Hey folks, Harry here... Here's report number one from Toronto of the aspects we really care about... the movies... I've been dying to see Twyker's HEAVEN for a while now, but this new Neil Jordan flick... THE GOOD THIEF sounds like what's for dinner! A good Neil Jordan film is always a tasty treat! Here ya go....
Hey Harry,
Well, the Toronto International Film Festival kicked off tonight. All of today's glamour was reserved for festival poster boy, Atom Egoyan, and his new movie, Ararat.
I went to a few screenings today. Here's a rundown of some of the stuff that played today, and some that will screen for the public tomorrow...in order of interest:
Heaven (Tom Twyker):
Twyker had the tough task of producing the great Krystof Kieslowski's last script. For those who don't know, Heaven was originally supposed to be the first movie of three (the other two were to be named Hell and Purgatory). This is a fantastic film. Cate Blanchett plays Phillipa, a teacher who is trying to kill an Italian drug lord, but ends up killing four innocent people instead. During interrogation, Fillipo, her translator (Giovanni Ribisi) falls in love with her and decides to help her escape. I hate spoilers, so there are none here. Twyker tones his ego down immensely. By taking out all the camera tricks and pretension that bog down Princess and the Warrior (which despite all that I still think is a really good movie), he leaves the actors and Italian scenery to do all the work. And work they do. This screens Friday night. DonÃt miss it.
The Good Thief (Neil Jordan):
I haven't liked Nick Nolte for quite some time. Not since Blue Chips. I am clueless as to how he was named Sexiest Man of the Year a bunch of times. His face is as leathery as a boot. But when he's on, he's really on. The Good Thief is like a Euro-version of Ocean's Eleven, but it's not sugary and it makes a lot more sense, unlike the PG-13 American film. Jordan steals some of tricks from Soderbergh too, (Out of Sight camera freezes) but if you're going to steal from anybody, it may as well be him. The supporting cast includes Mark and Michael Polish, who steal the show as identical twin con men, and Said Taghmaoui, who was Mark Walberg's Iraqi inquisitor in Three Kings. Oh, and Nutsa Kukhianidz, is really hot. The end.
Les Diables (Christophe Ruggia):
What can you say about this crazy French film. Well...it's crazy. And French. Basically, it's Natural Born Children. Joseph and his sister Chloe, are street kids. Chloe is an imbecile, and needs more help than her delinquent brother can provide. They go in and out of group homes and jail across the country, and fall in love. How sweet. Wait. They're like, 12. That's gross. It's a very provocative film, and seeing children of that age eroticized leaves you with that dirty feeling. But the kids are amazing actors. Vincent Rottiers, who plays Joseph is probably the most terrifying 12 year-old you will ever see. It's psychotic. So is the movie. Good, but psychotic.
Ararat (Atom Egoyan):
I'll confess, I only watched the first half of Ararat (Heaven was starting), but I can't tell you too much I liked about the first half. I liked ArsinÈe Khanjian (Egoyan's wife). I love Marie-JosÈe Croze, because, uh, she's so pretty to look at. The real problem I see with Ararat is that it has too much intension to be a good film. If Egoyan made a movie about the Turkish killing the Armenian people, then it might have been an interesting film. But he makes a movie about a legendary director (Egoyan's onscreen version of himself, I'm sure), making a movie about genocide because it's a noble thing to do and he promised his mother. Or something. This is a problematic Canadian film. It's the flagship movie for Alliance Atlantis this fall, but I saw a lot of people heading for the exits by the time Heaven was about to start.
Anyway, there's a lot to see and only a week to see it all. Damn scheduling conflicts.
Love, Falooza.
