Bill

Aaron Eckhart is the eponymous Bill of the title, a man who has all but given up. He's fat and flabby from sneaking Snickers bars everytime he gets stressed (which is a lot), he works in his father-in-law's bank in a made-up position, and his marriage to wife Jess (Elizabeth Banks) has lost all its passion. On top of it all, he's been roped into mentoring a smart-alec high-school student (Logan Lerman).

Suspicious of his wife and a smarmy local TV anchor (Timothy Olyphant), Bill decides to find out the truth. which sets him on a path of self-discovery, led ironically enough by Lerman's character, who helps Bill to stand up for himself and consider other possibilities.

The main cast is filled out with a host of characters, including Jessica Alba as Lucy, the salesgirl that Lerman's character is constantly hitting on and who helps Bill to change his image; Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis as the owners of a donut franchise that Bill wants to buy into; Craig Bierko and Reed Diamond as Bill's brother Sargeant and Sargeant's boyfriend, respectively.

Bill was written by Melisa Wallack, and was co-directed by Wallack and her husband, Bernie Goldmann. This is the first feature film for the pair as directors/writer.

Bill is an entertaining film, and Eckhart does a convincing job as the sad sack title character, making him sympathetic, but not completely pathetic. Elizabeth Banks' Jess ends up showing a little more depth than just the stereotypical rich, bored, neglected wife. I wouldn't go as far to say the story was absolutely remarkable, but it has a fair balance between the comedic and the serious, and Wallack does eschew the conventional ending.

While Wallack was in Toronto, she could not attend the screening as she was looking after her sick child. However, her husband an co-director Bernie Goldmann was there, along with much of the cast, including Eckhart, Banks, Lerman, Alba, Wiig, and Olyphant. They did a Q&A after the film:

• When asked what he looks for in a script, Eckhart joked, "who's the girl, and then how much, and where's it shooting". Seriously, though, if he can see himself doing it and gets excited and loses himself in the script, then it's a good indication he can do the character, and then he looks at who he's playing with and who's directing. He liked the character and the script.
• Eckhart gained about 30 pounds for the film, and wore a fat suit over that, and was constantly eating.
• Goldmann commented on how for he and his wife, the film is about shedding everything and starting again; he talked about how when you are trying to hold on so tightly to your life it's like holding on to a wet bar of soap.
• The genesis of the story was that Goldmann and Wallack had heard at a dinner party about a man who had put a tape recorder under his bed and caught his wife having sex with another man, and they both thought they had to do a movie about that.

Logan Lerman, Elizabeth Banks, Kristen Wiig, and Aaron Eckhart:


Kristen Wiig, Aaron Eckhart, and Jessica Alba:

Tags: 2007,films

Religulous

Religulous was a panel discussion with Bill Maher (host of Politically Incorrect and now Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO) and Larry Charles (producer/writer/director on Seinfeld, Curb Your Entuhsiasm, and Borat), moderated by Thom Powers of the festival. The panel was in support of the film of the same name that Maher and Charles are currently working on. The clips that were shown indicate a funny movie that asks some interesting questions and provokes people to think; it will probably offend a whole lot of devout people, but that's not the audience they are targeting.

Below is a summary of some of what was discussed in the session. Note that these are not exact quotes, that in many cases I've paraphrased and summarized what was said:

• Because of the success last year with the Mavericks session involving Michael Moore for Sicko, Lionsgate requested a similar session this year for this film.
• A number of rough clips were shown, which generally consist of Maher interviewing religious peoples of all stripes. He talks to Jews, Christians, Muslims, polygamists, satanists, and Raelians, although the focus of the film will be on the first three.
• The title of the film is a combination of Religion and Ridiculous, which combined equals Religulous. Charles said it made for a better meme than a more conventional title like "Bill Maher is Going to Hell".
• Maher had always wanted to do a movie on religion; producers suggested he link up with Charles. They both felt it was something that needed to be made and started shooting quickly.
• On the topic of religion being a taboo subject generally in film and TV, Maher replied that it had never been an area he couldn't go with his audience, but he's sure others would be upset. Charles talked about an unspoken code to avoid discussing religion, but in Curb Your Enthusiasm they talk about it a lot, which can be controversial.
• Both talked about wanting to challenge people's assumptions, getting them to question rather than just accept things at face value.
• Charles' parents were secular, but they all lived in an Orthodox Jewish neighbourhood. He actually wanted to be a rabbi at one point, but once he reached an age where he started asking a lot of questions, he ran into problems. Maher comes from a Catholic/Jewish background; in his early career, he would make fun of religion, but in the context of still beliving it. Evolving to his current position was something more gradual over his life. In filming this movie, and a segment with his 88-year-old mother, Maher learned something more about himself and his family.
• Maher acknowledged that people want to believe, that they find comfort in it, and that his not having a faith is a luxury of his being financially and emotionally well-off.
• Charles talked about how a punishing god never made sense to him, and that the common explanations are not adequate to the present reality. In his mind, search for answers is anathema to religion, because the answers are supposed to already be there.
• Both commented that humanity should be able to be nice to each other without requiring relgion to do so.
• What worries Charles is that most religions come to an end times, which inherently removes the motivation to work things out because what comes in the next life is better than the current one.
• On the question of spirituality vs. organized religion, neither is willing to say that there is nothing greater out there, just that they don't know what is out there.
• In addition to the traditional religions, they looked at newer ones like the Raelians. Charles said that even though a lot of these newer ones involve things like spaceships and aliens, if you break their stories and beliefs down, there are parallels.
• It was actually straightforward getting people to talk on camera, because they generally went to people that are very passionate about their causes and beliefs. In the clips, they travel all over the world, including to Jerusalem and the Vatican. In fact, they mentioned that some of the most candid conversations were with two Catholic priests from the Vatican.
• Charles believes that rationalism and reflective thought are coming to a crisis point.
• They said the point of their film is to make people think. They said that using a humourous style helps to get the message across and probably stops people from immediately tuning out as they might with a more serious, earnest discussion.
• Charles thought the film might come out in the spring, but that no release date had been set yet.

Bill Maher and Larry Charles:


Thom Powers, Bill Maher, and Larry Charles:

Tags: 2007,films

Silent Resident

Set in a futuristic high-rise complex called Neustadt (i.e. New City), Silent Resident follows Hannah (Brigitte Hobmeier), who works for the city government. Seeking to escape from her abusive husband Branco (Xaver Hutter), Hannah manages to secure an apartment on another floor with the help of her friend and co-worker Paula. But Hannah's new apartment, recently vacated because of the suicide of the previous tenant, Yoon, seems haunted by voices and strange visions.

Hannah soon comes to believe that she's become embroiled in some sort of larger conspiracy that includes her lover Hauks (Martin Wuttke), who works for the security service. But is Hannah seeing the truth, or is it all nothing more than an elaborate fantasy sprung forth from her fragile emotional state?

Silent Resident is a difficult film to describe. Neustadt is a seemingly Utopian environment, but the complex is being eaten away from the inside by class struggle, and being pressured from the outside by a vaguely defined declining of civilization outside its walls. Similarly, Hannah is seemingly being used by various people for their own ends, while internally, her own mind becomes more and more consumed by paranoia and fear and hallucinations. The film can be at times very surreal, further blurring the lines between Hannah's own sanity and insanity.

The soundtrack was very jazzy, giving the film a bit of a noir feel at times, but I felt there were times when the music went a bit over the top and overwhelmed the scene.

The film provides an interesting vision, but one that will probably appeal to a very select audience.

Director Christian Frosch was in attendance, and did a Q&A after the film:

• It took eight years, on and off, to get the film made, mainly because of the difficulty in obtaining financing (one of the first companies to finance in the early years went bankrupt - not because of this film, though).
• Depsite the long timeframe, he still largely ended up with the cast he wanted. The lead actress he found her one year before shooting; the other parts were written for the actors, as he likes being with people he's worked with before.
• The print was only completed two days before the festival, so this was the first time Frosch had seen the complete version in a theatre. At the screening, he was more interested in hearing and listening to how the audience reacted to the film; where they laughed, what noises they made, etc.
• Frosch feels that what is on screen is what he wanted, i.e. he didn't have to compromise his original vision.
• Growing up in Vienna, Frosch was familiar with the Alt-Erlaa complex in Austria, which was a bit of a social experiment in the late 70's/early 80's. He thought about the building when writing the script, but thought that he did not want to shoot there. He looked at a number of other locations, but came back to it in the end.
• He liked being able to use Alt-Erlaa to show the complex being a bit out-of-time, to show the futurism of the past.
• He made use of some computer-generated effects to make the complex look a little more impressive in the film.
• Frosch answered "yes and no" when asked if he some of the ideas or commentary he was trying to communicate in the film were based on that social housing. It is supposed to be more of a metaphor. In the film, you never really get out of the complex or see what kind of system it is. There is no outside anymore; it is like the last isle of what we call 21st century civilization.
• The reality of the location was inspiration for a lot of details; when dealing with metaphor, it is important that it also has life, so it was useful having this real thing there.
• He finds more influences in paintings than in other films.
• The title of the movie was originally Resident; the international distributor actually suggested Silent Resident, and Frosch was happy with that one. But he doesn't feel like the title is a key for films.
  

