2018 Toronto and New York Film Festivals

my slate of tiff tix so far

vox lux
greta
high life
life itself
birds of passage

NYFF tix have not yet gone on sale to my membership level, let alone the general public, and both Other Side of the Wind screenings are on standby already...

I tried and failed to get a High Life ticket at TIFF this morning - all screenings sold out by the time I got to em. Hope they add another screening.

I kinda hafta choose between HL and the Bi Gan film, neither have US release til next year i think.

got my La Flor tickets, ready for the madness

yay: Burning

boooo: Donnybrook

missed out on getting tickets to the new bi gan, fuck me

Kino Lorber will have it out next year i think

bet you can get in on standby, not that tough in recent years

yeah if you show up 60-75 mins early you should successfully rush most things

some roundin' up (more as you scroll)

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5919-widows-guns-and-money

New Assayas is a pleasant Allen-esque trifle, nothing more.

Petzold's TRANSIT easily the best thing I've seen so far. Elegant but bruising.

xp Really? That's such a drag. I loved Personal Shopper & Clouds of Sils Maria. PS especially I hold in high regard and would rate as one of the best of the decade.

I go back and forth with him, but I really can't imagine it being anyone's favorite, despite a few amusing scenes.

high life is def one to ponder, been thinking & talking abt it since seeing it tues

today: Hold the Dark and Ash is Purest White

which were, respectively, mediocre and great

does anyone know if you can trade a ticket for a rush-line voucher?

not suprised but glad to hear Ash is great, definitely my most anticipated for lff

Anyone seen In Fabric?

Seeing it in an hour.

And it was alright. His most overtly comedic (from what I can recall of the others). Fun to watch but I don't see it lingering long (which has been the theme of the fest so far)

how about the Bi Gan film Long Day's Journey Into Night, did anyone get to see that?

No, but I heard only good things

I've heard so many fest goers call the denis the worst of the fest so it's probably a masterpiece

Yeah, that's a given.

seems Mike Leigh's Peterloo is divisive at best?

I haven't heard of anyone loving it.

I've now watched 7 hours of LA FLOR and it's basically a whole fest of its own

ok, hadn't heard of Mariano Llinas or La Flor before your post!

yeah, i'm going to wait til La Flor shows theatrically so I can do one third of it weekly. I liked Extraordinary Stories but i sure as hell don't remember much. Two erstwhile ilxors will be seeing La Flor at NYFF tho.

It has stretches that are incredibly tedious and others that are sublime, often back to back.

I had to bail 2/3 of the way through the six hour chunk that screened today because I need sleep, but because of its structure I don't feel remotely guilty

kind of sounds like pedro costa's films to me, the idea of the sublime and the tedious

I like the imdb description of Extraordinary Stories: "In this adventurous experiment in storytelling, secret identities, missing persons, lost treasures, exotic beasts and desperate criminals are only a few of the elements woven into a grand tapestry of mysteries."

The TIFF films that so far I most want to see:

Asako I & II
Ash Is Purest White
Birds of Passage
Burning
Capernaum
Diamantino
Donbass
Girl
High Life
If Beale Street Could Talk
In My Room
La Flor
Long Day’s Journey Into Night
Shoplifters
Sunset
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
The Good Girls
The Wild Pear Tree
Transit

so many others I haven’t heard much about yet that I’m sure I’ll want to watch

among the audience award contenders - Roma not enthusiastic (although I suppose it could be great), A Star is Born no, Green Book?

I'm expecting Green Book to win

My most trusted cinema pal was unexpectedly wowed by Roma

First Man seems like it could take it as well, sounds awful tho

yeah it does

I'm expecting Green Book to win <----- it won

final TIFF rankings (not including experimental shorts)

Transit = Ash is Purest White > La Flor* >> Burning > Non-Fiction > In Fabric >> El Angel > Hold the Dark > Angel >>> Donnybrook

*with the caveat that I missed 150ish minutes

well, i am seeing Transit and Ash is Purest White in NY, so goody!

I need to see Phoenix apparently. (Had previously only seen Barbara - this was much more accomplished.)

Anticipation for Green Book falling.

Phoenix is an ambitious Vertigo riff (among other things) that didn't really work for me. xp

Barbara and Phoenix are much sleeker than his earlier stuff. You need to also see Gespenster especially! And The State I'm In. I do find him a bit hit and miss, but when he's at his best, as in Transit, he is really great.

the International Platform Jury Award winners Wi Ding Ho’s Cities of Last Things and Emir Baigazin’s The River sound interesting. I've never heard of either of these films (or of the directors)

Bela Tarr was on the Platform jury and I was mortified that they made him sit through DONNYBROOK

lol

the International Platform Jury Award winners Wi Ding Ho’s Cities of Last Things and Emir Baigazin’s The River sound interesting. I've never heard of either of these films (or of the directors)

― Dan S, 18. september 2018 01:12 (twelve hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Emir Baigazin's debut 'Harmony Lesson' premiered in competition in Berlin and won for best artistic contribution for the cinematography, I think, and it's a remarkable film. He's been on my list for years, and I've never had a chance to either see his new stuff or rewatch it, but I'm so happy that he's getting more recognition. I really think he could be special.

a list, of course

https://thefilmstage.com/features/the-best-films-at-the-2018-toronto-venice-and-telluride-film-festivals/

I didn't swing the 13.5-hour La Flor, but KU is over the moon:

https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/review/la-flor

Seeing Godard at 6 tonight, and I hope my seat is mid-row cuz I expect there'll be many walkouts

just Petzold left for me, and my bests of NYFF are easily Godard and Jia.

worst?

KU review of La Flor is mostly description but does a fair job of suggesting the scope/impact.

worst: Her Smell

still cannot get over how hilariously bad that title is

really stinks

Denis prob 2nd worst imho

okay, the bi gan was fairly fantastic

I would put Petzold's in my top 3 of 10 also. Contemporary world for a WW2 period story worked very well. Actor looks like a younger Joaquin Phoenix right down to the lip scar.

i watched Transit at BAM last week and while it seems like it was created by robots for me to like it, i ended up sort of hating it

"kaurismaki without the jokes" is i think how i described it to dr morbius last night

that is....a very ungenerous description, damn

for any Torontonians who missed La Flor at TIFF, the whole shebang is playing the Lightbox next month along with other films from the same collective

https://www.tiff.net/calendar.html?series=el-pampero-cine&list

I would probably go see that out of curiosity, but why would they schedule a 13+ hour film on successive weeknights? I'm pretty sure they've historically screened stuff like that on weekends: Out 1, Berlin Alexanderplatz, Lav Diaz, etc. If you're working, forget it (my job, anyway).

I have a 9-5 so it's a pain for sure. I'm gonna check out Extraordinarily Stories for sure.

Seeing La Flor next week friday, saturday, sunday. So excited.

The Gold Bug and Dog Lady are pretty great from that series as well. Hope it might come to Denmark.

I'll try and catch one of those

For anyone seeing La Flor for the first time, I'd advise you reserve judgment until at least well into the second of the five parts - it takes a while to get into what it's going for.

Prestige TV all over again

trust me, there's nothing TV-ish about La Flor beyond the running length

Long Day's Journey into Night is quite somethin'. The "dream" half is more lucid than the "real" one.

Liked the dream, but otherwise I preferred his debut Kaili Blues. Btw, the film that won the Golden Leopard last year, A Land Imagined, is on Netflix now, and it reminded me quite a lot of Long Day's Journey Into Night.

You should be feeding this to the "never coming" thread