Thoughts on day 4:
- In place of the normal trailers, they showed a short film talking about 9/11 and what happened at the festival in 2001. Although someone forgot to tell the projectionist for Lightbox 1 for Drive that.
- Drive: interesting film with a bit of an 80's vibe going on; esthetic reminded me a bit of Michael Mann. Gosling gives a good understated performance, but Brooks steals the show. Director Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan Gosling, Bryan Cranston and Albert Brooks all made it to a Q&A after the film (alas, no Carey Mulligan or Christina Hendricks).
- In Conversation With Frances Ford Coppola: wide-ranging discussion with questions from Cameron Bailey and the audience, covering everything to his thoughts on how to deal with actors, how he learned to stand up to studios, to his winery, and his writing process. Coppola received a well-deserved standing ovation at the start and end of the session.
- I'm Yours: fun and dramatic road trip through northern Ontario with Rossif Sutherland and Karine Vanasse. Thought it was a nicely put together film. I couldn't stay for the Q&A with Sutherland and director Leonard Farlinger (Vanasse appeared before the film, but had to jet off for shooting on the ABC TV series Pan Am). The film was proceeded by Something Red, a fun little short from first-time director Ilana Frank, an EP on Rookie Blue, which explains the presence of Travis Milne, Missy Peregrym and Gregory Smith in the short and at the screening. Combined with seeing Charlotte Sullivan at last night's premiere of Edwin Boyd, I only need to find a film with Enuka Okuma to get the set.
- Headshot: latest from Pen-ek Ratanaruang (who is a pretty funny guy in real life), about a hitman who after being shot sees the world upside down. Liked the story of how the main character sees his life differently as his view changes, and was quite accessible, which is not always the case with films in the Vanguard program. Only problem was apparently the film was projected far darker than it should have been, so some of the scenes at night were difficult to make out. Hopefully that won't happen in other screenings.