Tags: 2007,films

Juno

Juno MacGuff (played magnificently by TIFF regular Ellen Page), finds herself pregnant, knocked up by her best friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera) on their first attempt at sex. Juno, with the help of her best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), takes it upon herself to find some adoptive parents. Courtesy of the local Penny Saver, she soon finds childless couple Mark and Vanessa (Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner).

With the help of her surprisingly supportive father (J.K. Simmons) and stepmom (Allison Janney), Juno embarks on her pregnancy, which ends up affecting everyone in some unexpected and touching ways.

This was a great film, probably the best I've seen so far at the festival. Ellen Page gives a wonderful performance as Juno, convincingly portraying her as a real independent free spirit. Michael Cera was good and funny, although I occasionally had trouble divorcing his character from George-Michael Bluth. J.K. Simmons and Allison Janney did a nice turn as Juno's parents. Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman were great as the adoptive parents who, while seemingly the perfect suburban couple on the outside, have their own sets of issues on the inside. Bateman especially gave a great performance as Mark, who is worried about sacrificing his own dreams as he connects with Juno over a shared love of music and the reality of the baby sinks in.

This is director Jason Reitman's follow up to his first feature film, Thank You For Smoking, which also debuted at the festival on the exact same date and time in 2005. This is screenwriter Diablo Cody's first feature film, and she put together a refreshing take on the typical teen pregnancy story with some great dialogue for the actors. The audience laughed so hard at some of the lines, they drowned out the ones that followed.

Pretty much everyone involved in the film attended this world premiere, and they stayed for a Q&A after the show (pictures at the end of this post):

• Everyone cast in the film was a first choice for their respective roles.
• Reitman picked this as his follow up to Thank You For Smoking because he fell in love with the script; he was originally writing his own screenplay for a different film as his sophomore effort. He felt it looked at teen pregnancy in an open-minded way, with interesting choices at every turn. He felt he needed to direct it. And he joked that he had to show he had a soul after everyone assumed he didn't have one because of his first film.
• On approaching the script, Page commented that she was blown away by how beautiful and honest the script was on reading it, and had some trepidation about being able to do it right.
• Bateman commented that when you see a script with as distinct a voice as this one, and being able to work with Reitman and his technique, your instinct as an actor is to disappear as much as you can and let the script and the director be the star. The tone and style was underplayed and they spoke naturally and didn't try to spin things or look for laughs.
• On the music in the film, Diablo Cody had originally written the script with specific music in mind. At one point, Reitman asked Page who she thought Juno would listen to, and she led Reitman to the Moldy Peaches (Page and Cera play one of their songs at the end of the film). Reitman then got connected with Kimya Dawson, who supplied the original music for the soundtrack.
• On the inspiration for the story, Cody describe how like a lot of writers she sits down and cycles through ideas, she strikes on one that sounds great, and then it occurs to her that she's seen it done before. This was one idea that she felt hadn't been done before, looking at the bizarre dynamic between this pregnant teen birth mother and these prospective adoptive parents - "this would be hilarious" she joked.
• When asked what is next for her, Cody joked that she'd probably "slink back into obscurity." She is actually working on a number of things. The script for Juno she did back in 2004 and it only took her a couple of months, so she's stockpiled quite a bit since then.
• Someone asked Michael Cera is he rode in on the GO Train from Brampton (GO is the provincial commuter rail, and Cera was born in Brampton, to the west of Toronto). He said he was staying at a hotel downtown, to which Bateman added, "but his folks did".
• Cody was asked how she came up with convincing dialog for Page and Cera and the other teens in the film. She replied that she was loath to use the term "arrested development" in this crowd, but she is in a bit of that state herself, so she doesn't have any problem writing like a teenager.
• When asked if Juno's parents were supposed to be moral and good and the antithesis of the characters in Thank You For Smoking, Reitman replied he liked the characters in his first movie, and he didn't think of things that way. He didn't find Juno's parents' reaction to the pregnancy surprising, he felt it was real and not like an afterschool special.
• For the scene in the mall where Vanessa feels the baby kick, Jennifer Garner shot it at 8 in the morning after shooting all night.
• When asked if being a mother affected Garner in this role, she replied that she shot Juno after giving birth to her daughter, so that she understood on a different level the intensity of that need to have a baby.
• Reitman first saw Page in Hard Candy (which premiered previously at the festival).
• Page was asked if she is like Juno and did it take her a long time to get into the role. Page replied that if asked is she more like Juno than a sadistic human being who likes to pretend to cut off men's balls (a reference to Hard Candy), then yes, she is like Juno. :-) She said she can be as inappropriate as Juno, like Sarah Silverman on speed, but maybe not as racist. She got the script and loved it, bought Pregnancy for Dummies ("an awkward moment at Chapters") and she had a "friggin' blast" and is extremely grateful to have shot the movie.
• On a side note, Ben Affleck was also at the premiere in support of Garner.

Pictures from the Q&A (thanks to my friend Gabriel for the photos!):

Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman:


Director Jason Reitman, Ellen Page, and Michael Cera:


Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby, and screenwriter Diablo Cody:


Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, and Allison Janney:

Jason Reitman, Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J.K. Simmons, Olivia Thirlby, and Diablo Cody:

Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney:

Tags: 2007,films

Young People Fucking

The first feature film from director/co-writer Martin Gero and actor/co-writer Aaron Abrams, Young People Fucking (bet this gets caught in a few web filters) is exactly as the title implies, with five completely unrelated storylines about people having sex. There is the ex-boyfriend and girlfriend, reuniting for an evening out just as friends; the best friends who see each other as a convenient way to relieve their pent up lust without having to turn to some random, poorly chosen pickup; the couple, whose love life in the bedroom has lost its spark; the first date, with a player trying to get lucky with a woman he just met; and the roommates, one of who tries to draw the other into a threesome with his girlfriend. The characters run the gamut of emotions; some are insecure, some are over-confident; some have baggage in their relationship, some want to be intimate, and others just want to screw. Intercut amongst one another, each story proceeds from a prelude through to foreplay, to the act itself, to an interlude, and finally down to the climax and its denouement. In the end, the stories are full of both beginnings and endings for all of the characters.

The film definitely lives up to its title, but in a humourous, warm, and personal way. While there's stuff there that might make your grandmother blush, don't go in thinking you're going to get some sort of hard-core film or some generic teen sex comedy. It was easy to warm up to the characters and get a sense of their history and who they are without a lot of obvious exposition. The actors were good across the board, although Josh Dean's character was a bit too nerdly earnest for my taste. While you may not leave with any great, deep universal truths answered, the film got a lot of laughs and was enjoyable throughout, and hopefully it won't suffer for its title once it gets released.

Robert Kennedy's short, I've Never Had Sex, preceded the screening. In it, Kennedy asks people to respond to various questions, like "I've never had sex in a plane" or "I've never had sex with a married person". The responses he elicits are pretty funny, and this served as a good companion piece to set up the feature that followed. The short was shot entirely on a cell phone, and despite that was actually an Australian/National Film Board of Canada co-production (that got a bit of a chuckle from the crowd).

