, what's going on with French actors not coming for the festival? First, Daniel Auteil, now Charlotte. And these were "confirmed" guests! It's a little bit frustrating. For some viewers (like me) it's often important to see the actors/directors, who made a difference in the viewer's perception of cinema, and to listen, what they say about their new project.

Back to the movie. Charlotte Gainsbourg is fantastic as she usually is, but the film rest on the shoulders of Vincenzo Amato, whose mimic and articulation is very engaging. He plays a bit naive but descent guy from rural Italy, who decides it's time for his family to move to the new world. They meet Gainsbourg's character, Lucy, on their way to the ship. The story covers departure, ocean journey and arrival, and has a documentary feel, broken from time to time by lyrical sketches and fantasized sketches. This is very smart of the director and these moments are the ones, that, I suspect, will linger in my memory, especially, the "staring" scene on the deck. There are scary tragic moments, too, like rolling of the ship during the ocean storm and the aftermath of this.

Anyway, the movie is easy to watch and it shows us in details the process of immigration 100+ years ago, which was nothing of pleasant. I would like somebody to shoot the story of my immigration to Canada. The process evolved tremendously, but it would still have a lot of surprises for non-immigrants.

I found out that the film got something in Venice. To sum it up: it's for the guys, interested in the process, or for the fans of Gainsbourg, Amato or Criasele. Not for the general public.

IMHO, today I watched the best movie of the festival from what I had seen, it's...  Snow Cake! And I watched it for free! One kind lady from a volunteer team just gave me the ticket, when I asked, if the tickets were still available.

How do I define the best movie? By the power and longetivity of impression it leaves, by how much it touches me. That's how among the movies that enjoyed the most during previous years were Bon Voyage, The Boys from County Claire, Les Sentiments, And They Lived Happily Ever After and Ladies in Lavender. And it happens to me not the first time, that the movie, that was not even my second choice, leaves the deepest impression. I admit, I was looking for something like that. Damn the programme book! Although, the film was in my big list, so, thank you, the programme book.

Snow Cake is often sad and poignant, it has a very tragic event in it (that starts the whole story), but it is made with such love for life, humour, and it has the performances so delicate, that you are left deeply touched long after the screening. Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver are phenomenal! Carrie-Anne Moss is more beautiful and radiant than ever. The soundtrack, made of the works of Canadian artists, serves perfectly. Not to mention the supporting cast, that doesn't lower the bar.

The description from the program book is quite inaccurate. More precisely, I think, the accents are set incorrectly. It's not about the "dark past" - in the middle of the movie we already suspect, what Alex, the character of Alan Rickman, did, - but rather about the catarsis of a man, for whom, it seemed, the future had nothing in store, about recuperating through compassion.

It shows, that often we have very little understanding of life, nature and God's ways. Very satisfying, worth couple of Oscars. Go check it out!

Alan Rickman and Carrie Anne-Moss were not there, but the director, producers and cast members, including Sigourney, were present.

I also watched Alatriste in the morning. It was a big surprize, that for the second screening the director and the actors showed up, including Viggo Mortensen! And then they held Q&A after the film, in which even I took part! I've just finished to read the first book about Captain Alatriste. At first I was a little bit confused, when I found out, that the events of the first book took place in first 15-20 minutes of the movie! But in the end I liked the film and considered a good adaptation. It's definitely not Reverte's book, but it's a good movie, worth seeing. Many characters look different, than I imagined, except Viggo, who is the spitting image of the Captain, as described in the book, both in appearance and in spirit, maybe, just a bit taller, than the Captain. I'm very happy, that the actor and the director found each other. Augustin Diaz Yanes said that Reverte liked the script. I would prefer, if he based the movie on the first book only with possibilities of sequels, but I'm OK with what he did, he did it with pure heart. I hope the movie will find its way to North-American market. As for Viggo Mortensen, he is very intelligent guy and friendly with fans - he stayed for half an hour signing and taking pictures with us. He even said to me "Spasibo" in Russian. I was going to go home after Alatriste, but after hanging out in Chapters with Vanilla Latte and blueberry bar and then walking to Yonge from Paramount, I decided to check the tickets for Snow Cake at Elgin and found my lucky one!

