TIFF 07 Day 5 - Monday Sept 10/07

Well, here we are at the end of day 5 and therefore halfway through the festival. Now I'm feeling completely in the groove of things it's hard to imagine not spending my days in dark theatres.

Mongol
Dir: Sergei Bodrov
How often do you get to see a co-pro from Germany/Kazakhstan/Russia/Mongolia? Add to that epic historical? I’m there

Impressions: Gorgeous landscapes and an epic production in this 12th century period piece about the quest for change of the Mongols. It is a grand tale of enemies and allies with many action and fighting sequences. Pretty impressive.


Julien Leclercq, director of Chrysalis (second from left)

Chrysalis
dir: Julien Leclercq
French SciFi = yes. Concerned about level of violence though especially considering it’s part of the Vanguard program.

Impressions: Wow, this one blew me away. I don't think I've ever seen a scifi film at the festival before and I love scifi! The look of the film is just awesome, almost everything is silver and just advanced enough to look futuristic but recognizable. Fair warning: lots of fighting and violence as well as scary ideas/images in the way only SciFi can. But balance that with and interesting story and stellar performances therefore it's so far in my top 2 films of this years festival.

Sad Vacation
Dir: Shinji Aoyama
Look interesting, fit into my schedule. It seems pretty plot driven so I only skimmed over the description to yay/nah it and I yay’d it.

Impressions: Wow, second film of the day with Tadanobu Asano as the lead (he was also in Mongol), both performance were very impressive. This film deals with a lot of tough issues (abandonment, human trafficking, violence) but in a very everyday manner which I think left if a little hard to access for some. It had me for 95% of the time but there were some things that I was left with wondering if I didn't believe or rather, that I didn't want to believe.


Werner Herzog, director of Encounters at the End of the World

Encounters at the End of the World
Dir: Werner Herzog
I have heard so many good things about the director and his latest wild release, Rescue Dawn with Christian Bale and I’ve not see anything by him so my curiously was piqued. Then to add the film is about the South Pole, and I was hooked.

Impressions: As with all the documentaries this year I've found that I only know what the subject matter would be but not the take on how it was presented. This film being about a trek to Antarctica I thought it would be mostly about the land however the films focus surrounds the people who go there, and why. All in all it was a fascinating film and was met with hugely positive response. It was I believe the first film I've gone to that had virtually no seats available and that not only was the director in attendance pre and post show, but was actually in the audience during the screening. Very excited!


Antonin Svoboda (right), director of Forever Never Anywhere

Forever Never Anywhere
Dir: Antonin Svoboda
The picture in the book got me, stories about people stranded can be interested and involved great acting although can also be straining. Fit nicely into my schedule.

Impressions: I am so glad that the director mentioned before the film that this was dark comedy otherwise I would have been very confused (and tisk tisking the audience). It really plays with tolerance levels people in extreme situations. The audience was in stitched and I giggle quite a lot myself, but you need to be in a bit of a twisted mood.

Highlights of the day: Q&A with director Julien Leclercq for Chrysalis. His responses were so great to the questions such as:

Q Can you talk about the design of the film?
A I don't like colour in my life. I live in a black and white apartment. I was interested to imagine a film in black and blue.

Q Why did you have so much violence? I had to look away from the screen a lot
A Just like I say to my Mom, I'm a boy. I like the fighting.

Intro by Colin Geddes during the 'we'd like to thank.... and antipiracy' info:
"Turn off your cell phones, no one is going to call you."

Those are slightly paraphrased due to memory and sketchy handwriting.

Shout out to those in the peanut gallery: We can hear you, whether you think you are being quiet or not even trying to. Button up til the end of the film please.