Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Ray Pride
Notes From A Festival Junkie ...
WednesdayIs it over yet?
Remember, I used the analogy of running hurdles to doing the festival thing a couple of days ago. Normally with three days remaining at the Toronto Film Festival this would be the last stretch portion of the race. The fact is that in the 2004 edition of this event there doesn't appear to be much reason to sprint to the finish.
When I hit the circuit Wednesday the atmosphere had changed. The wattage level had dropped conspicuously and the press/industry participation seemed to have diminished to almost nothing. The change was so dramatic and abrupt that I began to doubt the obvious and found myself asking others whether they were experiencing it too.
"It's over," said one Los Angeles based sales rep, "I'm outta here tomorrow." A lot of other people came for the weekend and departed on Tuesday and as the festival nears its conclusion, there's precious little on the horizon set to debut that was among the must-see titles.
It also dawned on me that the arrival of Rosh Hashonnah - the Jewish New Year - might have contributed to the air being sucked out of the festival balloon. While the majority of Jews in the industry tilt away from Orthodox sects, the New Year followed by the day of atonement a week later are the most likely times even secular Jews might go to Temple with their families.
I'm not aware that the Toronto programmers factored in the high holidays in the 2004 schedule. The two calendars rarely collide - the last instance being seven or eight years back. What has evolved unquestionably is a front loaded program. The event's high profile movies get slotted on the opening weekend and spill over into Monday and it seems to me that repeat screenings are increasingly taking place on consecutive days.
The strategy may be convenient for people flying in from Los Angeles or Paris or other film capitals that want to concentrate their business calendar in Ontario. However, it plays havoc for the press and public that anticipate catching up to a buzz movie because by the time word-of-mouth kicks in, the film has come and gone from the schedule in most instances.
It was only a few years ago that the final weekend of Toronto was programmed in such a way that one could do mop up but that, regrettably, appears to have been scrapped.
One of the local papers ran a piece Wednesday that suggested the producers of David Cronenberg's Crash based on the novel by J.G. Ballard were contemplating a lawsuit against the producers of the American independent feature Crash that premiered last weekend at the festival and was acquired by Lions Gate films.
It's not clear on what basis legal action could be taken. Copyright law does not protect titles per se or they could well have taken action against Dave Matthews for his hit song also titled Crash. One can argue that having two films with the same title is confusing to the public and might be financially injurious to the first film. It's a tough position to take as Cronenberg's film bowed eight years ago and went through the usual theatrical and ancillary cycles when it was the only film so titled. The new film is far more likely to be disadvantaged in adopting a previously employed moniker.
While one can't prevent someone from employing the same or similar title simply because it's been used before, there are other legal avenues to at least address those type of situations. There's also a gentleman's agreement or code that's long been in existence among the member companies of the Motion Picture Association of America. It's a registry and if a studio like Warner Bros. has, say Toots Goes to Cleveland on file, it's understood that if Paramount wanted to use it a legal/financial arrangement would be made between the two companies.
Back in 1988, I ran into David Cronenberg when he was doing post production on a movie called Twins based on a book of the same name about gynecologist brothers that descend into a perverse pathology. Cronenberg mentioned that Ivan Reitman, who had produced a couple of his early films, had approached him about acquiring the title for a significant amount of money and wanted to know what I thought about the situation. I advised against it because the film had already received considerable attention including a New York Times profile. Regardless of what new title would be adopted, all the previous work would have to be scrapped and a new campaign started to establish the movie. However, commerce prevailed and Cronenberg's film became Dead Ringers.
Prior to the Toronto curtain raiser, the one shrewd thing I did was endeavor to see as many scheduled films as possible. I haven't counted precisely but it was in the neighborhood of 12 to 15 movies. At the festival itself I've been seeing four or five films a day and what's amazed me is the frequency I've encountered people asking whether I've seen some picture they consider one of the best on view. Invariably the title doesn't even register with me.
Toronto is so large and so dense that it's rare for anyone's agenda to overlap more than 10% or 15%. I'm just hoping that some of those little jewels colleagues have mentioned will pop up on the schedule before the event's close because I did such a splendid job of pre-screening, I now have a very light viewing list and can't bear another reception and one more canapé.
Tuesday's Notes
Monday's Notes
Sunday's Notes
Saturday's Notes
Friday's Notes