Features
Feature Information
The 30th Toronto International Film Festival
Since its inception, the Toronto International Film Festival has grown into one of the most acclaimed film festivals in the world, with its esteem now rivaling the spectacle of Cannes, the art-house admiration of Venice, and hustle of Sundance. The festival maintains a distinctly Canadian atmosphere by concentrating upon appreciation rather than competition, gathering attention for both big-budget award contenders and international art-house masters, while also providing support for Canadian cinema. This year, the TIFF celebrates its 30th anniversary by welcoming a diverse selection of filmmakers, including Hollywood veterans (Burton, Crowe, Gilliam, Polanski, Scorsese, and Soderbergh), eccentric Canadian artists (Cronenberg, Egoyan, Maddin, McKellar, Snow) and contemporary festival auteurs (The Dardenne Brothers, Haneke, Hou, Kitano, Miike, Sokurov, Tsai, and Von trier). For the next few weeks we will present reviews of a number of films from the TIFF, offering a small sample of what international cinema has to offer modern audiences in the coming months.
Films
Three Times / 15 September
What becomes clear after viewing Three Times is that Hou has stretched his premise a touch too far. Though he continues to display his mastery of the medium, in the end, his concluding verse slightly detracts from what is otherwise a splendid exercise in cinema, as well as the historic exploration of a fascinating culture.
A History of Violence / 20 September
If one is genuinely expecting that Cronenberg’s latest effort will provide an absolute validation of their own principles regarding violence, they will become frustrated almost immediately. Cronenberg navigates the border between condemnation and endorsement of violence so deftly that it’s perfectly understandable that viewers will perceive the film to support their own viewpoint as dove or hawk, or entirely object to its compliance with the position of their opponent.
Elizabethtown / 25 September
Since Crowe often adapts significant portions of his personal history into his films, it seems that Crowe has attempted to deliberately avoid the paternal aspect of his own story. It appears that with his latest effort, Elizabethtown, Crowe is attempting to rectify his past omissions, but unfortunately the film becomes diverted by familiar detours into Crowe’s own innocent addictions.
Dave Chappelle’s Block Party / 29 September
For a director renowned for his visual ingenuity and a comedian inundated with so much hype, Gondry and Chappelle’s collaboration remains decidedly humble. At one point, while dabbling at “Round Midnight” on the piano, Chappelle casually confesses he is mediocre at both comedy and music, and that what he has accomplished so far might just be based on his ability to bullshit.
Caché / 07 October
There are prolonged moments within many Haneke films, especially his more recent efforts, where we not only understand the plight of his characters, but also identify with their inadequacies and tendencies, however extreme and exaggerated these flaws may seem. Few contemporary directors allow their actors, and thus their audience, to gain such an absorbing intimacy with such distasteful characters.
Tideland / 28 November
The zealous visuals make stylistic sense given that Gilliam’s story revolves around the antics of a small child and his images obviously imitate a child’s wondrous gaze of discovery, where the smallest detail is novel and can render a fantastical vision, brimming with silly imagination. However, what should be appropriate in theory soon becomes arduous to witness.