PROLOGUE
- First of all, forgive me the obscure and self-indulgent title of my TIFF journal this year. But the title is a reference to my favourite movie of the year, to date - I Am Love. And, well, “Luba” means “love” in Ukrainian.
- I am Love is a quiet Italian movie set in Milan and in Italy’s countryside and stars the superb Tilda Swinton. The film touched a chord with me on so many levels, not to mention reawakening the long dormant Italian wannabe in me, so much so that I’m torn between going back for more film history courses this fall or relearning Italian. Decisions, decisioni.
- So, what's with the photo that has nothing to do with TIFF? Well, as much as I love my little point-and-shoot camera, it takes embarrassingly awful interior shots. Most people's cheap cell phone cameras take better shots than my camera. And as most of you know, this dinosaur still does not possess a cell phone nor a Crackberry. Consequently, I decided not to torment anyone with my bad shots taken at TIFF Q&As coupled with such comments like, "the blurry third person from the left is Johnny Depp - really, I swear."
- You may have noticed on the Home Page that I am seeing 50 films (in fact, 49 plus one interview). It's hard to believe that with that many choices there are films I wanted to see, but was unable to fit in. Inevitably, the scheduling works against me and many must-sees are scheduled at the same time as other must-sees. I always agonize over my selections when films I really, really want to see just won't fit into my schedule. This year I was heartbroken at not being able to accommodate the most recent offerings of such directors as Bruce Mcdonald (who I think is the most brilliant director making films in Canada today), Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Gregg Araki, and so many more. And due to my own error while selecting films, I almost missed choosing Danny Boyle's latest film. But after having finished my final list at midnight on a Saturday night, the next morning I was running on a treadmill and suddenly remembered Boyle had a new movie at TIFF and I was pretty sure I had forgotten to select it. Two year's ago I failed to get into Slumdog Millionaire (got squeezed out of it) and this year I was determined not to miss what promises to be a tremendous combo, Danny Boyle and lead actor James Franco, one of the most underrated actors of our time. And guess what, it paid off - I got into Danny Boyle's movie, 127 Hours. And it's a good thing I did as the movie and its poster boy, James Franco, made the front cover of Eye this week which means the movie is going to be one of the hottest tickets in town.
- Although I did get into Boyle's movie, there were a handful of 1st choices that I was squeezed out of (including Clint Eastwood's new flick and goddess Catherine Deneuve's new movie). In addition, there were two slots where I got neither my first or second choice. This is always a pain in the butt because it means having to find a decent movie whose subject matter is of interest and that fits into the timing of the movies screening before and after this slot. It also means going back to the box office and waiting. I actually did well in this year's box selection lottery. My submissions were in the 14th box that was processed this year. In the past, this kind of placement would have assured me all of my first choices. But TIFF has created a caste system that is quite elitist. People who are donors have priority and their selections are processed before those of the lowest caste, like me.
- TIFF cut down the number of offerings this year from approximately 400 to 300 films. On the surface, this may seem redundant, but it has led to a number of scheduling modifications that also made my blood boil, so much so that I had to resort to chanting to the Hindu deity, Ganesh, the Remover of Obstacles, to try to still my mind from writing a letter to TIFF's Customer Service over and over in my head. I'll save the letter-writing for after TIFF, when I'm reveling in having had another ridiculously marvelous time.
- For reasons of time economy, my comments will be brief. But I have have included links to TIFF's web site where you can find complete and eloquent descriptions of the films and you can even view the trailers. I decided to return to my reporting on TIFF this year only because I picked up the cutest and lightest of laptops (and it's purple, bien sur), which I will transport with me and attempt to do some of my writing in between movies.
- Items in my survival kit this year include a pair of bamboo socks, gloves, Himalayan ginseng (FYI, ginseng is the active ingredient in Cold FX) and Wild Oregano Oil, the gorgeous and amazingly light but warm shawl that I bought in Prague a couple of years ago, water, chocolate, and oh yeah, my camera - just in case.
- FYI, the last page of my blog is a comment form, so feel free to send me your comments via this page or just email me at the usual address. I'd love to hear from my readers. And please, please forgive me the lack of accents (just too complicated on this blog site) and apologies in advance for any typos. So sit back, relax and enjoy, through my eyes, the movies I have the honour of seeing this year.
- For the love of film and of my film-loving friends who live TIFF through me vicariously, I am Luba.