Friday, September 08, 2006

TIFF: Requiem and Climates

Had plenty of time this morning, and it was a good thing. The walk to the box office turned out to be a little longer than it looked on the map.

Toronto was covered with some campaign called "Shinefest" trying to raise money for cystic fibrosis, which meant I had someone offer to shine my shoes on every corner. (I was wearing sneakers, but never mind).

Once I got the tickets it was back south to the theater and...at long last...the first film.

I met up with Doug and we saw Requiem. I was engaged by it and found it to be a serious psychological drama. The comparisons to Emily Rose are inevitable, I guess, but Requiem was a far superior film. I had a few reservations which I'll put in a review when I get back, but overall it was a great start.

One real pleasure of the festival is talking about the films. So Doug and I grapped crepes for lunch (me: apple, banana, cinammon; he: bananna and nutella), talked about the film and worked our way to the Ryerson for Climates.

Boy talk about an agressively quiet film. There were a lot of long takes. I mostly liked it but my sleep cycle was catching up with me and I struggled in a few places to keep concentration. I'm tempted to call it a 100 minute object lesson on the pathetic fallacy and setting, but that isn't right. It was good but it didn't engage me as much as Requiem.

I also checked at the Ryerson for same day tickets of The Host but they were sold out, so I'll have to either try the rush line or let it go. I'm still waffling about whether to see Manufactured Landscapes tomorrow or Deliver Us From Evil.

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