Viewers expecting one of Atom Egoyan’s signature what-exactly-is-going-on-here? art-house flicks may be slightly disappointed with his latest offering, Chloe. But anyone who loves a good old-fashioned thriller—it’s Fatal Attraction meets Hand That Rocks the Cradle—is in for a treat. What Chloe is not: subtle. What it is: sophisticated porn, complete with amazingly hot actors, gorgeous clothing and girl-on-girl sex scene. Even the house felt slightly centrefold-esque. And what goes better with porn than a little hooch? Not that we’re endorsing the taking of booze into a movie theatre, but let’s just say this game works a lot better with vodka than it does with Dr. Pepper. Below, our 100 per cent original Chloe drinking game.
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Critics on Chloe: term “Toronto gynecologist” is “somewhat amusing”
Amanda Seyfried and Julianne Moore in Chloe (Image: E1 Entertainment)
It’s opening day for Atom Egoyan’s saucy Toronto-based drama, Chloe, which means the reviews are out. Surprise, surprise—the Canadian critics gave it top marks (is there a three-star minimum for homegrown films?). But reaction down south hasn’t been so favourable; the New York Times, in particular, had choice words: “There are grown-up moviegoers who will appreciate Chloe… There are also teenage boys who get a hold of Playboy for the articles.”
Ouch. But, at least the Times could get past the Toronto setting, a problem for many American critics. From the New York Observer:
Julianne Moore stars as Catherine, a Toronto gynecologist (why this is a somewhat amusing turn of phrase, I cannot explain).
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Atom Egoyan set Chloe here because “Toronto is a prostitute”
Amanda Seyfried at the Chloe premiere during TIFF (Image: Karon Liu)
For Torontonians, watching Hollywood stars Julianne Moore, Amanda Seyfried and Liam Neeson romp around their city in Chloe will be part—a large part—of the fun. The original screenplay was set in San Francisco, but director Atom Egoyan was keen on filming and setting the movie in Toronto. Chloe, the story of a wife who hires a prostitute to test her husband’s faithfulness, opens on Friday.
“At the level of metaphor, it’s interesting because Toronto is a prostitute. As a city, very often it pretends to be New York or Chicago or San Francisco,” Egoyan told the L.A. Times. “So it’s interesting that since this is a film about that, in fact the city becomes a character.”
Don’t take it personally, Toronto—we still think you’re a classy gal. Shall we leave our ticket money here on the nightstand?
• Chloe creates an odd triangle on and off-screen [Los Angeles Times]
Q&A: Atom Egoyan on the making of Chloe
(Image: Dominique Charriau)
Atom Egoyan’s latest film, Chloe, turns Toronto into a dark and sexy city. A suspicious wife (Julianne Moore), a cad of a husband (Liam Neeson) and a sultry call girl (Amanda Seyfried) form the psychologically complex triangle at the centre of Egoyan’s latest film. Stacked with stars and moody shots of Toronto, it’s requisite viewing for the city’s cinephiles. Here, the director talks about the making of his racy new thriller.
Critics have called Chloe a love letter to Toronto. Why was it important to set the movie here?
The script was originally set in San Francisco, but I wanted to make Chloe as personal as possible, so I set it in a place I know really well. The city brands the film.
The house in the film is visually striking, almost like a character itself. Where is it? Read the rest of this entry »
Funny you should ask. I first saw it in Toronto Life and then tracked it down. It’s near St. Clair and Bathurst. It’s a very modern, signature Toronto style, with all the wood and glass. Thematically, I liked that the huge windows made it transparent.
PHOTO GALLERY: 31 TIFF red carpet looks
Jennifer Garner and Julianne Moore opted for green and strapless, Amanda Seyfried chose sequins and Louboutins, and Drew Barrymore and Demi Moore did yellow in two very different ways. See the red carpet outfits these stars (and 26 others) chose for their TIFF galas in the slide show below.
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- Demi Moore on the red carpet for the premiere of The Joneses at the Visa Screening Room, during the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday September 13, 2009. (Photos by James Helmer)
Juliane Moore, lover of labradoodles
We hear that Julianne Moore was in attendance at the One X One party in Forest Hill. Our source was walking a labradoodle when she saw the party letting out. Moore apparently approached, saying she loved the dog and that she has one of her own at home. (Photo by Karon Liu)
Lessons learned while photographing celebrities
One of our favourite shots from the festival (Photo by Karon Liu)
We consider ourselves to be experts in taking red carpet photos, having attended quite a few of the galas and special presentations since TIFF began. With every premiere, we learned something new in mastering the art of getting the perfect shot.
