Monday, 18 September 2000

This is the end, my long lost friend, the end...

I ended up seeing 48 films in 14 days of Telluride-N-Toronto. Funny how that number makes me feel like I came up a little short. But so be it.

There are 15 films that I really regret having missed in the run of the two festivals, given not only my initial interest, but the buzz emerging from them. The majority of the list is from Toronto, but that has a lot to do with the fact that I only missed 9 new films at Telluride and have two regrets from that group: The Endurance, a documentary based around footage from an ill-fated 1914 expedition, and Aberdeen, a Stellan Skarsgård film that played at both festivals. The other 13 are:

Blaise Moi - Porn disguised as art. Clearly a stunt, but I remain curious.

The Circle - The hit of the Venice Film Festival. Yet another Iranian film of note.

Deeply - Still curious about any movie that Kirsten Dunst decides to make.

Ginger Snaps - One of the big buzz films of the festival. Vampire chicks. Cool. Won an acknowledgement from the Canadian Film Jury for "the outstanding talent of Karen Walton for her wicked, insightful, and intelligent script."

Greenfingers - Word is that the Clive Owens/Helen Mirren/David Kelly comedy could be a great buy for someone.

ivansxtc - Some hate it. Some are fascinated. I'd like to have my own opinion.

Low Self Esteem Girl - A Canadian digital film. The title wins me over every time I think about it.

Maelstrom - One person called it, The Best Film of the Festival. In general, word is that the film is very intense, but not pretentious. Won an Honorable Mention from the Canadian Film Jury for "extraordinary artistic exuberance."

Pollock - One of the toughest tickets at the festival. Ed Harris' lovechild of a movie.

Requiem For A Dream - The new Aronofsky. Kind of makes it sound like he's had a long career or something. Well, it seemed long to me while watching Pi. But people seem to find this film more accessible, especially for Ellen Burstyn's performance as a junkie.

Songs From The Second Floor - When asking people what they saw that was worth checking out, this film came up as often as any other...yet no one really had anything concrete to say about it. Interesting.

Time & Tide - Tsui Hark kicks butt. I want to see that.

waydowntown - The local favorite (I should write, "favourite") and winner of the City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film. Sounds to me like the result of some kind of genetic experiment involving Kevin Smith and Danny Boyle, but what do I know?

14 of the 21 new films at Telluride were at Toronto this year. I missed five of those films (Aberdeen, Better Than Sex, Faithless, Kippur, YiYi) at both festivals. Two other Telluride films have already been mentioned and another three will be on the lists below. That just leaves a couple of new films from Telluride that I don't care about, one way or the other. If you want to figure out which two they are, go to town. I'll restrain myself. I also should mention two great presentations from Telluride that would be on the top of "Best of" lists at any festivals, restored versions of William Wyler's Hell's Heroes and Budd Boetticher's Seven Men From Now. And there are six films that appeared that I saw before the T-n-T coverage began. They'll be marked either "Sun" for Sundance or "LA" for Los Angeles.

As I try to figure out at "Best of" list of my own, it's pretty amazing how difficult it is. With almost 50 new films to choose from. there are only five that I really didn't like. And ironically enough, they are the films with some of the biggest names to appear at either festival. They are:

Chinese Coffee (Te/To) - Al, you are a great actor. 'Nuff said.

Duets (To) - Great cast in a nonsensical script.

How To Kill Your Neighbor's Dog (To) - Too glib by half. I didn't believe a second of it.

Men of Honor (To) - Some love it. Not me. I wish this great story, made with great actors and a good young director was more cinematic and more nuanced.

The Weight of Water (To) - Another waste of fine actors. Brood, brood, brood.

"The Bests Of The Fests"