TIFF 2015 BEST OF FEST
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- DirectorPaolo SorrentinoStarsMichael CaineHarvey KeitelRachel WeiszA retired orchestra conductor is on vacation with his daughter and his film director best friend in the Alps when he receives an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to perform for Prince Philip's birthday.CURRENTLY MY VERY FAVORITE AUTEUR DIRECTOR IS PAULO SORRENTINO AFTER HIS BRILLIANT "GREAT BEAUTY" AND I WAS SO AFRAID THAT HIS NEWEST ENGLISH LANGUAGE WITH BIG NAME STARS, MICHAEL CAINE, HARVEY KEITEL, WOULD DISAPPOINT! NOT ONE BIT.....IT WAS MAGNIFICENT AND NOT AT ALL FORMULAIC. THIS, CONTINUING EXAMINATION INTO THE AGING MALE WAS AGAIN INSIGHTFUL AND FUN. THE STORY, CINEMATOGRAPHY, PERFORMANCES, AND DIRECTION WERE FIRST CLASS. WHAT A JOY IT IS TO SEE HIS FILMS. ONE OF HIS ASSISTANTS FROM GREAT BEAUTY PRESENTED A TIFF 2015 FILM, THE WAIT. NOT QUITE UP TO THE MASTER, BUT BRILLIANT NEVER THE LESS. PLUS IT HAD JULIETTE BINOCHE WHICH CERTAINLY MADE IT WORTHWHILE.
Youth is a superb follow-up to Paolo Sorrentino's glorious The Great Beauty, which played the Festival in 2013 before going on to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Sorrentino sets his new film against the perfect summery backdrop of the Swiss Alps, in a spa to which several disparate characters have travelled for very different reasons. Forming the spine of Youth is a beautifully expressed relationship between two old friends, both artists, whose life experiences are fodder for reflections on time and aging. - DirectorGillian ArmstrongStarsAnn RothJane FondaMarc EliotA documentary about the life of the Australian costume designer and three time Oscar winner Orry-Kelly.ORRY-KELLY, PROBABLY THE MOST UNRECOGNIZED NAME THAT HAS IMPACTED ALL OF US CINEMA LOVERS IN SO MANY WAYS. JUST WATCHING THE CLIPS OF ALL OF HIS IMPACTED FILMS IS SO WORTH YOUR TIME AND EFFORT TO FIND AND WATCH. THIS IS ABSOLUTELY A MUST FOR ALL OF US WHO CONSIDER OURSELVES AS STUDENTS OF CINEMA.
Today the name Orry-Kelly typically draws blank looks. But in Hollywood's golden age, he was a leading costume designer who won Oscars for An American in Paris, Les Girls, and Some Like it Hot. Emigrating from Australia to America in the 1920s, Orry George Kelly took on his hyphenated name for show business and, as a gay man, kept many secrets until his death in 1964. In Women He's Undressed, filmmaker Gillian Armstrong delves into Kelly's untold stories with an approach that's as bold and playful as he was. She casts the Australian stage actor Darren Gilshenan to portray Kelly, who speaks directly to the camera. She interviews real-life associates including Ann Roth, Angela Lansbury, and Jane Fonda; and others with perspective such as designer Catherine Martin (the only Australian to exceed Kelly in Academy Award wins). Topping it off, we're treated to a vast array of film clips showcasing Kelly's costumes in Gold Diggers of 1933, Casablanca, Irma la Douce, and other classics. Armstrong knows what it means to break out of Australia. Starting out in documentary, she made her fictional debut at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival with My Brilliant Career. - DirectorJacques AudiardStarsJesuthasan AntonythasanKalieaswari SrinivasanClaudine VinasithambyDheepan is a Sri Lankan Tamil warrior who flees to France and ends up working as a caretaker outside Paris.WINNER OF THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS FILM AWARD, PALME D'OR THIS IS AN AMAZING FILM FROM JAQUES AUDIARD WHO DELIVERED "THE PROPHET" WHICH WON THE GRAND PRIX AWARD AT CANNES IN 2009. HIS FILMS ARE EAGERLY ANTICIPATED FROM ME. The film begins in Sri Lanka at the end of the civil war as a Tamil soldier (Jesuthasan Antonythasan), burns the bodies of his fallen comrades. The guns are silenced, his family has been killed, and he seeks a way out. He and Yalini (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) are strangers in a refugee camp, but they cobble together a fake family with young Illayaal (Claudine Vinasithamby). It's enough to fool the aid workers and get them to France. Audiard establishes the ruthlessly pragmatic ways of these three war survivors early on. Once in the outskirts of Paris, they must use those same skills to navigate their crime-ridden housing complex. Securing their position in France means making their false family real, but past violence and present threats combine to exert a rising pressure that is bound to explode.
