Toronto Film Festival
Comments by Sarah M. Elkins
Copyright 1991 Sarah M. Elkins
Well, this year I finally made it to the Toronto Festival of Festivals, which bills itself as the second largest film festival (second to Cannes). It certainly was big, though not having been to Cannes or whatever's the third largest, I can't really say how it compares. I really had a good time, and recommend it highly. It was well-organized and had a lot of variety. Their categories included Contemporary World Cinema (big names, somewhat commercial), Galas (even more commercial, though not all Hollywood) and Special Presentations, Perspective Canada, The Edge (cutting edge, avant-garde, experimental), Open Vault (classics), Midnight Madness ("The weirdest and most bizzare programme in The Festival," though ERASERHEAD was stuck in the Special Presentations category for some unfathomable reason), Latin American Panorama, First Cinema (first-time feature film directors), Asian Horizons, Que Viva Mexico, and Spotlight on Ken Loach. Unfortunately, since I was only there Saturday and Sunday, I was only able to see seven movies (hah! beat your six/Labor Day Weekend record, John!), and was not able to sample every category. Since at any given time about eight movies were showing at the different Festival theaters in downtown (Yonge and Bloor district) Toronto, I just picked the ones which sounded promising that I could fit into a schedule and had a hope of getting into (unlike, say, BLACK ROBE or THE FISHER KING, both of which I do want to see). Out of the seven, three were worth seeing, and one was *very* good and has already been added to my "Favorites" file. The other three ranged from pretty decent to annoying.
SAM AND ME: (Perspective Canada, Director Deepa Mehta, 94 minutes)
Plot kickoff: A young man, Nikhil, arrives in Toronto from India. His uncle tries to get him a job at Cohen Medical Supplies where he works, but instead Nik is hired to play nursemaid to cranky old Sam Cohen, who just wants to go back to Israel to die.
Characters/acting: Sam Cohen is played by Peter Boretski; the actor who played Nikhil was not listed; both of them deserve Genies (Canadian Oscars). All of the acting was good. The characters all seemed like real people, not stereotypes or throwaway cardboard cutouts.
Cinematography/FX: There are some good visuals which would lose a little on the small screen. Fortunately I saw this one at the Showcase, as opposed to the big-screen television-type screens at the Cumberland. Still worth seeing on any size screen.
Score: I liked the score. Some Indian, some traditional and non-traditional Jewish (Yiddish?), some pop, miscellaneous.
Violence/language: A couple of short fights/hits, probably some language I didn't notice.
Skin/situations: Skin/situations are a very minor part of this movie, this is just FYI. Back view of Sam singing and dancing naked in the rain. Exotic dancer (pasties). Foreplay. Indications of homosexual activity, and an Indian cross-dresser.
Analysis: Two outstanding movies from Canada in two years (BYE BYE BLUES in 1989)!; of course there may well be other great ones that I simply missed. This movie has moments of joy and hilarity, anguish and bitterness. The culture clash between Nik's crowd and the Cohens leads to wicked humor and poignant moments. I hope this shows up at the Little Theater in Rochester. It is not completely flawless (some muttered dialogue, I'm not sure about one of Nikhil's reactions), but I would encourage anyone to see this movie; I'll see it again if I get the chance. I hope Mehta makes another movie about Nikhil, or at any rate I hope I get to see some of his other movies.
A LITTLE STIFF: (First Cinema, Dir. Greg Watkins, Caveh Zahedi, USA, 85 min., black and white, made for $10,000, Zahedi at the Q&A afterwards)
Plot: Neurotic UCLA film student attempts to woo standoffish art student
Characters/acting: Zahedi plays himself in a semi-biographical role. Greg plays his buddy. I don't know who played the art student, except that she used to be Zahedi's girlfriend.
Cinematography/FX: For $10,000 it looks pretty good. I don't think big or little screen would make much difference.
Score: Not much score, except when Zahedi was dancing around alone in his headphones. He told us during the Q&A it was the Smiths, but you couldn't hear it through his headphones. Also a dreadful song about falling which was a part of one of his (the character's and the person's) two-minute film student project about death and horror.
Violence/language: None I can remember.
Skin/situations: A kiss in a car.
Analysis: Very sharp, very funny. One of the best lines: After the art student tells Zahedi how she wants to take toad hallucinogen at the same time her cat's on catnip, he asks, "Would that be as a performance piece?" But maybe you had to be there; his delivery was perfect. Zahedi's deadpan delivery and kamikaze approach to love make this movie a treat.
TOGETHER ALONE: (FC, Dir. P. J. Castellaneta, USA, 87 min., black and white, made for $7,000, Castellaneta at the Q&A afterwards)
Plot: Two gay males sit around and talk after a one-night stand
Characters/acting: I really liked the characters in this movie, not that I thought they were great guys (it seems like half the movies I saw at the festival featured neurotic or manipulative people), but they were very well drawn and acted. Castellaneta told us that they rehearsed for a month before shooting to keep the costs down. I hardly knew who to sympathize with because both of them said things that made sense at different times, but also neither of them was perfect by any means. Both of them had some great monologues. The MBA had a long dialogue which I was very drawn into and it was a little shock when it was over.
Cinematography/FX: B/W, no great shots for big screen.
Score: Didn't notice.
Violence/language: Wrestling bout, a couple of profanities.
Skin/situations: Pretty frank discussion about AIDS and preventing it, and about homosexual sex. Some caresses, mostly pretty tame.
Analysis: I would recommend this movie, but not as a must-see. I thought the discussions about commitment and how to build love were relevant to anyone. I particularly was impressed by the naturalness of the actors. One the other hand, there's not much action in this film. The director stayed away from the infamous "talking heads" syndrome, but there's only so much you can do with a conversational movie like this. I also liked much of the humor and wisecracks between the two characters, though at times they were using it to avoid dialog.
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