Daily Riffs From TIFF - Day 6

Hello, movie lovers everywhere and welcome to the 6th day, of the Festival of Film. Today, yours truly, had a later start - my first film was not until noon. Unfortunately it would also become, my first time, I left a film early, in a long time.

The film that was to have this "dubious," distinction was called, ENTERING THE VOID, directed by GASPAR NOE.

Now, a number of years Mr. Noe, had an interesting film at the Festival, which was called, IRREVERSIBLE. This movie was the story of the rape and murder of a woman, but the gimmick was, that it was shown in reverse-order, a la MEMENTO. Now that was an interesting film, though the graphic rape scene was incredibly disturbing and the movie itself, uber-violent.

When I heard that NOE, had a new film at Cannes, I got excited and hoped it would come to Toronto. Well, my friends, I'm sure you know what they say about 'don't wish for what you want...'

This movie was an incoherent mess, about a guy who's messed up on drugs in Japan and gets killed by the Police in a club and...who cares? Noe, uses a subjective, camera to represent the protagonist and then there's all these KUBRICK-like light effects and strobes. After about an hour of this ordeal, I fell asleep and my chum suggested, we boat - so, we did. So, if at a certain time in the future, this wretched crap is released and someone suggests you enter, ENTER THE VOID - DON'T!!! In other words, AVOID, at all costs, ENTER THE VOID.

Now my second film was a rush, and was a very pleasant surprise, after GASPAR's ghastly garbage. The movie was called APPLAUSE, and it was part of the DISCOVERY program. This film was from Denmark and was directed, by MARTIN PIETER ZANDVLIET.

The star of the film, is PAPRIKA STEEN, who is the MERYL STREEP, of Denmark. it is the story of an actress, who has just spent a year in rehab for alcoholism, which cost her custody of her children. Her husband is remarried and she seeks to reconnect with her kids. Now, what makes this film so interesting and multi-layered, is that we see excerpts from a play the actress, was involved with, EDWARD ALBEE's WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? The text of the play seems to "bleed," into the life of this woman, who as good as she is onstage, offstage, she is an emotional wreck. STEEN, gives a bravura, tour de force performance, and runs the full range of emotions: sad, sexy angry, crazy, menacing etc. The camera never leaves her face and she has no where to hide. It is heartbreaking towatch her, as she tries tentatively to reach out to her children, who see her as a virtual, stranger. I told miss STEEN, that I loved her performance and that I would do all I can to promote this film in my blog. Mission accomplished.

One more film would bring my tally up to 14. That film was called, WAKING SLEEPING BEAUTY, and was directed by DON HAHN, and produced by PETER SCHNEIDER. This documentary looks at the WALT DISNEY COMPANY, in the 80's, which was a was a period of transition for the company. The film documents the struggle of the old guard at the company, which was represented by such films as SNOW WHITE, PINOCCHIO, and SLEEPING BEAUTY, and the new mavericks, which was represented by a young, TIM BURTON, who worked on the wildly-expensive flop, THE BLACK CAULDRON.

At the executive-level, there were plenty of changes going on, as well. RON MILLER, was out as President, and in came MICHAEL EISNER, who in turn brought in JEFFREY KATZENBERG. This was a period in which it was thought that animation might be dead and led to some of DISNEY's greatest successes: THE LITTLE MERMAID, THE LION KING T ALADDIN, and of course its greatest triumph, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (still the only animated film, nominated for Best-Picture at the Academy Awards).


Mr. HAHN, who is an animator at the studio said that most of the film's was made up of found, footage. We get to see snippets from various animated features (really cool on the big screen), as well as interviews with the personnel, who were eyewitnesses to the goings on at the company. We are also given a blow by blow account of the internecine battles between Messrs. EISNER, KATZENBERG, and WALT DISNEY's nephew ROY DISNEY. The film is interesting gossipy, and a sheer-delight.

During the Q&A, we learned that we had just seen a world premiere, (parts of it had been shown at Telluride). I suggested that it would be a great addition to our HOT DOCS, program. The filmmakers agreed.

Well, today more flicks, so more reviews, (funny how it works out that way).

T.T.F.N.