12:30 am – Crammed four films and two interviews in today, and am currently in desperate need of some sleep. As expected, The Master in glorious 70 mm was quite the experience, but one that many people will be bound to feel slighted by. A pair of top-tier performances are the meat and potatoes of this Scientology inspired story of loneliness and lunacy. After the screening I spoke with Berberian Sound System director Peter Strickland about the origins of his examination of aural psycho-horror. The intensely researched doc on a single sprawling case of child molestation, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House of God, and an excellent interview with its director Alex Gibney filled the remainer of my afternoon. Rounding out the night was directors Jason Lapeyre and Robert Wilson’s mediocre satire I Declare War and Ariel Vromen’s bland gangster bio-flick, The Iceman, starring Michael Shannon as the infamous hitman, Richard Kuklinski. And now, a bed is calling my name. [Jordan M. Smith]
1:10 pm – Start of week 2 at TIFF features Ozon’s In the House, Vromen’s Iceman, Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson, Zilberman’s A Late Quartet and Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder (which didn’t claim the big prize in Venice). [Eric Lavallee]
