It's that time of year again. TIFF '11 is almost here. I have 18 films in 9 days! The most I've ever tried to see!! And once again my films are European-centric. Stay tuned as a give my daily wrap up on the films and sights I see during my whirlwind week. My schedule is as follows:
Thursday Sept 08
Play (Sweden)
An insightful and troubling film about race, ethics and manipulation, Ruben Östlund’s Play is based on an actual incident in Gothenburg, Sweden in which a group of black kids manipulated white and Asian teenagers into surrendering their valuables.
Friday Sept 09
Goodbye First Love (France)
Detailing the first love of a couple of young teenagers, we follow the progression of their affair, from initial rapture to heartbreak as he wants to travel the world before settling down. Devastated, she must learn to grapple with his absence.
Oslo, August 31st (Norway)
Anders wanders the city, meeting people he hasn't seen in a while. Long into the night, the ghosts of past mistakes will wrestle with the chance of love, of a new life, with the hope to see some future by morning.
Saturday Sept 10
Wuthering Heights (UK)
No starched lace, no panoramic views, no sweeping score — Andrea Arnold takes Emily Brontë’s classic novel and strips it to the root of youthful passion, restoring its stark power for a contemporary audience.
House of Tolerance (France)
This highly stylized look at the final days of a fin-de-siecle brothel in Paris conjures up the languid elegance and frank sexuality of French Romantic painting.
Among Us (The Netherlands)
Split into three segments, each told from a different perspective, Marco Van Geffen's smart thriller Among Us focuses on the lives of immigrant workers in Europe.
Sunday Sept 11
Martha Marcy May Marlene (USA)
This graceful portrait of a young woman trying to extricate herself from a cult has the flavor of an early Terrence Malick film like Days of Heaven.
Guilty (France)
Vincent Garenq’s disturbing drama investigates the corrupt judicial system under which Alain Marécaux and his wife Edith were arrested on accusations of pedophilia — horrific acts they never committed- and the years he spent fighting to get out of prison, clear his name and keep his family.
Monday Sept 12
Rampart (USA)
Woody Harrelson gives a ferocious performance as a dirty cop, balancing a home life with two ex-wives as he becomes embroiled in the Los Angeles Police Department's infamous Rampart corruption scandal.
You're Next (USA)
A family reunion spirals into a night of terror when mysterious assailants wearing animal masks lay siege against the clan in the new film by the director and writer of last year's Festival indie hit, A Horrible Way To Die.
Tuesday Sept 13
Intruders (Spain)
Spanish director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo's latest film transcends the confines of the horror genre through an emotional engagement with childhood fears, human frailty and the threat of the unknown.
ALPS (Greece)
A mysterious underground outfit, going by the name of ALPS, offers bereaved individuals a very unusual service: they stand in for their dearly departed.
Wednesday Sept 14
The Invader (Belgium)
Tense and riveting, The Invader encompasses so much of what the Festival is about: the thrill of cinematic discovery and the experience of a story whose layers of resonance do not fully emerge until after the credits have rolled.
Las Acacias (Argentina)
Pablo Giorgelli’s feature debut unfolds almost entirely along the fifteen hundred kilometres of highway that links Asunción, Paraguay, to Buenos Aires, a route that Rubén (Germán de Silva), a trucker with thirty years under his belt, knows well.
Thursday Sept 15
Take Shelter (USA)
Overwhelmed by visions of an impending apocalypse, a young father and husband (Michael Shannon) channels his anxieties into obsessively constructing a storm shelter in the family’s backyard.
Michael (Austria)
Michael, a mousy insurance salesman, keeps an under-aged boy locked in his basement, while doing his best to appear ordinary to the outside world. Provided they don't come knocking on his door.
Friday Sept 16
Twilight Portrait (Russia)
Marina, an upper-crust social worker with a doting husband and an enviable downtown apartment, is suddenly transformed into a bizarre twilight version of herself when she is raped by three policemen.
Saturday Sept 17
Snowtown (Australia)
A young teen is taken under the wing his mother's alpha male boyfriend and in a mix of misdirected hero worship and terror, becomes an accomplice to a spree of torture and murder in this brutal and grim dramatization of a real life serial killing spree in Australia.