Director Martin Gero, co-writer and actor Aaron Abrams, and actors Josh Dean, Ennis Esmer, and Kristin Booth did a Q&A after the movie:

• Kristin Booth's character in the film has a bit of a crush on Ian Ziering. No one realized when they cast her that she had actually been an extra on Beverly Hills, 90210 at one point.
• They didn't really leave anything on the editing room floor. This was an independent movie, so there were only a couple of deleted scenes, but that was because they wrote them wrong - the scenes didn't belong in the film.
• Asked about promoting the film with the title it has, Gero replied that is a question for the distributors. Gero and Abrams never thought they'd actually be able to call the movie that. They thought it would be a good opening shot for what the script was going to be like; frank, and funny, and honest.
• When they took the title to ThinkFilm (the US distributor), ThinkFilm was all enthusiastic about the title. Abrams was convinced they didn't know what they were talking about, and that they'd suddenly realize there was a swear in the title, and all the buzz and fun would go away.
• Gero did make mention of the fact that ThinkFilm distributed similarly titled films, including the Beastie Boys' "Awesome; I Fuckin' Shot That!" and the documentary "Fuck", plus they did Shortbus last year, so they are good at handling complicated films.
• Gero and Abrams thought that newspapers wouldn't print the title, but for the most part they did, with the exception of The Toronto Star. The Star's editor-in-chief, the ironically named Fred Kuntz, directed the paper to censor the film's title in opposition to a request by the entertainment section of the paper (http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/252151).
• Abrams said that he and Gero have always been big fans of film, and in fact they both met at the Paramount (now the Scotiabank) theatres, where the screening was actually taking place. They are both fans of romantic comedies, but those usually end with that first kiss, and for them the real conflict and romance happens after that.
• They are also big sex comedy fans, but a lot of those are usually about a guy trying to see his first boob. They wanted to see a sex comedy for people who have sex, something for adults, a romantic comedy with sex in it. They wanted to write something in their own voice, not something like "this movie" meets "that movie".
• In order for the movie to be universal, it has to start from a personal place. They are both big Bill Cosby fans, and Cosby tells personal stories that come across as universal.
• While there will be things in the movie that will make people go "What?!?!!", they hope that for every one of those, there will hopefully be another moment where people will say "I've said that" or "I've done that".
• It was a difficult film to cast, in that they had to find three qualities in each actor; one, they had to be fantastic comic actors; two, they had to be attractive, because the distributors told them that didn't want the film to end up being 'ugly people fucking'; and three, the actors had to be comfortable with the material. The script reads harder than the film actually is, and since they don't read Harlequin romance novels, they couldn't write directions like "the bosom unfurled". Instead, they ended up with notes like "he's fucking her from behind", and then actors are all like WTF!? They had to calm people down in the audition and assure them that it was a real movie.
• They also had to find actors with great chemistry; this was a lot of guesswork, as many didn't meet until shooting started.
• The actors also had to not be "dicky", asking for a bigger trailer and such, because there are a lot of intimate things going on, so they needed people to have fun and have it translate to the screen.
• Gero and Abrams commented on how the weird thing about sex is that it is something everyone does, but it's not something that we widely talk about. It's hard to talk about sexual problems, which is what much of the conflict in the movie is about.
• Films, especially comedies, are a safe and cathartic way for a roomful of people to release. When everyone laughs at a particular scene, it's an admission that at one point everyone has thought or done that exact same thing.
• A fun and safe place/thing to do in the dark is to watch your problems be reflected back to you on the screen, especially in a comedy.
• Each story was mostly shot in chronological order, with the exception of the threesome, since they were all local actors. Each story was mostly shot in 3 to 5 day chunks all in a row. This is an actor's film, designed to be a love letter to actors.
• The cast only had about a day of rehearsal time before shooting, so keeping things in chronological order really helped.

Tags: 2007,films

Le Voyage du ballon rouge

An homage to Albert Lamorisse's 1956 film Le Ballon rouge, Hsiao-hsien Hou's Le Voyage du ballon rouge focuses on the lives of Suzanne (Juliette Binoche) and her son Simon (Simon Iteanu). Into their lives comes Song (Fang Song), hired to act as Simon's nanny. Song, a film student, is a fan of Le Ballon rouge and shoots her own little version using Simon, but Simon also sees a red balloon while on his own, on the subway, in a museum, and so on around Paris. This red balloon of the title floats in and out of the film and is less a character in its own right and is rather more of a metaphor for the imagination of a child.

Like one of Hou's earlier films, Café Lumière, Le Voyage du ballon rouge concentrates more on peering into a slice of the lives of the characters, without necessarily having any defined narrative with any specific conclusion. There is an undercurrent of conflict, like Yoko's pregnancy in the former film and Suzanne's dispute with her tenant in the latter, but neither is there to drive their respective films forward; they are more just events that help to define the current state of the characters. The entire film is improvised, which gives some weight to the performances, especially those of Binoche and Iteanu.

Juliette Binoche did a Q&A after the film:

• Each scene was a 10-minute shot done in only a single take, with no rehearsal beforehand.
• Binoche commented on most of western cinema is done in such a way that everything is done for the viewer, without space for the viewer to dream a little or think of their own life.
• When asked if the improvisational nature was frustrating, Binoche countered that it was 'just wonderful'. She enjoyed the freedom and being able to just trust the moment.
• For the puppet show that Binoche is part of in the movie, Hou told her and others in the cast 2 weeks before shooting started that they had to put a show together themselves. So they wrote the story for the puppet show and made the puppets themselves; you see the show proceeding in stages in the film, because the actors were actually working on the puppet show as filming progressed.
• Binoche mentioned that when she has a director that puts so much trust in her to do what she feels like, it brings out other layers she never thought of before. This changed her in the four movies she has done since this one, as she trusts her own being rather than seeking approval from others.
• The actors only had a written synopsis before shooting, consisting of about 25 scenes, each described by only a few lines. The scene in which Suzanne has her piano moved was described simply as 'the piano is going up the stairs'. The piano movers in that scene were actual movers, not actors.
• Binoche told a funny anecdote about that shot; at the end of that scene, she pays them with money from the production and then she tips the movers because that's what she would do in real life, but she couldn't get the money back from them after shooting was done.
• The movie was shot on very little money; Suzanne's apartment in the film actually belongs to the producer and is filled with many of Binoche's own personal belongings.
• Simon Iteanu is not a professional actor; he is the son of Binoche's French publicist from certain films, and she was the one who got Binoche to encounter Hou in the first place.
• Binoche said that when a child is told what to do on a set, they become self-conscious about having to do this and that, versus being free and then requiring longer shots to capture their natural freedom and being.
• She has seen Hou's other films, which is why she wanted to work with him. She loved his special, personal visions that are so unlike those of other directors.
• It didn't seem to take a lot of time to set up to shoot; Hou used his own film crew that he has worked with for years. Each actor has their own microphone, avoiding the need for a boom mike, which would constrain the camera work.

Tags: 2007,films

Glory to the Filmmaker!

Glory to the Filmmaker! is the latest work from the mind of Takeshi Kitano. Featuring a slightly fictionalized version of himself, the film follows Kitano in a search for his next big hit, following his public declaration that he would stop doing Yakuza movies. In a wild and funny journey, Kitano takes us through his failed, aborted, and commercially unsuccessful attempts, featuring a number of co-stars from his past movies. The journey spans every genre imaginable, from a quiet, introspective story of a just-retired salaryman (reminiscent of the works of Ozu), to a ninja action film, to multiple relationship stories, to a film set in the 50's recalling the hardship and depression of post-war Japan, before finally settling on an offbeat sci-fi flick.

That film is ostensibly about an asteroid hurtling towards Earth, but soon diverts to a story about mother-daughter con artists who are trying to scam Kitano's character, an aide to an eccentric rich man who funds all sorts of oddball causes. All the while, Kitano is constantly changing into a life-sized doll version of himself. And if none of that makes any sense, then you've pretty much captured the feeling of watching that part of the movie.

Kitano was not present at the screening, but he (or rather, his doll surrogate) taped an interview for the festival that preceded the film, which pretty much set the tone for what was to follow. The film is about as self-referential as his last work screened at the festival, Takeshis'. The first half of the movie was surprisingly accessible and hilarious, but the second was as impenetrable, surreal, and self-mocking as you'd come to expect of Kitano's later work. Not that that is a bad thing, but don't come into it expecting anything resembling a straightforward narrative. If you're a fan of Kitano's work and his fertile imagination, then you'll enjoy the film, but I imagine many others will be lost in the last half of the picture.

After this, I'm looking forward to his segment in Chaucun son cinema, which I'm seeing later in the festival.

Tags: 2007,films

Festival Trailer

Once again this year, the festival trailers, that are shown before each film, were short and to the point. There was a brief ad for the new Bell Lightbox, the new festival headquarters/condo that is under construction downtown. There was a significantly shortened NBC Universal ad thanking the volunteers (no more of that slightly goofy guy clearing away the podium or showing people to their seat). There was a brief ad for Motorola and their short film lab, but they didn't show any shorts.

There was a small funny bit of a guy pitching the idea for a movie to some producers that ended up being a commerical for the Cadillac CTS; be interesting to see if they'll show different pitches throughout the festival. Cadillac is the sponsor this year for the People's Choice Award. The volunteers hand out paper ballots when you first enter the theatre, and at the end of the film, you tear off a number from 0 to 4 that represents your rating of the movie. At the end of the festival, the highest rated film wins the People's Choice Award.

