Oh, Snap
This month, the Toronto International Film Festival celebrates its 35th year with a glossy new home in the Bell Lightbox. Much has changed since the inaugural year, when Hollywood studios turned up their noses at the fledging fest. Then again, much hasn’t. It’s still two weeks of celebrities and fans behaving badly. Here, a look back on TIFF’s most memorable moments, from the coke-fuelled ’70s to the paparazzi-riddled oughties.
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Michael Cera dishes on the status of the Arrested Development movie to a press conference with a paltry attendance of 10
Future Dillinger: Michael Cera declares range wider than awkward teens (Photo by Karon Liu)
“This is brutal,” said a film critic as we sit in the largely empty media room at Sutton Place. There were only five minutes left before the arrival of the cast and crew of the new Michael Cera awkward-teen rom-com (is there any other kind?), Youth In Revolt. Aside from us, there were four photographers and five reporters. The low turnout must have been due to TIFF burnout and the fact that most of the cast members—Justin Long, Ray Liotta, Steve Buscemi—didn’t show up.
The emptiness got so bad that organizers had to pull in the guys working at the BlackBerry booth outside to be seat fillers. And since all TIFF press conferences last 40 minutes, we all (including the BlackBerry guys) got together to brainstorm as many questions as we could to fill up the time.
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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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PHOTO GALLERY: Jason Reitman, Jason Bateman and George Clooney at the Up in the Air Press Conference
George Clooney and Jason Reitman joke during the press conference for Up in the Air (Photo by Karon Liu)
Up in the Air landed smoothly at TIFF over the weekend and the cast, including two Jasons and a George, talked about the film with the press on Saturday. Check out our pictures below.
TIFF 911: Emergency crews are at the ready
Lifesavers: the duty bound men of BlackBerry (Photo by Karon Liu)
Never say TIFF is all society, no humanity. Escalating to the press and industry floor at the Sutton Place, we were instantly compelled by a new addition to the festival: an emergency station manned by two square-jawed, uniformed rescue experts. They are here to provide life-support—or rather, technical support—for one’s life-support. It’s a BlackBerry tech-help desk. One of the reps told us that while BlackBerry missions have been present at other film fests, like Cannes, this is the first year they’ve touched down at TIFF.
“You’re going to save a lot of people here,” gushed a festival staffer to the handsome technicians-without-borders. One of them just nodded, seriously.
The six types of TIFF reporters
The foreign press descends on to Toronto today, specifically the TIFF press office on the second floor of Sutton Place, creating a United Nations of sorts with the common goal of snapping a photo of George Clooney. The real frenzy starts this evening at the opening gala so for now we’re knocking back free sandwiches at the press lounge and noticing that reporters, showing off their photo IDs hanging from green lanyards and toting a TIFF gift bag (which contains a Metropass!), all fall within six categories:
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Attire: They are impeccably dressed at 9 a.m. For women, it’s flower-printed sundresses and blister-inducing espadrilles. For men, it’s the slightly more comfortable blazer and jeans combo.
Attachés: BlackBerry, small shoulder bag or purse.
Behaviour: Constant texting and phone calls to segment producer.
Posse: Middle-aged camera crew carrying all the heavy stuff.
Celebrity goal: An encounter with camera-friendly George Clooney so that five-second, self-congratulating clip can be replayed over and over again in promo clips until TIFF 2010.
Washington takes on Toronto, the poutine craze goes south, Sutton Place caters to babies
Oh yeah! Kool-Aid is put to use pickling cucumbers (Photo by Andre Torrez)
• Just as Smoke’s Poutinerie and Poutini are doing in Toronto, Québécois chefs in New York are adding twists to the cheese-and-gravy standard. T Poutine has such toppings as “Asian” (carrots, peppers, onions, mushrooms, cheddar, soy-ginger sauce) and “breakfast” (scrambled eggs, bacon, cheddar sauce). New York, however, doesn’t sound too happy about the arrival of the Canuck delicacy, deploying that hackneyed headline “Blame Canada.” [New York]
• A Mississippi delicacy—extra-concentrated Kool-Aid used as pickle brine—is moving north, largely in the form of tartar sauce and waffle accompaniments. By the time it hits Toronto, we predict it will be used as a poutine topping. [New York Times]
• It’s time to play another round of “foreigners pay attention to Toronto.” The Washington Post published a mini-guide to Toronto, listing Frank, C5 and a St. Lawrence Market sandwich counter as its top dining picks. Efficiency (or perhaps laziness) is paramount, apparently, considering all three are inside other attractions. [Washington Post]
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