Another TIFF come and gone

For the third year in a row I purchased a festival pass for the Toronto International Film Festival. In my opinion this is really the best way to do the festival. You purchase the pass in July and when, at the beginning of September, the festival organizers announce the line-up you simply go to the box office to exchange the pass for 3 tickets to films picked by the organizers. You don't know what films you'll be seeing when you buy the passes in July; that's part of the fun (and the ease) of doing the Festival this way. The organizers pick the films for you so there's no guessing what movies will be good and waiting in lines wondering if you'll get a ticket for those films. It's all very easy and (so far) their choices really haven't let me down.

Over the last 3 years I've started to see a bit of a pattern. Each year 2 of the 3 films have been foreign language films; 1 of the 3 films has been shown in the Visa Screening Room (Canon Theatre); and 1 of the 3 films has been shown in the Ryerson Theatre. For most of the films, there's been an Introduction or Q&A with the director and/or actors.

My first year, we saw the the The Sea Inside, with the lead actor and director watching the film with us from one of the boxes in the Canon Theatre. This film won the Oscar for Foreign Film for 2004.

Our line-up for this year wasn't too bad: Le Voyage en Armenie (French/Armenian); Jindabyne (Australian), and I Am the Other Woman (German).

Of the 3, my favourite was the first, simply because I thought the storyline was interesting, heartwarming, and well played out though at times a little absurd. I always enjoy stories about people on a journey of self-discovery, though the director spoke about the theme of identity and didn't want the story to be about going back to what was, but to embrace what is - the new Armenia; and the lead character whose ethnically Armenian, but grew up in France and knew nothing of the country or the culture.

I should also mention that while we were waiting to get into the theatre to see Le Voyage, we saw Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean leaving the theatre. It's the first time I've actually seen a/the Governor General, though I live less than 5 minutes away from Adrienne Clarkson.

Other celebrities I've seen during the Film Festival : Christina Ricci, Dustin Hoffman (both seen at the Friday night Holt Renfrew party), and Laura Linney. The latter was sitting about 5 rows ahead of me at Jindabyne, a film she was staring in. Afterwards she and her co-star answered questions.

Jindabyne was enjoyable as well. Slightly depressing storyline, and I found Laura Linney's character iritating (but I think this is what the director was going for), but overall it was well-played and a good pick.