Tags: 2007,films

Starting Out in the Evening

Starting Out in the Evening is based on the novel by Brian Morton, and stars Frank Langella in an understated role as Leonard Schiller, a once great novelist and now-retired literary professor. His previous books now long out-of-print, Leonard is struggling to finish his latest novel, a decade and counting in the making. Further distracting him from his novel is his genial but occasionally strained relationship with his daughter Ariel (Lily Taylor), who is nearing 40 and wanting a baby, but stuck back in a relationship with her ex-boyfriend Casey (Adrian Lester), who is most decidedly against the idea.

Another complication comes in the form of a young grad student, Heather (Lauren Ambrose), who has made Leonard the subject of her master's thesis. Heather is determined to discover the overriding theme in Schiller's work, the early part of which inspired her to pursue her dreams in college. The conversations that Leonard and Heather have cover the gamut of literary criticism and the creative process, touching on issues such as whether an author's personal life should inform their work, and whether an author can be pigeonholed into a single thematic thread.

As Leonard becomes more invested in Heather, these themes end up leading all the characters reaching pivotal decisions in their lives, paralleling the thrust of Leonard's early work around personal freedom.

Langella gives a fine performance as Leonard, who sees his time running out, and wonders if he has enough time, energy, and creativity left to finish one last book. Lauren Ambrose leaves Six Feet Under behind her as Heather, a driven but self-centered woman who wants to fit Leonard's books into her own preconceived notions and feelings, dismissing as less important those that don't fit the mold.

Lily Taylor was great as Ariel, a woman wanting the closeness and depth of relationship that she can't get from her father, so much so that she is willing to subordinate her own wants and needs. Adrian Lester, who these days is recognizable from CBC airing the UK TV series Hustle, plays Casey as the exact opposite of Ariel, a man who enjoys his relationship with Ariel, but not at the expense of his own dreams. Ariel doesn't come across as a victim; there's a hint of strength under the surface. And Casey doesn't come across as a complete jerk; there's a genuine love there that he doesn't fully appreciate.

All-in-all, Starting Out in the Evening ends up the night as an enjoyable movie, with good performances all around.

Director Andrew Wagner did a Q&A after the screening:

• Also there were Wagner's writing partner and co-producer Fred Parnes.
• Wagner and Parnes worked on the screenplay over 2 years.
• For the 9 months after shooting, Wagner worked with editor Gena Bleier on the film.

• Wagner told himself to just breathe, just be himself working with the cast.
• Langella is a force of nature, larger than life.
• Not necessarily hard to get actors of this caliber to work on the film; if writing is on the page, a simple yes occurs.
• Thinks they all read the script and felt like there was an opportunity for them to be artists, to be afraid, which is a mark of a good actor, a need to be at sea, to not know, to feel challenged by the character and the story they have to tell. Allow them to discover their truest selves among these characters.
• Only 18 days of actual shooting.
• In the month before shooting, Wagner spent upwards of 3 to 6 hours per actor each day.
• With Frank Langella, Wagner said "Mr. Langella, we're not going to have a lot of time, I'm going to have to ask a lot of you of rehearsal, I'm going to need you night and day, I need you 4 hours a day" to which Langella replied, "No young man, you'll need me six."
  

• When asked about whether they expected the audience to laugh where they did, Wagner replied that he and Parnes were aware of the gravitas of the film. Parnes would make Wagner laugh as they were writing, but they wondered how much of that would make it into the movie.
• Wagner says as a director, he tries to direct truth, and if there's humour there, it'll just come out, he doesn't try to actively grab on to it.
• When the film was screened at Sundance, the audience did laugh at points they weren't expecting, but it did feel like the right laughter; you just have to let the film do it's work.
  

• On adapting the novel; first challenge was the beauty of Brian Morton's writing; power of observation is immaculate; uses phrases and words to evoke the inner life of the characters. That is where much of the richness of a novel comes from.
• In film, has to be found somewhere else. Have to lift the characters off the page and put them into motion and interacting. Have to see through his words, strip away the beauty and ask what is happening, as that is the basic question of film, what happens next?
• Second challenge was to heighten the dramatic climax of all the relationships in the film; the book didn't necessarily push all the relationships to what Parnes and Wagner felt was a dynamic enough point. They worked on pushing them all farther dramatically.
• Third challenge was with Leonard himself; in book, was more mentally preoccupied with Heather, less emotional entanglement. They wanted to raise his emotional investment and heighten the intimacy between the characters, and they did so by raising the temperature on Leonard's need for artistic recognition and his long-suppressed need for intimacy and romantic love, so that when there was an opportunity for their relationship to move in that direction, it would be believable.
• But casting is everything, and if not for Langella, the undercurrents wouldn't have been visible; they needed a performance of "egoless simplicity" and understatement.
  

• Wagner grew up on the Upper West Side, literally 10 blocks from where they shot, so he was camped out on the floor of his parents' house.
• Something about New York and the Upper West Side that occupies you at a cellular level.
• Felt they had to somehow get that feeling, the sounds and smells, the colour of light, onto the screen.
• Shooting in winter, expensive to get the crew outside. In the few shots they had, tried to build the city into the background. Shot B-roll of just the sparseness of the city.
• They wanted the city to act as a metaphor for the loneliness in Leonard's life.
  

• Wagner and Parnes are next working on an adaptation of Lisa Glatt's novel, A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That, about a young woman who moves into her mother's apartment because her mother is dying of breast cancer. About the cycle of life, the greatest happiness and the deepest sadness, and the growth that comes through loss and personal challenge.
• Also working on Everyone Fucks Up; working with a teacher friend who he taught with in inner city Los Angeles; about a teacher who has to stop one of his poorly performing students from getting murdered on a given day while his own personal life is in shambles.
  

Tags: 2007,films

Galas, Events, and Parties

A posting on the TIFFReviews.com site has info on a number of the events and parties occurring during the festival this year:

http://www.tiffreviews.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1318#1318

Tags: 2007,events

Individual Tickets Now on Sale

If you haven't participated in the advanced ticketing up to now, then now is your chance to buy tickets. Tickets for all showings are now available on the main festival website (click the Buy Now link at the top of the page) and from all of the box offices. Plenty of films have availability.

Tickets are $19.34 each for most showings; films at Roy Thomson Hall and the VISA Screening room are $37.50 each. You can buy a maximum of 4 tickets per showing, and you can pay online by Visa, or by Visa, debit, or cash at the box office.

If a showing is listed as being off-sale, that means there are no more tickets for sale at the present time. However, keep checking back as the festival may open up additional blocks of tickets, especially the day of the showing.

If you buy your tickets online, then you pick them up at any of the three festival box offices, or the box office at the theatre where the first film in your order is shown. You should pick up your tickets at least one hour before the first showing in your order. Bring any e-mail confirmation you get and your Visa card with you.

Tags: 2007,tickets

NOW Magazine's latest issue, available for free around the city and online, has their annual TIFF section, where they briefly review and rate a number of the films:

http://www.nowtoronto.com/tiff/

For more detailed reviews, you can check out the links at TIFFReviews.com and TOfilmfest.com.

Tags: 2007,films

Picking Up My Order

If you want an idea of what the line to pick up advanced ticket orders was like, I took a few photos. From the back of the line, which is actually past the trees in the background, it took about 1.5 hours to make it to the front. This was around 11:00 AM.








For those that were exchanging vouchers for new ticket choices, this was the line:



It snaked back around to Yonge Street and went south to the next corner.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Sold Out Films for Advanced Ticketing

If you received a voucher because you didn't get all of your first and second choices, then you can swap the voucher for a ticket to a film that still has seats available.

The following films were off-sale (i.e. sold out) as far as the advanced ticket vouchers go as of 12:40 PM on Monday, September 3. More films may have gone off-sale since that time. Note that additional tickets will likely go on sale once general ticketing starts on the 5th, and then again the day of the film; you can still use your voucher at these times.