 

It was quite short day for me at TIFF. I saw only one movie - the world premiere of Mon meilleur ami. But it was very significant, because I met the living legend of French cinema, one of my favourite directors, if not the favourite, monsieur Patrice Leconte. The movie itself is, probably, the most straightforward, but in the same time one of the most charming. Reflections on true friendship, loneliness, everyday human interaction quotes are mixed together in a tasty jam. It all leads up to the well-known quotes from The Little Prince. The great Daniel Auteil together with Dany Boon deliver memorable performances, directed by Leconte with disarming ease and style. Worth seeing. Daniel Auteil didn't come, but Dany Boon was there and both him and Leconte made the audience laugh their everything off during the presentation before the movie. I delayed a little bit after the screening and was able to tell the director that The Girl on the Bridge was my favourite movie (well, one of the favourites) and that I watched many of his movies dubbed in Russian, when still living in Ukraine. Leconte wrote in my festival book: "Vive le cinema!!!". Means a lot.

I'm reluctant to say this, but the reviews are still coming.

I've decided to look at one of my days at TIFF. So, September 11th, Day 5. My first film was Venus in Paramount at 12:15pm. I bought the ticket the day before and came to Paramount by subway using my weekly pass, that may save me of thinking about having cash for subway always on me this week. I wanted very much to go see Venus during the first screening to see Peter O'Toole, but I could not get tickets, so I watched Rescue Dawn instead, that I enjoyed very much. Venus happened to be a bit different movie, than I thought, more poignant, than ironic. O'Toole, good acting, some beautiful cinematographical moments, beautiful waltz. I met with a movie fan from Japan, young lady Nozomi. She is here on vacation and came especially for the festival. I told her what I knew about the Japanese movies, about my favourite Kitano's works and recent interest in studio Ghibli films. She saw their latest major release Geddo senki, which I am eagerly awaiting, because it's based on my favorite author Ursula Le Guin's book. From Paramount I walked along Queen to Yonge. I wanted to try to get tickets to 10 Items or Less, because I figured out I would have enough time to get after for 6PM screening of Fay Grim. They had tickets, so I bought one, had a lunch at ManchuWok in Eaton Centre (I chose lemon chicken, sweet and sour pork with vegetables instead of rice and Chinese tea). The line for 10 Items or Less was huge by that time. I managed to get a seat in one of the front rows, though, and the movie happened to be the one, I longed for during the festival. I will post the review later, now I just want to recommend it to everyone. It's a buddy movie, witty, ironic, feel-good. Freeman is magnificent, it looks like he himself enjoys every moment of the movie. Paz Vega is very good, too. I didn't try to get any autographs - I could see Morgan after the movie and Paz was already disturbed enough by other viewers - but managed to get a very nice photo of Paz. Then, I walked to Ryerson, making a stop at HMV to see if they got the new Charlotte Gainsbourg album. For me Fay Grim was easy first choice, because once Henry Fool had one big impression on me. Fay Grim is not Henry Fool, it's a different movie, but in any way worth seeing. It's satirical, of course, but not cynical. Again, marked by great performances, especially by Jeff Goldblum. And Henry's final destination is Odessa, Ukraine - the city I'm from originally! So, if the sequel will come out, it may start in my city. For that reason and another, I asked Hal the permission to take a picture with him, and you can see the result. The reviews are coming, I make notes in subway, but, by the time I'm home, I don't have any zest to finish it and put it online.

 

"The Festival Daily. Day 5" has a black page in it with the following text: "We at the Toronto Film Festival Group encourage our guest, patrons and partners to pause for a moment of silence today to reflect on the plight of people around the world whose lives are affected by violence, war, terror and dicease.". Are we so out of our minds, that we consider it improper to mourn our people properly? That we should elaborate something like this in order not to say the honest words? We should not forget to "reflect on the plight of people around the world" every day we live, but September 11th is the day to remember and mourn innocent people, killed in a horrible terroristic act. Shame, that we again can't do it right.

I'm very sorry, I did not have time to post last days. I have several reviews and stories coming. In the meantime, please, look at some photos I've managed to take so far.

Truffaut is back! Not in person, but in spirit in Anne Fontaine’s new film “Nouvelle Chance”. I thought this mood was lost forever in French cinema. The mood, that I’d call easy-going drama or melancholic comedy, or, perhaps, light-hearted dramedy. No outright passion, but a kaleidoscope of sub-tones. Anyway, anyone, who saw Truffaut’s early works, knows, what I mean. But even his latest movies were much different. Still, it’s all present in “Nouvelle chance”. And the main character Augustin, portrayed very naturally by the director’s brother Jean-Chrétien Sibertin-Blanc, is a direct follow-up to Antoine Doinel, the character, whose personality is often sad and poignant, but never pathetic. The shots of Augustin, riding a bicycle, look classic from the very first glance.

