RANTING & RANTING

All this inside baseball has worn me out.  And worse, there isn’t much new worthy of discussion.

The schedule for Toronto has come out and my initial list of films to see is 57 titles deep… for a 10 day festival.  On top of the movies, I also have to booze and schmooze with as many producers, distributors and filmmakers as possible, introducing them to my new status as a festival director.

Much of my interest comes from an interest in certain filmmakers. I want to see the new ones from Breillat, Kore-Eda, Techine, Ichaso, Medem, Boyle (2), Cuaron, Godard, Rohmer, Cox, Saura, Lynch, Loach, Makhmalbaf, Denis, Gunnarsson, Jeunet, Mamet, Figgis, Dahl, Hughes, August, Apted, Schepisi, Nair, Szabo, Jacquot, Chelsom and Peploe. 

And I am seriously curious to see what actor Arliss Howard will do behind the camera.  Same with Tim Blake Nelson, whose second film as a director will arrive before we see him in a second major acting role.  George Hickenlooper expands his range, as does Sarah Polley. 

Some titles already have a rep.  You don’t need to know French to recognize Absolumnet Fabuleux as a beret wearing remake of TV’s AbFab.  What about The Fluffer for a title?  Pauline et Paulette already has a good buzz.  There’s no sign of James Brolin or Connie Selleca in Mike Figgis’ Hotel.  And some guy named F.W. Murnau made some flick called Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror.

There are Sundance titles aplenty… a surprising number:  The Believer, The Business of Strangers, Waking Life, Manic, Tape, Margarita Happy Hour, The American Astronaut and Dogtown and Z-Boys.  (I’m sure I’m missing a couple more.)  The Cannes winner, The Son’s Room, is amongst the large contingent from Cannes 2001.  And of course, there is a load of studio fare. 

The biggest disappointment for me was the inclusion of Sur Mes Levres, which I was hoping to sneak into Miami before it showed anywhere else.  The film is from Jacques Audiard, who wrote and directed A Self-Made Hero, but who more importantly, for me, wrote Baxter, a pitch black comedy that still makes me laugh just thinking about it, over a decade after seeing it for the first time.  Speaking of which, one of the five films I am most anticipating is Jeanne-Pierre Jeunet’s La Fableeux destin d’Amelie Poulain.  Despite the story problems with Jeunet’s Alien film, I still consider him one of the great film visualists of this era. 

And so the festival run begins… the column might become even more infrequent as I start off on a seven film a day schedule.  I’ll let you know.  I the meanwhile, see you Friday.

READER OF THE DAY:  To The Nth writes:  " Here are my lists for 2001

Best of 2001
Bully (God bless Larry Clark for telling it like it is. Excellent performances. Too bad  Lions Gate dumped it into theaters.)
Amores Perros (thought it was better than Crouching Tiger)
Memento (name a movie besides Shrek, with longer legs)
Crazy/Beautiful (contrary to what you said, I think the cutting of the sex scenes hurt the film. Turned it into an afterschool special)
Baby Boy
O (Weintein's praying for it not to make money, but it will. Excellent little film)
Heart Breakers
Bridget Jones' Diary
Snatch
Rush Hour 2  (I loathed the first one, can't believe I dug this one)
Made

Worst of 2001
America's Sweethearts (the streak is over Julia!!!)
Session 9 (the crowd I saw it with was laughing throughout)
Pootie Tang (embarrassingly bad)
Tomb Raider
Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back (20 minutes of it was funny, the rest was painful to sit through)
Josie And The PussyCats
Wet Hot American Summer (walked out with 20 minutes left)
Original Sin (MGM shouldn't have cut the sex scenes. They're all this flick had going for it)
The Wedding Planner (If they hung Jennifer Lopez for being a good actress, they'd be hanging an innocent woman)
Legally Blonde (I walked out. Nothing worse than an unfunny comedy)
Scary Movie 2
American Pie 2
Capt. Corelli's Mandolin (easily Nic Cage's worst performance ever)
Freddy Got Fingered
Baise Moi
Ghost World (What the fuck is everyone raving about. I walked out an hour into it.)

Looking Forward to
Vanilla Sky
Ali
Gangs Of New York
People I Know
Insomnia
Shallow Hal
A Beautiful Mind
Training Day (script was pretty good)
L.I.E
K Pax
Harvard Man
Heist”

E ME:  What jumps out at you?