TIFF’s first Major Press Conference of 2010

TIFF’s first Major Press Conference of 2010 by Marc Glassman

Announcing:
15 Galas
including: The Bang Bang Club—Steven Silver
Barney’s Version—Richard J. Lewis
West is West—starring Om Puri as George Khan
[Previously in Mirch Masala, Dharavi, Charlie Wilson’s War (as Zia)]
Little White Lies—Guillaume Canet. (Francois Cluzet)
Potiche—Francois Ozon (Denueve, Depardieu)
The King’s Speech—Tom Hooper (Colin Firth)

35 Special Presentations
Another Year—Mike Leigh
Brighton Rock—Rowan Joffe
The Illusionist—Sylvain Chomet, from a Tati script
Tamara Drew—Stephen Frears
You Will Meet a Dark Stranger—Woody Allen (Banderas, Hopkins, Naomi Watts, Gamma Jones)

25 World Premieres

35th anniversary

Tiff’s countdown to zero: September 9 is Opening Night;
40 days from now!

Back in the day, we were worried that the two super-powers would decide to duke it out, atomic-style; the results wouldn’t have been pretty. Now, lots of nations have the Bomb—among them are India, Pakistan and Israel. Looming on the horizon is Iran. Score one for Countdown to Zero: as the list of countries with nuclear capabilities rises, so does the chance that one of them will use it “only” against their mortal enemy. But what would happen then? Wouldn’t those countries have allies? Isn’t this how the two World Wars started?

Then, there’s Russia. Hardly the efficiently run dictatorship of the old Soviet Union, modern Russia resembles the Wild West. Gangsterism is rampant; security systems are rundown; and many people are broke. Walker interviews Oleg Khintsagov, a former factory worker of dubious morals and means, who was arrested with uranium stolen from his nuclear ‘factory.’ What did he want for it? Enough rubles to buy a fridge.

Who could potentially buy the kind of goods necessary to construct bombs? Terrorists, of course, and Walker connects the dots on this notion to great effect. Using interviews with a host of celebrity interviewees including Jimmy Carter, Tony Blair and former CIA agent Valerie Plame, Walker makes the case that other Bin-Ladens—wealthy terrorists—are lurking in the shadows, ready to strike.

So, what do we do? Here’s where Walker, Bender and the other “participants” run into a problem. The solution is to eliminate nuclear weapons. But is that likely? We all grew up hearing that it was impossible to get the genie back in the bottle.

All we can do is hope that nothing will happen and that the “scariest documentary of the year,” which is what the British press called Countdown to Zero, will make the powers-that-be increase their security measures.

TIFF announces a “stellar lineup of Galas and Special Presentations.”

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) held its first major press conference this week. Naturally, it was full of news of Galas and Special Presentations but the most interesting thing was its location--at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, on King Street West, near Peter Street.

TIFF is moving downtown, near Roy Thomson Hall, the CBC, the Royal Alex & the Princess of Wales Theatres into its own new home, at the Bell Lightbox Building. Yorkville is so Nineties and Noughties. The new cultural hub for the country is King Street West.

TIFF’s announcements were exciting, but isn’t that always the case with cultural events? Too often, film—or opera or novels or theatre or dance—is so much more interesting to contemplate than to experience. Such is the difference between our dreams and expectations for artists we admire and the reality of what has been achieved in a new production.

Still, one approaches a new season of film with high hopes. Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling, the co-directors of the Festival, were upbeat throughout a series of announcements about the Galas and Special Presentations—essentially, the sub-galas—at the upcoming eleven-day cinematic extravaganza.

At TIFF 2010, you—or your friends—will be seeing glitzy Galas at Roy Thompson Hall, including the film that should have opened the Festival, Robert Lantos’ production of Barney’s Version. This adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s dark and amusing novel about a man who drifts through an extraordinary life and times—three wives, murder accusations, Alzheimer’s, from the ‘50s through the ‘80s—is eagerly anticipated, not just in Canada but in the U.S.

So why isn’t it Opening Night? Because Richler was Jewish as is Lantos. And Barney is Jewish—though the actor playing him, Paul Giamatti, is Italian and presumably Catholic. But September 9, the first Thursday after Labour Day, when TIFF always begins is—Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. Oops.

A Canadian made Gala that isn’t running into controversy—thus far—is The Bang Bang Club, director Steven Silver’s drama about four photographers plying their trade during the last days of South Africa’s apartheid regime.

Want something British? There’s The King’s Speech by Tom Hooper (The Damned United) about King George being forced to correct his stammer in order to lead the Empire—including Canada—into the Second World War. Colin Firth enunciates the role.

Et maintenant, l’autre langue officiel du Canada—francais. Ok, but not Quebecois. Elegant auteur Francois Ozon (Sous le sable, 8 Women) returns with Potiche, a sexy comedy starring French icon Catherine Deneuve and Gerard Depardieu.

Special Presentations abound.

Here are a mere three of 35.

Mike Leigh has created another actor’s feast with Another Year, starring Jim Broadbent and Lesley Manville as friends to a motley crew of friends, all living melodramatic existences (in their own minds).

Sylvain Chomet, the brilliant director of the charming Les Triplettes de Belleville has made a live-action comedy called The Illusionist based on a script by France’s greatest film comedian Jacques Tati, which I want to see (and I hope you do, too)

Woody Allen’s latest British production You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger doesn’t star Woody ( a plus) and does feature Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin and (Ok, one of my favourites) Naomi Watts.

The next TIFF conference occurs on August 10. Stay tuned.