Toronto and New York Film Festivals of 2014

First blast of TO titles, from Zhang, DG Green, Leigh, Baumbach to Jon Stewart...

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-toronto-2014-lineup-round-1

really hyped for eden i think

Pretty grim lineup for the most part

Is that a reference to the sequel to Fay Grim?

stoked for the mia hansen-love french touch thing

but yeah... line-up so far makes me worry that tiff is indeed losing ground

well, what's missing that wd allegedly be available?

Pedro Costa, Matias Peniero, Alex Ross Pery and Lav Diaz all have films in competition at Locarno, but they'd probably wouldn't go to Toronto as well. Isn't it always boring middlebrow pap getting in position for an oscar-run?

inherent vice, which is going to NYFF

boring middlebrow pap getting in position for an oscar-run is just one sector when you're showing several hundred films.

Absolutely, and I would love to go. But most of those films aren't premieres, which is what we're talking about here, right?

I generally don't care what's a premiere and what's not, since I'm theoretically going to Toronto (which I haven't in ten years) or NY (which I will likely be unable to this year) since I never go to European fests.

not going to Toronto you mean? or you are?

not. but every year I think I am, even tho I make no preparations.

Yeah, I probably shouldn't talk shit about Toronto. It isn't really the festival as much as the coverage of it that annoys me. Articles like this: http://variety.com/2014/film/news/tiff-toronto-intl-film-festival-gala-special-presentations-1201266480/ Like, all the films they write about sound awful. But I do like that someone had the guts to make a film called American Heist already. But of course, I should just stop reading the coverage, it's not as if the media in Denmark give a shit about the festival. Even the fact that Susanne Bier's latest will premiere over there hasn't really gotten attention, while it was big news when her last got a spot at Venice, even though it was out of competition.

And really: Petzold, Hansen-Løve, Östlund and Ullman. There are some interesting titles already.

There was this film-critic claiming that the five most important festivals in the world was Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Toronto and New York. And that made me mad. But, really, who cares?

lot of different ways to judge importance.

and yet, none of them put all of sundance, toronto and new york in the top five. except the wrong ones.

the announcement a couple of days ago was just kinda glossy premiere stuff; there's a bunch of cool or else sorta 'notable' premieres, like a ~new noah boambach film~, cool euro stuff, &c, but it was mainly a showcase for some kinda oscary erin-brockovich-wave features. strayed. they haven't announced the opening film, yet, & i'm sure the festival will have all of the deep cuts everybody here is interested in. it's just sprinkled with some kate winslet as well.

ouch: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/toronto-film-festivals-anti-telluride-720646

Telluride is so much more pleasant and low-key to actually attend than TIFF ever could be, trying to ice them out is unwise imo. I'm not sure the insistence on exclusivity does them many favours.

i think they're feeling underappreciated

classic canada vibes.

classic canada vibes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QILPJ-vz1Xs

mmm good vibes

next round, TO

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-toronto-2014-lineup-round-2

roy anderssssssssssssson

Genre-leaning stuff looks pretty solid now - Strickland, Benson/Moorhead, Du Welz, Sono, Wingard.

andddddddersssssssssonnnnnnnnnnn
+ godard

NYFF main slate...

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-nyff-2014-main-slate-lineup

and Toronto IV

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-toronto-2014-lineup-round-4

new denis, new costa @ tiff :D

and TO the last part (?)

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-toronto-2014-lineup-round-5

NY Doc Spotlight, incl a Maysles world premiere

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-nyff-2014-documentary-spotlight-lineup

Projections, the NYFF section formerly known as Views from the Avant-Garde:

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-nyff-2014-projections-lineup

Haven't tried to buy a ticket in years--30, maybe. (I've had a few given to me.) But, after overcoming my philosophical objection to paying $24 to see a movie, I figured I'd try for Wiseman's National Gallery this morning. There are 1,069 people ahead of me at the moment, but it seems to move quickly--between an hour and two, I estimate. We'll see if I'm still there.

So much for that--745, both weekend screenings sold out.

Only going up for the last three days - no cc so sticking to the rush lines, which I've had excellent luck with.

pick me five NYFF films to order tom'w, nothing opening commercially before December

(ie Godard 3D opens in NY around Halloween, so no rush)

~it begins~

(tiff)

For NY, I only bought Cronenberg and Ferrara. The Alex Ross Perry is already sold out! Working with star actors, it's a cash cow.

i saw:
mommy
mr turner
clouds of sils maria

all good to varying degrees, all pretty long

today im going to see roy andersson and eden and after that i'll have seen all the movies i'm really rabid about

cool, dude

how much of Spall's grunts are meant to be understood as words?

oh man, he growls like a dog for half the movie, it's kind of amazing

there is also an amazing conversation about fruit growing in various climates featuring an extremely goofy john ruskin

haha

I need to get back up to TIFF, maybe next year.

