Kat: Festival Diary Sept 16
Posted by Katarina Gligorijevic on October 6, 2010 · Leave a Comment
Getting up at 8:00am is pretty brutal when your average bedtime for a whole week has been 3:30am, but it’s not so bad when you’re going to see a doc by one of your all time favourite filmmakers.
Werner Herzog’s 3-D documentary, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, was such a must-see for me that it is the only film I voluntarily got up this early for (I also did this for Heartbeats, but it was sort of a work assignment). Coffee and Starbucks breakfast sandwich in hand, I shuffle in just a couple of minutes before it’s going to start and end up sitting way too close, so that some of the 3-D is headache-inducingly blurry. By all accounts, it looked amazing from better seats, so I won’t fault the film for my lateness.
The film is quite beautiful, but in light of recent YouTube sensations like “Herzog reads Curious George” and “Herzog reads Where’s Waldo” (spoofs on the filmmaker’s signature style of hilariously intense style) the voiceover narration seems almost like a parody. The man is slowly becoming a caricature of himself, but it doesn’t diminish my deep love for him one bit.
Spoiler alert (if there can be such a thing when talking about a doc about prehistoric cave paintings): Herzog concludes the film with some shots of albino crocodiles from a nearby rainforest greenhouse/biodome. Last year, when presenting Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans at TIFF, Herzog was asked to explain the iguana and crocodile shots in that film. He gleefully replied that he’s just so fascinated with the creatures that he can’t help but put them into his films. I was understandably delighted to see that even in a film about caves, he managed to sneak in some reptiles.
After the film, a super-amazing meeting with my pal Travis that I can’t discuss yet but promise to reveal everything about (pictures & all) the next time I do any kind of festival diary. Scout’s honour. Not that I was ever a Scout, but I certainly wouldn’t besmirch their good name.
In the evening a quick stop at the hotel before racing to a members’ only cocktail club (I’m a member, because I’m a cocktail nerd), the Toronto Temperance Society, for drinks with the directors of last night’s Midnight film, Red Nights. Anyone who saw the film (and the incredible “dry martini” scene it contains) can guess that these are no ordinary frenchmen. They are serious booze enthusiasts. I ordered steak & frites from the restaurant below to accompany my cocktails. A girl needs protein to keep her stamina up after eight days of hardcore festivaling!
After drinks, we all head to the Ryerson for a 9:00pm show (for a change) of Monsters, which I was especially thrilled to see because Whitney and Scoot had been so delightful at dinner the night before. I was completely charmed by it. One of my top picks of the festival thus far.
Final stop of the night, the Ryerson for The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman, a super fun and unexpectedly wacky entry from mainland China (MM’s first from there). Actually, I spoke too soon. That wasn’t the final stop at all. The final stop was going to Rol San on Spadina after the film with the film’s director, Wuershan, and various others, to satisfy a raging craving for Chinese food that his film brought on.
Upon reflection, today was a good day for eating. Top three highlights:
1) Tasting the Toronto Temperance Society’s Old Fashioned. It’s the best in the city, hands down.
2) Getting to see the 3-D Herzog. I’ve been so stoked for so many months, I would have literally imploded if I slept through that damn thing.
3) Bonding with Travis. It’s nice when you get to spend quality time with friends outside of the festival vortex, even though it is the middle of the festival, and that’s what they’re actually in town for.
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