Hey folks, Harry here... Looks like it's that time again, TORONTO! As with every year since the dawn of time seemingly, Anton Sirius arises to once again conquer Toronto's most wonderful festival. This year he has a fully armed Copernicus to aid in his endeavor to capture all that shines beneath those northern stars. Here's Anton's yearly preview, let's see how it goes this year...
I was exhausted when the plane finally landed (20 hours in the air, two connections) but I had one stop to make before I found my bed and crashed. One visit to an old friend. One grave at which to pay my respects.
The Uptown is no more.
Last year’s screening of Undead as the final Midnight Madness proved to be the final screening at the Uptown, ever. The old girl was shuttered afterwards, then torn down. All that’s left now is a scar on the cityscape.
Kicking around the parking lot where the stage used to be, I could feel the ghosts hovering, ghosts not only of every hungry pairs of eyes that gazed up in wonder but of the students who lost their lives in the botched deconstruction. Midnight might be done with the Uptown, but somehow I don’t think the Uptown is done with Midnight. If it ever goes up, that is one condo I won’t be staying in come hell or high water, unless Claire Bloom, Julie Harris and Russ Tamblyn.
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So with that maudlin opening… greetings starkinder! Toronto 2004 is upon us! The schedule looks sick! Even the galas kick ass! I’m never going to sleep again!
Seriously. I found last’s year fest a bit disappointing and something of a downer. There were very few discoveries (Jeux d’enfants comes to mind, not to mention Save the Green Planet) and were outnumbered by the duds.
I’d be shocked and appalled if that were the case this year. Like I said, even the galas look great. David O Russell’s I (Heart) Huckabees; Olivier Assayas’ Clean (ah, Maggie); biopics on Bobby Darin (Kevin Spacey’s Beyond the Sea), Ray Charles (Taylor Hackford’s Ray with Jamie Foxx) and Alfred Kinsey (with Liam Neeson); Zhang Yimou’s House of Flying Daggers… I mean dear Goddess, the Jiminy Glick movie is the closing night gala!
Get beyond the red carpet set though, and the talent on display is almost overwhelming. Take a look at this:
Thursday the 9th: films by Godard (Notre Musique), Clara Law (Letters to Ali), two by Abbas Kiarostami (10 on Ten and Five), Paul Cox (Human Touch), James Toback (When Will I Be Loved), Istvan Szabo (Being Julia); Final Cut, the doc on infamous studio-killer Heaven’s Gate; another massive bio-doc on Henri Langlois, patron saint of the Paris Cinematheque; and, oh yeah, Ghost in the Frickin’ Shell II to kick off Midnight Madness.
That’s the FIRST DAY.
It gets better:
Friday the 10th: Kim Ki-duk (3-Iron), Lucas Moodysson (A Hole in My Heart), David Gordon Green (Undertow) all have new films; the already semi-legendary Tarnation sees the light of day; whistleblower Enrique Pineyro brings his Whiskey Romeo Zulu to the big screen; the nearly four hour restored print of Heaven’s Gate; and Midnight brings Creep with Franka Potente.
Saturday the 11th: John Sayles’ scathing Silver City screens, as does Hotel Rwanda with Don Cheadle, two strong entries from the South African program (a doc on Walter and Albertina Sisulu, and Forgiveness with Arnold Vosloo), a doc on Haskell Wexler made by his son (Tell Then Who You Are), and Christian Bale at Midnight in the Machinist.
Sunday the 12th: the first of TWO new Johnnie To films, ThrowDown; Sally Potter’s Yes with Joan Allen; Amos Gitai’s latest, Promised Land; Withnail and I (yet another film that ripped off my life) as a Dialogue; Kevin Bacon as a recovering pedophile in the Woodsman; John Waters’ A Dirty Shame; and, fittingly on the same night as the Waters, Bruce LaBruce’s latest agit-porn opus the Raspberry Reich at Midnight.
Monday the 13th: Gee, nothing much today, just Solondz’s Palindromes, Araki’s Mysterious Skin, Alex Payne’s Sideways, Schlondorff’s the Ninth Day, Breillat’s Anatomie de l’enfer, Sissy Boy Slap Party (one of two new Guy Maddin shorts), John Leguizamo in Cronicas, a doc on Salvador Allende and another one on Townes van Zandt, the Cannes hit Moolaade, Sean Penn in the Assassination of Richard Nixon, and Dead Birds at Midnight with Henry Thomas and Patrick Fugit.
Tuesday the 14th: Another killer Dialogues, the Sweet Smell of Success; the other Guy Maddin short, Sombra Dolorosa; Winterbottom’s 9 Songs; Almodovar’s Bad Education; Danny Boyle’s Millions; already controversial doc Casuistry: the Art of Killing a Cat; the John Kerry doc Going Upriver; Claire Denis’ L’intrus; the new one from Once Upon a Time in the Midlands director Shane Meadows, Dead Man’s Shoes; and at Midnight, Calvaire. Wait, I’m forgetting something… oh yeah, KUNG FU HUSTLE, BABY!!!
Wednesday the 15th: Asia Argento’s latest, the Heart is Deceitful Above All Things, would be enough for me, but let’s toss Wim Wenders’ Land of Plenty, Amenabar’s the Sea Inside, Ozon 5x2, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Café Lumiere, Park Chan-wook’s (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) Old Boy, blues doc Lightning in a Bottle by Antoine Fuqua (huh?), and Kontroll at Midnight into the hat as well.
Thursday the 16th: Yawn, more geniuses. Otomo’s Steamboy, Johnny Depp in the Libertine, Ken Burns’ Jack Johnson biodoc Unforgivable Blackness, Johnnie To’s second fest flick Breaking News, and Miike’s Zebraman.
Friday the 17th: Xan Cassavetes’ (yes, she is) doc on Z Channel, A Magnificent Obsession; Tsukamoto’s latest, Vital; and of course this year’s not to be missed Asian Midnight freakout, Rahtree: Flower of the Night. Maybe most interesting though would be Isn’t This a Time!, A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal. I DARE anyone to watch this movie and not think of A Mighty Wind, and I don’t care how much you love Pete Seeger.
Saturday the 18th: The last day is usually for repeat screenings and leftovers, but not this year, as the vault creaks open for Bresson’s Diary of a Country Priest to wrap up the Dialogues program, and a new print of Buster Keaton’s the General with a brand new score by, of all people, Joe Hisaishi.
So yeah, killer lineup, all brilliance and politics and sex. Lots and lots of sex. I didn’t even mention half the sex-heavy films, from the obligatory French young-girl-blossoming-into-maneater pic Lila dit ca to a doc on the seminal Story of O.
Strap yourselves in, punkins; it’s going to be a wild ten days.
Just to tide you over until tomorrow though, here’s some pics from Rahtree. Heh heh… hacksaws…