Thursday, September 6:
Fugitive Pieces, 6:30 PM
Hollywood Chinese, 8:15 PM
Jar City, 7:45 PM
Rebellion, The Litvinenko Case, 7:30 PM
Starting Out in the Evening, 8:00 PM
Young People Fucking, 7:45 PM

Friday, September 7:
L'Avocat de la terreur, 11:45 AM
Before the Rains, 9:00 PM
California Dreamin' (Endless), 3:00 PM
Control, 9:45 PM
Disengagement, 6:00 PM
The Edge of Heaven, 7:00 PM
Empties, 9:00 PM
Lust, Caution, 9:00 PM
The Mourning Forest, 12:00 PM
My Brother is an Only Child, 6:45 PM
The Orphanage, 10:00 PM
The Pope's Toilet, 3:00 PM
Secret Sunshine, 9:15 PM
The Substitute, 6:15 PM
Then She Found Me, 6:00 PM

Saturday, September 8:
4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, 4:30 PM
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, 9:00 PM
Brick Lane, 8:30 PM
Callas Assoluta, 5:00 PM
Captain Mike Across America, 11:45 AM
The Counterfeiters, 6:30 PM
Disengagement, 1:00 PM
The Edge of Heaven, 3:30 PM
Fugitive Pieces, 9:30 AM
Garage, 8:30 PM
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, 11:59 PM
In Bloom, 7:00 PM
Jar City, 9:00 AM
Juno, 6:00 PM
The Man From London, 12:45 PM
Michael Clayton, 12:00 PM
My Kid Could Paint That, 12:15 PM
No Country for Old Men, 6:00 PM
Nothing is Private, 8:45 PM
Persepolis, 10:00 AM
Rendition, 9:00 AM
Under the Same Moon, 3:00 PM
Young People Fucking, 9:15 AM

Sunday, September 9:
Before the Rains, 12:45 PM
Bill, 8:30 PM
Breakfast with Scot, 6:30 PM
Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame, 6:30 PM
Darfur Now, 12:00 PM
Le Deuxieme Souffle, 4:00 PM
Eastern Promises, 9:30 AM
Empties, 9:45 AM
Into the Wild, 9:00 PM
Lust, Caution, 9:15 AM
Mid Road Gang, 3:30 PM
Night, 8:30 PM
The Orphanage, 12:30 PM
Religulous: A Conversation with Bill Maher and Larry Charles, 1:00 PM
September, 11:15 AM
Under the Same Moon, 8:15 PM
The Wild Horse Redemption, 1:30 PM
The World Unseen, 6:00 PM

Monday, September 10:
4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days, 10:00 AM
Atonement, 9:00 PM
Brick Lane, 10:00 AM
Chop Shop, 8:00 PM
The Counterfeiters, 1:15 PM
Encounters at the End of the World, 7:00 PM
Four Women, 6:15 PM
In Bloom, 10:00 AM
In the Valley of Elah, 6:00 PM
Lars and the Real Girl, 9:15 PM
My Kid Could Paint That, 9:15 PM
The Past, 9:45 PM
Run, Fat Boy, Run, 10:00 PM
The Savages, 7:00 PM
Unfinished Sky, 7:45 PM
Unfinished Stories, 5:00 PM
When Did You Last See Your Father?, 12:00 PM

Tuesday, September 11:
The Babysitters, 9:45 PM
Blind, 9:30 PM
Body of War, 9:00 PM
Breakfast with Scot, 9:00 AM
In the Valley of Elah, 9:30 AM
Jellyfish, 2:30 PM
King of California, 7:00 PM
A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman, 8:00 PM
Le Scaphandre et le papillon, 6:00 PM
Silk, 9:00 PM
Sous les toits de Paris, 11:45 AM
With Your Permission, 12:15 PM

Wednesday, September 12:
Bill, 9:00 AM
Chop Shop, 12:00 PM
Deficit, 9:30 PM
I'm Not There, 8:30 PM
Romulus, My Father, 9:00 PM
The Stone Angel, 6:15 PM
The Tracey Fragments, 9:45 PM
Weirdsville, 3:00 PM

Thursday, September 13:
L'Avocat de la terreur, 12:30 PM
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, 9:00 PM
Jar City, 4:30 PM
Just Like Home, 12:15 PM
Lars and the Real Girl, 2:30 PM
The Mourning Forest, 5:45 PM
Secret Sunshine, 5:15 PM
You, the Living, 8:45 PM

Friday, September 14:
Before the Rains, 9:00 PM
Four Women, 2:00 PM
George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead, 11:00 PM
Happiness, 5:00 PM
King of the Hill, 8:15 PM
The Last Lear, 5:45 PM
The Man From London, 8:30 PM
The Mother of Tears, 11:15 PM
The Stone Angel, 4:45 PM
The Wild Horse Redemption, 11:45 AM
The World Unseen, 9:30 PM

Saturday, September 15:
L'Amour cache, 2:30 PM
The Babysitters, 1:30 PM
Blind, 7:00 PM
Blood Brothers, 7:00 PM
California Dreamin' (Endless), 9:45 AM
Caramel, 12:00 PM
Disengagement, 6:30 PM
The Edge of Heaven, 5:15 PM
Emotional Arithmetic, 6:30 PM
Faro, la reine des eaux, 1:00 PM
La Fille coupee en deux, 9:00 AM
A Gentle Breeze in the Village, 3:30 PM
Mutum, 4:00 PM
L'Ora di punta, 2:45 PM
The Secrets, 8:30 PM
Son of Rambow, 2:45 PM
Sukiyaki Western Django, 9:30 PM
Vexille, 11:30 PM
XXY, 5:30 PM

Tags: 2007,tickets

Picking Up Your Advanced Ticket Order

You can pick up your advanced ticket order starting Monday, September 3. Go to the Festival Box Office at College Park (444 Yonge Street) anytime between 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. The line typically starts outside in the courtyard on the west side of the building (see the pictures from my posts in September 2006); look for festival volunteers to tell you where to line up.

You must have your Pick Up Voucher (which you should have received in the mail last month) with you in order to pick up your tickets.

If you did not receive all of your first or second choices, then your e-mail confirmation from the festival should list one or more Regular Top Up Vouchers. You will receive these when you pick up your order. You can exchange these vouchers on Monday for other films that have free seats, or you can use them during the festival when general sales begin on the 5th.

If you didn't get all your choices, then you may want to line up early in order to be able to select other films after you pick up your tickets and vouchers. If you did get all your choices, then I recommend you show up later to pick up your tickets so you can avoid the crowds.

If you didn't receive an e-mail confirmation, show up anyway on Monday with your Pick Up Voucher, as your order will still have been fulfilled.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Final Schedule

My final schedule for the festival looks as follows:

Thursday, September 6
Starting Out in the Evening

Friday, September 7
Glory to the Filmmaker! (Kantoku Banzai!)
Le Voyage du ballon rouge (Flight of the Red Balloon)

Saturday, September 8
Young People Fucking
Juno
Silent Resident

Sunday, September 9
Religulous: A Conversation with Bill Maher and Larry Charles
Bill

Monday, September 10
Everything to Gain: A Conversation with Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter
Trumbo

Tuesday, September 11
Vexille
Le scaphandre et le papillon (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)

Wednesday, September 12
It's a Free World...
Encounters at the End of the World
Dans la ville de Sylvia (En la ciudad de Sylvia)
Déficit

Thursday, September 13
Dr. Plonk
Reclaim Your Brain
Jar City (Mýrin)
A Gentle Breeze in the Village (Tennen Kokekko)

Friday, September 14
Flash Point (Dao Huo Xian)
Chacun son cinéma
Chrysalis

Saturday, September 15
La Fille coupée en deux (A Girl Cut in Two)
Son of Rambow
Sukiyaki Western Django

Tags: 2007,films

Received Other Confirmation

My friend received a confirmation for our other picks in box 49 at around 3:40 PM today (Sunday). In that batch, we received 28 out of 30 first choices, including two of the Mavericks presentations.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Received My Confirmation

I received my confirmation for the picks in Box 21 at about 6:30 PM on Saturday, September 1. I got 29 out of 30 picks; the one missed film was 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days for my friend, so I ended up with the backup of The Mongol instead. I didn't select any gala or Visa Screening Room films, so that probably helped. My friend has the other half of our picks in Box 49 and I'm not overly optimistic about those; we've got one Visa film in that, plus two of the Mavericks sessions.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Box 66 is the One

The festival will process advanced orders starting with box 66 this year. They'll continue with box 67, 68, and so on until they reach box 75. Once box 75 is done, they'll circle back around to box 1 and continue processing from there.

My picks ended up in boxes 21 and 49. I figure I'll have a fairly good chance with the picks in #21, but #49 might be a little iffy.

