Kat: Festival Diary Sept 17
Today is yet another one of those “remember, it’s a marathon not a sprint” days when I finally have to accept the fact that I’m too tired to even go out for cocktails (depressing) and end up taking a nap instead (amazing idea, though).
After a morning at the Scotiabank watching the latest Zach Braff joint, The High Cost of Living, for REEL CANADA, I struggle through a workday and eventually leave early for the specific and exclusive purpose of napping. En route to the hotel, though, I run into a non-TIFF-related pal who I was supposed to have drinks with in August (failed), so we end up going to Biermarket at King and Portland and having two rounds of much needed pick-me-up-beers, after which I really did go to the hotel for a nap.
The nap proved to be the best idea I ever had, because it allowed me to stay awake during Stake Land, which I completely loved. Colin’s folks were in town, so I sat next to his mom during the film, and when it was over she leaned forward and introduced herself to director Jim Mickle’s parents. They shared a “our sons were just on the stage together” moment, and Jim’s mom told the most adorable story of how they took him to see a Dario Argento film at Midnight Madness when he was just 15 or 16 years old. The cutest.
Top three highlights of the day:
1) Running into my friend Adam, which meant I had someone to have a pre-nap drink with (because doing it alone would have been sad).
2) Meeting Stake Land director Jim Mickle’s mom and being able to sincerely tell her that I thought her son’s film was super awesome.
3) The fact that I get to sleep in tomorrow AND get a day off from TIFF for a good friend’s wedding.
Kat: Festival Diary Sept 16
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.
Kat: Festival Diary Sept 15
Day seven. It’s all slowing down to a crawl for me at this point. Reviews are piling up, the number of meetings I’m supposed to schedule and attend before everyone leaves town seems endless, and most of all, I’m completely exhausted. Still, it never feels right to complain about seeing too many movies, or attending too many parties, so instead I grab a jumbo coffee and go to a screening of Trigger, then retire to my office for a bit of email catch up and general brooding.
But not before I zip to the Hyatt for an interview with Belgian director Koen Mortier, whose film 22nd of May is playing at TIFF, but who really first caught my eye with the bizarre and fabulous Ex Drummer back in 2007. I talk to Koen about his latest film and about upcoming projects, and then Colin joins us briefly to chat. He programmed Ex Drummer, so they’re old friends. I pray that recording the interview on my iPhone worked (it did) and that I’ll have time to transcribe it later that evening (no chance in hell, as it turns out).
Since breakfast was a coffee and lunch was a random pastry, I look forward to some kind of dinner this evening, which materializes in the form of a lovely meal at Marben with a few Midnight Madness guests and the two stars of Monsters, Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy (married in real life, and quite possibly the cutest couple I’ve ever met). Whitney talks some of the non-Canucks into trying caesars, our national drink (and one that’s done quite well at Marben). She’s not Canadian, but she’s got great taste.
Stake Land director Jim Mickle gives the caesar a thumbs up, A Horrible Way to Die screenwriter Simon Barrett reacts as though we’ve forced him to taste barf flavoured poison, and orders some kind of mojito instead. All the cocktails, and the food, were excellent.
After walking off some of the food in the pleasantly cooling early autumn air, we head to the Imperial Pub (a pre-Midnight drinks tradition) then off to Red Nights. It’s a film that definitely divided audiences, but I’m firmly rooted on the “pro” side. It was just slick and just pervy enough for my tastes, without becoming campy or overwrought.
Tomorrow, I get up at 8:00am in order to catch the Herzog doc, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, at 9:00am. I’m not sure why press & industry screenings are stacked so heavily in favour of early mornings, but I’ll tell ya, I do not look forward to getting up at that ungodly hour!
Top three highlights of the day:
1) Eating venison ragout for dinner instead of some stale crust of bread that I find in my purse (or worse yet, a whopper from the Scotiabank), and in delightful company, too.
2) Getting to meet and interview Koen Mortier, whose Ex Drummer totally blew my mind when a friend showed me a bootlegged version in ’08. I hadn’t even met Colin at that point, so when months later we started dating and he was like “I gotta blow your mind with this movie”, I was able to say “already one of my faves”. It was a sure sign that he was the One. Or that I was. Either way.
3) Meeting Bobcat Goldthwait (again). Did I mention yesterday that he was at the A Horrible Way to Die screening, as well? Well, anyway. I have been a huge fan since around the age of six or seven, so I was pretty damn thrilled to find out that he’s actually a super nice, down to earth, regular type guy who just wants to hang out, watch awesome movies and go to Midnight Madness.
Kat: Festival Wrap and Top 5!
As mentioned in the Sept 17th diary, I took Saturday off from TIFF to attend a wedding. It was heartwarming and lovely and while I missed Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall his Past Lives and various others on my theoretical must-see list, it was pretty terrific to spend the day in the bosom of my dearest friends. Read more
Shane: Festival Wrap and Top 5!
So, now what?
The fest is done and now I’m supposed to, what, just go home after work? I’m not supposed to wait for an hour to get into a jammed theatre and watch obscure gems from around the world? I have to eat at home instead of perpetually dining at Big Slice and the AMC food court?
What is this, war-time? Read more
Kat: Festival Diary Sept 14
Day six. Over the halfway mark. By this stage of the festival, I’m already not making sense, but it doesn’t matter because my festival-attending autopilot is well trained. I started the day with a 9:30am screening (brutal) of The High Cost of Living (a Zach Braff drama which was thankfully not brutal), after which I tried very hard to catch up on work. This is becoming a common theme of the festival. Work-related emails pile up. I promise myself I will answer them, and then I go into a zombie-like state of blank-minded denial, fumbling through my day and promising myself that I’ll catch up the next day. Not really a good policy, so today I tried to really get it done. I even skipped the Harvey Keitel joint, A Beginner’s Guide to Endings, in favour of replying to emails, because I knew that at 6:00pm my day was truly beginning.
The Bruce Springsteen Mavericks conversation.
Good and buried: In conversation with Buried‘s Ryan Reynolds
If you want to get to know who Ryan Reynolds is as an actor, you will have to dig a little deeper past his title role in Van Wilder, even though it made him an underground goofball god. And you will have to go deeper still past his turn opposite Sandra Bullock in The Proposal, a role that catapulted him to international stardom and the top of every housewife’s “Celebrities they can cheat with” list. You have to dig deep but you needn’t look any further because Reynolds career-changing performance in Rodrigo Cortes’s Buried, will show everyone what was behind that killer guy-next-door smile the entire time. Read more
Different than I imagined: In Conversation with Heartbeats director Xavier Dolan
I want to know which one of you is responsible for this. You’ve clearly hurt Quebec filmmaker, Xavier Dolan’s feelings and I for one am not going to stand for it. He is only 21 years old and already he knows what it is to be tossed aside by critics who once purported to be his biggest fans. You built him up and just because he didn’t do exactly what you wanted him to do, you declared him a disappointment and your earlier proclamations of genius to be premature. While I applaud your ability to admit your faults (even though the point was to highlight another’s), I’m not sure you realize just how much damage you’re doing. You should be fostering genius, not trying to kill its spirit. Read more
Shane: Festival Diary Sept. 18
Ordinarily I’d have thought trying to cram four films into 11 hours at four different theatres foolish and impossible, yet somehow that’s exactly what my Saturday looked like. Read more
In conversation with Modra director Ingrid Veninger and Hallie Switzer
Director Ingrid Veninger’s previous film, Only, starred her son Jacob Switzer, but she insists casting her daughter, Hallie Switzer, in the lead role of her next feature, Modra, was not a matter of being fair. Read more
