DAY 6
Tuesday, September 11
cue The Beatles Hold Me Tight
Score! Just landed a ticket tonight for King of California at 7 p.m. Which means we can see Lars and the Real Girl on our Thursday schedule. 21 films down, so far to go.
Tuesday is marked by double bill Evan Rachel Wood day with her starring in Across the Universe at the Elgin and King of California down at Scotiabank. Miss Wood is the busiest actress here actually appearing in four movies at TIFF07 with the addition of In Bloom [ which we had a ticket for but conflicted with Juno ] and a voice in the indie animation Terra [ again with the time conflict ]. Miss Wood is in tow and been seen partying and dining throughout the celebrity hotspots with a certain
M Manson.
ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
11:00 a.m.
Elgin
Across the Universe
The Elgin is the best place in the world to see Across the Universe - an exuberant and thoroughly delightful lookback at "the gory glory of the 1960s" [as director Julie Taymor in attendance for the question and answer put it]. The Beatles anthology is the stepping stone to the story between a boy Jude and a girl Lucy who live on opposite sides of the ocean : he in Liverpool, and she somewhere in America. Jude comes to America and in specific Princeton University in search of his birth father who met his mother in England during the War. He meets up with Max who he saves from being caught by the authorities after an evening's travails. Max invities Jude to his house for Thanksgiving weekend, and on that one star-crossed night Jude and Max's sister Lucy meet and connect.
Everyone in the cast can truly sing, and most of the singing is indeed "live". Across the Universe starts off with Jude's plaintive singing by the seaside of Girl then the movie really launches with a rousing rendition of Lucy [with thoughts of her boyfriend] singing Hold Me Tight complete with homage to a certain young leatherclad band at the Cavern. Taymor warned if you thought Evan Rachel Wood could act, you would be astounded to hear her singing voice as well. The songs of the Fab Four are the narrative to this story of three fateful years in America in the late 1960s marked by the dying of the young in Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Timothy Leary and Ken Kesey references - and the growing of consciousness of Lucy from innocent schoolgirl who spends a summer at a New York City tenement with Jude who becomes an artist, her brother Max unsuccessfully trying to escape the draft and new friend and landlord Joplinesque / Robert Plant style singer Sadie and Hendrix-like guitarist Jojo in New York City - and alas, Lucy's boyfriend is killed in action. Lucy becomes a radicalized war protester. After many adventures including one magical mystery tour aboard the Koolaid Express bus, Jude and Lucy find themselves separated not just by politics but by immigration who after one incident during the Columbia riots Jude is arrested and deported. The choreography and presentation of the 33 songs used in Across the Universe often left the audience clapping at the end of each episode. The Beatles songs have been rescored and reinvented - certain Beatles trademarks are there but "one chromosome away" from being The Beatles itself - otherwise it might as well just be The Beatles. Jude and Lucy find themselves separated not just by politics but by immigration who after one incident at the Columbia riots Jude is arrested trying to save her and he is subsequently deported back to Liverpool. Of course by the end love triumphs because after all: all you need is love.
The question and answer session with Julie Taymor was detailed with stories of the rehearsal process, the casting search for all "her children", the emphasis on the live performance, the pre-records but always ready to do the song live.
NIGHTWATCHING
2:30 p.m.
The Elgin
I was watching the night - I was nightwatching
Back to the Elgin again - this time for Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching. Maybe the one miscalculation of the day because we could have been or should have been at Sleuth at 3:45 p.m. at Ryerson. But there is just a certain fortitude and stick-to-itness that is always necessary to endure Peter Greenaway. [ You try six hours of The Tulper Suitcases at the Varsity - we remember one morning screening of The Tulper Suitcases 1 and 2 in Varsity 8 at 9 in the morning and there were 8 people tops in the whole floor. That was the year of Intermission when Colin Farrell was at the top of his game].
The year 1642. At the behest of his wife Saskia, Rembrandt mindfully agrees to a commissioned group painting of the Amsterdam Musketeer Militia in a group portrait that would become The Nightwatch.
