"Welcome to the Beautiful and Historic Elgin Theatre." I will be hearing this line about 15 times during my TIFFathon as most of my selected films are playing there. Fine with me. Lovely to me. Beautiful and historic to me. The theatre is grand, majestic and sets the tone for a night of wonder - last night, with seats saved by Julie, Mike (Julie's understanding husband) and Violet, Suzanne joined in for a night of magic. (Cres was with the Brange at Moneyball).
The Artist - Directed by Michel Hazanavicius. Starring Jean Dujardin, Berenice Bejo, with John Goodman and James Cromwell.
Admittedly, I had my doubts about this one. It's a black and white silent film. What? No talking? How are we going to know what's going on? Well, we're not dumb and neither is Hazanavicius - this film is a gem. A charming love letter to silent film, the 20s and cinema in general. Without dialogue, actors are on high alert - facial expressions, nuance, eyes all must work overdrive and this cast was stellar. I could gaze into Berenice Bejo's face forever - stunning, stunning and Jean Dujardin, what can you say? Funny, tragic, conflicted and movie star handsome. These French sure are talented. Goodman and Cromwell were super solid and the whole movie was perfectly amazing. A scene which is certain to become one of my most favourites ever, takes Jean Dujardin's George Valentin, a silent film star on his way out due to the invention of talkies, through a nightmare where we actually starts hearing things within his dressing room: his glass returning to the counter; a pen dropping; phone ringing; dog barking (oh! this dog!). To George, this cacophony of sound is too much to bear and he seeks solace outside, where, again - more noise, more sound! Girls laughing, planes overhead, and soon, it becomes too loud for us, the audience, too. It's too much. Too loud. Too noisy. We, along with George, are finally allowed to seek refuge watching a soft feather float down from the sky. Calm and peaceful - until it lands to the sound of a bomb exploding. George wakes and realizes his life has changed forever. Brilliant.
The Artist is generating some very early Oscar Buzz and with Harvey Weinstein behind the campaign (Uncle Harvey showed up with 5 minutes of the film to go last night to gauge audience reaction) you know this is going to be serious. Don't do it for Uncle Harvey, do it for me - go see The Artist.
Unfortunately, I missed the Q&A after the film with the charming director and star because I had to boot it over the the Bell Lightbox. The Lightbox might not be historic, but it's beautiful and also a pretty amazing place to see a movie. If you haven't had the opportunity, GO.
U2s From the Sky Down - Directed by Davis Guggenheim. Now, this is hard, but, I'm not going to talk about this one. You see, my sweet sweet U2 Partner In Crime, my SF, my Effie is flying in next week from Vancouver and I'm seeing this again with her. (As long as Air Canada doesn't screw this up for us.) I don't want to spoil the "just like the first time" experience for her, so with respect and affection and love and apologies to who I went with and those we ran into, I have to sort of pretend that last night's movie never happened. You understand, right? I will say that while it often scares me how much I love this band, the film itself wasn't perfect. A two-fer on this one next week, okay? Promise.
So, a very rewarding Day 2. But listen, when you start your day off with a massage and end it with ice cream +, what could possibly be the issue? Today, a TRIPLE scoop of Dreamboat : Friends w/ Kids, w/ Jon Hamm; The Descendants w/ GEORGE; Drive w/ Ryan Gosling. How's that for a stellar scheduling job?
Oh, La .. a TIFF to Remember indeed!
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