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Tom Ford does not want to talk about the reason he’s famous
Fashion icon Tom Ford has a thing for Mr. Darcy, just like everyone else (Photo by Karon Liu)
Hoping to get a glimpse of fashion icon Tom Ford, we visited The Sutton Place Hotel, where he was holding a press conference to discuss his directorial debut, A Single Man, which stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore and premiered at TIFF. Ford is best known for being the creative head of Gucci and starting his own line of men’s clothes under his own name. Much to our chagrin, however, he was hesitant to answer questions about fashion, making sure to repeat ad nauseam, “fashion and film are two separate types of expression. Fashion is a commercially creative outlet, whereas film is purely impressionistic.” The costumes, he said, were “to serve these characters. It wasn’t a costume parade for me.” When a reporter asked him what he was wearing, he scoffed, “Oh, we’re wearing… clothes.”
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All aboard the Toronto love train: Atom Egoyan, Ivan Reitman and Julianne Moore talk Hogtown and Chloe
Julianne Moore and Atom Egoyan pose for the cameras at the Chloe press conference (Photo by Karon Liu)
While it’s no secret that Chloe director Atom Egoyan loves his hometown, we were surprised that fellow Canuck Ivan Reitman needed some convincing to set the erotic thriller, a remake of 2003’s Nathalie…, in Toronto.
“The original script was set in San Francisco and we see a lot of films shot there, like Dirty Harry and Vertigo,” says Egoyan. “The challenge was convincing Ivan that Toronto can be as sexy and alluring as San Francisco. Ivan’s from here originally but hasn’t spent time here recently, so I was driving him around showing him places and he got very excited and saw the city transform itself.”
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PHOTO GALLERY: Chloe premiere with Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, Atom Egoyan and Jason Reitman
Full disclosure: we arrived at Roy Thomson Hall yesterday around 4 p.m. to secure a spot behind the barricades for the Precious premiere that night and completely forgot about the gala for Atom Egoyan’s Chloe earlier in the evening.
However, things worked out for the best as we had the best view to catch a glimpse of stars Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried (Liam Neeson pulled out of TIFF after the death of his wife) as well as Egoyan and Jason Reitman (his dad Ivan also made an appearance). Mayor David Miller, apparently suffering from a George Hamilton-level faux tan, walked to the red carpet instead of arriving in a car, but his thunder was quickly stolen when Seyfried arrived seconds later.
We’d like to thank Oprah for this bountiful gift.
Celeb spotting warm-up 5: The full list of celeb guests is out, and Oprah and Clooney are on it
He's a-coming (Photo by Attit Patel)
The much-anticipated official list of celebrities scheduled to attend TIFF arrived in our in-boxes this morning. We’re happy to report that two of the biggest names rumoured to be heading our way, George Clooney and Oprah, are definitely coming.
A lot of our other favourites have also confirmed: Big Love’s Amanda Seyfried, a reformed David Duchovny, Demi Moore, Drew Barrymore (perhaps we’ll spot her making eyes at locals at Sweaty Betty’s again), two of our three favourite Jennifers (Garner and Connelly; Aniston is a no-show), many Michaels (Caine, Cera, Douglas, Moore), the always lovely Natalie Portman, Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz, Ricky Gervais, Sarah Polley, Tilda Swinton, Tom Ford, Viggo Mortensen and so many more.
See the full list of guests after the jump.
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Fashion check-in: Too much black, just enough thigh
While we’d love to see more colour on the red carpet—yet again, black is the new black—we’re seeing something we really like: tea-length and cocktail dresses, as worn by Renée Zellweger to the Appaloosa premiere and by Laura Linney at the premiere of The Other Man (she declined interviews at the ET Canada party and was spirited away almost immediately thereafter). Still, though, we are craving colour. (Thanks go out to Preity Zinta and Julianne Moore for taking a chance on bold, saturated hues.) But since we’re almost in the home stretch of the festival, we doubt we’re going to get it.—Katy P“
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