Overall I enjoyed the festival. The average quality is high, it’s a real public festival like Rotterdam and i saw some unpolished diamonds, even some polished ones. My highlights:
- Slumdog Millionaire. For once I agree with the public’s choice – in Rotterdam I never do -, a fantastic, overwhelming happening;
- The Burning Plain. had a rather critical welcome here in Toronto, but I am still fascinated by the marvelous plot and also here: the devil is in the detail (no spoiler, though);
- A Year Ago in Winter, beautiful acting , I still hear the Bayern accent of Josef Bierbichler;
- Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, a way to make – if possible – war imaginable;
But that’s only a small part of more, beautiful screenings: Snow, New York I love you, Disgrace, Youssou Ndour: I Bring What I Love, Three Monkeys, Plus tard tu comprendras, RocknRolla, Linha de Passe, Goodbye Solo.
So what about a disappointing festival like the below par
Toronto blog of cinema.nl tells me, without persuading me that they have seen an lot of movies at all.
I had only two disappointing screenings: the Canadian movie Paschendaele and Radio Love, and the latter was rather a question of taste ( I did not like the sense of humour in the movie).
International Film Festival Rotterdam, cinema
tiff, TIFF 2008, TIFF08, Toronto International Film Festival
And after one week I bit the dust with my posts around Toronto International Film Festival. Too tired, also a little tired of the festival, a little unwell too – not really sick, anyway – and after all not completely satisfied with my posts,particularly the language. English is not my native language and you see that, well, I can.
But, ok, the festival ended and it’s now time for a final review.
First the second week. I saw less screenings, but some highlights:
- New York, I love you. Because it’s a “work in progress” – not finished yet – I am not supposed to report about this one, but let’s say the “tone” of the movie is very pleasant and nice; and also very up to the minute, I saw my first white iPhone 3g in a movie here; no rating (out of competition)
- The Hurt Locker, from “maverick“ Kathryn Bigelow. How close you can get in a feature film to reality, in this case the reality of defusing bombs in Baghdad? Very close, i can tell you. At the start of the movie – well, not completely the start – you see rocks coming up from the grounds and it’s feeling like you experience yourself the overpressure of the explosion. In the very informative Q&A Kathryn told that that part was shot with a special digital camera (the Phantom) that can shoot about 10.000 frames per second. For an excellent report of that Q&A, see this excellent blog tifftalk. Rating ****1/2
- A Year Ago in Winter, from 2003 Oscar winner Caroline Link (Nowhere in Africa). “small” movie, beautiful painted, as much in screening as in reality, an splendid leading roles from Karoline Herfurth and Josef Bierbichler. The beautiful portraits created by (yes, that I couldn’t find, an update will follow). Rating ****
- Slumdog Millionaire. Overwhelming in every way and also the public favorite. I enjoyed, but had a very bad place in the theatre, third row or so, so I like to see the movie again asap. Rating: ****1/2
- Snow. The reality of the “women of Srebrenica“, about the reality one year after the genocide. A society without grown boys and men, fathers and sons. “Juicy” detail: co-produced by an Iranian company. Rating: ****
- A Time to Stir, Paul Cronin’s 4+ hours documentary about not may, but april 1968, the student revolts at Columbia University, NYC. A nice ending of my festival time, using my only voucher, while skipping two other screenings. No rating, out of competition.
general
A Time to Stir, A Year Ago in Winter, Caroline Link, I love you, Kathryn Bigelow, New York, Paul Cronin, Slumdog Millionaire, Snow, The Hurt Locker, tiff, TIFF08, Toronto International Film Festival
There is a, still a little inarticulated discussion about elitism at this Toronto Film Festival. See this blog and The Toronto Sun . My comment anyway:
As a foreign and first time visitor of the Festival I am a little modest in my own comment, but I hear around me a lot of negative comments of Festival ” tigers” – package holders like me with 30 or more tickets – , especially about the changed policy for the Visa Room Elgin screenings. Though I can not compare the difference with other years, I find the prices of the Elgin screenings ridiculous. Maybe I will blog later over simularities and differences between Toronto and Rotterdam, another big ” public oriented” Festival.
International Film Festival Rotterdam
International Film Festival Rotterdam, tiff, TIFF08, Toronto International Film Festival
My first blog from my iPhone. I use the Wordpress app, very basic. So where i can set the signature ” this is a post from the iPhone” like I used to do from my Treo 680? Anyway, I have to accept now that I can’t finish my new website before thursday, the day I go on holiday. First a renewed acquaintance to New York City, then with Amtrak to Toronto to participate in the International Film Festival. And after that Go West…
Update: I made the links afterwards, too complicated or impossible from the iPhone
cinema
iPhone, New York, tiff, Toronto International Film Festival