- DirectorHsiao-Hsien HouStarsShu QiChang ChenYun ZhouA female assassin receives a dangerous mission to kill a political leader in eighth-century China.TO ME A MAGNIFICENT FILM LONG ON CINEMATOGRAPHY, SETS, COSTUMES, BUT SHORT ON STORY. PROBABLY BECAUSE I HAVE LITTLE KNOWLEDGE OF ANCIENT CHINESE HISTORY. THE ASSASSIN, SHU QI IS AN EXCEPTIONALLY BEAUTIFUL WOMAN.
In the seven years since Hou Hsiao-hsien began working on a ninth-century wuxia epic, his admirers have been madly curious about how the Taiwanese auteur known for such refined historical panoramas as “Flowers of Shanghai” and minor-key urban portraits like “Cafe Lumiere” would handle his rite of passage into one of China’s most storied and vigorous popular genres. We have the answer at long last in “The Assassin,” a mesmerizing slow burn of a martial-arts movie that boldly merges stasis and kinesis, turns momentum into abstraction, and achieves breathtaking new heights of compositional elegance: Shot for shot, it’s perhaps the most ravishingly beautiful film Hou has ever made, and certainly one of his most deeply transporting. Centered around a quietly riveting performance from Shu Qi - DirectorLászló NemesStarsGéza RöhrigLevente MolnárUrs RechnA Jewish-Hungarian concentration camp prisoner sets out to give a child he mistook for his son a proper burial.FROM HUNGARY COMES AN EXTRAORDINARY FILM. THIS FILM TO ME WAS THE MOST INTENSE AND INSIGHTFUL OF ALL THE HOLOCAUST FILMS EVER MADE. NOT EASY TO WATCH, TRAGIC, YET THE QUALITY OF EVERY SCENE WAS AMAZING. DESTINED TO BE ONE OF THE ALL TIME CLASSICS OF CINEMA AND AN OSCAR WINNER IS A SURE THING. VERY HIGH 90 FROM METACRITICS. Winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, this powerful and gripping Holocaust drama follows a concentration-camp inmate who goes to desperate lengths to secure a traditional Jewish burial for a young boy. In the horror of 1944 Auschwitz, a prisoner forced to burn the corpses of his own people finds moral survival upon trying to salvage from the flames the body of a boy he takes for his son. This astonishing debut film, about a prisoner in the concentration camp employed in the industrial processes of body disposal, is a horror movie of extraordinary focus and courage. Son of Saul is set in the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1944, and one Hungarian Jewish prisoner named Saul (played by Géza Röhrig) is a member of the Sonderkommando, a group of prisoners given humiliating and illusory privileges as trusties, with minor increases in food ration in return for their carrying the bodies from the gas chambers to pyres to be burned, then carting the ashes away to be dumped. A season in hell is what this devastating and terrifying film offers – as well as an occasion for meditating on representations of the Holocaust, on Wittgenstein’s dictum about matters whereof we cannot speak, and on whether these unimaginable and unthinkable horrors can or even should be made imaginable and thinkable in a drama. There is an argument that any such work, however serious its moral intentions, risks looking obtuse or diminishing its subject, although this is not a charge that can be levelled at Son of Saul. By any standards, this would be an outstanding film, but for a debut it is remarkable. The director is László Nemes.
- DirectorRadu MunteanStarsTeodor CorbanIulian PostelnicuOxana MoravecAfter being the sole unfortunate witness of a domestic quarrel that ends up in a murder, Patrascu finds himself at odds with two very close neighbors: one is the bizarre murderer, the other one his very own conscience.FROM ROMANIA COMES THIS VERY UNUSUAL UNPREDICTABLE ORIGINAL DRAMA. METICULOUSLY CREATED AND VERY INVOLVING, THIS FILM WILL NOT APPEAL TO MOST TASTES.
