It took me a while to realize that this year marked the tenth year I'd been volunteering at the film festival. Which explains why they're starting to kind of meld together in my memory...
Hence, the necessity of blogging.
It also explains why each year it's taking a bit longer to recover from the experience. It was another round of daily excursions downtown, finding the parking spots, navigating around the street closures, and occasionally controlling the minor road rage (why do people not understand that you can't turn left in that lane??).
The films were definitely more varied than in recent years. Of course, I took in the typical big budget Hollywood fare starring well-known actors and adapted from novels (The Martian, The Danish Girl, Brooklyn), but the rest was a bit more off-beat and weirder (The Lobster, Anomalisa, The Lady in the Van), and as usual a few foreign language ones thrown in (The Whispering Star, A Tale of Three Cities). In the interest of brevity, this time I'm going to comment on the ones that impacted me:
Jason Reitman's Live Read
When they announced that they were going to be reading "Princess Bride", I knew I just had to be there for it. It's not like it's the most exciting concept, a bunch of actors sitting on a stage, reading a script with someone narrating the directions, but it was going to be an experience, I was sure of it. The first challenge was the ticket. My vouchers were only good for regular screenings or for rushing premium screenings, which of course was what the reading was. Dedicated fest goers would be lining up for hours. Second challenge was timing. I had a volunteer shift right before the reading, luckily at the same theatre, but it meant that I couldn't be one of those people sitting in the line for hours. Obviously, it would be great if I could have someone else sitting in the line for me, saving me a spot. But my friend, who wanted to see it with me, was also working and wouldn't be able to get to the theatre any earlier than me. So my odds were looking pretty slim. But if all those years of going to the festival has taught me anything, it's to never give up on the rush line (I've only done that once, and it was only because the line was 3 blocks long by the time I got there). As it turned out, we had the better spot in the line, as we could see the actors entering through the back door. We were the first to see Patrick Stewart, his baseball-capped head down as he hurried inside. We saw Cary Elwes, and speculated on his role. As the line started to move, we also saw a dark haired woman run into the building. None of us could identify her. I thought she resembled Sarah Silverman, but it definitely wasn't her.
By some miracle, after a couple of hours waiting in the rain, inching forward when they started selling to the rush line, my friend and I both made it in. Beyond that miracle, we were somehow able to get 2 seats together. A sign that we were meant to be there. Since we got in late we missed the introductions. Amazingly, we saw that Cary Elwes was reprising his role as Westley. We also saw the dark haired woman, sitting in the seat marked "Inigo Montoya", which we all knew was for Gael Garcia Bernal, but thanks to Twitter we had already learned that his flight was late. Who was this mystery woman? Whoever she was, she was doing a great job, to the point where I thought she must be Hispanic.
Halfway through the performance, Jason was about to read a stage direction when he stopped and said, "Isn't my sister doing a great job?" And so the mystery was solved, the woman was Catherine Reitman. Because, when you're in a jam, who else are you going to call to fill in at the last minute other than your family? As we applauded her, she graciously gave up her seat and Gael came in, sat down, and picked it up immediately (the stage direction ironically said that Inigo was catching his breath).
I've seen the film countless times, and while there was really nothing different from the film, the little things made it the most unique experience. You had Cary Elwes taking a photo of Patrick Stewart as he said his first line. You had Georges Laraque, a professional hockey player who sounds EXACTLY like Andre the Giant, giving other seasoned actors a hand ("That's not my line"). You had Gage Munroe, the young Canadian actor playing the Grandson, being the one that sounded the least like he was reading a script. You had Rachel McAdams, in my opinion playing Valerie a bit better than she was playing Buttercup. All of these little things added up to a really fun night.
Anomalisa
If I were to recommend a film from the festival, this is the one. That is, if you appreciate the crazy stylings of Charlie Kaufman ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" still gets me every time). An existential stop-motion film that, I have to admit, took me a minute or two to understand what was going on. But then it made sense. Well, as much sense as his films can make. All of the moving parts of this film were impressive: it's stop-motion animation (which always impresses me, knowing how painstaking the process is), it was originally an audio play, there are only 3 actors providing the voices (part of what confused me, and then made total sense), and it was crowd funded by a Kickstarter campaign. It's scheduled for release in December.
The Lobster
Imagine living in a world where everyone had to be paired up (heterosexually or otherwise) by something in common (a personality trait or a physical attribute), but if you aren't able to find a mate in 45 days, you are turned into the animal of your choice and released into the wild. The main character, David, played by Colin Farrell, has lost his wife (it's a bit ambiguous as to how), and is immediately taken to the hotel where single men and women go to find their mate. It's a completely controlled environment. Inhabitants can prolong their stay by going out on the hunt for "loners", using tranquilizer darts to shoot people living in the woods who have chosen not to follow the rules of society. Each loner captured extends the stay by one day. Eventually, David realizes that he doesn't want to be part of the system anymore and escapes into the woods to join the loners. But is life outside of the system any better? It's a really interesting (and kind of depressing) analysis of society and human nature, and it's one of the most original ideas for a film I've seen in a while. But it's got one of those ambiguous endings that I was frustrated by. I'm not sure if it's going to be released in theatres.
The Whispering Star
By far the most artistic film I've seen, almost ever. And it actually made sense, even when it became incredibly weird. Shot in black and white, with almost zero soundtrack or background noise, and with everyone speaking in whispered tones, the story is about a future where humans have spread out in the galaxy thanks to teleportation, but they still have the need to send packages to each other by courier. A female robot travels alone through space in a ship that looks like a house, delivering strange packages. On the way, she tries to learn what she can about humanity. What fascinated me the most wasn't the story, but where it was made. All of the exterior shots (i.e., the planets she visited) were filmed around the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. The towns near the plant had been completely evacuated after the accident, which made some of the scenes extremely eerie. During the Q&A session, someone asked if the actress (who's also the director's wife) was ever nervous during the shoot. She said they had geiger counters with them to ensure they weren't exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. Seriously, hard core.
I could go on about the other films, but there's not much you can't learn from online synopses. I liked all of them. Hopefully that helps a little.
Go watch a movie.
"Even if we can't find heaven, I'd walk through hell with you"