Technically off-topic, Lisa Cholodenko's four-hour movie (to be HBO miniseries) Olivia Kitteridge premiered. FT review:

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Olive Kitteridge is four hours of Pulitzer Prize book adaptation directed by Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) from Elizabeth Strout’s novel of agony, ecstasy and just-chugging-along in a Maine family of three. Tragedy; comedy; small-town pastorale. I usually hate literature on telly but this page-to-screen conversion is a winner: domestic and socio-civic miniaturism as sharp as a gemstone and as brightly burning as Bergman.

Frances McDormand plays the hapless heroine: a snappish, intolerant, long-suffering wife and mother-of-one. Emma Bovary; Hedda Gabler; mix the two together, then add the wear and tear of coastal years in a story covering decades. Nothing is ordinary here, even in a sea of New England ordinariness: not even Richard Jenkins as a pained pharmacist and mouse of a spouse who bites back when bitten once too often in a brilliant scene of horror in a hospital hostage incident.

It looks stunning, with a sheeny realism gorgeous and nightmarish like a master copyist’s Edward Hopper. Hardly surprising: the cinematographer is David Lynch’s Frederick Elmes. McDormand herself is amazing. You really do need to go to Bergman – to the Liv Ullmanns or Ingrid Thulins of Ingmarworld – for a comparison.

Roy Andersson won top Venice prize btw

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-venice-2014-golden-lion

Yeah! And The Look of Silence (which is a Danish-Norwegian co-production) won Grand Jury Prize. Great day for Scandinavian cinema. Quite oustanding year for Scandinavian cinema, actually.

nice about roy andersson, though i don't think this is his best

still, some really wonderful stuff in it.

kinda loved eden despite its obv flaws

and im seeing the hong sang-soo tonight, excited

it is weird anticipating eden as a movie about french garage music because you forget it is gonna just be 1000% ... a mia hansen-love movie. i wish she'd figured it out visually a lil more - like has that thing about digital not being very good for rendering darkness ever been truer - because her lo-key naturalism didn't fit, sometimes, but the confident parts were really moving. also, wow, pauline ettiene, swoon.

I got Pasolini & Turner. Others I wanted to see (inherent vice, godard) were already sold out.

What day are you doing Cronenberg, dr. M?

Sunday 28th matinee

anyone seen this? surprising given Ichikawa film's greatness

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-toronto-2014-shinya-tsukamotos-fires-on-the-plain

http://blogs.indiewire.com/bent/the-problem-with-the-imitation-game-20140915

Yesterday the Toronto Film Festival announced that Morten Tyldum's "The Imitation Game" won their annual People's Choice Award, and a predictable trajectory begins: Toronto will very likely get to brag that for the third year in a row (and sixth time in seven years) their audiences chose an eventual best picture Oscar nominee. It's a very safe choice to continue that tradition -- and also a very safe movie in general. Particularly compared to last year's TIFF People's Choice Award winner, which like "The Imitation Game," was a biopic of an extraordinary man who was brutally persecuted: "12 Years a Slave." Except unlike "The Imitation Game," "12 Years a Slave" was actually a brutal film to watch, and one that largely did justice to the horrors faced by its persecuted protagonist.

I'm already mixing up the Turing and Hawking biopics.

(maybe bcz i find Cumberbatch and Redmayne equivalently dreary)

No way ... one has an odd upsidedown squash-shaped head and the other one has succulent trout-lips for days.

too androgynous a trout.

Any port in a stream.

Laura Poitras to premiere her Snowden doc at NYFF (Opens NY/LA late Oct)

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014/blog/laura-poitras-citizenfour-edward-snowden-nsa-nyff-world-premiere

Cumby has also played Hawking in a TV movie apparently

some tix were just released, got em for Mr. Turner!

nice its a goody

The new Film Comment has a lovely one-page interview with Spall; I didn't know he'd had leukemia in the late '90s.

an anticipated "2015 release" is the surprise screening, any guesses?

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014/films/nyff52-surprise-screening

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

smartguy

"festival favorite"

Hou martial arts film?

wow, imagine. it wasn't terribly long since production wrapped, afaict; it would be a real get.

Oh, shit, if that is it, that would be incredible! But it could also be new Malick.

ach. these all feel to cannes-y, to me; isn't it more likely to be some small glossy state-funded european thing that'll be on VOD in march? i don't know who the nyff favs are.

apparently it's Noah Baumbach‘s While We’re Young

it was always weird that that movie wasn't playing at NYFF considering where the climax takes place

too obvious?

anyway i must bypass in favor of Hou-produced A Borrowed Life out in Queens, which has scarcely ever shown.

NYFF added encore screenings for Sunday (today it was Inherent Vice which quickly sold out); that's when I'm seeing the Hong Sang-soo. Otherwise unexpectedly impressed by Ferrara, pleased with Leigh, meh on Cronenberg.

also this Rod Serling-JL Makiewicz thing is free tomorrow, have always wanted to see:

http://www.filmlinc.com/nyff2014/films/a-carol-for-another-christmas

the Hong is p splendid, maybe his best since Tale of Cinema

haven't seen tale of cinema but hill of freedom is wonderful!, yeah, just a delight. have a bunch to write about its structural tricksiness that i will try to bleat at you here tomorrow.

i loved it too