Monday, August 07, 2006

Discovery Programme Announcements

One more stop on this pointless endeavor (for now). And yes, it is quite pointless, since other places are doing a better, more efficient job of this. Regardless, I'm a stubborn guy and I'm gonna keep plugging away, for reasons too complicated and inane to recount.

Anyway, here's the Discovery Programme:
Discovery seemed mostly a waste of time last year, but this year's lot appears to be better. I'm most interested in The King and the Clown, but that may be my general interest in Korean cinema more than anything else.

More updates coming soon. Any and all comments are much appreciated, as ever.
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Sunday, August 06, 2006

'Edgy' New Vanguard Programme Announced

This year sees the debut of the Vanguard programme, and the selection, while not quite as 'edgy' as TIFF claims, is fairly diverse:
Placed side-by-side, these appear to be the missing link between Midnight Madness and the more artsy programmes (e.g., Contemporary World Cinema). Arthouse flicks with a healthy sex and violence quotient for the college crowd. It may sound like I'm dismissing this outright, but the idea isn't automatically a bad one. Just drop the breathless descriptions already: 'raw', 'pulsating', 'fearless' and (especially) 'edgy' are tired marketing terms that no self-respecting person hears without rolling their eyes and sighing. Or worse.

Anyway, the films are an interesting bunch, featuring everything from animation to frank sexuality. Renaissance looks gorgeous, but could devolve into typical sci-fi junk if the ideas fail to match the images. I've read good things about Sleeping Dogs Lie, Shortbus, and the Election films. And a martial arts film that pairs Finnish and Chinese mythology might be interesting, if it can transcend the deja vu raised by the trailers.

Speaking of Election, the rumor is that the two films will be paired together, under one ticket (similar to the presentation of the three Pusher films in 2005). If true, it's a pretty sweet deal considering the average price per ticket.
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Saturday, August 05, 2006

Real to Reel Programme Announcement

The documentaries at TIFF 2006 are:
The selections seem pretty decent, especially compared to last year's. Granted, I only caught one doc in 2005, the fascinating and depressing The Smell of Paradise, but nothing else caught my attention. This year's slate seems richer and more varied (at least to my philistine eyes).
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Midnight Madness Titles

In a break from tradition (or so I'm told), the Midnight Madness titles were announced last month, instead of at the end. In another break, they were announced in the order they would be shown. They are as follows:
From what I've heard, the real winner here is The Host, a South Korean monster movie which has won raves from just about everyone who's seen it. Borat will probably be hilarious and the word is good on Princess, a Danish anti-pornography revenge cartoon. The choices aren't too bad, but there's a definite lack of diversity, with seven of the nine essentially horror films. Compare this to last year, which had a bizarre Thai comedy, a heavy metal documentary, a supremely filthy stand-up comedy film, a Takaski Miike kids' film...well, you get my point.

Still, I'll probably be there for at least a couple of these and there's no way I'm missing a full-audience, midnight showing of The Host.
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Announcement of Indian Films

On July 20th, the TIFF group announced five more films, this time from Indian cinema. They are:

Discuss.
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Canadian Titles Announced (Three Weeks Ago!)

The Canadian titles were announced a few weeks ago and in the interest of doggedly pursuing silly, pointless minutiae, I've listed them below. Note: I haven't linked to the Canadian retrospective titles or the short films. They may be wonderful, but my time is limited and I have a feeling yours is too.

Of these, the Guy Maddin is definitely the most interesting. A silent film, presented with live foley and music? It's bound to be sell out, but that won't keep me from trying. Of the rest, I've heard interesting stuff about Everything's Gone Green, Fido has zombies, and a handful of other films here have interesting premises. I didn't catch any Canadian films last year, but this year's crop might be intriguing.

As always, feel free to throw out a comment, especially if you've heard anything interesting about these or any other films. It's all appreciated.
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I'm Back

Sorry. Didn't intend to take a couple weeks off there. A crisis of confidence can be a real bitch, I tell ya. I'll just skip the explanation and move on. Nothing to see here...

In the meantime, this site has apparently been added to the blogroll at tiffreviews.com. They're a good site for TIFF information and I'm happy to be connected, even if it's only tangentially. Most importantly, it tells me there's an audience out there I didn't know I had. It's nice to know someone's reading this junk, even if it's just one crazed lunatic who never leaves his basement. Especially if it's just one crazed lunatic who never leaves his basement.

Anyway, more stuff is coming soon, I promise. I'll update the film links, add the new stuff, review a few of last year's films, etc. Eventually, this place might resemble an actual film blog, though I wouldn't bank on it.

By the way, if anyone has any questions, insults, deranged rants, etc., feel free to drop a comment in the bucket. I'm no expert on TIFF (no matter how much I act like one), but I'll see what I can do. Many thanks to any and all.
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