Read the rest of this entry »
We’ve already watched the Golden Globes. And Oscar nominations were announced last week. But that doesn’t mean we can forget about Canada’s version of the Academy Awards (albeit with less recognizable statues), the Genies. The nominations were announced today, and this year’s Genie picks seem fairly predictable—the widely acclaimed Barney’s Version roped in eleven nominations, including best picture, direction, adapted screen play and best lead and supporting actor nods. Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated Incendies netted an even ten.
The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to Xavier Dolan
John Cameron Mitchell gets Stiff at TIFF
Left: John Cameron Mitchell and his assistant at the turntables. Right: Miss Margot on Queen West (Images: Fraser Abe)
The acronym TIFF has always offered opportunities for puns (we’re certainly not above it), so we were not shocked to hear that the party celebrating all that’s glorious and gay about the film festival had titillatingly been titled Stiff. Pre-event buzz forced a venue change from the tiny Beaver Café to the enormous Wrongbar, where Miss Margot (a.k.a. the doorwoman with the enormous bouffant wigs at Big Primpin’) played hostess with the mostest to patrons clamouring to get a glimpse of rumoured guests Xavier Dolan and Dustin Lance Black.
Read the rest of this entry »
Q&A with Xavier Dolan: “My film is not homework that a critic should correct”
Xavier Dolan arrives at the gala premiere of Heartbeats at the Varsity Cinemas (Image: Jag Gundu/Getty Images)
Xavier Dolan doesn’t want to lie, but he also doesn’t want to tell the truth. The 21-year-old director with the Eraserhead hair—a breakout talent at TIFF last year with his French-language debut I Killed My Mother (J’ai tué ma mère)—bristles when asked how he knows real-life friends Niels Schneider and Monia Chokri. The Québécois actors form the other two points of a love triangle, alongside Dolan, in his swooning sophomore film Heartbeats (Les amours imaginaires). “Can we just…no?” he asks. “Can I say no?”
In the film, a sexually ambiguous himbo (Schneider) drives a wedge between Dolan’s jaded gay guy Francis and Chokri’s poised Marie. Dolan wrote the script with the actors in mind; however, they’re not joining him in Toronto for the screening. The only explanation for their absence: “They weren’t invited.”
Read the rest of this entry »
Spy on the stars: midday interview series on Peter Street makes it easy to see celebs
Owen and Franco and Keener, oh my
Contrary to popular belief, stars don’t only come out at night, spottable only as they rush from black SUVs to VIP sections. We’ve figured out a way to see them in broad daylight. Over the course of TIFF, our friends at the film site IndieWire are hosting a series of lunchtime interviews with Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, David Schwimmer and James Franco, to name just a few. The chats will be on the ground floor of the spanking new Filmmaker’s Lounge (134 Peter Street), which has massive windows that overlook the street. Downtowners are welcome to come by and gawk. BlackBerry users can even ask the stars questions by texting them to PIN number 20878C9E.
The whole schedule of which stars will appear on which day, after the jump.
Quoted: the latest TIFF talk
We’ll update Quoted regularly before and during the festival. Check back often.
“Taking the Toronto Transit Commission’s whisper-quiet subways from one film festival screening to another earlier this week, a Chicagoan couldn’t help but notice that the sound levels are a major shock to the El-conditioned system. The civility is relentless in Toronto. The taxi drivers, whatever their ethnicity or whatever sort of day they’ve had, display a startling lack of aggression behind the wheel.”—critic Michael Phillips [Chicago Tribune]
“King and Queen Streets in Toronto are all by themselves reasons for the city to exist.”—Roger Ebert [Twitter]
“Do I look like Jake Gyllenhaal? If you want, I could tell you his workout regime. I had to hear about it for half an hour—half an hour I’ll never get back.”—Jay Baruchel [CBC]
“Toronto is America’s most important film festival, even though it takes place in Canada.”—Adam Dawtrey [Guardian]
“This city just gets more beautiful all the time.”—Uma Thurman [CTV]
“The reason I’m wearing this jacket is because I’m sweaty and I can’t take it off.”—Nicole Kidman at the Rabbit Hole press conference [Toronto Sun]
“Why would any kid want to come and see thousands cheer their parents? They’d rather see thousands boo their parents!”—Bruce Springsteen on the absence of his kids at his shows [Toronto Star]
“Everybody loves Jon [Hamm]. I was so attracted to him. I had to work with him because he’s so handsome.”—Ben Affleck [Toronto Star]
“TIFF’s wonderful new Bell Lightbox is one swell place to see a movie.”—Roger Ebert [Twitter]
“Each time we told Natalie [Portman] we had to push another three weeks, she’d say, ‘Another three weeks of eating carrot sticks and almonds? I am going to kill you.’”—Darren Aronofsky on filming Black Swan [Globe and Mail]
“The Toronto audience is the festival’s charm. It is smart, open-minded and eager to find the best in films that are seldom perfect but almost always have something to say.”—Michael Cieply [New York Times]
“It’s fucking great.”—Darren Aronofsky on Black Swan [Twitter]
“[Passion Play] is a movie that says, ‘You know what? I have the money to hire Mickey Rourke to play a washed-up saxophonist and Bill Murray to be a New Mexico gangster. I have the cash to have them fight over Megan Fox, who I’ll make an angel—not one of those Victoria’s Secret angels, but, like, one at a carnival freak show. What I don’t have the budget for are effects that make the wings seem real. I know they look like cartoons, but who cares?’”—critic Wesley Morris [Boston Globe]
