Monthly Archives: September, 2011

Officially appearing on my radar twice in the same week (when it was being considered the top contender at Olivier Père's Locarno and when took home not only the Golden Leopard but doubled up with a Best Actress award to boot. Mumenthaler's originally titled 'Absences' (workshopped at Cannes' Cinéfondation) is already drawing comparisons with fellow Argentinean Lucrecia Martel...

Lanthimos' Un Certain Regard winning Dogtooth has charted a course towards the stars (I vividly remember the viewing experience back in Cannes) and there are bandwagon filled with cinephiles who are very much looking forward to seconds. Primed for a big showing in Venice, Alps is the Greek helmers' third film and is closer in DNA to his first 2005's Kinetta.

Single tickets for films showing at TIFF officially go on sale tomorrow and before you consider paying for an overpriced, over-hyped, red carpet Gala screening of a film that will be out in theatres week later, we suggest you mix it up a bit and consider the alternative. Joined by our own Toronto based critic Blake Williams (who is also presenting his latest short entitled Coorow-Latham Road in Wavelengths 4 this year), we've complied a 25-list of invigorating films from pioneering master filmmakers who still don't get enough cred to visionaries making their first contributions to cinema. We begin the countdown with...

"Corneau fumbles with the tone throughout. Is it a dark comedy, or serious psychodrama? Edge-of-the-seat thriller, or tongue-in-cheek satire? Most disappointingly, the sexual attraction between Scott Thomas and Sagnier promises much more heat than it delivers."

"Tsui Hark, a key figure (director and producer) from martial arts cinema of the 1980’s and 1990’s, is back with what’s being touted as his first certifiable hit in years, and one can see why, in this adventure epic that attempts to have something for everyone. But sometimes, having something for everyone results in numbing excessiveness."