Toronto 2005: Day Six/Seven

DAY SIX/SEVEN

Things were looking up on Wednesday, as I got to see three really compelling films in one day with barely a distributor among them. One, John Turturro’s Romance & Cigarettes, which Sony has no current plan to release, I reviewed earlier. (Another United Artists creation, Art School Confidential, has now been added to the Sony Classics line-up. And Capote, of course, will be released by Sony Classics this fall with serious Oscar hopes.)

The day started with Le Temps Qui Reste (Time To Leave), the latest from Francois Ozon, which played at Cannes and fell to Strand Releasing (with due respect to Strand) even though Ozon is one of the world’s top directors and here delivered a movie of great insight and passion. In fact, as I was watching, it occurred to me that this film, which is also very light on dialogue and overt expression, has the kind of emotional richness that I feel Brokeback Mountain fails to achieve.

Time To Leave is the story of a 30 year old fashion photographer who finds out early in the film that he is likely to die of cancer. The film captures his slow journey to the acceptance of his fate. Who does he tell? How can he tell them? What choices does he have? Why him?

For me, this film was a relentlessly honest examination of this experience. It is not definitive by any means... as all stories of choices are not. But each step rings true. The performances, as in all Ozon movies, are passionate, but realistic. Interestingly, Ozon and cinematographer Jeanne Lapoirie shoot many of their close-ups with light more similar to fashion photo shoots than we usually see at the movies. Eyes pop and skin shines the ways they do in glossy ads. But as lustrous as that is, when the lead, played by Melvil Poupaud, meets his grandmother, played by Jeanne Moreau, there is not a movement wasted... not a false step... yet it is fascinating even to watch Moreau walk away from the scene.

How does this human heart react to the challenge of a sudden and definitive change in your expectations of the world? Time To Leave takes the time to reflect as so many of history’s great French films have. It is among the least tricky of Ozon’s films, which also makes it one of the best.

My evening closed with a wonderful film from L.I.E. director Michael Cuesta called Twelve and Holding. I had no real sense of what I was about to see, other than that the film had some heat among buyers. What it turned out to be was the coming-of-twelve story of three close friends, two boys and a girl. Each kid has their own distinct arc. And telling you much more about any of the three arcs would remove the element of surprise, which is so much a part of enjoying this film.

What I will tell you is that one of the kids has a “Harvey Wine Stain” on his left cheek that challenges him to feel normal. The girl of the group gets her first period at the start of the film and quickly starts to aspire to full-blown womanhood. And the third kid is overweight, but available to fate making its presence known.

Each of the stories is a little shocking, a bit politically incorrect, not nearly as harsh as a film like Thirteen, and full of humor and laughs to go with some real pre-teen drama. This movie is destined, although R rated, to be a cult classic for teens. These are not just kids struggling with social standing and school bullies. This movie pushes the envelope wide open with stories that could, with minor adjustments, be the very real problems of adulthood.

For me, among non-major-studio movies, these two have been my best of the fest so far. Powerful, intimate and unrelentingly human... what more could I ask?

by David Poland