TORONTO -- Yesterday, under the scorching Toronto sun, organizers for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced a partial line-up (recapitulated alphabetically below) for this September's extravaganza, which will run for the traditional ten days from the ninth of the month to the eighteenth. The press conference took place at the notoriously swank "C Lounge" (456 Wellington W), though you could tell they put the good china away. (Wise: what is a herd of press but a flock of kleptomaniacs?) Once Media & Public Relations Director Gabrielle Free took the podium a little after 2:00pm, a great, big, wonderful mess of information spewed forth, the most valuable of it coming from the final person to step up to the mike, Festival Co-Director Noah Cowan (Piers Handling's eventual successor). For what it's worth, this is the first year I've attended the big launch that nobody involved with the film chosen to open the Festival (Being Julia) showed up to dog-and-pony their production.-BC
Being Julia (d. István Szabó; st. Annette Bening, Jeremy Irons, Bruce Greenwood)
Programme: Galas
A successful, married actress of the London stage (Bening) enters into an affair with the requisite "charming young American," who gets more than he signed up for in this period dramedy. Producer Robert Lantos' ninth consecutive entry to be chosen as the Opening Night Gala.
Brodeuses (d. Eléonore Faucher; st. Lola Naymark, Ariane Ascaride, Thomas Laroppe)
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema
Claire (Naymark), a pregnant 15-year-old runaway, finds refuge at the place of an embroiderer named Madame Mélikian (Ascaride).
Brothers (d. Susanne Bier; st. Connie Nielsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas)
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema
An ex-convict consoles the widow (Nielsen) and children of his brother, a journalist killed in Afghanistan.
Cape of Good Hope (d. Mark Bamford; st. Debbie Brown, Morn Visser, Eriq Ebouaney)
Programme: South Africa - Ten Years Later
An animal rescue worker (Brown) hosts a couple of lost human souls at her shelter.
The Dead (d. Lisandro Alonso; st. Argentino Vargas)
Programme: Visions
A 54-year-old ex-con (Vargas) embarks on a journey upriver to find the daughter he left behind.
Demain on Déménage (d. Chantal Akerman; st. Sylvie Testud, Aurore Clément)
Programme: Masters
Akerman's 23rd film in the Festival. When a writer (Testud) and her widowed mom (Clément) decide to sell their flat, the flurry of prospective buyers turns the place into a zoo.
Drum (d. Zola Mesko; st. Taye Diggs, Tumisho Masha, Moshidi Motshegwa)
Programme: South Africa - Ten Years Later
In 1950s South Africa, an intrepid reporter (Diggs) covers apartheid from uncharted angles, bringing him in contact with a young Nelson Mandela.
Enduring Love (d. Roger Michell; st. Daniel Craig, Samantha Morton, Rhys Ifans)
Programme: Special Presentations
Ifans stars as a creep who gets between happy couple Craig and Morton in the wake of a freak hot air balloon accident (what is it with Ifans and hot air balloons?). From a characteristically misanthropic Ian McEwan novel.
Forgiveness (d. Ian Gabriel; st. Arnold Vosloo, Quanita Adams)
Programme: South Africa - Ten Years Later
Granted Amnesty by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an ex-cop (Vosloo) tries to atone for acts of brutality he committed during apartheid.
A Hole in My Heart (d. Lukas Moodyson; st. Björn Almroth, Sanna Bråding, Thorsten Flinck)
Programme: Visions
At the behest of Moodyson and to the delight of gutter-minded attendees, Noah Cowan described the film with tongue-in-cheek evasiveness ("...About a father, a son, a friend, and a girl").
The Holy Girl (d. Lucrecia Martel; st. Mercedes Morán, Carlos Belloso, Alejandro Urdapilleta)
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema
A chance encounter between an adolescent girl (Morán) and a middle-aged doctor (Belloso) results in forbidden love.
Hotel Rwanda (d. Terry George; st. Don Cheadle, Sophie Okonedo, Nick Nolte)
Programme: Special Presentations
The true story of Paul Rusesabagina (Cheadle), a Hutu who opened up his luxury hotel to the Tutsis during the Rwandan genocide, effectively saving them from Hutu slaughter.
House of Flying Daggers (d. Zhang Yimou; st. Zhang Ziyi, Takeshi Kaneshrio, Andy Lau)
Programme: Galas
Zhang Yimou returns to the wu xia territory of his dazzling Hero with this princess-in-the-castle action fable, set in the dusk of the Tang Dynasty.
