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TIFF
Hello, everyone! It's been a while but I'm just getting back into the swing of things at school. So far it's ok. I just wish more of my profs would use powerpoints (although it's not as bad as I thought it would be, it's just that the ones that don't use them are the ones that need them to keep things interesting) and there's tons more reading!
My big exciting news is that I was at the Toronto International Film Festival last week. I saw some fantastic movies and loads of celebrities.
The first film I saw was Lust, Caution which is Ang Lee's follow up to Brokeback Mountain. It's sort of a WWII espionage thriller set in occupied Shanghai and pre-occupation Hong Kong. It is totally right up my alley, genre wise. It was probably a tad long and the hyped up sex scenes were, even to me, a bit excessive but it's not like I wasn't warned. You're just never prepared to see real sex in movies. :/ Other than that, it was pretty good.
Next, I saw Shake Hands with the Devil, which was a Canadian film about Lt. General Romeo Dallaire's ordeal during the Rwandan genocide, based on his autobiography of the same name. It was emotional and had much better production values than you expect from a Canadian film. It did feel very Canadian especially since it was a bilingual movie with much of it being in English and French which makes sense since Dallaire is French-Canadian and they speak French in Rwanda. The most interesting part, more me at least, was watching Dallaire (who sat about 3 rows in front of me) watch a film about himself. How often can you do that? He looked very contemplative. Afterwards, my mom saw they actors by their limos and gave them a hug and was crying. It was embarassing.
The next day, I saw Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It was a repeat screening since the gala was the night before but the director, Shekhar Kapur, was there to do a Q&A at the end which was an unexpected bonus. The film itself was beautiful but it didn't have the same impact as the first. Clive Owen was gorgeous, of course, and his character was actually quite lighthearted for once. Kapur stated in the Q&A that he'd be open to making a third film or a Sir Walter Raleigh companion piece if Clive was open to it. Let's hope he is!
My last film was the one I was most looking forward to and it was by far the best. I'm speaking, of course, of Atonement. I had butterflies all day waiting to go. I'd seen the trailers countless times and the clips that are online. I liked the story of the book but could have done without Ian McEwan's sometimes overbearing prose. I hoped that the film would allow me to concentrate more on the story. For once, a film actually lived up to my high expectations. It was a gorgeous film, like art at some points and it was heartbreaking. It stayed with me long after I left the theatre. The acting was flawless, especially from Sairose Ronan (young Briony) and James McAvoy. He's truly one of the greatest actors of his generation and I don't throw that term around lightly. We were also so close to the celebrities since by that point, we knew where to sit to be near them.
My first major sighting was of my fave couple, Brad and Angelina!!! I wasn't expecting her to be there so that was a treat. When I say I "saw" them though, that means, I mainly saw a flash of wrist here, a bit of their face, some hair. There were so many people but it wasn't as bad as last year when I saw Brad because there was more room to stand. Still, if you weren't in the front row, you weren't going to see much. So after they went in, we waited at the stage door for them to come out since stars rarely stay for the whole movie. We waited for hours until a "Mean Cop", as we called him because of his sarcastic, gruff manner with the fans, wondered why we were still there because Brad and Angelina had just snuck out the front door, instead of the back. :( I figure this is because in Venice, a crazy fan jumped on Brad from the crowd and now he's freaked out by fans. :( It wasn't a total waste, though, because that's where we saw David Schwimmer, Ben Affleck, and Jim Broadbent enter and Casey Affleck exit.
My sister is the biggest James McAvoy fan so I took her with me to Atonement and we met another die hard fan before the film (she was crazy but in a good way). She was desperate for an encounter with him and asked everyone how she could do it. Of course, they all said no way and acted like she was crazy. Well, after the movie, she had given up hope but while she was looking for her car, she bumped into James and got a picture with him! Lucky girl! Keira Knightley looked like a little girl, not just because of her bouncy curls and poofy dress. She stood on the side of her foot on stage at the beginning of the film, in very high heels I must say which is quite the feat, and seemed rather giggly. It's funny because she seems so mature on camera but in real life, she looks her age. And yes, she is tiny but I'm inclined to agree with people who say she's just pear shaped, now that I've seen her in real life. She could stand to put on a few pounds, though. James seemed like a really nice guy in real life. My sister gave him a goofy wink while he was on stage looking out at the audience and he definitely saw her because he was trying to stop himself from laughing. Yay, a star noticed us! With all the frenzied James fans with me, I started to go a bit crazy too! It's infectous! That's what keeps you standing in line for hours in massive crowds but it's fun. The cast didn't stay for the film, but they had seats reserved right behind us. Luckily, they came out at the end and stood right behind us. It was the most exciting thing! I could almost touch them, if the hoards of volunteers weren't blocking them off. Too bad the pictures for that didn't turn out. :(
I'll leave you with a fuzzy picture of the cast and crew of Atonement on stage to show you how close we were (although now that I look at it, the picture doesn't really show how close we actually were):
L-R: Noah Cowen (Festival co-director), Tim Bevan (producer), Random man, Joe Wright, Christopher Hampton (screenplay), James McAvoy, Keira Knightley
Reserved celebrity seats 3 rows behind us, even though they didn't actually sit there, but they stood there at the end!
Reserved seats starting far right: Joe Wright, Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Tim Bevan
Okay, and here's one of James McAvoy with the girl we met. I've cropped her out to protect the identity of the innocent!
He kind of looks miserable, doesn't he? He seemed really sweet and happy to be there in real life, though.