Returning home to his apartment one night, Sandu Patrascu (Teodor Corban) eavesdrops on a fierce argument between his downstairs neighbour Laura and her boyfriend Vali (Iulian Postelnicu), who catches Sandu listening in. Laura is found dead the next day, and Patrascu is sure that Vali, also a tenant in the building, is responsible. But when the police come asking questions, Sandu reveals nothing.
Hiding his suspicions from the authorities, and from his wife, Olga, and teenage son, Matei, he seems content to go about his daily business expediting car registrations and doting on his dog. But Sandu's routine is interrupted when Vali appears at his door, offering to help Matei with his Xbox — and soon Vali has ingratiated himself into the family, testing Sandu's resolve to remain silent and pushing him to the edge. - DirectorNatalie PortmanStarsNatalie PortmanGilad KahanaAmir TesslerThe story of Amos Oz's youth, set against the backdrop of the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel. The film details the young man's relationship with his mother and his beginnings as a writer, while looking at what happens when the stories we tell become the stories we live.NATALIE PORTMAN RETURNS TO ISRAEL FOR HER DIRECTORIAL DEBUT BRINGING THE AMOS OZ NOVEL TO THE SCREEN. BESIDES HER BEAUTY AND PERFORMANCE EXCELLENCE WE ARE WITNESS TO HER EXTRAORDINARY TALENT BEHIND THE CAMERA AS DIRECTOR AND WRITER. The film begins in the mid-1940s when Amos (Amir Tessler) is eight years old, living with his father Arieh (Gilad Kahana) and mother Fania (Portman) in British Palestine. The years leading up to the creation of the state of Israel are characterized by escalating tensions between Jews and Arabs — conflicts that mirror the troubled marriage of Amos' parents, both of whom were refugees who fled to Palestine for safety. While the story is told through the eyes of young Amos, it is Fania around whom much of the narrative revolves. She was an intellectual raised in privilege, and now she struggles to accept her adult life as a poor newcomer in a fledgling land, married to a failed academic. Portman sensitively portrays Fania's spiritual desolation and emotional fragility, while allowing her pleasure in her only child to shine.
- DirectorPhilippe GarrelStarsClotilde CourauStanislas MerharLena PaugamPierre and Manon are a pair of poor documentary makers, who scrape by with odd jobs. When Pierre meets young trainee Elisabeth, he falls for her, but wants to keep Manon at the same time. But the new girl in his life finds out that Manon has a lover. When she tells Pierre, the time comes for difficult decisions all round.THIS ROMANTIC TREASURE FROM FRANCE MIRRORS THE CLASSICS OF THE 60'S FROM TRUFFAUT, GODARD AND ROHMER. IT SENT ME DOWN MEMORY LANE TO RELIVE THESE EARLY DAYS OF THE FRENCH NEW WAVE. I AM AFRAID MOST WILL NOT APPRECIATE THIS JOY AS I DID. Iconoclast and long-time bête noire of French cinema Philippe Garrel evokes the glories of sixties Nouvelle Vague in this beautifully modulated film about the ups and downs of bohemian life in the luminous city of our cinematic dream world. Shot in lustrous black-and-white, the film floats us back to the Paris of Godard's Vivre sa vie, Truffaut's Tirez sur la pianiste, Rivette's Paris nous appartient, and Rohmer's Le Signe du Lion — a Paris of side streets, bars, and tiny apartments where people live and love, sometimes well and sometimes badly. L'Ombre des Femmes follows a youngish couple: Pierre (Stanislas Merhar), a filmmaker shooting a documentary on an elderly French Resistance veteran; and Manon (Clotilde Courau), his loyal professional and domestic partner, happy to make films with the man she loves. Together they eke out a marginal existence, staying one step ahead of their landlord until, one day, the feckless Pierre meets a young intern at the film archive where he does his research. It's not long before he and Elisabeth (Léna Paugam) are entangled, and for Pierre this amorous relationship becomes as much of a constraint as the one from which he is attempting to escape. Manon and Elisabeth both find themselves coping with a man who is far from worthy of their attentions.
