It's an unusual pick for the closing night gala: Onegin, based on the Pushkin poem. A Hollywood product with the hype machine behind it typically fills this slot. (1995: Devil in a Blue Dress. 1996: That Thing You Do! 1997: Seven Years in Tibet. 1998: Antz.) Then again, the film stars Ralph Fiennes (for the last time, it's pronounced Rayf Fines--he's Welsh), an actor the Academy appreciates (he was Oscar-nominated for his performances in both Schindler's List and The English Patient--what, no nod for The Avengers?), as well as perennial "up-and-comer" Liv Tyler. It's also a family affair, which lends it novelty: Ralph's sister, Martha, directed it, and Ralph's brother, Magnus, composed the score. (Since when did the Fienneses turn into the Brady bunch?)
I had predicted that Lasse Hallstrom's The Cider House Rules (based on the novel by John Irving and starring Tobey Maguire and Charlize Theron) would close the Fest. It turns out I was right about it screening there, at least. The film will have its world premiere at the T.I.F.F., but I guess its subject matter (the goings-on at a depression-era abortion clinic) makes for an unsuitable endnote.
Speaking of controversy, Kevin Smith will be here with Dogma, his latest comedy. I read the screenplay for Dogma back in 1997, and it's hilarious; audiences at Cannes felt that way about the finished film. For those who don't know, it's the story of a single woman (Linda Fiorentino) who leaves her job at an abortion clinic (do I sense a theme?) after she is beckoned by higher powers to pursue two rogue angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon). She is joined by the "prophets" Jay and Silent Bob (of Smith's New Jersey trilogy) and an assortment of heavenly creatures. Though Dogma would only offend the rightest of right wing Christians, Miramax dropped it to avoid a conflict with parent company Disney. It may play here under the Lion's Gate banner, if the terms of a distribution deal are finalized by such time.
Most of this week's local print articles about the T.I.F.F. have focused on the line-up of celebrities scheduled to attend part of the ten-day event. In the wake of The Sixth Sense, everybody's buzzing about Bruce Willis' impending visit--he's coming to promote Breakfast of Champions, Alan Rudolph's adaptation of my favourite Kurt Vonnegut book. (Alas, it's a text that has no business being a movie.) Sean Penn may show up for Woody Allen's new film Sweet and Lowdown, as might Uma Thurman for same. Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman are penciled in to accompany Wayne Wang's Anywhere But Here, an Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore for the nineties. Jewel, who's attached to Ang Lee's Civil War drama Ride with the Devil (Lee cast her, according to the singer-turned-thesp, for her "period teeth"), might be joined on the stage at the film's gala by ubiquitous co-star Tobey Maguire.
I'm truly excited by the line-up of directors premiering their latest works at the T.I.F.F. Aside from Smith, this roster includes Atom Egoyan (his Felicia's Journey opens the fest--I hope to chat with the approachable Mr. Egoyan again about his experiences, as I was fortunate enough to do back in '95), Lawrence Kasdan (for Mumford), Errol Morris (the documentary Mr. Death), Wes Craven (Music of the Heart, a Meryl Streep drama which once bore the much less soppy title 50 Violins), James Toback (a Brooke Shields/Mike Tyson(!) starrer about rap (!!) called Black and White), Bill Forsyth (the long-awaited sequel to Gregory's Girl, aptly branded Gregory's Two Girls), and actor-turned-director Tim Roth (The War Zone, a reportedly deeply unsettling portrait of sexual abuse within a family), to name a few.
A brief glimpse of other movies that will be playing at this year's T.I.F.F.
-Paul Schrader's Forever Mine, a characteristically moody drama starring Ray Liotta and...(drumroll)...Joseph Fiennes (brother of Ralph, Magnus, and Martha, and star of Shakespeare in Love). This one, if memory serves, was actually shot in Toronto.
-The Woody Harrelson narrated Grass, which is not about the stuff you tread on when you retrieve the morning paper.
-The English-dubbed version of animator Hayao Miyazaki's acclaimed Princess Mononoke, featuring the voices of Claire Danes and Gillian Anderson.
-A Map of the World, starring Sigourney Weaver, adapted by Scott Elliot from Jane Hamilton's smash hit novel.
-Greg Araki's Splendor, described in the press release as a "post-Godardian screwball comedy." Hmm...
-The two winners of this year's Palme d'or, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's Rosetta, and Bruno Dumont's L'humanité (whose success was scorned by Ebert).
-Jason Priestley makes his directorial debut with Barenaked in America, a documentary about the absurdly popular Canadian songsters Barenaked Ladies.
-Priestley's feature is not to be confused with American Beauty, a Kevin Spacey/Annette Bening vehicle that has garnered so much good press its poster is made up entirely of quotes from ecstatic critics.
-Werner Herzog looks back at his most frequent collaborator, the late German actor Klaus Kinski, with the aptly-titled My Best Fiend.
-The "Dialogues" series this year promises to be something special. I'm already there to see George Romero's special presentation of Powell and Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffman.
Believe me, that's only a taste of what's playing. I've barely touched upon the World Cinema and Perspective Canada sections (Jeremy Podeswa's conceptual drama The Five Senses opens this particular group of pictures; at the related press conference, Podeswa told a warm tale of coming to the fest as a teenager and being given the royal treatment, an experience that convinced him to become a filmmaker). All told, there are a (record-setting?) 319 films scheduled for T.I.F.F. '99. (That figure encompasses shorts and documentaries in addition to feature-length fiction films.)
Two weeks to go before the next mad dash begins. Refrain: So many movies, so little time.
