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TIFF 2009 Day 7: Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs
A welcomed "diversion" to my viewing slate, Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator wasn't the first picture that came to mind when watching Dany Boon's miming about in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "anti-war" themed pic.
TIFF 2009 Viral Day 6: Adrián Biniez’s Gigante
The world tour for Gigante which began at the Berlin int. Film Festival in february landed in Toronto with a really receptive audience mostly filled with curious South American rooted cinephiles. Adrián Biniez, the Argentinean born director who works out of Montevideo, Uruguay (and is good buddies with Pablo Stoll who was also present in the audience) has a bright future ahead of him.
TIFF 2009 Viral Day 5: Soi Cheang’s Accident
After a stop at the 66th Venice International Film Festival, Soi Cheang stopped in Toronto for the international premiere to Accident. A film that came to the festival some a certain amount of clout, as one of the film's producer is none other than Johnnie To, the picture sure looked good, but it came across as a film that embodies the mindset of it's characters - it thinks it's clever, but its only an illusionary facade.
TIFF 2009 Interview: Jesper Ganslandt (The Ape)
After having been to the public screening (see video here), later in the festival, I would have a long sit down with the director behind The Ape (Apan). What I thoroughly enjoyed about the film, is how it never once cares about supplying backstory, it makes the case that this is utterly unimportant. Jesper Ganslandt is clear about what interests him, the approach he wanted to use in terms of the style of the film and how he was going to get the performance he wanted from actor Olle Sarri - who signed on without nothing anything about the storyline.
TIFF 2009 Day 6: Pablo Stoll’s Hiroshima
A tribute to his former collaborator, the late Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll's maiden solo flight has little chance of seeing major international theatrical distribution, but it remains a welcomed experimental film that might be mum on dialogue, but heavy on soundtrack and ideas of isolation and disbanding from the family (the filmmaker employs his own members) – actual home movies are intelligently inserted in this discourse.