Max and Mona (d. Teddy Matterral; st. Mpho Lovinga, Percy Matsemela, Thumi Melamu)
Programme: South Africa - Ten Years Later
A "professional mourner" (Lovinga) can get anyone to open up and start weeping, a gift that is interfering with his goal of becoming a doctor.
Mozart - The Music of the Violin (d. Mickey Dube)
Programme: South Africa - Ten Years Later
Short subject about a violin virtuoso and his overbearing mother.
Notre Musique (d. Jean-Luc Godard; st. Sarah Adler, Nade Dieu, Rony Kramer)
Programme: Masters
Godard does Dante (as in Alighieri).
Palindromes (d. Todd Solondz; st. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Ellen Barkin, Shayna Levin)
Programme: Special Presentations
A 12-year-old played by multiple actresses flees home after trying vainly to get pregnant. Looks like Solondz has completely lost his mind, but I'm on pins and needles to see it.
P.S. (d. Dylan Kidd; st. Laura Linney, Topher Grace, Marcia Gay Harden)
Programme: Special Presentations
The Roger Dodger director returns to the Fest with an adaptation of Helen Schulman's same-named novel about a romance between a Columbia admissions officer (Linney) and a university applicant (Grace) who is the spitting image of her dead boyfriend.
Ray (d. Taylor Hackford; st. Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Richard Schiff)
Programme: Galas
Timely Ray Charles biopic.
Red Dust (d. Tom Hooper; st. Hilary Swank, Chiwetel Ejiofor)
Programme: Galas
A South African-raised, New York-based attorney (Swank) returns to her homeland to help an antiapartheid activist (Ejiofor) prosecute corrupt police officials. Sounds intriguing as a companion piece to Forgiveness (see above).
Salvador Allende (d. Patricio Guzmán)
Programme: Masters
Documentary of the slain Chilean president.
Silver City (d. John Sayles; st. Chris Cooper, Richard Dreyfuss, Danny Huston)
Programme: Special Presentations
Sayles' latest tapestry finds Chris Cooper parodying Dubya as a senator unwittingly embroiled in a political scandal.
Somersault (d. Cate Shortland; st. Abbie Cornish, Sam Worthington, Lynette Curran)
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema
Coming-of-age tale that unfolds at an Australian ski resort.
A South African Love Story - Walter & Albertina Sisulu (d. Tony Strasberg)
Programme: South Africa - Ten Years Later
Strasberg documents the triumph of the African National Congress through the marriage between two of its most prominent leaders.
Tarnation (d. Jonathan Caouette)
Programme: Visions
A self-portrait of director Caouette's relationship with his mother. Gus Van Sant maxed his clout to get this $219 production (you read that right) seen.
Théme Je (d. Françoise Romand)
Programme: Visions
An autobiographical documentary that apparently makes canny use of mirrors.
À tout de suite (d. Benoît Jacquot; st. Isild Le Besco, Ouassini Embarek, Nicolas Duvauchelle)
Programme: Masters
A 19-year-old girl (Besco) takes up with a Moroccan bank robber (Embarek) after a botched heist.
Vital (d. Shinya Tsukamoto; st. Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto)
Programme: Visions
A medical student (Tadanobu Asano) loses his girlfriend (Nami Tsukamoto) in a car accident, only to be given her corpse to dissect in anatomy class.
Walk on Water (d. Eytan Fox; st. Lior Ashkenazi, Knut Berger, Caroline Peters)
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema
An Israeli secret service agent becomes entangled with the grandchildren of a Nazi war criminal.
The Woodsman (d. Nicole Kassell; st. Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Benjamin Bratt)
Programme: Contemporary World Cinema
A convicted sex offender tries to return to society. Mos Def co-stars.
Yesterday (d. Darrell James Roodt)
Programme: Special Presentation
Roodt (Second Skin) writes and directs the first Zulu-language feature, about a young mother with HIV labouring to conceal her illness from judgmental neighbours.
Zulu Love Letter (d. Ramadan Suleyman; st. Pamela Nomvete Marimbe)
Programme: South Africa - Ten Years Later
The life of pregnant Thandeka (Marimbe) is tragically altered after she witnesses the murder of a young activist.
FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH... VISA cardholders and returning buyers can securely order Passes and Coupon Books beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 19, 2004 on the Festival's Official website at www.bell.ca/filmfest or by calling the Bell Infoline at 416-968-FILM. In-person sales begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 26.
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