- DirectorDeepa MehtaStarsAli KazmiAli MomenRandeep HoodaWith help from his recent recruit, a gang leader takes on an established crime lord in a battle for control of Vancouver's arms and drug trade.THE WONDERFUL CANADIAN DIRECTOR DEEPA MEHTA HAS BROUGHT US YET ANOTHER OUTSTANDING FILM. HER ANCESTRY FROM INDIA IS AGAIN ON DISPLAY. BASICALLY THIS IS A GANGSTER FILM LOCATED IN VANCOUVER INVOLVING BADDIES FROM INDIA. LIKE ALL HER FILMS, PROCEDURAL EXCELLENCE AND INVOLVING NARRATIVE THAT PLEASES HER FANS.
Jeet Johar (Randeep Hooda) is a devoted family man and observant member of the Jat Sikh community. He is also a merciless gangster who fronts a pack of nattily dressed young toughs known as the Beeba Boys. Competing with other local Asian gangs for supremacy in the Vancouver drugs-and-arms-trafficking racket, Jeet leads his boys into battle to fight for their piece of this lucrative pie and for the respect they believe they deserve. Yet Jeet also finds time to mentor a volatile new gang member (Ali Momen) and seduce a beautiful woman (2011 TIFF Rising Star Sarah Allen) Mehta shows us all the dark allure of the gangs' high-tension, male-centric world, one that beckons with the promise of glamour and fast money but demands a sacrifice all out of proportion to its rewards. Provocative and exciting Beeba Boys offers a dynamic tale of violence, racism, discrimination, and marginalization, and at its core is a powerful story about family that is sure to resonate with any audience.
. - DirectorJocelyn MoorhouseStarsKate WinsletJudy DavisLiam HemsworthA glamorous woman returns to her small town in rural Australia. With her sewing machine and haute couture style, she transforms the women and exacts sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.FROM AUSTRALIA COMES THIS WONDERFUL FILM ABOUT A SUCCESSFUL WOMAN COMING BACK TO HER SMALL TOWN TO RIGHT THE WRONGS SHE SUFFERED BEFORE LEAVING. KATE WINSLET'S PERF IS OSCAR WORTHY....AT LEAST FOR A NOMINATION.
This wickedly comic drama stars the majestic Kate Winslet as a worldly dressmaker returning to the Australian backwater that exiled her. Seamlessly combining elements from films as varied as Dogville, Unforgiven, and Lasse Hallström's Chocolat, The Dressmaker is a sumptuous, saucy, and scandalous tale of love and vengeance in the mid-1950s. It also has the most fabulous gowns this side of the red carpet. Tilly Dunnage (Winslet) arrives in the small town of Dungatar like a gunslinger: broad-brimmed hat on her head, sleek pumps on her feet, trusty Singer sewing machine at her side. Driven away when she was just ten for supposedly committing a heinous crime, resilient Tilly found her way to Paris, where she trained under legendary designer Madeleine Vionnet. She has come back to look after her ailing mother, Molly (Judy Davis), but, with her beguiling, form-fitting dresses, she's soon turning heads at the town football game — most notably the one atop the broad shoulders of star player Teddy McSwiney (Liam Hemsworth). When Tilly is hired to design and custom-make haute couture for the more rebellious local ladies, a battle line is drawn: on one side, those who luxuriate in Tilly's progressive style, and, on the other side, Dungatar's conservative busybody contingent. As tension between these camps escalates, Tilly's shadowy past becomes her enemies' most potent weapon — but this fearsome fashionista has resolved to never let Dungatar get the best of her again. - DirectorBrian HelgelandStarsTom HardyEmily BrowningTaron EgertonIdentical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray terrorize London during the 1960s.ONE OF MY FAVORITE GENRES IS BRITISH GANGSTER FILMS AND THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST. WHAT MAKES THIS SO UNIQUE IS THAT THE KRAY IDENTICAL TWINS ARE PLAYED BY ONE ACTOR, TOM HARDY. NOT THE FIRST TO ATTEMPT THIS BUT AN EXTRAORDINARY FEAT. FOR THE MOST PART YOU WILL BE ON THE FRONT OF YOUR SEAT INVOLVED AND WHY I RATED IT A 10. NOT THE FIRST FILM TO BE MADE ABOUT THE KRAY TWINS, REAL CELEBRITY CRIMINALS. ONE WAS GAY. copy and paste for the facts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kray_twins
