TIFF Programming
April 26 marked the opening of Chris Marker: Memory of a Certain Time, an exhibition of the legendary French filmmaker’s photographs. To accompany the exhibition, TIFF Bell Lightbox is throwing Remembrance of Things to Come, a mini retrospective of Marker’s films, which includes classics such as La Jetée and Sans Soleil. Cinephiles, Francophiles, prepare to flock! If you ever take (or have taken) a survey course on the French New Wave, you’ll spend a minute with Chris Marker. Well, probably 28 minutes, to be precise. In the tumultuous burst of expression that is post-war French film, Chris Marker gets a...
Barbara Hammer’s coming to town. Though not a household name, Hammer has carved herself a potentially immortal niche in cinema as a pioneer lesbian experimental filmmaker. Such a mouthful of a title, however, doesn’t do justice to Hammer’s totally diverse oeuvre: topic and styles range from abstract film exercises to historical documentaries. This week at TIFF Bell Lightbox, you have a chance to explore life through the Hammer lens with the Free Screen series. Six different screenings give you the chance to see everything from Tender Fictions, an autobiography which breaks both gender and narrative conventions to Pools, a nearly...
Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is a name that every film fanatic should know. Their brand of current releases, classic film, and exceptional theatre experience, have made their various locations the best place to watch film. Those of us in Canada don’t have the luxury of heading to the local Alamo Drafthouse, but with the creation of Drafthouse Films in 2010, viewers everywhere now have the ability to get a taste of the Alamo experience. Starting on Friday, March 29, 2013, TIFF Bell Lightbox presents two cult classics from the Drafthouse Films selection with the disturbing Australian film Wake In Fright, and...
We should all see more Japanese films – and TIFF Bell Lightbox’s massive Spotlight on Japan series of programmes makes this easy. A few years ago, my brother broadly introduced me to Asian cinema. We watched violent Korean action movies like Old Boy, Chinese tragedies such as Farewell My Concubine. However, when we watched Japan’s vicious – yet sort of funny – Battle Royale and Visitor Q, I realized that something especially weird and wonderful happens on the Japanese screen. You have a choice of alluring programs: Tokyo Drifters, Japanese Divas and The Catch: Masterworks of Eighties Japanese Cinema. I...
The LA Rebellion (sometimes called the “Los Angeles School of Black Filmmakers” or the UCLA Rebellion) is the term used to define a group of African American filmmakers who created films from the 1960s to the 1980s. These groundbreaking independent filmmakers worked outside the system to create positive images of themselves and their culture in cinema. Standing in contrast to the largely negative and stereotype building portrayals in Blaxploitation films, the filmmakers of the LA Rebellion told stories about the reality of living as a person of colour in the United States of America. In honour of Black History Month,...
Japanese Divas: Great Actresses of Classic Japanese Cinema, a lavish 31-film salute to Japan’s finest actresses and the directors they worked with, hits TIFF Bell Lightbox screens on January 24 and runs until March 31, 2013. Part of Spotlight on Japan, a city-wide festival celebrating classic and contemporary Japanese culture, TIFF Cinematheque is pulling out all the stops with this in-depth, wide-ranging look at the best of the Golden Age of Japanese cinema. As the programme notes for Japanese Divas: Great Actresses of Classic Japanese Cinema indicate, diva might not be the word that springs to mind when imagining a...
Founded in 1912, Nikkatsu didn’t really hit their high point until after WWII, when a massive soundstage was completed in 1954. With a promise of quick advancement, many assistant directors from competing studios moved over to Nikkatsu. This included Toshio Masuda and Seijun Suzuki. To celebrate the centenary of Nikkatsu, the TIFF retrospective Tokyo Drifters: 100 Years of Nikkatsu offers a dozen films from the company’s golden age. With sexploitation films, gangsters, and thrillers, the retrospective compiles some of the best content of Nikkatsu and showcases some of the most important Japanese directors in history. One of the most prolific...
Not only is Michael Haneke’s Amour destined to clean up at all sorts of glitzy awards shows, both Hollywood and otherwise, but the film itself is bringing two living legends back to the big screen. Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva were both pillars of French cinema across a span of decades in the mid-to-late 20th century, and the TIFF Bell Lightbox celebrates their re-appearance in Amour with a carefully-curated retrospective comprised of some of the most influential 20th century European films. The program, “A Man and a Woman: Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva”, is running now until February 24,...
What the Dickens! It’s Christmas time, which means that cheesy and beloved Christmas film classics will be commandeering basic cable for the next few weeks. If you still have a TV, you might find yourself plopped in front of the boob tube with a glass of hot Nesquik cocoa, mindlessly guffawing to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. You might spill that cocoa as your muscles atrophy, or fall into a coma from too much Chevy Chase chin. But it doesn’t have to be this way. This holiday season, TIFF Bell Lightbox offers us Dickens on Screen, a classy alternative to the...
All those who choose the unconventional over the blockbuster, gather round: TIFF Bell Lightbox’s Nicolás Pereda retrospective begins tonight and runs until November 25. And to sweeten the deal, Mr. Pereda will be in attendance to introduce each of his six films. TIFF Bell Lightbox opens this latest retrospective with its titular question: Where are the films of Nicolás Pereda? What this question really asks is: who is Nicolás Pereda? The answer, for Torontonians, might be of interest. Nicolás Pereda, 30-years-old, has made six feature films. He was born in Mexico, moved to Toronto at age 19 to attend film...
TIFF Bell Lightbox’s Indian Expressionism retrospective, running from November 14 – 21, offers many highlights: palatial scenery, vivid colour, sitars, song and dance – and Germany. I had no idea, but India and Germany go way back in the film world. Starting in the 1920s, the two countries have been doing a back-and-forth: collaborating on productions, borrowing ideas and remaking each others’ films. This two-way relationship has produced some unusual stuff. Each film in Indian Expressionism has its own merits, but it’s all about the crossover. I recommend seeing a variety of films here, since the relationship between countries changes...
Halloween isn’t over at the TIFF Bell Lightbox this winter, thanks to Twitch Films’ founder Todd Brown. The Birth of a Villain series is one gory must-attend event for all Toronto horror aficionados. Every Saturday night, beginning November 10, 2012 through December 29, 2012, there will be a different villain to terrorize your dreams once you get home. From Freddy Kreuger to Leatherface to Chucky, most of us know these horror film icons already. But if you’re like me, you enjoy revisiting their stories as often as possible, especially on the big screen. Brought to you by some of the...
