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TIFF 2007: In a Nutshell

Monday, September 17, 2007  

I was tired when I arrived in Toronto this year and never quite recovered. Which isn't to say that I was disappointed by the festival. In fact, as Girish has already mentioned, the average film quality this year was better than any of the past fests I've attended. But the pangs of home-sickness and the bouts with movie fatigue kicked in a few days earlier than I would have liked, and by Saturday night I was ready to get on a plane.

I intend to post capsule reviews of every film I saw, but it'll probably take another week before I get through them all. In the meantime, here's a snapshot of the festival, following last year's format. I've also posted a couple new Songs of the Moment inspired by TIFF '07: "Heart of Glass" by Blondie, "L'Arcobaleno Per Giulietta" by Nino Rota, and "I Feel It All" by Feist.

Masterpieces
This will likely end up on my short list of favorite films of the decade:

  • Dans la ville de Sylvie (Jose Luis Guerin)

Stand Outs
All will be on my Top 20 of 2007 (by order of preference):

  • Secret Sunshine (Chang-dong Lee)
  • Le Voyage du ballon rouge (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
  • Une vieille maitresse (Catherine Breillat)
  • Les Amours d'Astrée et de Céladon (Eric Rohmer)
  • Fengming, a Chinese Memoir (Wang Bing)
  • At Sea (Peter Hutton)
  • Useless (Jia Zhang-ke)
  • Paranoid Park (Gus Van Sant)
  • Silent Light (Carlos Reygadas)
  • The Man from London (Bela Tarr)
  • Schindler's Houses (Heinz Emigholz)
  • My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin)
  • Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (John Gianvito)

Stand Out Older Film
From the Canadian Open Vault

  • Les Bons Debarras (Francis Mankiewicz)

Strong Recommendations
If TIFF weren't so strong, these could all be Stand Outs (by order of preference):

  • Help Me Eros (Lee Kang-sheng)
  • Naissance des pieuvres (Celine Sciamma)
  • Avant que j'oublie (Jacques Nolot)
  • Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud)

Solid Films
I enjoyed each of these for a variety of reasons and would recommend them all (by order of preference):

  • In Memory of Myself (Saverio Costanzo)
  • La fille coupee en deux (Claude Chabrol)
  • Mourning Forest (Naomi Kawase)
  • Contre tout esperance (Bernard Emond)
  • Encarnacion (Anahi Berneri)
  • One Hundred Nails (Ermanno Olmi)
  • Wolfsbergen (Nanouk Leopold)
  • Ne touchez pas la hache (Jacques Rivette)
  • Mutum (Sandra Kogut)
  • XXY (Lucia Puenzo)
  • No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen)

Frustrations and Disappointments
Three this year (by order of preference):

  • Redacted (Brian De Palma)
  • Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Shekhar Kapur)
  • L'amour cache (Alessandro Capone)

Wavelengths
Among my favorite shorts from the Wavelengths programs were films by: Ute Aurand and Maria Lang, Hannes Schupbach, Bruce McClure, Pip Chodorov, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and Daichi Saito. I also still like the Ken Jacobs and Charlotte Pryce films that I mentioned back in May.

Walk Outs
None, but only because I was sitting in the center of the aisle and only a few feet away from the director of L'Amour cache, and I didn't want to make a scene.

Skips and Reschedules
I skipped three films this year: La citadelle assiegee, because I decided to join Girish for dinner; Margot at the Wedding, because the buzz was lukewarm and I wanted to spend the afternoon writing; and Import Export, because it was a late night screening and I was exhausted. I wish I could have seen the Seidl film because everyone said it was great. Due to some schedule shuffling on the last two days, I also missed Dans la vie, Munyurangabo, L'Acadie, L'Acadie?!?, Ploy, and Sad Vacation.

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