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A friend describes it as the equivalent of Christmas morning — the day
that each year's film festival schedule arrives in the mail. I'm not
embarrassed to say that I had trouble sleeping the night before the Toronto
program arrived at my door, and I woke up before 7 a.m. that morning for the
first time in several months because I was so excited. When I was nine,
Christmas held the promise of new toys. Now that I'm 37, the last Wednesday
in August holds the promise of new movies — movies that no one else has seen
before, movies that I may never have a chance to see again. That's no
exaggeration. Shara, my favorite film from last year's festival,
hasn't played anywhere else since, and my hopes that it'll receive even a
small distribution deal have faded away.
But with over three-hundred movies to choose from and only nine days to see
them, how do I whittle down the possibilities to just forty? How do I decide
to see a mystical film from Thailand instead of an earthy, Russian movie? Why
do I choose a dusty movie from Afghanistan instead of an acclaimed
documentary on wine? And why is almost everyone in Toronto scrambling to get
a ticket for a film about female genital mutilation in Africa?
Ask any festival goer, especially the hard-core cineastes, and he'll
be able to describe in excessive detail how he arranges his schedule. For me,
I have a complicated system that takes into account various factors: the
country where the film was made, if the movie has played at other festivals
and won any prizes, whether people I respect are hoping to see it. I upgrade
shorter movies and downgrade three-hour epics (the festival experience is
tiring enough without a 200-minute epic). I check out reviews from the
European festivals and what they say about movies playing in Toronto. The
most important factor though, is the director. I'm not a hard-core
auteur theorist, but I do believe that good directors usually make
good films, and the filmmaker's track-record is the best indicator of future
quality. So if Agnes Varda has a movie in the fest, I'm probably lining up
for that one. Same with Lukas Moodysson, Zhang Yimou, and Michael
Winterbottom. And when Toronto brings not one but two Kiarostamis, well I'd
sell my prized Dire Straits bootleg for tickets to those.
Other things that play a part are if I know and like the actors involved. I'm
a sucker for anything Zhang Ziyi is in, so that makes House of Flying
Daggers an easy choice. Judy Marte was impressive in her debut Raising
Victor Vargas, so I'm willing to give On the Outs a chance. I also
look for movies that handle themes I'm interested in: issues of faith and
truth, poverty and class, adolescence and growing-up. And finally, there's
just gut feel. Sometimes, I see a picture in the program, and I want to see
it. Last year, the photo for the Russian film The Return was
startlingly beautiful, so I bought a ticket, and I was thrilled I
did.
So, having said all that, what films made my cut this year? Well, first the
bad news. Though I desperately wanted to see Notre Musique, Godard's
most-acclaimed feature in years, the two public screenings were scheduled for
Thursday and Friday morning, and I'm not arriving in Toronto until early
Friday afternoon. Ditto on a movie from Hungary called After the Day
Before, which sounded exceedingly interesting. Three movies I was hoping
to see sold out before I could get tickets: Ousmane Sembene's Moolaade
(the aforementioned female genital mutilation movie), Pedro Almodovar's Bad
Education, and an anthology movie called Eros, with contributions from
Wong Kar-wai, Steven Soderbergh, and Michaelangelo Antonioni. But that still
leaves me with thirty-eight movies.
Click here to see my list — my pre-fest
list (arranged in the order I plan to see them) — with title, director
and some comments as to why I chose each particular film. The titles in the
list are linked to the blog, which will be posted day to day. The "T" links
back to the TIFF website, where you'll find more info on each film I hope to see.
Judging from last year, though, I suspect at least a few of these will
change. I might hear something good about some film I hadn't scheduled, or
else something bad about one I had. We're talking buzz, at the
street-level. I've learned to trust the advice of friends on these matters.
I'll try to post every day. Thanks for reading.
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