Identical twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray were Britain's most infamous gangsters, rising from humble roots to rule London's nightclub scene for much of the swinging sixties, until a fateful blend of hubris, fraternal loyalty, mental illness, and a lust for violence brought their dream to a catastrophic end. Now, the immensely talented Tom Hardy gives a bravura double performance as both Kray brothers, in this exhilarating retelling of one of the most fascinating tales in modern crime. - DirectorMatt BrownStarsDev PatelJeremy IronsMalcolm SinclairThe story of the life and academic career of the pioneer Indian mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan, and his friendship with his mentor, Professor G.H. Hardy.IF YOU THINK THAT A FILM ABOUT AN INDIAN MATHEMATICIAN IS GOING TO BE BORING, THINK AGAIN. THIS IS CLASSIC FILM MAKING AT ITS VERY BEST. OSCAR IS WRITTEN ALL OVER IT AND LOOK FOR DEV PATEL AND JEREMY IRONS ON YOUR BALLOT. THE PERFS WERE 5 STAR, THE STORY 5 STAR, DIRECTION 5 STAR, CINEMATOGRAPHY 5 STAR WHICH EASILY MAKES THIS FILM A 10/10 RATING.
Featuring terrific performances by Slumdog Millionaire star Dev Patel and Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons, The Man Who Knew Infinity tells the story of Srinivasa Ramanujan, the Indian mathematician whose contributions to number theory, continued fractions, and infinite series revolutionized the field. This sweeping historical film about high science and the tragic repercussions of racism amongst the ostensibly enlightened is a testament to the wonder and precariousness of genius — and the power of friendship to change the world. Opening near the dawn of the twentieth century, the film follows Ramanujan (Patel) from his humble roots in Madras — where opportunities for someone of Ramanujan's abilities are few — to Cambridge University, where the young prodigy's visionary theories attract the attention of English mathematician G.H. Hardy (Irons). The chance to work in the same hallowed halls where Isaac Newton formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation is a dream come true for Ramanujan, but also proves to be a sort of nightmare. His colleagues, unable to see beyond his dark skin and unfamiliar culture, harass and humiliate him, while Hardy insists that Ramanujan deliver countless proofs before being allowed to publish his work. One of the most remarkable feats of The Man Who Knew Infinity is the way it renders Ramanujan's groundbreaking, complex theories understandable even to a layperson. But even more important is the film's depiction of Ramanujan and Hardy's difficult yet deep friendship, as they gradually evolve from stern mentor and untamable protegé to true peers, whose mutual love and respect transcend the formidable obstacles of race, class, culture, and tradition. - DirectorCary Joji FukunagaStarsAbraham AttahEmmanuel AffadziRicky AdelayitorA drama based on the experiences of Agu, a child soldier fighting in the civil war of an unnamed African country.Cary Joji Fukunaga IS SOMEONE WE SHOULD WATCH VERY CAREFULLY AS HE WILL INEVITABLY BECOME ONE OF THE SHINING STARS OF CINEMA. HE HAS AN EXTRAORDINARY EYE FOR BRILLIANT PHOTOGRAPHY AND SETS. HIS CAREER IN FILM STARTED IN CINEMATOGRAPHY, AND THIS IS VERY EVIDENT IN THIS GRUELLING BUT WONDERFUL FILM. PROBABLY BEST IF YOU CAN WATCH IT EPISODICALLY ON THE SMALL SCREEN....i.e. NETFLIX, VOD, etc. IT IS THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN BOY FORCED TO BECOME A SOLDIER AFTER HIS PARENTS ARE KILLED. NOT EASY TO WATCH, BUT SO RELEVANT TO THE UGLINESS THAT NOW EXISTS IN OUR WORLD. KNOW THAT CARY IS AN OAKLAND BORN UC GRADUATE WHOSE FATHER WAS BORN IN AN INTERNMENT CAMP IN THE 40'S.