The story behind Rembrandt's famous painting The Nightwatcher is explored - hypothesizing a murder has been committed and amongst the characters on the canvas is the killer himself. The consequences of Rembrandt's audacity after this painting was done - on commission by the group itself! - are a detrimental blow to his life and career.
Nightwatching the movie is a stagey presentation with Rembrandt and various critics breaking the fourth wall convention to directly speak out to the audience - and Greenaway gives them close-ups and latitude. Rembrandt is far from a saint but deeply in love with his wife while consorting with the help. Of course in every Greenaway movie nudity abounds. Old fat people, young maids, and Rembrandt himself [played as an arrogant, profane, yet caring - no man has just one facet after all by Martin Freeman].
Nightwatching turns out to be an audacious or pretentious but grand disappointment.
THE KING OF CALIFORNIA
7:00 p.m.
Scotiabank 1
Michael Douglas just had to show up and the theatre was packed. As narrated by the precocious Evan Rachel Wood as Miranda, the daughter of Charlie who she never calls "dad", who is forced to fend for herself at home for two years as her father has been in a mental hospital for the past two years.
After Charlies comes home, he tells Miranda about a book. From a diary Charlie read in the hospital library, he deduces that a certain Father back in ancient California left behind a treasure and all the clues are in the maps and the pages of the diary. And willingly or unwillingly, Miranda is on the ride of her life as she joins in his quest for the gold. Of course the search is the foundation for the father and daughter to search for their own meanings of their life that has encroached upon their previously isolated territory which is now dominated by the ever expanding and pervasive world of Costco and McDonald's and Chuck E Cheese. Michael Douglas's crazed personality of Charlie is convincing enough to take Miranda and the audience along for his adventurous fixation on finding the gold.
There is a high hilarity and comedy in this first time effort from Chuck Cahill and produced by the Sideways team led by Alexander Payne which will guide this movie to a enviable first step niche.
NAISSANCE DES PIEUVRES
9:45 p.m.
Scotiabank 14
A look at first love in the lives of three young French girls in the world of synchronized swimming. All being fifteen years old, Naissance des Pieuvres [ Water Lillies ] strikes a sensitive and provocative chord as the gamine and reserved Marie attends a synchro swim competition. Marie is friends with the plump Anne who is on the team, but Marie longs for first kiss and is drawn to the perfect blonde Floriane as a way of getting into the synchronized swim classes. Floriane has a reputation of being a flirt and a slag, and she is the eye of the handsome boy on the boy's swimteam.
Floriane lets Marie into her world of the pool and her relationship with her boyfriend. The overtones of F****** Amal or Show Me Love ring bells but there is the subtle wit of first time director and writer Céline Sciamma that gives this movie a real pleasing charm.
Now we have to grab one hour of sleep before the day begins. And more to come ...and just in case you were interested our initial schedule has changed several times - just keep scrolling down
| EVENT | TITLE | DAY | DATE | TIME | FINISH TIME |
| RYERSON | THE BRAVE ONE | THU | 9/6/2007 | 09:00pm | |
| Scotiabank 1 | Les Amours d'Astree et de Cela | FRI | 9/7/2007 | 09:30am | 11:19AM |
