Tuesday
Aug272013
Wanna Help Me Plan My TIFF Schedule?
Tuesday, August 27, 2013 at 8:41PM 
I am pleased to report that I'll be covering TIFF for the first time since (gulp)... I don't even want to talk about how long it's been though I love that city dearly. TIFF has been kind enough to grant me accreditation but because the news came so late i've only been able to carve out about 4½ days for movie watching. I'll cram in as many movies as I can. Amir will also be there to help bring you TIFF festivities. If it goes well this year, we'll carve out 7 to 10 days next year. How's that? Have you looked at their massive slate? Which movies are you most excited to read about?
Reader Comments (39)
My answer is Dallas buyers Club, 12 years a slave, gravity, philomena. there are so many others i must be missing.
Jealous! Lucky you!
Well, stuff that interests me:
McQueen's 12 Years A Slave, Breillat's Abuse of Weakness, All is By My Side, Chomet's Attila Marcel, of course August: Osage County, Claire Denis' Bastards, the Portuguese The Battle of Tabato (looks like it borrows from last year's magnificent Tabu), Blue is the Warmest Color, John Carney's Can A Song Save Your Life, Franco's Child of God, Romania's Foreign Film submission Child's Pose, Dallas Buyers Club, Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (I know how much you love 3-hour movies!), Ayoade's The Double, Enemy (from José Saramago's briliant novel and directed by Villeneuve with Gylenhaal), The FIfth Estate, Gloria (Actressexualism!), GRAVITY, The Great Beauty from Sorrentino, Hateship Loveship, How I Live Now, The Invisible Woman, Kill Your Darlings, Labor Day, Like Father Like Son, Mary Queen of Scots (looks like Farewell My Queen), Night Moves, The Past, Prisoners, The Railway Man (your Nicole Kidman fix until Grace of Monaco appears), The Sea, Southcliffe (miniseries from Sean Durkin!!), Stranger By the Lake, A Touch of Sin, Tracks and Under the Skin. AND THE WIND RISES OF COURSE, since it'll only get here in 2014. A Wolf at the Door also looks great.
STAY AWAY FROM RUSH AND THIRD PERSON. Paul Haggis (evil) and Ron Howard (evil^2). Beware!
Of course I'd forget something. And check Judi in Philomena of course.
I'd love an honest report on August: Osage County. Leads vs. Supportings especially.
The Face of Love *Annette Alert*
August Osage County *Required Viewing*
12 Years A Slave *Ass-bender Nudity*
Everything else you're on your own.
brandz -- but i don't need to see it to give that. I know the play! ;) ...and test screenings indicate they haven't totally demoted the protagonists.
stranger by the lake
gerontophilia
tracks
the big chill
I would love your take on The Fifth Estate, August, Osage County and 12 years a Slave, plus Phlomena.
I'd love to read more from you about The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him & Her; Don Jon; Enough Said; Gloria; The Invisible Woman; Kill Your Darlings; The Love Punch; Philomena; Stranger by the Lake; The Wind Rises; and The World of Goopi and Bagha.
Hope you have a great time!
Which 4.5 days are you attending?
Jay's list is a good starting point. I'd humbly add to that Ilo Ilo, Our Sunhi (though, if I recall, you're not a Hong Sang Soo enthusiast generally, right?), Bobo and some of the Greek City to City films (I'll be seeing Wasted Youth and Unfair World). The Strange Little Cat, Beyond the Edge, Eastern Boys, Kids from the Port, Blind Detective, and Moebius are some other non-NYFF films I'll be checking out.
Anyway, have fun! As a New Yorker who has made TIFF an annual ritual now, you're in for a treat - especially if you get to go to press screenings, you lucky duck!
The special screening of The Big Chill followed by the Q&A with Lawrence Kasdan, Glenn Close, Meg Tilly, and co-writer Barbara Benedek. I'm biased because it's my favorite movie, but still. That's going to be awesome.
Also, I'd never heard of Devil's Knot until just now. Reese Witherspoon plays a mother of one of the 1993 West Memphis murder victims? I feel like that's the sort of thing that gets talked up...
Roark - Would love to meet you sometime! Every year I read your comments on my reviews or other tiff posts and you always seem to be in the exact same screenings as me :)
Which four days, girl?
Hope you have a good time Nathaniel. And many thanks for this wonderful blog.
Heh. I'm happy you put up this post, because my OCD self made an imaginary Toronto itinerary when the schedule went up and it would be a total waste if it never saw the light.
Thursday: Start Toronto with the zeitgeist and see The Fifth Estate and then just stick around the same theater for a showing of The Past.
Friday: Check out the one day only doc What Is Cinema in the afternoon, check out 12 Years A Slave in the evening (unless there are tickets for Jason Reitman's live reading, in which case drop McQueen like he's hot and treat yo' self!), and go for Catherine Breillat's collaboration with Isabelle Huppert Abuse Of Weakness at night.
Saturday: Take a well deserved morning in unless the buzz for The Railway Man is totally deafening. Save the afternoon for Blue Is The Warmest Color. Follow up with Labor Day. Take the rest of the night off.
Sunday: Marathon day. Head to Dallas Buyer's Club in the morning. Then Philomena and Gravity, though if the day needs a little levity you could always watch Taylor Kitsch reembrace his Canadian roots in The Grand Seduction instead. Then close the night off with the more low key Selfish Giant.
Monday: Take off for the morning. Start actressy with The Disappearance Of Eleanor Rigby, get even more actressy with August Osage County, and then presumably end the day in actressy ecstasy with Jonathan Glazer's follow-up to Birth: Under The Skin.
