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Kate Hudson and Billy Crudup walk among
almost-famous filmmakers at the Toronto Film
Festival
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TORONTO -- This is an anniversary year for the Toronto International Film Festival, number 25 and counting. While festival locals reflect on the wild nights that helped the fest come of age, it's clear the Toronto Festival continues to grow into a more monstrous beast: 30-odd theaters spread across Toronto's downtown are the venues for 329 films. It's an impressive schedule of world premieres, Hollywood productions, foreign cinema and documentary film. There's something for everyone. That's been the core key to the festival's success over the years: Toronto is big enough for Hollywood and all corners of the world.
Toronto 2000 limped into life with a Canadian premiere, Montreal-based filmmaker Denys Arcand's Stardom. A mockumentary that skewers celebrity culture and the modeling industry, Stardom follows the career of a pretty hockey player from Central Canada (newcomer Jessica Paré) who becomes a supermodel. Paré is a pretty face, but Stardom's "Canadian" jokes are tired and worn. The fest must have been desperate to open with a Canadian film.
Luckily, inside a neighborhood art house cinema near the University of Toronto, a group of student filmmakers jump-start the fest in more vibrant fashion. For seven years, the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto have held their Salon des Refusés on the festival's opening night. Inspired by Emperor Louis Napoleon's response to the French Academie des Beaux Arts' monopoly over publicly displayed art, these emerging filmmakers gather together for a screening of their own rejected films.
A packed auditorium of friends, supporters and curious spectators turns the historic Bloor Cinema into a cinematic party. A lot of the films -- like Lisa Hayes' Lez Be Friends, about a student filmmaker who's mistaken as a lesbian because of her gay movie, and Perversion, an experimental work by Virtue Bajurny -- reflect the filmmakers' threadbare resources. Cell phones ring throughout the screenings. It's as if the "biz" has even reached here.
Questions from the audiences are minimal. Filmmakers and friends hang out on the sidewalk in front of the Bloor, smoking cigarettes. Free beer is available at an opening-night party next door. These student filmmakers have nothing to do with the main festival's own opening night bash, but they still know how to party.
At this festival, everyone is searching to ride a wave of positive buzz to their films' release dates, from veteran filmmaker Cameron Crowe, at the fest with his Rock & Roll drama, Almost Famous, to up-and-coming directors like Karyn Kusama, here with Girlfight. For 10 days every September, buzz is what the Toronto Fest is ultimately about. Of course, the real joy lies in finding cinematic surprises that appear out of nowhere.
The Moroccan film Ali Zaoua
Thursday Sept. 7, 6:30 p.m., Varsity Screening Room
Jostled interview schedules put me outside the cinema at the start of Ali Zaoua. I barely had time to flip through my fest catalogue. I knew that the film was about young homeless boys trying to survive on the streets of Casablanca. What I didn't realize was what a heartfelt drama director Nabil Ayouch created through his use of real street children. A film like Ali Zaoua is what I enjoy best about the festival experience: the opportunity to discover a surprise. Chances are Ali Zaoua will never break free from the festival bubble to find a theatrical life. Getting to American audiences is a tough challenge for all foreign-language films.
Almost Famous Press Conference
Friday Sept. 8, 4 p.m., Park Hyatt Hotel
Packed screenings quickly make Almost Famous an early festival favorite. There is no doubt that Crowe's sentimental journey back into his own life experiences as a Rolling Stone journalist pulls the heartstrings deftly. At an afternoon press conference, Crowe and his cast -- Billy Crudup, Patrick Fugit, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Kate Hudson, Jason Lee and Frances McDormand -- face a packed room of enthusiastic press. For many journalists, it's the closest they'll get to a real Rock & Roll experience.
There are the typical questions about favorite bands and favorite songs. Press conferences go easy when the press likes the particular film. Through it all, Hoffman sits at the end of the conference table looking bored and disinterested. Until someone asks him about his feelings about playing legendary Rock critic and overall rabble-rouser Lester Bangs. Finally, Hoffman has come to life. Now, there is no stopping his rant about the corrupting influence of the Hollywood machine.
"I think a lot of us have a little bit of Lester Bangs in us," Hoffman says. "I think a lot of us edit ourselves because we want to keep our jobs and want to keep our lives." With those words, Hudson and Crudup turn toward their co-star; the paparazzi lean closer. They're looking for a free, unedited moment from Hoffman, and he obliges.
The Liv Ullmann film Faithless
Friday Sept. 8, 8:45 p.m., Uptown Cinema
Getting a little indie film to American audiences is a challenge even for film veteran Liv Ullmann. The history of cinema can be found through her performances with filmmaker Ingmar Bergman. These days Ullmann has turned her hand towards directing. Faithless, which follows a family torn apart by adultery, was written by Bergman for Ullmann to direct. The crowd at the cavernous Uptown Cinema is enthusiastic, but Ullmann says, "I get so nervous. If you start coughing or whatever, I get so nervous. I think, 'Oh no, they don't like it.' But I will be very happy to come back and take questions after."
No member of the Toronto filmmaking community -- not even the most powerful movers and shakers -- qualifies as Hollywood elite. But there is a thread of artistry, independent expression and distinct styles and cinematic world views that snakes its way around the press conferences and celebrity sightings. A star like Gwyneth Paltrow can grab attention, but the films have people talking long after the festival has ended. The movies are what it's ultimately about.
The Ang Lee film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Sunday Sept. 10, 6:30 p.m., Roy Thomson Hall
Filmmaker Ang Lee, dressed in an elegant black suit, greets the overflowing crowd in Toronto's massive opera house that has come to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, his epic martial-arts adventure starring Chow-Yun-Fat and Michelle Yeoh. Lee brought his previous film, the Civil War drama Ride with the Devil, to Toronto a year ago. The chance to show his new film is special.
"The only day I was happy last year was when I was sharing Ride With the Devil with you," Lee says. "(The festival) was an oasis, and we all could use an oasis."
The flying fists of fury of Yeoh and Cheng Pei-Pei as the villain Jade Fox give the film much-appreciated girl power. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a martial-arts epic that achieves the level of cinematic myth. Of all the early festival films, it is by far the best.
At the film's end, deafening applause normally reserved for sports heroes and Rock bands surrounds Lee in the opera hall's upper balcony. Amid bravos and cheers, Lee finally stands to wave to the standing crowd. The moment is special for Lee, that rare time when film and filmmaker come face-to-face with the love of an adoring crowd.
Earlier in the evening, Lee called the festival an oasis. It's a moment the "Hollywood machine" cannot touch. ©
