August 21, 2002

MORE CATCHING UP WITH THIS YEAR'S FESTIVAL TITLES:
Final line-up announced

OFFICIAL NEWS RELEASE - PLANS ANNOUNCED FOR SEPTEMBER 11TH Toronto - On September 11, 2002, the 27th Toronto International Film Festival presents thematic programming - including Gala Presentations of THE GUYS and 11'09"01 - and will provide an opportunity for guests of the Festival to observe this day. The Festival will go dark until 11 a.m. All screenings (Public and Press & Industry), press conferences, and Rogers Industry Centre programming will resume at 11 a.m. that day. Business will be suspended for the morning, as well, but Festival offices will remain open for guests and staff to gather. The counselling services of Warren Shepell Consultants Corp., the Festival's Employee Assistance Program, are available throughout the morning for Festival staff and guests. A full and complete schedule of programming activities resumes at 11 a.m. "It is very important to us that the Festival programme acknowledges the terrible events of this day, the first anniversary of September 11th," says Festival Director Piers Handling. Screening highlights for the day include two Gala Presentations at Roy Thomson Hall. Directed by Jim Simpson, THE GUYS tells the touching story of a fire captain (Anthony LaPaglia) who lost eight men in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers, and the editor (Sigourney Weaver) who helps him put together the eulogies he must deliver. A compilation of shorts from 11 international directors entitled 11'09"01 compose a memorable look at the days events. Directors for this series include acclaimed filmmakers Youssef Chahine, Amos Gitaï, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Shohei Imamura, Claude Lelouch, Ken Loach, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mira Nair, Sean Penn, Idrissa Ouedraogo, and Danis Tanovic . A portion of the money generated by single ticket sales from these two Gala screenings will be donated to UNICEF and Handicap International. As part of Contemporary World Cinema, the Festival also screens RENO: REBEL WITHOUT A PAUSE, directed by Nancy Savoca. The film captures Reno's one-woman, stand-up comedy show in New York, where the sanctimony and patriotism of a post-September 11 society becomes material for a performance that is at once comic, self-effacing, and healing. Screening with Savoca's film are two shorts: THE VOICE OF THE PROPHET, from Robert Edwards, is a 1998 profile of Rick Rescorla, head of security for an investment firm on the 44th floor of the World Trade Centre. Rescorla, who was killed in the September 11 attack, discusses terrorism, his own military past, and failures of US foreign policy. PRAYER, from Jay Rosenblatt (KING OF THE JEWS, HUMAN REMAINS), is a masterful collage of archival footage that juxtaposes prayer rituals from myriad religions.

This year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) line-up is complete: final selections--a few of which came as pleasant surprises to me--were announced yesterday morning at the Windsor Arms. I have, for instance, been eager to check out the high-concept Phone Booth (even though Joel Schumacher directed it), and my desire to see a big studio film "in progress" overrides my loathing of Eminem, thus I consider the workprint screening of Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile to be a hot ticket.

I've already plugged a number of the Fest's 326 titles (80 of which are shorts), but here are a few more that have got people buzzing in the sweaty days leading up to the ten-day partée:

All or Nothing - Mike Leigh is back in kitchen-sink mode with the De Niro to his Scorsese Timothy Spall starring as a London cabbie trapped in a loveless marriage.

Auto Focus - I always look forward to the next Paul Schrader project, and by all accounts, Schrader's look at the post-"Hogan's Heroes" life of actor and confessed sex addict Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) is unflinching and powerful.

Blue Car - I want to see this female coming-of-age story mainly because it won the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting--the same year I lost. Everybody has his or her reasons.

Bubba Ho-Tep - Finally, finally, a mummy movie set inside a retirement home, courtesy of Bruce Campbell and the makers of Phantasm.

Dolls - Takeshi. Beat Takeshi.

Far From Heaven - Safe director Todd Haynes resurrects the Sirkian melodrama for this smiley-on-the-surface tale of a fifties housewife married to a perfectly good gay man. Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid play the mismatched couple.

Femme Fatale - Brian De Palma's latest closes the Festival. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos stars in the title role of this throwback to De Palma's earlier movies about movies, Blow Out and Body Double.

Frida - The genius behind Titus Julie Taymor directs this long-in-development biopic of the hard-living, uni-browed Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (Salma Hayek). Hayek's boyfriend Edward Norton co-stars and polished the screenplay.

Gerry - A bomb at the increasingly lowbrow Sundance, Gerry thus finds itself topping my list of must-sees. Promises a return to maverick form for Gus Van Sant, even though Good Will Hunting veterans Matt Damon and Casey Affleck fill out the cast.

The Good Thief - A remake of Bob Le Flambeur could go very wrong indeed, but because Nick Nolte and Ralph Fiennes are aboard with Neil Jordan at the helm, The Good Thief holds promise.

Heaven - Tom Tykwer's interpretation of an unfilmed Krzysztof Kieslowski screenplay, said to have Dustin Hoffman hailing it as the best movie he's ever seen(!).

Ken Park - Larry Clark is the Orson Welles of today in reputation--someday they'll appreciate him like I do.

Punch-Drunk Love - I fell in love with Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights at the 1997 TIFF and am anxious to see the hyphenate's latest well-kept secret, which made a splash at Cannes.

The Quiet American & Rabbit-Proof Fence - After the sensational Aussie thriller Dead Calm, director Phillip Noyce sold out to Hollywood, but some thirteen years later he reclaims his roots with the Walkabout-esque Rabbit-Proof Fence and the already-acclaimed Graham Greene adaptation The Quiet American, both out of the United Kingdom.

Secretary - Maggie Gyllenhaal as a receptionist into spanking. (Walter C. just went into cardiac arrest.)

Sex is Comedy - Don't trust her! With Catherine Breillat, sex is a whole lot of things, but "comedy" is never among them.

Ten - Film-festival fave Abbas Kiarostami returns with this anthology film after a three-year hiatus from Iranian cinema.

Vendredi Soir - The annual Claire Denis entry. (Denis also directed a segment of the portmanteau film Ten Minutes Older: The Cello.)

The fun begins two weeks from tomorrow. If you can't make it into the city, look no further than Film Freak Central for your vicarious TIFF thrills!-Bill Chambers

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