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Day Five is not only the mid-point of the festival, it's
almost my first day to slow down and relax. I don't have to be up until
10:30am. And though I don't sleep that late, there's something nice about
just lying in bed.
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| The first movie is a documentary by Raymond Depardon on
the French judicial system. It's gotten great reviews, but I wasn't terribly
impressed. It's amusing and insightful for a while, but the second half
doesn't add much to the first half. It feels like we're watching a French
version of Judge Judy. The judge, who is a woman, is entertaining at first,
but her rolling eyes and lectures seem like bad habits after a while. And I
wasn't completely convinced that a couple of her decisions at the end were
correct. Of course, we're getting edited views, but that raises the larger
problem. What's the point of the film? We don't have enough information to
really evaluate the court's fairness or its procedures, and the lack of any
outside commentary or explanation reduces us to accepting what we see.
Documentaries should reveal things I don't know, show me things I haven't
seen, take me places I've never been. 10e Chambre doesn't quite
succeed at any of those. Two 1/2 stars, out of five.
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Rob Davis and I left that screening and headed off to find
some lunch. But in one of those serendipitous moments I love about Toronto,
we bumped into Doug Cummings and his friend David. We soon met up with Darren
and Candace and all went out for a lovely lunch of Indian food. The
conversation was delightful, as we talked about movies (of course) but also
whether it's easier to write comedy or tragedy, the nature of adapting books
for film, and what it's like to live in a tourist town. I had some time
after lunch to come back to the hotel and lie down. Even though I didn't fall
asleep, it was wonderfully refreshing.
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| I took a chance with my final film of the day, but it
didn't work out. Buffalo Boy, a movie from Vietnam set in the days of
French colonialism, is a coming-of-age tale. During the flooding season, a
15-year-old boy has to set out with the family's two water buffaloes for
higher ground. Along the way, he has life experiences and life lessons. The
cinematography is gorgeous, but the story is cliched. It doesn't help that it
wants to introduce so many narrative strands that there's no way it can keep
up with all of them. Nonetheless, the large contingent of Vietnamese in the
audience seemed genuinely moved. I was reminded of that great moment in
Walker Percy's The Moviegoer where he describes how much we enjoy
seeing our own situation, our own locale in a movie. It validates our own
experiences, it reminds us that we are not alone, that there are other people
who have gone through the same problems and the same triumphs. So in that
way, Buffalo Boy was a success. Just not for me. Two
stars, out of five. |
We're past the half-way point now, but tomorrow brings the
longest day of the festival.
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