Hey folks, Harry here... seems that ol Lucian had a raining day inside and outside at the 25th annual TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL... well it's all part of the yin yang philosophy of film fest attendees.... You take the good you take the bad, you take them both, and there ya have... the facts of life, the facts of life... There's a time ya gotta go and show you're growing old and now you know the facts of life, the facts of life... And that's what happened to Lucian today... read and be forewarned...
It's a piss poor day weather wise and, overall film-wise too. I've seen four so far and I hope the two I have left are damn fine films or there will be very little good to salvage from today.
House of Mirth
Directed by Terence Davies
This is an adaptation of a 1905 novel and maybe it should have been adapted a little farther. Better still maybe it should have been left alone.
In a nutshell Gillian Anderson plays a young socialite of low means who is trying to marry rich but is frustrated by her love of a young man who is carrying on an affair with a married friend. Her character is so tragically in love with this man she sacrifices everything by accepting a scandalous disgrace rather than reveal the proof she has of the affair.
While it's nice to see a film that does not unrealistically portray the position of women in the past and chooses instead to show the genuine struggles women went through this film doesn't do it in an engaging way. The main character is so weepy and spineless while all those around her take horrible advantage of her its hard to care. The dialogue occasionally shines when one can clearly recognize the clever line lifted directly from the original work it is flat most of the rest of the time. It's hard to assess the acting when the rolls seem so unappealing. Anthony Lapagia is the only person to stand out both for acting and playing a character with some real sense. The chemistry between Anderson and Eric Stolz as her love interest is so lacking it is impossible to understand why this love is worth sacrificing a cab ride let alone ones entire life. Oh and after only a few days ago commenting on the refreshing turn Dan Ackoyd's career had taken with him playing a wealthy sex-obsessed sleazeball in Stardom I was astonished to see him playing an almost identical roll here!
Perhaps worst of all the film rarely allows any moments of candor. The beauty of Dangerous Liasons was the shift between polite conversation and brutal honesty. Here honesty is all but totally lacking and film is richer for it. Perhaps in 1905 these conversations were scandalously candid, now they are a yawn.
I found myself checking my watch constantly and, after 2 hours and 15 increasingly excruciating minutes, I was "forced" to leave the theatre in time to make it to my next screening. I cannot even comment on whether the ending satisfactorily redeemed the movie. Given, however, that the movie seemed historically accurate up to that point and no plagues or disasters ravaged New York in 1905 that would suitably explain killing off the entire cast of characters I rather doubt it could have been redeemed.
Time is running short so I'll be brief:
Scarlet Diva is the directorial debut of Asia Argento daughter of Dario Argento. The film is highly autobiographical and therein lies its main flaw. It tries to do too much. Asia writes, directs and stars in the film. It is both a look at the life of an actress in the cult of celebrity akin to Stardom but FAR grungier and story of a jilted lover. Other storylines dangle along as well: a roommate who seeks abusive relationships, a soft core sex scene that comes out of nowhere to the audience AND the main character(though comments at the Q&A led me to believe porn is a lot more artistically accepted in Italy) and a host of other interesting characters who make brief disjointed appearances. Scarlet Diva has a few entertaining moment but taken as a whole it's a mess.
Gaea Girls is a British documentary about Japanese women's wrestling told through the story of one wrestler desperatly and almost futilely trying to pass the rigorous training program she requires in order to debut in a match. I watched this film closely and, for the life of me, can't figure out if this wrestling is real or fake. One bout is clearly rigged but the training bouts seem incredibly rigorous and unplanned. Though the combat maneuvers seem designed to avoid serious injury or scarring I was left with the impression there is genuine combat taking place.
The real interest of Gaea Girls comes from watching women who have lived their life trained to be in submissive rolls struggling to find the killer instinct needed to be a wrestler. Their trainer, Chigusa, uses a brutal physical and psychological program worthy of Navy SEALs, at times it borders on abuse and when Chigusa talks about her own father there is a real undercurrent of domestic violence in the family of wrestler Chigusa has adopted.
Told without a narrator Gaea Girls failed to grab me at first. Others in the audience argued the lack of narrator, and use of only a few explanatory titles, was effective. In the end Gaea Girls would be of interest to wrestling fans or those interested in women in Japanese culture. The real-life story told here is mildly compelling, not worth the price of a theatre ticket but a possible rental down the line.
Just when I was about to gauge my eyes out or go home and sleep along came Fast Food, Fast Women from director Amos Kollek. Interweaving a number of stories about relationships Fast Food, Fast Women is another excellent romantic comedy in a year that has already brought us such fine quirky fare as Keeping the Faith and High Fidelity. The film interweaves a number of characters into intersecting storylines. It's a warm, honest and funny look at relationships in the 25-75 age range. Though, at times, the plot is a bit sit-com predictable and, at others, introduces wild twists from nowhere the characters are believable and likeable and the dialogue and humour ring true. For this type of film that is enough to justify the price of admission, everything else is just butter on the popcorn.
EPILOGUE: Both Dancing at the Blue Iguana and The Mission are excellent films I hope to write more about tomorrow but I am bone tired and I left my notebook with ALL my notes from the festival in it in the cab on the way to Blue Iguana. I'm hoping the cabbie takes pity on me and calls the number I wrote inside it. My whole festival experience is captured better in that notebook than in my own overtaxed memory and I'll be really annoyed to lose it.
Until tomorrow...
Visit me at Lucian's Festival Location
