Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pride
Notes From A Festival Junkie ...
Thursday
Most major film events would love to have Toronto's problems.
They would love to have the teaming crowds that respond enthusiastically to even the most arcane fare. They would put up with the lineups for tickets, the deluge of press and the juggling of industry screenings.
Then there's the bother of international stars and the world's leading filmmakers. There are the paparazzi and entertainment news cameras, the traffic jams, the late starts and endless tweaks that must be made to the program.
As one visiting festival director commented: "if this is hell, then make my reservation."
Well it's not that sort of inferno and it certainly isn't paradise, either. It's huge, it's brassy and has managed to embrace bother high art and crass commercialism.
It is unquestionably one of a handful of great film events during the calendar. But it's also gotten a tad sanguine about its success and importance, at least from a number of outward signs. I ran into fest director Piers Handling outside the Cumberland and he appeared as cool and collected as one might expect anyone not connected with the administration.
I glanced up at the marquee and asked him about rumors that the Cumberland - the biggest grossing art house in Toronto - closing. "They have a crazy landlord," he shrugged. "I don't know what's going to happen."
He didn't flinch, he simply rolled his eyes. I asked whether they were looking into moving the epicenter of the festival and he drifted away saying, "we'll do something."
With the close of the Uptown in the past year, the festival lost five screens but picked up a single screen venue, the Isabel Bader auditorium. Four subway stops away, they're using the ultra modern Paramount multiplex and somewhere in-between have programmed films at the 1,300-seat Ryerson University theater. If the Cumberland were to disappear they would lose another four screens.
It does appear inevitable that the festival will wind up locating closer to the lakeshore where it's acquired land for a permanent cite that will house a number of auditoriums. The master plan targeted that it would be running on full steam for the 2007 edition but fundraising hasn't been quite as vigorous as anticipated and privately the word is to expect that completion will occur a year later. However, as they've yet to break ground, no one can yet foresee construction glitches.
There is of course one simple band-aid solution that might alleviate some of the stress over the next four years. Toronto currently programs something on the order of 300 selections annually and I'm pretty certain no one would particularly notice if it scaled back to 250. As it screens each film twice for the public, that would mean a saving of 100 projections over nine full days of scheduling.
It's difficult to assess how the 2004 edition ranks among past ventures simply because it's size and significance is so variegated. It feels like a pretty good edition but not an outstanding one. Obviously the people that brought films to the festival that sold have to be happy and those that did not are singing a different tune. People scouting new films weren't buying in general but their priorities may simply not have meshed with what was available to be screened.
Toronto like Cannes or Berlin is somewhat hamstrung by whatever is available. It's among the elite festivals driven by world premieres or first screenings outside the country of origin. To maintain that position it has to be industry friendly and some say it's a bit too cuddly in that regard.
As it winds down to a close, the shock of the new hasn't always been positive. Response to such films as France's period adventure Arsene Lupin, Andy Garcia as Modigliani and Helen Hunt in an updated Lady Windermere's Fan titled A Good Woman has been less than sterling. There hasn't been much enthusiasm expressed for the closing night film Jiminy Glick in La La Wood and the sole remaining unknown quantity, the period drama The Libertine with Johnny Depp, has been kept under lock and key until its Friday debut.
It does feel as if this year ended early and is crawling to its conclusion. The programming was conspicuously front loaded and in dire need of a second wind that never occurred. While a modest scaling back is unlikely to diminish the quality of the event it just might make it easier to navigate, more balanced and tighter and absent of those discretionary titles that are at best head scratchers.
Tomorrow: The lists … unofficial, of course.
Tuesday's Notes
Monday's Notes
Sunday's Notes
Saturday's Notes
Friday's Notes
