Day 7: 2006 Toronto Film Festival

September 14, 2006 by Liam
Filed under: Movie News

With the movie screenings really winding down here, Day 7 of the Toronto Film Festival was a day spent sitting in a crowded room of journalists and photographers for a decent line-up of press conferences.

The day started out with Seraphim Falls featuring stars Pierce Brosnan and Liam Neeson as well as director David Von Ancken. I don’t have a lot to say here. I didn’t even see the movie (which makes me wonder why I bothered with the press conference) so I didn’t have a whole lot to contribute and I really didn’t understand what anybody was talking about, but it was fun nonetheless. Hell, it was James Bond and Qui Gon Jinn for crying out loud. Plus, somebody asked Brosnan about the whole James Bond thing which was almost worth the price of admission. Okay, so admission was free, but it was still pretty funny. Whoever that guy was who asked the question (which I’m sure everybody else wanted to ask) certainly had balls. Check out the photos below. (If you’re wondering about Neeson’s shades, apparently he scratched the surface of his eye the night before.)

If the press conference served any purpose, it made me want to see the movie at some point down the road. The movie takes us back to the end of the American Civil War and follows a man named Gideon (Brosnan) who is being hunted by a confederate officer with a grudge (Neeson). The movie also stars Angie Harmon and Anjelica Huston.

Next up was another press conference, this time for Breaking and Entering. In attendance were stars Jude Law, Robin Wright Penn, Juliette Binoche as well as director Anthony Minghella and producer Sydney Pollack. The movie follows Jude Law as Will, a landscape architect who opens a new office in London’s sketchy King’s Cross district. When the office is broken into, Will takes it upon himself to stake out the culprits. When he follows one of them home, he becomes fascinated with his mother (Juliette Binoche) and the two begin an affair. Things are complicated by the fact that Will is already in a long-time relationship (enter Robin Wright Penn). The movie also stars Martin Freeman as Will’s business partner and Rafi Gavron as one of the thieves.

So, the press conference was your standard question-and-answer affair. Having been to my share this week, I’ve noticed that it always seems to be the same people asking the same question with the participants giving basically the same answers — only specific to their own film. I didn’t bother asking any questions this time around, but I did manage a few photos which you can check out below.

Continuing my busy press conference day, I followed this by sticking around for the Dixie Chicks and Shut Up and Sing. If you read my report yesterday, you’ll know that I loved this movie, but was a bit put-off by the attitude the Chicks showed at the Gala for the movie. Well, the press conference was kinda in the middle. Again, they just seemed a little too stand-off-ish for my liking, as if they had a chip in their collective shoulders. Still, it was an interesting press conference and one that I don’t regret sitting through. I even got in a couple of questions. My first was for the filmmakers (directors Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck). I asked about their decision to film the movie more as outsiders rather than having the Chicks address the camera directly. My second question was directed at the Chicks themselves, and I asked about their thoughts on criticism they might recieve about the movie merely being a promotional tool for their latest CD — which I don’t believe, but I heard a few people talking about so I figured it was worth knowing. (I noticed later in the day that my question even made a little news on the blog over at Canoe.ca!!) Anyways, as always, you can view the press conference yourself online and take a look at some of my photos below (where you’ll notice how difficult it was for the the Chicks to even crack a smile).

Figuring how comfortable I was after having sat through the last 3 press conferences, I figured it’d be a shame to miss the last one for El Cantante. (Plus, it didn’t hurt that it was Jennifer Lopez.) Even though everyone and their dog was there to see her, it wasn’t nearly as bad as Brad Pitt earlier in the week. Still, it was a packed house and JLo didn’t disappoint. Personally, I’m not that big a fan, but it was still an interesting experience. As for the movie, if you haven’t heard of it, El Cantante follows the life and times of salsa music legend Hector Lavoe, played on screen by Marc Anthony. Lopez stars as Puchi, the love of Lavoe’s life. (For those of you who don’t follow celebrity gossip, Anthony and Lopez are married in “real life”.) Also present was the film’s director, Leon Ichaso, as well as John Ortiz who co-stars as Willie Colón.

This time around, I asked a couple of more questions. My first was directed at Ichaso and Anthony and I asked about the decision to do their own singing in the film vs. using original recordings. My second question was directed at Jennifer Lopez and I asked about how she created her character. You can check out the press conference video for yourself online. Also, check out my photos below:

I finished my day seeing a quiet little movie called Snow Cake. The movie stars Alan Rickman as Alex, a man who is driving to Winnipeg after a stint in prison for a crime he’d rather forget. Along the way, he picks up a quirky hitchhiker named Vivienne (played by Emily Hampshire) who is on her way to Wawa (in Northern Ontario). After an accident results in her death, Alex sticks around to meet with Vivienne’s mother, Linda (Sigourney Weaver). As it turns out, Linda is a high-functioning autistic woman and the news of her daughter’s death doesn’t really mean all that much to her. What follows is an uplifting story about how these two become unlikely friends and how they help each other deal with the tragic losses in their lives. Carrie-Anne Moss stars as Rickman’s love interest.

This movie was a real surprise to me. I saw it based on the fact that it was filmed in my home turf of Northern Ontario. What I got from the movie was something really special. Not only did it remind me of home (ie. all the frickin’ snow) but it also made me realize that there are still good movies being made out there. Unfortunately, most of them (like this movie) will likely never see the light of day through a wide theatrical release, which is a real shame. You can really only hope that a movie like this will gain some sort of attention for the fantastic performances and will pick up from there. Otherwise, be sure to watch for it some time down the line on your local video shelf.

Well, that pretty much wraps up another day here in Toronto. Tomorrow, I’ll be taking in a few more movies before spending a little time on the red carpet for the star-studded premiere of Bobby and then checking out the movie for myself. It should be interesting.

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