Toronto – My only TIFF experience this year was on the very last day of the festival, and one of the very last shows. Here are some gripes I have about TIFF.
Lineups are bloody long – The whole rush line thing seems a bit silly, people line up for HOURS to see a movie. Why can’t they have an online ticketing system that also has assigned seating? It feels like I’m going to a night club where the bouncers don’t let anyone in, so it creates a lineup, and then people are like oooo that club has a huge lineup, lets go to it, only to go inside and find out it’s completely empty.
They should leave a tip jar for the volunteers – I think it’s kinda bullshit that all the volunteers get from the people in the crowd is a little handclap before the film, during a commercial shot SPECIFICALLY to induce such a reaction. They didn’t even bother to shoot a new one this year either. At least a tip jar can help the volunteers buy a beer or something after.
Ticket prices should be adjusted to the times – In today’s economy…well actually, i just wanted to start a sentence with those words because me and my peeps had a conversation once where we pretty much figured you can sound sophisticated if you start an argument with “in today’s economy”. But yea, ticket prices are very pricey considering that you can probably download most of them for free. I mean, some people say you are paying for the experience, but if by experience, you mean, standing in line for a few hours to go to a lecture hall to watch a movie without reclining chairs, then yes, maybe I am paying for it in some sort of perverse self damaging way. If the movie festival is really for the people.. charge them 10 dollars for every movie.
Having said all that, Les Derniers jours du monde was pretty good. The movie is about one man’s (Mathieu Amalric) journey to find the love of his life and is set against the backdrop of the apocalypse. Along the way, he meets many people and sleeps with pretty much all of them. If there is a few things you can take away from this movie is that
a) the French landscape near the Spain border is just absolutely gorgeous
b) the running of the bulls in Pampalona is an utterly insane event
c) even if the world is ending, the French will still be having lots of sex, and drinking lots of wine.
There’s been a lot of movies about man’s last days before the end of the world, but the main character (“Robinson”) in this movie doesn’t really seem to be fazed by it. He’s already lost the love of his life, as well as his wife (different women), daughter and his arm. I guess what the story is trying to say is, if your life sucks, and the world is ending, then who cares? Maybe. At 130 minutes, it’s a bit long, but the movie has a lot of humour and never really drags, and I think Gary appreciated the film because some of it was shot in Taiwan. What? I know, weird.
Related posts:
- TIFF movie review: Micmacs [Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2009] Toronto – The French are not linked to eccentricity...
- TIFF movie review: Dogtooth [Yorgos Lanthimos, 2009] Toronto – Despite the audience chuckling under their coffee-breath...
- NXNE Review: Till You’re Told To Stop: James Blunt [2009, Ruth Somalo] Toronto – I’ll be the first to confess, I was...
- Hot Docs Preview – Jackpot [2009, Alan Black] This 50 minute doc takes an in depth look...
- Hot Docs Review – Short Docs Man Behind The Log – John Lehmann, 6min This shortie...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Sorry, no comments yet.