The plot is about mid-aged actor, who doesn’t have a constant acting job and doesn’t make his living by performing - it’s rather his lifestyle, so he performs for the sake of it, wherever he can. For one of his projects, requested by some factory’s management to entertain their Swedish partners, he employs the talents of an old operetta actress (played by French film icon Danielle Darrieux) and former star of TV shows (played by Arielle Dombasle – another symbolic figure). It all turns out a bit different, than was expected, of course. At first, I was slightly disappointed by what seemed quite abrupt and non-concluding ending, but on the second thought I understood, that it was, on the contrary, very much concluding: cause meeting effect, art becoming reality, history repeating itself and all the heroes getting what they were striving for.

Anne Fontaine said during Q&A, that she made the movie for Danielle Darrieux, who is exceptional there. Though other actors are, again, very natural; maybe, because the characters are close to their real-life personas.

It’s always a pleasure to watch good, realistic acting – in dialogues, mimic, movements. Unfortunately, we are deprived of that in so many North American productions, where overacting or non-acting is considered a norm.

Verdict: 5 out of 5 for Truffaut’s fans, 4.5 out of 5 for the rest.

I've got all me choices granted, except two - Venus and Copying Beethoven. I decided to try what I have without making exchanges. So, my chances to see Peter O'Toole and Ed Harris during the festival are quite weak. They may show up for the second screening, because both of the second screenings are not early in the morning. I think, it's worth trying, we'll see tomorrow, when single tickes become available. Instead of Venus I'll go to Rescue Dawn, of which Herzog's fans were very excited. For the love of arts I've got The Pleasure of Your Company, so now I can get my portion of Jason Biggs.

Today I dropped off the envelope with my choice of 10 festival movies. I was sitting till 2AM the night before, trying to make it. I tried to employ intuition, but it didn't always work . In the end I took over myself and didn't choose Babel. That practically leaves me out of its screenings for the festival, but chances were little, anyway, and I decided not to look for the heavy stuff. The love of fine arts won - I chose Copying Beethoven instead. So, the list is (the second choice in braces):

Also I go to GALA for Mon Meilleur Ami. BTW, did you know, that the word "dog" is present in 5 titles! It happened so, that Bugmaster and Time made it into the list 2 times. Never planned that .

Nobody is inclined to comment, so I'll continue . Browsing the programme I've stumbled upon some things, that may interest a lover of movies, in which positive emotions prevail:

On the other page Little Children can become an event. Just watch the trailer on the official site.

 

Some addition to the list of movies, that I consider worth seeing during TIFF 2006:

That's it for today!

 

 

Ok, so I begin to compile my own list of movies to see during the Festival. And it's starts with Venus. The synopsis sounds like a feel-good movie and it stars Peter O'Toole, who is coming to Toronto! To see Peter O'Toole live is the chance not to miss. I remember as a kid enjoying How to Steal a Million (1966) with O'Toole and Audrey Hepburn in Ukraine on TV - a brilliant movie. Then, of course, he played in Laurence of Arabia (1962) - the film, I became aware of much later than of How to Steal a Million, though. In my opinion he is an actor the size of Laurence Olivier, Humphrey Bogart, Gregory Peck, Jack Lemmon. Just check his filmography on IMDB. Imagine, the guy is still working hard! Somebody might see him in Troy. He is 74 now. Checking IMDB, I found, that the film is directed by Roger Mitchell, responsible for Notting Hill. I just love this movie, so it's great news to me.

You can call me crazy, but today I bought a Gala ticket for Mon Meilleur Ami and a Programme Book, spending overall about 80 CAD. Pretty impressive, eh? And that's it! A Good Year was rush-only and I doubt I would dare to buy another Gala ticket . I have decided to watch The Banquet at the morning screening, if they have one. It's funny, but on Saturday night the films that I had chosen were among the only several movies with tickets still available. Not much demand, I guess . I've made their day! At the official website they also have different souvenirs for sale, like bags or notebooks. I remember getting them for free! Oh, maybe, I will get something with my 10 coupons. Anyway, it's time to compile my film list for Tuesday. I'll try to do it tomorrow. It will definitely include Alatriste and Fay Grim.