MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2007
Day 5 already and the festival is halfway over - 21 pictures down 25 more to go ...
Monday was the day of the big movies hitting TIFF for the non-gala second screenings. The great white whale is The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford with the reappearance of Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Then there is the Coen brothers.
NO COMPANY FOR OLD MEN
RYERSON
9 a.m.
How many times can you say you got to see No Company for Old Men at 9 in the morning ? And its end time ran past the start time of the movie down the street at the Elgin.
And after racing down to the Elgin only to find the door closed because The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford had already started ...
NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN
9:00 a.m.
Ryerson
It's a mess
No Country for Old Men [from the Cormac McCarthy story of the same title] is simply not just another slow-moving Fargo set in the Texas desert. This story is a case of being the wrong man at the wrong time - rancher Llewelyn Moss [Josh Brolin [ who also appears in the Coen's contribution to Chacun Son Cinema in an amusing piece called World Cinema ] comes upon the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone bad. The stash of heroin is left behind in the truck which does not interest him but through his excellent tracking skills he finds a survivor under a tree and a suitcase of money, two million dollars worth of it, and he does not resist. Because of the money, Moss becomes a man on the run. Evading his pursuers, those behind the drug deal in the first place, and a crazy serial killer named Anton [Javier Bardem] on his tails who has an unconventional collection of guns and a deadly arsenal ...
Tommy Lee Jones is the laconic sheriff who with his assistant is a step behind, trying to make sense of all the clues, deciphering the trail of dead bodies, blood and all the interested parties who want the money back. He is trying to get to Anton by going through Moss, who is also being tracked by the financiers who provided the money in the first place for the deal and hire bountyhunter Carson Wells [Woody Harrelson] to get the suitcase back. No Country for Old Men becomes more absorbing more by the moment hoping the ever-clever Moss makes his getaway while trying to elude the killer Anton and his deadly arsenal of very large calibre weapons [including an airtank used to kill cattle] - bloody, high tension duels in hotel rooms, alleyways and in the streets, and Harrelson is already caught up to Moss. The whole movie becomes a battle of wits and survival insticts ... By the end of the whole mess, a retired Bell is left lamenting for a time gone by.
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
Elgin
11:00 a.m.
Coward!
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a far from glamorous, naturalistically told tale set in 1881 of the retirement years of the James gang which is simply too long, and even though it has drama it is not dramatic. The narrative has a similar style to Dogville and Manderlay with the players seemingly just playing out their parts until the end of the movie - if you felt that Kevin Costner movies felt long then The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford feels like 2 hours and 40 minutes.
That picture is awful dusty
But slowly, ever so slowly the characters of the last collection of the James gang and start to breathe life, and Casey Affleck as the nineteen-year-old Bob Ford not yet a member, begins to draw the attention towards the climactic moment of the film when Jesse James climbs on the chair to dust off the picture. His dream of becoming a member of the James gang and his eternal fascination of the Jesse James myth and legend [ marked by a shoebox collection full of articles and stories on James and the way he eyes a naked Brad Pitt with his back to the door in the bathtub ] turns to a dark jealousy and doubts for his safety. Jesse James constantly belittles the young Ford and begins to suspect the true loyalties of those around him. Then there is the bounty on Jesse James's head which becomes irresistible to the Fords.
The movie is one of character development set against the elements of nature - the downhill slide of the 34-year-old Jesse James gunslinger in retirement, pictured an ever brooding [played by the sad blue-eyed Brad Pitt] beset by insomnia, old wounds and violent mood swings, mirrored in the bitter winter shots [set in Alberta].
The stoic sufferers in the film are the women who have to endure hardship and loneliness.
The ending is not spoiled by the nature of the title - but the character assassination of Bob Ford from hero to coward by the end is unexpected by Ford ...
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is an artistic triumph with its patina of authenticity and cinematography, but it is a long long story of long riders in a West that had long gone by. The last photographs of Jesse James endure to this day but there were no celebrations for Bob Ford.
ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
Elgin
3 p.m.
I am Elizabeth!
Elizabeth : the Golden Age will probably be the movie of the year at Oscar time - it is really that majestic and good - and deals with the time of Philip and the Spanish Holy War conquest of the world with its eyes set on Protestant England - the bit of history that is the Spanish Armada attacking England was well covered in that British series about battles in history - Elizabeth the Golden Age was shot in 70 days so there wasn't enough budget and time to do the entire three week battle - but the bit about breaking the formation and the rocks is accurate enough - and the question and answer session was illuminating.
UNE VIELLE MAITRESSE
North American premiere
6:30 p.m.
Scotiabank 1
Catherine Breillat made it to Toronto again - despite her stroke she introduced her film : the costume drama Une vielle Maitresse. She did the question and answer - and there is a lot of Asia Argento on display in the costume drama Une Vielle Maitresse [ and some male bums and other females ]
NORMAL
world premiere
9:00 p.m.
Scotiabank 2
The evening was capped off with a Canadian film NORMAL from our fave Vancouver director Carl Bessai who made his fifth appearance at the festival [ and Normal is the fourth Bessai film we have seen including Lola and Emile ]. Carl Bessai brought most of his leading cast with him onstage including Carrie Anne Moss as the grief stricken mother unable to come to terms with the loss of her son in a tragic accident [ cue Sigourney Weaver and Girl in the Park ] and Callum Keith Rennie as the catalyst in the events and lives of the character of Normal. Normal is not an exploration of the ongoings of American Beauty type suburbia, although Victoria, BC is very posh from the air. While this movie will probably only hit festivals and a limited Canadian run - because in its present form with the stepson accidentally seeing his stepmom naked and then there is a love scene between the two followed by the father coming home early so the son has to go into the bathroom to hide and the stepmother has to engage the father to prevent dad from going into the bathroom where the son has to hide but unfortunately have to see his dad's bum before making his escape - of course - this movie is Crash-like but more realistic and it is cool to see Canadian movies because Canadian movies are cool and show things that just aren't done in America.
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