Can't wait to hear back on the site about the fest! Festivals are always such a fun time to be a cinephile, even if you don't get to go.
The Railway Man!!!!
Dear Nathaniel, please watch 'Sapi' by Brillante Mendoza.
The Railway Man
Tracks
I am skipping (almost) anything that opens in October or November cuz it's a lot of money to spend for something i just need a smidge of patience for. And probably skipping (most of) the stuff at NYFF since I can see that here.
at least this helps narrow it down a bit.
Obviously, A:OC, Blue is the Warmest Color and Le Grand Cahier. :)
Please, see the Huppert-Breillat movie.
Huppert is maybe the greatest living actress (bar Binoche) and I wish I could write more about her.
I wish you could write, of course.
Also:
- Blind Detective (because I love Johnnie To and his movies are so FUN).
- Child's Pose (because Romania is still on fire)
Too much to see. I'll try to find more goodies nobody mentioned later.
There's also Jafar Panahi's latest Closed Curtain. And Sylvain Chomet's first love action feature, Attila Marcel, opens at Toronto too. Both seem like must sees. Also totally intriguing are Xavier Dolan's Tom On The Farm, Belle, and Tracks, none of which have official release dates yet as far as I'm aware.
Congrats on getting to go to TIFF! Can't wait to hear your reactions to the experience and whatever movies you end up seeing.
Personally, I'd love to hear your thoughts on A Touch of Sin, Stranger by the Lake, Tom on the Farm (for Dolanish reasons), Ilo Ilo (I've read Edward Yang comparisons but I'm cynical that's just down to convenience due to race), Only Lovers Left Alive (SWINTON), The Past, The Selfish Giant.
Not sure how those pan out wrt NYFF and Oct/Nov US releases though!
Amir - That would be awesome! We do seem to be at a couple of the same screenings each year! I'll tweet at you or something (I don't see an email address on your blog?) and we can compare schedules, etc!
Labor Day, please!
I'd check IFC Center's list of upcoming films. I know they have BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR, A TOUCH OF SIN and so on coming up quite soon.
I'd really like to recommend FELONY. I know it's a crime drama about men, but it's the long-awaited second feature from the director of NOISE, which is one of the greatest Aussie films of the last 20 years. If I can't be there to see it then you should! Also: TRACKS, because something tells me that's gonna be something special.
Huppert puts American actresses to shame.
Almost every French actress puts their age counterparts to shame, 3rtful.
Binoche, Huppert, Deneuve, Seydoux, Cotillard.... Just to mention the most famous ones.
-12 years a slave (Fassy...)
-Abuse of weakness (La Huppert)
-August: Osage County (Do I really need to say it?)
-Enough Said (Director is one of my favorite & to remember Gandolfini who was a great one)
-Only Lovers left alive (Again: Do I really need to say it?)
I'm overwhelmed by the list.
My top picks are Airships, *Blue is the Warmest Color, *Devil's Knot, *The Dog, Don Jon, Kill Your Darlings, Prisoners, Therese, Le Week-end, and The Wind Rises.
*Especially these.
Here's my whole list:
12 Years a Slave
Airships
Amazing Catfish
Art of the Steal
August Osage County
Bad Hair
Bastards
Belle
Blood Ties
Blue is the Warmest Color
Bobo
Can a Song Save Your Life
Dark Matter of Love
The Daughter
Devil's Knot!
Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
The Dog
Dom Hemingway
Don Jon
The Double
Empire of Dirt
Enough Said!
The F Word
Gloria
Gravity
Half of a Yellow Sun
Hateship Loveship
How I Live Now
Kill Your Darlings
The Love Punch
Night Moves
The Past
Philomena
Prisoners
Sarah Prefers to Run
The Sea
Therese
Tracks
Under the Skin!
We are the Best
Le Week-end
When Jews Were Funny
The Wind Rises
Words and Pictures
Jay & 3rtful -- it's not at all a fair comparison since english language cinema doesn't offer actresses the kind of juicy stuff french actresses regularly get past 50.
If you haven't got your schedule down already, try watching films that don't have concrete reheat dates or that are being released late this year/early next year. I never understood people who go to film festivals to watch movies that have a theatrical release a month after.
Nathaniel R,
I've seen the play too. I'm interested in YOUR opinion of the film, leads and supports. Just wondering if, in your view, Harvey can get away with such shenanigans!
A:OC Same as brandz is interested in knowing...
If it were me, I would stay away from anything Oscar baity. I would go for things that won't open in the US or you won't get to see at NYFF.
Something like The Lunchbox or Half of a yellow sun or Bethlehem interests me far more
MDA -- in most cases i agree with that. Anything coming to NYFF or coming out in October or November I'll mostly skip ... but i am human so i might fail a couple times at that ;) ... the NYFF stuff i am somewhat worried about because I can't make every screening in NYC and each movie only plays once for critics before the NYFF public screening.
Nat, I'd suggest that you try focusing on foreign-language material that you wouldn't have much of a chance of seeing anywhere else. That would let you get away from the "herd mentality" at Toronto, where every critic and blogger just HAS to see the same few films.
"Tom à la ferme" is a good start. I'd also suggest that you check out the Québécois film "Gabrielle," which is doing well in international festivals and which quite possibly might be Canada's Foreign-language Oscar candidate.
Kill Your Darlings, Don Jon, Horns, 12 Years a Slave, August: Osage County and the new one with Woody Allen ' Fading Gigolo. I mean Sofia Vergara is in that movie! As for the other movies, I'm really interested to see Daniel Radcliffe in his new roles, he has so much potential. Anyway, this TIFF is going to be interesting. A lot of great movies and so little time.