Last year I received an e-mail confirmation of my order around 1:45 PM on Sunday, and I was in the latter half of the boxes to be processed.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Dropped Off in Box 49

My friend dropped the other half of our collective picks off at the box office at 10:00 AM this morning. At that point, the staff were filling boxes 47 to 50 in parallel, and we ended up in box 49. Interestingly, last year there were 40 boxes in total. The boxes didn't look any different, and theoretically there should be fewer order forms because of a change in the process, so I wonder if that means even more people are using the advanced ticketing this year.

Tags: 2007,tickets

My Preliminary Film List

My preliminary film list is below. We'll see by Monday which films I managed to get.

Bill
Chacun son cinema
Chrysalis
Dans la ville de sylvia
Deficit
Dr. Plonk
Encounters at the End of the World
Everything to Gain
Flash Point
La fille coupee en deux
A Gentle Breeze in the Village
Glory to the Filmmaker
It's a Free World
Jar City
Juno
Religulous
Le scaphandre et le papillion
Silent Resident
Son of Rambow
Starting Out in the Evening
Sukiyaki Western Django
Trumbo
Vexille
Le voyage du ballon rouge
Young People Fucking

Tags: 2007,films

Advanced Ticketing Deadline

Just a reminder, all advance order books must be submitted by 1:00 PM this Friday, August 31, in order to be eligible for the advanced order process. If you fail to submit your package by this time, your order will be processed after everyone who did make the deadline.

If you didn't buy a Festival Pass, a Daytime Pass, or a 1o-film package, your options for buying tickets are as follows:

1. Buy a VISA Screening Room or Gala ticket at the Festival Box Office (444 Yonge St), online (http://www.tiff07.ca/), or by phone at 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM.
2. As of September 5 at 7:00 AM, buy tickets for any film at any box office, online, or by phone. Expect slow response on the website and long lines at the box offices on this day.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Dropped Off in Box 21

I dropped my form off at the festival box office at 1:00 PM today (August 30), and I was in box 21. They were also filling box 20 at the same time.

There was a line to drop off the forms; it took around 10 minutes or so to get through the line. Expect the wait to be longer on Friday, when the majority of people drop their forms off.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Out of Town Packages

Sounds like there was a big screw-up with the out-of-town packages this year, and that hundreds were held up in customs in Newark today because they were missing manifests. Not sure where the problem was this year (although some reports seem to indicate it could have originated because of insufficent addressing info by the festival). Other people have reported problems with packages clearing customs in previous years, but it sounds like the problem might have been bigger this year. Some people are reporting that they're getting delivery promised by Thursday, although I'm sure many will only believe it when they see it.

Check out the comments to this post at the Midnight Screenings blog to see how other people are doing with their packages.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Programme Guide Gift Bag

If you ordered a 2007 Programme Guide, you should have gotten a gift bag. Unfortunately, what I didn't realize is that they had a limited number (3,000 for this year) and they ran out around 6:00 or so today. The photo below shows what the bag contains (courtesy my friend who did manage to get one):

Tags: 2007

Out of Town Packages

Blutz over at the Midnight Screenings blog has an interesting story on the out-of-town ticket packages and a disaster narrowly averted...

http://midnightscreenings.blogspot.com/2007/08/true-story.html

Tags: 2007,tickets

How the Heck do I Fill Out the Order Form (2007 edition)?

In case you wondering how to fill out an order form, you'll need the following:

1. The official film schedule:



2. The Advance Order Book:



3. A yellow highlighter.

4. A green highlighter.

Let's consider an example where you want to see the film L'Annulaire on one of the days of the festival. Note this is an example from a previous year. The order form looks as follows:


First, write the number of tickets you want in the box labeled "1st" next to the name of the film. In this example, we want 2 tickets. This will represent your first choice for this timeslot.

Next, highlight the name of the film with a yellow highlighter (you will have received one if you picked up a programme book, otherwise supply your own). Note the colour MUST be yellow. Do NOT highlight the barcode.

Next, find a film around the same time that will be your backup choice if your first choice is already full when they get around to processing your order form. Note this step is optional. If you do not specify a backup film and your first choice is full, you will receive a ticket voucher which you can redeem at a later date for another film at the festival.

In this example, Battle in Heaven will be the backup choice. Next to your backup film, write the number of tickets you want in the box labeled "2nd". In this example we still want 2 tickets.


Next, highlight the name of the backup film with a green highlighter (you will have received one if you picked up a programme book, otherwise supply your own). Note the colour MUST be green. Do NOT highlight the barcode.

Your form should look as follows:



Repeat this process until you run out of coupons or choices. For example, if you ordered a 10-film package, and you wanted 2 tickets for each film, you would select 5 1st choice films and optionally, 5 2nd choice backups. If your second choice for a film is not close to the first choice, or it is not obvious what or where the second choice is, feel free to write a note or draw an arrow, but don't write over any of the barcodes, and don't make things difficult for the festival staff by making it complicated.

If you purchased 10-film packages or the Festival pass, you can select any film except for the galas at Roy Thomson Hall. If you purchased a daytime pass, you can select any film that starts before 5:01 PM except for the galas at Roy Thomson Hall.

For a 10-film package, you can select a maximum of 10 tickets for a single film. For a Festival or Daytime pass, you can select a maximum of one ticket for a single film (i.e. you can't get a ticket for you and a friend for the same film using a pass).

When selecting films, don't forget to account for the following:

• Films may not start or end on time
• Times in the schedule do not include time for Q&A sessions after the film if the director or actors are present
• You should account for travel time between theatres, as some are far apart from one another

Unlike in previous years, you can place all your choices in a single Advance Order Book, regardless of how many passes or packages you bought. If you bought 3 10-film packages, then all 30 1st choices and all 30 2nd choices can go in the same book.

Once you have finished picking your films and filling out the order forms, ensure you fill out the "Ticket Order Form" information at the bottom of page 3 of the Advance Order Book.

Once you have filled out that information, place the completed Advance Order Book in the envelope you received when you picked up your form:



Fill out the "Total Number of Tickets Requested in this order" box at the top right of the envelope. If you have 3 10-film packages, then you would write 30 in this box.

Fill out the contact information on the envelope. If you include an e-mail address, then the festival should notify you by e-mail which of your choices were filled and which were not when they have finished processing your order. If you bought the pass or 10-film package for someone else, ensure their name is also included on the form in the spot provided.

Take the Drop Off Voucher that you should have received in the mail a while ago and place it in the envelope window. Do NOT include the Pick Up Voucher; you need to keep that to pick up your completed order starting September 3 at 10:00 AM.

Do NOT seal the envelope; leave the flap open or tuck it in, but do not seal it.

If you have a festival or daytime pass, then you will submit one envelope per pass. If you bought multiple 10-film packages under your name in one order/transaction, then you will submit one envelope for all the packages. This is different from how the process worked in previous years. Basically, you should have one envelope per Drop Off Voucher that you have.

Drop off the envelope at the Festival Box Office at College Park before 1:00 PM on Friday, August 31 (that's this Friday!). Note this is the only box office that will accept these forms. If you do not turn in your envelope by 1:00 PM on Friday, then you will miss the lottery, and your form will be processed after everyone else's.

You can pick up your completed orders starting 10:00 AM on Monday, September 3. If you receive an e-mail from the festival saying you got all your choices, then I would recommend that you do NOT show up first thing in the morning, as there will be long wait. If you didn't receive all your picks, then you should line up in the morning, as you will receive ticket vouchers in place of your missed picks. You can then move to another line to immediately use those vouchers to pick other films that are still available; alternatively, you can wait to use those vouchers during the festival, but there's no advantage to doing that.

Tags: 2007,tickets

World and North American Premieres

The Midnight Screenings blog has a link to Variety's list of which movies at this year's festival are international or North American premieres. The blog also has some good articles on how to schedule your films, as well as a breakdown of the number of seats in each festival theatre. The latter could prove useful if you're trying to gauge how many tickets might be available for a given film.

Tags: 2007,films

Advanced Ticketing Starts Tuesday

If you bought a festival pass, a daytime pass, or one or more 10-film packages, then starting Tuesday, August 28 at 9:00 AM you can pick up your Advanced Order Book, the festival schedule, and the programme book (if you bought one). These can be picked up at the Festival Box Office at College Park, 444 Yonge Street (at Yonge and College), south entrance, market level. The Festival Box Office is open from 9:00 AM to 7:00 PM for August 28 to 31. As mentioned in an earlier post, you don't have to show up right at 9:00 AM, as there is no advantage to getting your picks in first; the festival operates on a lottery system rather than first-come-first-served.