Surely one of the most beautiful films about ultimate ugliness ever, Cary Joji Fukunaga's immersive and profoundly moving "Beasts of No Nation" is a hollowing experience — it reaches in and scoops you out, piece by piece, until all that's left is a cavernous shame at being a person who lives in a world where this story can happen. In this it is exactly the film that needed to be made about the ultimate degradation of morality represented by the practise of turning children into soldiers, and exactly the film that Uzodinma Iweala's remarkable novel deserved to inspire. Matching Fukunaga's proven storytelling grace with a story truly worth the telling, the result is explosively authentic and yet lyrical, making an utterly inhumane and alien situation both completely real and completely abstract. It becomes the cumulative anguish of so many similar stories (our press notes suggest there are anything from 250,000 to 500,000 child soldiers in existence right now) distilled into one small boy. And the battleground is not just the dilapidated towns and jungles of his unnamed African home, but the far more valuable and vast territory of his soul. - DirectorJohn CrowleyStarsSaoirse RonanEmory CohenDomhnall GleesonAn Irish immigrant lands in 1950s Brooklyn, where she quickly falls into a romance with a local. When her past catches up with her, however, she must choose between two countries and the lives that exist within.AN OLD FASHIONED LOVE STORY ABOUT A YOUNG IRISH GIRL WHO ARRIVES IN BROOKLYN IN THE 1950'S. AN EXCELLENT WELL DONE FILM, THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT BEING THE INTRODUCTION TO ME A BRAND NEW TALENT, SAORISE RONAN. IF NOT YET IN YOUR CELEBRITY MEMORY, TRUST ME, SHE WILL SOON BE THERE.
an exquisitely crafted period piece telling the tale of a young immigrant in a strange new land. There aren't many opportunities for young women in postwar Ireland, but soft-spoken Eilis Lacey (Ronan) is lucky: America has long been considered the land of opportunity, and when her family makes arrangements with a kindly Brooklyn priest (Broadbent) for her to move there, she jumps at the chance. Set up tentatively in a boarding house and working in a swanky Brooklyn department store, Eilis struggles to find her place — but after meeting Tony (Emory Cohen), a handsome young Italian man with an infectious passion for life, she's filled with the joy of young love and the promise of a future. When a family tragedy brings her back to Ireland, she discovers that her perspective has changed dramatically; facing mounting pressures from those closest to her, Eilis must decide where she is to spend the rest of her life. - DirectorTom McCarthyStarsMark RuffaloMichael KeatonRachel McAdamsThe true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered the massive scandal of child molestation and cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese, shaking the entire Catholic Church to its core.TO ME THE PROTECTION OF CLERGY PEDIOPHILES IS ONE OF THE MOST HORRIFIC CRIMES OF MY LIFETIME. THE LEVEL OF PROTECTION IN BOSTON WENT TO THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF THE CLERGY, BUSINESS AND GOVERNMENT UNTIL THE LID WAS FINALLY BLOWN BY THE COURAGEOUS AND HARD WORKING TEAM OF THE SPOTLIGHT SECTION OF THE BOSTON GLOBE. THE GUILT WAS WELL KNOWN, BUT THE REAL CRIMINALITY IS IN SWEEPING IT UNDER THE RUG. EVEN NOW JUSTICE HAS NOT BEEN ACHIEVED. THIS IS A MUST SEE ALTHOUGH IT MAY KICK UP YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE WITH ANGER.
