You may have gathered from my article "This Year's Line Up" that I was very excited by the announcement of George Romero's special Toronto International Film Festival (T.I.F.F.) presentation of Powell and Pressburger's The Tales of Hoffman.
As I clipped a press pass to my shirt pocket for the first time last week, I remembered that this laminated ID doesn't merely entitle me to free movies: I'm accredited media, permitted to conduct interviews, too!
Now, I'm not a well-known guy, not generally and not among the 500 or so TV and newspaper folk also here to cover the ten-day event. If I wanted to interview Bruce Willis, I'd have priority over no one. I'd have better luck tearing a phone book in half.
So it occurred to me that I'd be better off going after the directors. Chief among my targets, then? George Romero. He's a hero of mine, and according to his fans, an accessible celebrity. The top choice was made.
I approached happenin' Steve Gravestock, co-ordinator of the Dialogues program. A quick definition of this exciting program: established filmmakers (be it actors, producers, etc.) introduce a motion picture that has personal significance. A Q&A follows the screening. In previous years, Chow Yun-Fat has presented One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Greg Araki the Cary Grant comedy The Awful Truth.
Steve generously pulled two tickets (for Pete and myself) for The Tales of Hoffman, but warned me that Romero was on a tight schedule and might not be available for anything more: he's deep into editing on Bruiser, a thriller he recently wrapped in Toronto.
I tried not to dwell on the possibility of discussing the industry with the man who gave us Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead, lest I set myself up for heavy disappointment.
Tuesday appeared from nowhere--this is how the space-time continuum operates during the TIFF--and Steve had encouraging news: four journalists, myself included, might have a "round table" opportunity with Romero the following morning at eleven AM. It was tentative; a room had been reserved at the Park Hyatt in anticipation.
(A restored version of) The Tales of Hoffman was shown at the Cumberland Cinemas. The 59-year-old Romero warmed up his audience by recalling the times he watched a 16mm print of the film with Martin Scorsese, when they both had burgeoning careers. He stressed how lucky we were to being seeing it in a movie theatre.
The lights dimmed, the curtains rose, and The Tales of Hoffman began. What a strange and beautiful piece of eye candy, though clearly not everyone's cup of tea. (There were a number of walkouts.) I think the opera (the entire movie is set to famous arias) took many by surprise. (Indeed, it takes a while to get used to the absence of the spoken word.)
Those who stuck around for the dialogue tried to resolve Mr. Romero's fascination with this surreal musical. We can make superficial links between The Tales of Hoffman and, say, Romero's gruesome Martin (one woman speculated out loud that expressionism is a shared trait of Powell and Pressburger's work and the cinema of horror), but Romero explained that it may not have informed his art so much as it gave him appreciation for film and for opera in his formative years.
Steve had no official confirmation by Tuesday evening. By about midnight, I realized I hadn't written any questions for my hypothetical round table. By the time I left Oshawa the following day at 9:30 AM, I was prepared enough.
A wide-load on the highway delayed us. Chris was driving, and driving as fast as he could, but we didn't pull into the Park Hyatt lot until five minutes after eleven o'clock.
My lateness was irrelevent. The director would not be showing up. It was a case of Romero having too much on his plate.
"Even 'Entertainment Weekly', who wanted a photo shoot with Romero," Steve explained, "had to settle for taking pictures of him at the Cumberland."
I should report that this has otherwise been the best T.I.F.F. I've ever experienced. Besides, all is not lost. Apparently, Mr. Romero may be able to squeeze in an interview in the coming weeks...