Note you must go the Festival Box Office to pick up your order book; you *cannot* go to any of the other box offices. Be sure to bring along the vouchers that you should have already received in the mail. You will need an Envelope Voucher to get your Advanced Order Book, and optionally a 2007 Programme Book Pick Up Voucher for the programme book if you bought one (note that you don't need one to complete the ordering process). The vouchers should be labelled clearly enough, but if you can't figure out which one to use, bring them all and the festival staff will take the appropriate ones from you.

Don't forget to also pick up the free festival schedule. You will need this to figure out when each movie is playing.

Your completed Advanced Order Book must be returned before Friday, August 31 at 1:00 PM. If you turn it in after that time, you will not be included in the advanced ticket lottery.

Tags: 2007,tickets

VISA Screening Room Tickets and Passes

Someone in the comments wondered if there'd be any VISA Screening Room tickets left given that individual tickets went on sale before the advanced ticketing occurred. I wrote to the festival, and got this reply:

The tickets we made available for public sales comes out of a separate inventory - it doesn't affect pass and ticket package holders.... but your access to these tickets will still be determined by both your position in the lottery for the advance order procedure and the demand on said tickets.

You may select any screenings except for anything playing at Roy Thomson Hall.

So the festival does reserve separate blocks of tickets for individual sales and for advanced ticketing. So if you have a festival pass, a daytime pass, or a 10-film package, you can still select VISA Screening Room films or the showings of gala films that are *not* at Roy Thomson Hall in the advanced ticketing process.

Thanks to the festival for their extremely quick reply to this question (someone was actually checking e-mail on Sunday night!).

Tags: 2007,tickets

Gala and VISA Screening Room Films that are Sold Out

* Updated Sunday, September 2 at 11:40 AM.

The following Gala and VISA Screening Room films are now sold out:

Thursday, September 6
6:00 PM - Fugitive Pieces - VISA
9:00 PM - Persepolis - VISA

Friday, September 7
6:00 PM - Then She Found Me - VISA
6:30 PM - Rendition - Gala
9:00 PM - Lust, Caution - VISA
9:30 PM - Michael Clayton - Gala

Saturday, September 8
6:00 PM - No Country For Old Men - VISA
6:30 PM - Eastern Promises - Gala
9:00 PM - The Assassination of Jesse James - VISA
9:30 PM - Le Deuxieme Souffle - Gala

Sunday, September 9
11:00 AM - Then She Found Me - VISA
2:30 PM - Shake Hands with the Devil - VISA
6:00 PM - Nightwatching - VISA
6:30 PM - Elizabeth: The Golden Age - Gala
9:00 PM - Into The Wild - VISA
9:30 PM - The Jane Austen Book Club - Gala

Monday, September 10
11:00 AM - The Assassination of Jesse James - VISA
3:00 PM - Elizabeth: The Golden Age - VISA
6:00 PM - In The Valley of Elah - VISA
6:30 PM - Sleuth - Gala
9:00 PM - Atonement - VISA
9:30 PM - Across the Universe - Gala

Tuesday, September 11
11:00 AM - Across the Universe - VISA
6:30 PM - Cassandra's Dream - Gala
9:00 PM - Silk - VISA
9:30 PM - Cleaner - Gala

Wednesday, September 12
11:00 AM - Cassandra's Dream - VISA
2:30 PM - Atonement - VISA
9:00 PM - Romulus, My Father - VISA
9:30 PM - Blood Brothers - Gala

Thursday, September 13
12:00 PM - Margot at the Wedding - VISA
6:00 PM - Angel - VISA
6:30 PM - Reservation Road - Gala
9:00 PM - Before The Devil Knows You're Dead - VISA
9:30 PM - The Walker - Gala

Friday, September 14
6:30 PM - Closing the Ring - Gala
9:00 PM - Rails & Ties - VISA
9:30 PM - Caramel - Gala

Saturday, September 15
11:00 AM - Closing the Ring - VISA
6:30 PM - Emotional Arithmetic - VISA
Roy Thomson Hall Closing Night Film and Party - Gala

Some of the VISA Screening Room films and some of the galas still have individual tickets left.

If you weren't able to get the films you wanted, you have a few options:

1. Check back on the website or at the box office periodically. The festival will occasionally release extra blocks of tickets, especially on the day of the showing.
2. If you have a 10-film book, a Festival Pass, or a Daytime Pass, you will still be able to select VISA Screening Room films and the second showing of gala films, even if the individual tickets are sold out on the website. Each gala has two showings; the first is in the evening at Roy Thomson Hall. The second showing is in one of the other theatres on a subsequent day. You can't use your 10-film book or pass to get a ticket for the Roy Thomson Hall showing, but you can use them for the second showing.
3. Stand in the rush line at the theatre. If there are any ticket holders that don't show up or if they have extra seats that are not being used by festival guests, some of the people in the rush line may be allowed to purchase a ticket for the showing.

As someone in the comments mentioned, you can go stand in front of Roy Thomson Hall by the red carpet to watch the celebrities arrive even if you couldn't get a ticket for the film. The same holds true of the other theatres as well, but there's no guarantee you'll see anyone. Last year, Viggo Mortensen did show up at the Ryerson for a showing of Alatriste, as did Sasha Baron Cohen for Borat. I saw Matthew Modine at the Elgin, Ed Harris at Isabel Bader, and Guillermo del Toro at another theatre.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Individual Gala and VISA Screening Room Tickets Now on Sale

Individual tickets for the Gala films at Roy Thomson Hall and for the VISA Screening Room films at the Elgin are now on sale at the festival website. Note the main site seems fairly unresponsive right now, so you may have problems getting to the online order form.

You can also call the festival at 416-968-FILM (local) or 1-877-968-FILM (toll free), or go in-person to the TIFFG Box Office at the Manulife Centre (Yonge and Bay), but I wouldn't expect either to be any less busy.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Gala and VISA Screening Room Tickets

Just a reminder that tomorrow, on Saturday, August 25th, at 10:00 AM, individual tickets for the galas at Roy Thomson Hall and movies at the VISA Screening Room at the Elgin go on sale.

Tickets for these films can be ordered in one of the following ways, starting August 25th at 10:00 AM:

• Online at the festival website
• By calling 416-968-FILM (local) or 1-877-968-FILM (toll free)
• In person at the TIFFG Box Office at Manulife Centre

Starting August 28, you can also order from the Festival Box Office at College Park.

Starting Septmber 5, you can also order from the WestJet TIFF Box Office at Roy Thomson Hall.

There is a limit of four tickets, per screening, per person. If you really want to see a gala film at Roy Thomson Hall, you should try to purchase tickets as early as possible, as those films tend to sell out quickly.

If you have a pass or one of the 10-film packages, you typically cannot select the gala showings at Roy Thomson Hall as part of the advanced ticketing process. However, each gala film has a second showing in one of the other festival theatres, which you can select for a pass or a package. You can select any of the VISA Screening Room showings with a pass or package.

Greg in the comments noted that a TIFF press release started that Gala and VISA Screening Room tickets are $37.50 each if you buy them in advance. Note that regardless of how you buy tickets, you can pay by cash, debit, or Visa (Visa is the only credit card the festival accepts).

Tags: 2007,tickets

Advanced Ticketing

Tuesday, August 28 marks the beginning of the advanced ticket selection for those who bought a Festival pass, a Daytime Pass, or a 10-Film Package (where films are not pre-selected by the festival). If you ordered any of these a while ago, you should have already received in the mail an Envelope voucher, a Drop Off voucher, and a Pick Up voucher. If you purchased a 2007 Programme Book, you should have also received a pick up voucher for that.

Starting Tuesday, August 28 at 9:00 AM, you can go to the Festival Box Office at College Park, 444 Yonge Street, south entrance, Market Level. You must go to this specific box office only. Note that there is no advantage to arriving right at 9:00 AM, for reasons explained later in this post.

When you go to the Festival Box Office, ensure you have your Envelope voucher (and your Programmer Book voucher if you have one of those). You exchange the voucher for an envelope and an Advanced Order Book. Note that it appears that the procedure has changed slightly from previous years, in that you may only get one envelope and form, as opposed to one per set of tickets. For example, I bought 3 10-film packages. Last year, I got 3 order forms and 3 envelopes; it appears that this year, I might only get one. Consult with the festival staff at the box office to ensure you get the correct number of forms based on this year's procedure.

If you have a Programme Book voucher, you can also exchange it for the full-colour, comprehensive festival guide.

Ensure that you also pick up a copy of the Official Film Schedule, as you will need this to complete your order.

