Yesterday it was full on emotion. The kind you don't like to tap into - the deep kind, the pain kind, the wonder why kind. Fitting on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th. TIFF commissioned a short film to pay tribute to what happened that day. Ten years ago yesterday TIFF was in full force, many of our American neighbours were here, in Toronto, and the events in New York and Washington brought the tragedy home in a very different way. The film was poignant, meaningful and respectful. I watched that movie 4 times yesterday. Too much, but not enough.
We Need to Talk About Kevin, Directed by Lynne Ramsey
Starring Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller
This is my definition of a horror movie. The film, based on a book by Lionel Shriver, focuses on a mother coming to terms with her life, and the guilt surrounding it, after her child commits a massacre at his high school. Are monsters raised? Are they born? Did baby Kevin feel the resentment his mother felt towards him and turn that into the unthinkable? How does this happen? Why does this happen? This isn't the type of film you enjoy / like / recommend. You tell people the flat line facts and let them decide - it's not for the faint of heart. It will resonate with you on every level. And it will stay. It will stay in your brain. The struggle, the pain, the choices, the change and the reckoning. The story is told from the mom's point of view and I cannot imagine anyone else portraying guilty, tortured Eva than the incomparable Tilda Swinton. This woman is a marvel - she acts without talking. She looks and feels and uses every ounce of her body, her persona, to convey this woman wondering why. If you go see this movie, we can talk about it forever. We'll need to.
Mavericks Series, Featuring ... Tilda Swinton
After the screening, Tilda herself was sitting for an hour long Q and A to talk about her film career. You all know I'm curiously obsessed with this woman and to be honest, it didn't happen slowly because of her talent it happened immediately at the Oscars. It's 2008, we're at Jess' place because I've just moved into my condo, have no furniture and didn't feel like hosting a seiza party, and we're watching. It's time for Best Supporting Actress and the odds on favourite is Ruby Dee - she's won everything and we're ready for the announcement. Then we hear it : Tilda Swinton. TILDA SWINTON?! TILDA SWINTON!? From that moment on, I - and everyone at the party - use TILDA SWINTON?! as a term for general what-the-fuck-ness. Try it. It so works. Since then, I've gone back and forward with Tilda's career and the woman is bat shit crazy. She scares the shit out of me and is so remarkably talented it's awe inspiring. During the Q and A, we learn that Tilda isn't really crazy, she's a really amazing lady who is a true creative renegade. She leaves herself bare and exposed emotionally in most of her films as it is transformation and identity that draws her to her work - you need to be pretty solid on the inside to deal with this stuff like this on the outside, and she is. Committed, hard working, artistic, fearless and amazing. She says herself that she was not brought up on this planet - I believe her.
In Darkness, Directed by Agnleszka Holland
The film focuses on a little-known phenomenon in Second World War Poland, Jews hiding in the underground sewer systems of the major cities to escape deportation and the death camps. We, too, lived in darkness for this film - following the lives of "Socha's Jews" as they spent 14 months in the sewers of Lvov. The last scene of this film - the final emergence from the sewer to sunlight - is one of the most powerful I have witnessed in all my movie going days. Struggle, pain, hardship, determination and the courage of the human spirit. This is a "what a movie" movie. After the film, director Holland introduced us to the woman who wrote the memoir the film was based on. This woman was one of Socha's Jews. Who, by the age of 7, had spent 14 months of her life living in a sewer. How? Why? These are not questions made for answering. They are made for thinking.
Anonymous, Directed by Roland Emmerich
Starring Rhys Ifans, David Thewlis, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson
The most mainstream of my films thus far - I mean, the poster's on the side of buses for crying out loud - and I loved it. I'm a sucker for period pieces, history, conspiracy and swords. Anonymous has it all, as well as a sharp script and bang on cast. Go. You'll love it and learn a few things. Not a bad deal if you ask me.
Today ... Pearl Jam 20, Intruders, Coriolanus. This is harder than I thought it was going to be. But most things are. And most things that are, are worth it. Especially if people think you're crazy. ;)
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