“I’m a director. You have to do what I say.”—Paul Haggis at the Artists for Peace and Justice Party [The Hype]
“You just made me cry. You are like the Barbara Walters of ET Canada!”—Megan Fox to Rick Campanelli [National Post]
“Barney’s Version film very touching, great performances, shed tears…”—Margaret Atwood [Twitter]
“He looks so good. How old is he?”—a guest at the George Christy luncheon about Anthony Hopkins [The Hype]
“SUPER premiere was a fucking BLAST! I love you, Toronto.”—Rainn Wilson [Twitter]
“This party is so boring.”—guest at the Vanity Fair bash at The Thompson
“Canadians love piercings.”—Rainn Wilson [Twitter]
“We should go to a hip-hop club.”—Steve Nash at the CBC Hazelton Takeover party [The Hype]
“Sure, the glitz of Venice and the reclusive allure of Telluride set the stage, but Toronto is where the art-house armada gathers its fleet to prepare for the invasion of Yankee shores.”—John Lopez [Vanity Fair]
“I have celebrated my birthday here in Toronto for the last 10 years.”—Colin Firth [Hollywood Reporter]
“What do you do when Ben Affleck is in the urinal behind you? Wait and pee I guess? At least he didn’t have security in there.”—critic Mohit Rajhans [Twitter]
“We shouldn’t be making 250 feature films in this country. I don’t think it can sustain. Where are those films going? I mean, are they just home movie productions done on credit cards?”—TIFF co-director Piers Handling [Toronto Star]
“I still send out scripts and get back the response ‘too Canadian,’ though I’m not exactly sure what that means.”—Canadian producer Christine Haebler [Globe and Mail]
Read the rest of this entry »
Celebrities confirmed for TIFF: Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Mirren and more
Helen Mirren will be coming to plug Brighton Rock (Image: Rubenstein)
Alliance Films is the first distributor to confirm its TIFF lineup and talent, giving us a preliminary look at the stars we’ll be stalking in September. Here, a list of some big films and the celebs who’ll be here to promote them.
1. Blue Valentine
Derek Cianfrance (Director)
Ryan Gosling
2. Brighton Rock
Rowan Joffe (Director)
Helen Mirren
Andrew Riseborough
3. Fubar II Read the rest of this entry »
Michael Dowse (Writer/director)
Dave Lawrence (Writer/actor)
Paul Spence
Ten must-see events at the Bell Lightbox this fall
The Passion of Joan of Arc is TIFF's favourite film of all time
Toronto’s film industry is on quite a roll these days. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World opened last weekend to rave reviews (if not outstanding box office results). And judging from the lineup of events for the new Bell Lightbox, Toronto is getting a wicked new film house. The Lightbox is set to open its doors September 12; its programming is centred around the Essential Cinema, TIFF’s selections of the 100 best films of all time, starting September 23. There will be so much going on that a preliminary rundown is essential. Here, a roundup of 10 events to check out this fall.
Read the rest of this entry »
TIFF blamed for stealing the spotlight from Montreal World Film Festival
Stolen: Xavier Dolan's Les amours imaginaires (Image: TIFF.net)
It’s a little strange to think of TIFF as doing a disservice to the Canadian film industry, as it is the biggest platform around for CanCon. But the organizers of the Montreal World Film Festival (and its apparently unfettering devotee the Gazette) certainly disagree. The two film fests shared a Tale of Two Cities-style rivalry for years, but last week TIFF unveiled its Canadian lineup on the exact same day the Montreal fest presented its lineup, prompting the Gazette to call it a “deliberate shot across the bow for the World Film Festival, an attempt to underline that Toronto does more for Quebecois cinema than Montreal does,” in a story today. So rather than chewing out the Montreal fest for having only two Quebecois films on offer, they’re mostly blaming Toronto for showing off Quebec-made selections like Jacob Tierney’s Good Neighbours and Xavier Dolan’s Les amours imaginaires.
Read the rest of this entry »
David Suzuki, Jay Baruchel and Fubar II: TIFF’s CanCon lineup
Terry and Dean are back in Fubar II (Image: TIFF.net)
TIFF co-directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey announced this year’s Canadian lineup yesterday to a room of film industry and media types noshing on little plates of poutine at the Royal York. Among the 858 Canadian films submitted for consideration, 72 were selected to screen at the 35th film festival.
Read the rest of this entry »
Snubbed Canadian director heads to Cannes, thumbs nose at the Genies
Xavier Dolan and his film J’ai tué ma mere may have been overlooked by the Genies, but the Québécois filmmaker has a much better consolation prize: he’s the only Canadian director showing at the Cannes film festival next month. He’ll be presenting his new project Les amours imaginaires, in which he also stars, but it’s already familiar turf for the 21-year-old.
Read the rest of this entry »
In the battle of the Genies vs. Kate Gosselin, it’s no competition
The Genie awards take place tonight, which means it’s time for the Canadian media to ponder their relevance (or lack thereof). Both the Globe and the CBC have taken aim, forecasting low viewership and interest, but it’s not because the awards ceremony will compete with Dancing With the Stars for viewers; it’s because the Genies kind of suck.
Read the rest of this entry »
Follow Toronto Life on Twitter, Facebook and via RSS