Fill out each order form you received with your selections. You can consult one of my previous posts on how to fill out the order form:

http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-heck-do-i-fill-out-order-form-2007.html

Once you have filled out the form, place it in the envelope you received when you picked up the form, and include your Drop Off voucher. Do not seal the envelope, and do not include any Pick Up vouchers; you need to keep those ones yourself for later.

Take your completed forms back to the Festival Box Office and drop them off no later than 1:00 PM on Friday, August 31, to be eligible for the advanced ticket draw. Any orders received after this date and time will not be in the advanced ticket draw. You can drop off the forms any time from August 29 up to August 31 at 1:00 PM.

The festival staff then spends the weekend processing orders. You can then line up at the Festival Box Office any time from Monday, September 3 at 10:00 AM onwards to pick up your completed forms and see what movies you received. Take your Pick Up vouchers with you to exchange for your processed order forms.

Most people line up on the Monday to pick up their completed packages (and there is usually a substantial line). If you didn't receive all your desired films, you can usually line up in a different line that day to select alternative movies with any remaining coupons you have.

For anyone who did not order advanced tickets, general ticketing opens to the public on Wednesday, September 5, online, by phone, and at all the box offices.


Now, why don't you need to line up first thing on August 28th to get your order form? Because the festival has a lottery system to determine from what point they start processing orders. Therefore, there is no inherent benefit to getting your order forms returned early. Here's how the system works:

1. The festival starts with a whole bunch of empty boxes, numbered sequentially.



2. As people turn in their order forms, the forms are placed in the lowest numbered box that has room:



Here we can see completed forms being placed in box #1.

3. Once a box is full, forms are placed in the next available box, in this case box #2:



4. And once that box is full, they move to the next one, in this case box #3:



5. Once all forms have been received by the deadline, the festival has a bunch of filled, numbered boxes:



6. They then randomly draw a number from 1 to whatever the highest number box they have, in this example, 80. The number drawn represents the box number from which the festival starts processing orders. Assume for this example that 33 was the number drawn:



The festival starts processing the forms in box #33. Once they have processed all the forms in the box, they move to the next one in numerical order, in this case #34. They continue until they reach the highest numbered box, here #80. Once they finish with that box, they loop back around to box #1 and start moving upwards, until they reach the box one number before the one drawn (#32). The festival usually sends e-mails out letting you know which of your choices you have gotten.

At this point, all advanced orders have been processed and will be ready for pickup. In this example, if you were lucky enough to be in box #33, you would've gotten all your picks. But if you were in box #32, you probably won't get a lot of your picks. In that case, for each pick that wasn't fulfilled you typically receive a coupon which you can use to select a film from whatever still has tickets available. You can use these coupons any time during the duration of the festival.

Just for interest, the graph below gives you an idea of when people submitted their order forms last year:



The bulk seemed to drop their forms off in the final three hours or so before the deadline. Last year, box 22 was randomly drawn as the starting point. I had forms in boxes 7 and 12, and there were three out of about 24 movies I didn't get.

Tags: 2007,tickets

Actors, Directors, and Others Attending

The list of actors, directors, and others attending the festival this year was announced. The complete list can be found at:

http://www.tiff07.ca/mediacentre/details.aspx?Id=491

Some highlights below:

Aaron Eckhart
Alfred Molina
Allison Janney
Amitabh Bachchan
Amy Brenneman
André Benjamin
Ang Lee
Antonin Svoboda
Asia Argento
Atom Egoyan
Brad Pitt
Brian De Palma
Bruce McDonald
Carly Pope
Carrie-Anne Moss
Casey Affleck
Cate Blanchett
Catherine Breillat
Catherine Keener
Charles S. Dutton
Charlize Theron
Chris Cooper
Chris Klein
Christopher Plummer
Clement Virgo
Clive Owen
Cole Hauser
Colin Farrell
Daniel Lanois
Dario Argento
David Cronenberg
David Schwimmer
Denys Arcand
Don Cheadle
Donald Sutherland
Donnie Yen
Elizabeth Banks
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Page
Emily Blunt
Emily Mortimer
Emmanuelle Seigner
Eric Bana
Ethan Coen
Evan Rachel Wood
Ewan McGregor
Fanny Ardant
François Girard
François Ozon
Frank Langella
Freddie Prinze, Jr.
Gabriel Byrne
Gael García Bernal
Geoffrey Rush
George A. Romero
George Clooney
Gillian Armstrong
Gregg Araki
Gus Van Sant
Guy Maddin
Guy Pearce
Helen Hunt
Hugh Dancy
Ian McEwan
J.K. Simmons
Jaime King
Jake Gyllenhaal
James McAvoy
Jamie-Lynn Sigler
Jason Bateman
Javier Bardem
Jena Malone
Jennifer Connelly
Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Jeremy Podeswa
Jim Broadbent
Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Smits
Joaquin Phoenix
Jodie Foster
Joel Coen
John Leguizamo
John Sayles
Johnnie To
Jonathan Demme
Josh Brolin
Jude Law
Julie Taymor
Juliette Binoche
Kate Bosworth
Kathy Baker
Kelly Macdonald
Ken Loach
Kenneth Branagh
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Macdonald
Keira Knightley
Kristin Booth
Larry Charles
Laura Linney
Leelee Sobieski
Liam Neeson
Liev Schreiber
Lou Reed
Maggie Grace
Marcia Gay Harden
Maria Bello
Marie-Josée Croze
Mark Ruffalo
Martin Freeman
Matthew Broderick
Max von Sydow
Mena Suvari
Michael Caine
Michael Douglas
Michael Moore
Michelle Rodriguez
Mira Nair
Mira Sorvino
Monica Bellucci
Naomi Watts
Neil Jordan
Nick Broomfield
Noah Baumbach
Patricia Clarkson
Paul Haggis
Peter Greenaway
Peter Sarsgaard
Phil Donahue
Rachael Leigh Cook
Rachel McAdams
Rade Sherbedgia
Ray Liotta
Rebecca De Mornay
Reese Witherspoon
Renny Harlin
Richard Attenborough
Richard Roxburgh
Roger Spottiswoode
Rosamund Pike
Rosie Perez
Roy Dupuis
Ryan Gosling
Samuel L. Jackson
Scott Speedman
Sean Garrity
Sean Penn
Shauna McDonald
Sidney Lumet
Sigourney Weaver
Simon Pegg
Stuart Townsend
Susan Sarandon
Sydney Pollack
Terrence Howard
Thandie Newton
Tilda Swinton
Timothy Olyphant
Todd Haynes
Tom Cavanagh
Tom Wilkinson
Tommy Lee Jones
Tricia Helfer
Tyrese Gibson
Uma Thurman
Viggo Mortensen
Vincent Cassel
Werner Herzog
William Hurt
Wilson Yip
Woody Allen
Woody Harrelson

Tags: 2007,celebrities

Film List and Schedules

The complete list of films for this year's festival is now available on the festival website at:

http://www.tiff07.ca/filmsandschedules/filmsearch.aspx

Note that this is just a list of the films; for most of the films there is no description of the film or a schedule of what times the film will be showing.

However, there is a complete schedule of times for the Gala films that will be showing at Roy Thomson Hall:

http://www.tiff07.ca/filmsandschedules/galas/

There is also a complete schedule of times for the films showing at the VISA Screening Room at the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre:

http://www.tiff07.ca/filmsandschedules/visascreeningroom/

For a description of the other films, your best bet at this point is the TIFFReviews.com site. The festival will post the full schedule and descriptions at the official TIFF site on August 28.

Tags: 2007,films

Important Upcoming Dates

With only 17 days to go until the festival starts, there are some important dates to remember:

Wednesday, August 22: The full schedule for the festival is available on the festival website, after 12:00 PM. You can also check out TIFF Reviews for more information about the announced films.

Saturday, August 25: Gala and VISA Screening Room tickets go on-sale on the festival website and at the various box offices for the general public. If you didn't participate in the advanced ticketing process, this is your first opportunity to buy individual tickets.

Tuesday, August 28: If you ordered a pass or coupons that require you to select films, the order forms are available starting on this date. Subsequent posts at this blog will explain the advanced ticketing process in more detail. Programme Books and printed festival schedules are also available.

Friday, August 31: All advanced ticketing order forms must be turned in to the College Park box office by 1:00 PM. All forms received after that time will not be filled until advanced ticketing has been completed. The festival will notify you by e-mail what tickets you did and didn't get.

Monday, September 3: You can pick up your advanced tickets, and choose replacements for any films you didn't get in the advanced draw.

Wednesday, September 5: Tickets go on sale to the general public for all films.

Thursday, September 6: The festival starts.

Tags: 2007,tickets