| Ryerson | The Brave One | FRI | 9/7/2007 | 11:45am | 1:44pm |
| Scotiabank 4 | The Mourning Forest | FRI | 9/7/2007 | 12:00pm | 1:37PM |
| Scotiabank 3 | Joy Division | FRI | 9/7/2007 | 02:45pm | 4:18pm |
| Scotiabank 4 | THE MAN FROM LONDON | FRI | 9/7/2007 | 06:00pm | 8:15pm |
| Ryerson | THE VISITOR | FRI | 9/7/2007 | 09:00pm | |
| Scotiabank 2 | Control | SAT | 9/8/2007 | 09:00am | 11:01am |
| Scotiabank 3 | Captain Mike Across America | SAT | 9/8/2007 | 11:45am | 1:22pm |
| Ryerson | Battle in Seattle | SAT | 9/8/2007 | 03:00pm | 4:40pm |
| Ryerson | JUNO | SAT | 9/8/2007 | 06:00pm | 7:36pm |
| Varsity 8 | IN BLOOM | SAT | 9/8/2007 | 07:00pm | 8:30pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | Chrysalis | SAT | 9/8/2007 | 09:45pm | 11:14pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | The Visitor | SUN | 9/9/2007 | 09:00am | 10:43am |
| Scotiabank 2 | Starting Out in the Evening | SUN | 9/9/2007 | 1:00pm | 2:51pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | Les Chansons d'amour | SUN | 9/9/2007 | 03:30pm | 5:05pm |
| Ryerson | The Girl in the Park | SUN | 9/9/2007 | 06:00pm | 7:49pm |
| Ryerson | Chaotic Ana | SUN | 9/9/2007 | 09:15pm | 11:15pm |
| Ryerson | No Country for Old Men | MON | 9/10/2007 | 09:00am | 11:02am |
| ELGIN | The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford | MON | 9/10/2007 | 11:00am | 1:40pm |
| ELGIN | Elizabeth: The Golden Age | MON | 9/10/2007 | 03:00pm | 4:55pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | UNE VIELILE MAITRESSE | MON | 9/10/2007 | 06:30pm | 8:24pm |
| Scotiabank 2 | NORMAL | MON | 9/10/2007 | 09:00pm | 10:44pm |
| ELGIN | Across The Universe | TUE | 9/11/2007 | 11:00am | 1:13pm |
| ELGIN | Nightwatching | TUE | 9/11/2007 | 02:30pm | 4:51pm |
| SCOTIABANK 1 | KING OF CALIFORNIA | TUE | 9/11/2007 | 07:00pm | 8:45pm |
| Scotiabank 14 | Naissance des pieuvres | TUE | 9/11/2007 | 09:45pm | 11:10pm |
| Scotiabank 3 | Bill | WED | 9/12/2007 | 09:00am | 10:37am |
| ELGIN | Cassandra's Dream | WED | 9/12/2007 | 11:00am | 12:48pm |
| ELGIN | Atonement | WED | 9/12/2007 | 02:30pm | 4:33pm |
| ELGIN | La Fille coupee en deux | WED | 9/12/2007 | 06:00pm | 7:55pm |
| Ryerson | I'm Not There | WED | 9/12/2007 | 08:30pm | 10:45pm |
| Ryerson | Silk | THU | 9/13/2007 | 09:00am | 10:48am |
| ELGIN | Margot at the Wedding | THU | 9/13/2007 | 12:00pm | 1:32pm |
| Scotiabank 14 | King of California | THU | 9/13/2007 | 02:15pm | 3:51pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | Lars and the Real Girl | THU | 9/13/2007 | 02:30pm | 4:16pm |
| ELGIN | Angel | THU | 9/13/2007 | 06:00pm | 7:59pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | Smiley Face | THU | 9/13/2007 | 10:00pm | 11:24pm |
| Scotiabank 2 | MARRIED LIFE | FRI | 9/14/2007 | 09:15am | |
| Cumberland 3 | The Tracey Fragments | FRI | 9/14/2007 | 12:45pm | 2:02pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | MAD DETECTIVE | FRI | 9/14/2007 | 03:00pm | |
| ELGIN | Chacun son cinema | FRI | 9/14/2007 | 06:00pm | 7:59pm |
| Varsity 1 | Les Bons Debarras | FRI | 9/14/2007 | 09:30pm | 11:24pm |
| Scotiabank 1 | Le Voyage du ballon rouge | SAT | 9/15/2007 | 10:00am | 11:53am |
| ELGIN | Amazing Journey: The Story of The Who | SAT | 9/15/2007 | 02:30pm | 4:30pm |
| Ryerson | NOTHING IS PRIVATE | SAT | 9/15/2007 | 06:00pm | |
| Cumberland 3 | Joy Division | SAT | 9/15/2007 | 08:15pm | 9:48pm |
| Cumberland | HELP ME EROS | SAT | 9/15/2007 | 09:15pm | |
| Varsity 8 | Lou Reed's Berlin | SAT | 9/15/2007 | 11:45pm | 1:10am |
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