Articles
Mia Hansen-Løve may not be a filmmaker you’ve heard much about, but with TIFF’s upcoming retrospective on her work to date, film fans clamouring for a new favourite filmmaker will be able to catch up on this young French director’s trio of astonishingly sophisticated films about the scars that various relationships can leave on our hearts. Originally an actress, Hansen-Løve first appeared on the scene in her now-husband Olivier Assayas‘ films Late August, Early September and Sentimental Destinies. Not content to simply mouth the words that someone else wrote for her, she stepped behind the camera and tapped into her...
I think we can all agree that the Donnie Darko original soundtrack and musical score is a work of genius. So who was/is the mastermind behind it all? That’ll be Michael Andrews, one of the best film composers on the planet. Best known for his cover of Tears for Fears’ ‘Mad World’ with Gary Jules (remember him?), Andrews sat down with us to talk “˜80s pop, crazy artist clichés and his excellent solo record, Spilling a Rainbow. Grolsch Film Works: I hear you’re a new dad? Congratulations!!”¨ Michael Andrews: Relatively new. Thanks. So there’s a reissue of the Donnie Darko...
So, you live in Toronto. Great! And you’ve been reading Toronto Film Scene’s August issue on fashion in the movies? Great! But how can you incorporate all of the fantastical images and information you’ve gleaned into a practical application within this great city of ours? Are you a crafter or a sewer? Are you just a beginner who’s interested in learning about vintage clothing, costuming, and fashion design? Or perhaps you’re a student of fashion or costume design. Either way, it’s always best to ask the pros. Meet Alex Kavanagh and Victoria Dinnick We’re lucky enough to have been able...
For most of my childhood, I was a casual consumer of cinema. I didn’t take it too seriously. All that changed when I was 16 years old, and my father took me to a screening at Cinematheque Ontario of Alain Resnais’ Last Year at Marienbad. As a kid, I loved goofball comedies like Police Academy (I still own the whole series on VHS) and kid-friendly fantasies like The NeverEnding Story. The other girls were in love with boy-warrior Atreyu. I had a crush on his pink pal, the Luck Dragon Falcor (seriously, he’s cute). I liked film, but I hadn’t...
The August issue of Toronto Film Scene is focusing on Fashion in Film, and since TIFF has been taking us to France this summer with their fabulous Summer in France series, I can’t think of a better way to dip our collective toe in the fashion waters than to take a look back at the fabulous style icons of the French New Wave. A short history The French New Wave (aka “La Nouvelle Vague”), depending on which authority you consult, started in the late 1950s and ended some time in the mid- to late-1960s. The main directors associated with the...
Take a minute to try to remember the last time you thought about the costumes in a film; surely, something fantastical pops into your head. The infamous yellow jumpsuit in Kill Bill? Sure. Maybe Dorothy’s ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz? For me, it’s always Jean Paul Gaultier‘s futuristic and utterly confounding designs for the otherworldly outfits in The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover. Perhaps equally as confounding and impressive were the Genie award-nominated costumes for Canadian auteur Guy Maddin‘s The Saddest Music in the World (costume designer Meg McMillan won the award). Ask yourself this:...
I’ve watched a lot of vintage ’60s and ’70s porn in my day, but until this book crossed my desk, I’d never actually read a heavy tome about the history of pornography. And yet Jack Stevenson’s exhaustive and fascinating study of Scandinavian porn was hard to put down. Any serious vintage porn fan has probably already seen several of the Danish or Swedish gems of this era, and would appreciate learning a bit more about the social and political climate that allowed these films to be made. And what better way to end a porn-themed month than with some deep...
Given the recent popularity of the Occupy movement around the globe, it’s not a shock that TIFF’s latest Canadian Open Vault has opted to highlight the staggering similarities between Toronto in 2012 and director Ron Mann‘s take on the city in 1984. In other words, the clothes and hair may be laughably different between the two time periods but in every other way, the song remains the same. The Toronto-based Mann, who has come to be known for his quirky documentaries like Grass and Go Further, made what would become his only dramatic feature to-date back in 1984. Listen to...
Why are horror films, which often depict realistic and graphic violence, so widely accepted in mainstream cinema, while pornography is still taboo, and even non-porn films which depict realistic sex are marginalized? Is it fair to simply chalk it up to our puritanical North American society, which considers sex totally unmentionable while violence is, considerably more acceptable, and we sure like watching it on the big screen? Obviously, there are parts of the world where more liberal attitudes toward sex prevail, but when Hollywood dominates the cinematic landscape as much as it does here in Canada, it’s an attitude worth...
The Toronto International Film Festival ain’t just a September party. TIFF makes a year-round commitment to enriching our cinematic experiences in this very cinematic city. Their Free Screen series aims to highlight engaging and provocative experimental film and video work; and yes, as the name suggests, attending these screenings is absolutely free. The next installment of this always-exciting series is “Fractured Movement / Constituent Parts”, which takes place this Wednesday, July 18th, and is comprised of 7 short film/video works, with two of the filmmakers in attendance. Once-forgotten, now-acclaimed artist Gary Beydler (who passed away in 2010) inhabited the conceptualist...
Elevator to the Gallows is a great example of how those small moments in life can bring drastic changes. One small piece of rope alters the lives of four people in the Louis Malle-directed film. Julien Tavernier (Maurice Ronet) and his lover Florence Carala (Jeanne Moreau) come up with a plan to kill her husband, Simon. Everything goes smoothly until Julien realizes that he’s left behind the rope he used to climb the balcony into Simon’s office. He leaves his car running on the street, and races back into the building. Julien winds up stuck in the elevator when the...
If a trip to the theatre means an escape into another world, or another life for you, Last Year at Marienbad may not be the trip you should take. On the other hand, if you view film as a springboard for intense debate or long discussions on its meaning, this may be your best opportunity. Directed by Alain Resnais, Last Year at Marienbad is the story of A (Delphine Seyrig) and X (Giorgio Albertazzi). When they bump into each other at a hotel, X is convinced that he and A shared a romantic encounter a year earlier, but A has...