This true story about a team of Boston Globe reporters who uncovered a massive scandal of child abuse and cover-ups within the local Catholic Church. An urgent procedural concerning one of the most painful scandals in recent memory, the latest from writer-director Tom McCarthy (The Station Agent, The Visitor) tells the true story of how the Boston Globe revealed the Catholic Church's cover-up of widespread child molestation within the Massachusetts priesthood. The year is 2001. Walter "Robby" Robinson (Michael Keaton) leads the Globe's investigative unit, which includes Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams, also appearing in the Festival in Every Thing Will Be Fine), and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James), in an inquiry regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests. They have their work cut out for them. Despite repeated allegations — decades worth — of misconduct against minors under its care, the Church has long made a habit of simply moving the accused priests from parish to parish rather than allowing them to face justice. As the Globe's team finds layer after layer of cover-up, their investigation becomes a quest that goes on for months, pushing their psychological endurance to the limit. - DirectorTerence DaviesStarsKen BlackburnMark BonnarStuart BowmanThe daughter of a Scottish farmer comes of age in the early 1900s.TERRENCE DAVIES TO ME IS ONE OF THE FINEST DIRECTORS OVER THE PAST 40 YEARS. HIS DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES 1988, AND THE LONG DAY CLOSES 1992, TO THIS DAY THEY ARE STILL 2 OF MY FAVORITES. I HAVE TALKED MY FILM CLUB ASSOCIATES INTO A NEW WAY OF RATING FILMS. THE USUAL 1-5 STAR IN 4 DIFFERENT CATEGORIES: 1-STORY, 2-CINEMATOGRAPHY, 3-DIRECTING, 4-PERFORMANCES.....AND I WOULD ADD A 5TH TO MANY FILMS AND THAT WOULD BE MUSIC. IN ALL CATEGORIES TO ME THIS FILM IS A 5 STAR. IT EXPLORES RURAL LIFE IN NORTHERN SCOTLAND IN THE 1930'S TAKEN FROM A 1932 CLASSIC SCOTTISH NOVEL. THE STRUGGLES OF REAL PEOPLE. DEFINITELY WORTH YOUR TIME.
Terence Davies is responsible for some of the most important UK cinema of the past forty years, each film a nostalgic labour of love. Sunset Song, the long-awaited feature adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's classic 1932 novel (a staple in Scottish classrooms), is another meditation on the past, delving into the life of a farming family in northeast Scotland. Exquisitely shot, each scene looks like an Old Masters painting as Davies applies his distinct "memory realism" style to a twentieth-century northern British milieu that many will recognize from the writer-director's previous films.
In Sunset Song, Terence Davies takes on the adaptation of one of the great works of Scottish literature – well-known to Scots, but not so celebrated outside that country. As expected, he’s made it a tour de force of drama, composition and colour - DirectorJay RoachStarsBryan CranstonDiane LaneHelen MirrenIn 1947, Dalton Trumbo was Hollywood's top screenwriter, until he and other artists were jailed and blacklisted for their political beliefs.THERE HAVE BEEN MANY FILMS DEPICTING THE UGLY PERIOD OF HOLLYWOOD BLACKLISTING, BUT NONE BETTER THAN THIS ONE. MC CARTHYISM SPLIT OUR NATION INTO A PERIOD OF POLARIZATION THAT IS NOW ENTERING OUR CURRENT STATE OF POLITICS. IT WAS A VERY SAD STATE OF OUR HISTORY WHERE WITCH HUNTING WAS RAMPANT.
Bryan Cranston stars as the famous screenwriter and Hollywood blacklist victim Dalton Trumbo, in this engrossing biopic co-starring Helen Mirren, Elle Fanning, Diane Lane and John Goodman. A fascinating portrait of one of the most emblematic figures of Hollywood's Golden Age, Trumbo stars Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as the prolific screenwriter who paid a terrible price for his political convictions. A fascinating portrait of one of the most emblematic figures of Hollywood's Golden Age, Trumbo stars Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston as the prolific screenwriter who paid a terrible price for his political convictions. The author of scripts for such films as Kitty Foyle, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, and Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Dalton Trumbo was among the highest-paid scenarists of his time. He was also among the most unjustly ostracized, one of numerous film artists who saw their careers screech to a halt after being interrogated by the House Un-American Activities Committee about their supposed communist ties. An outspoken member of the so-called Hollywood Ten, Trumbo did in fact identify as communist. Nevertheless, he refused to testify and was cited for contempt of Congress, resulting in a year-long prison sentence and a prominent place on the studios' blacklist. Unable to obtain employment under his own name, Trumbo did some of his finest work pseudonymously throughout the 1950s — even winning an Oscar for The Brave One — until his public crediting for the epics Exodus and Spartacus in 1960 helped bring the blacklist era to an end. Featuring exceptional performances by Cranston and a remarkable supporting cast — including Diane Lane and Elle Fanning as Trumbo's wife Cleo and daughter Nikola, John Goodman as Trumbo's producer and ally Frank King, and Helen Mirren as notorious gossip columnist Hedda Hopper — Trumbo is a gripping drama that sheds light on one of the darkest chapters in Hollywood history. - DirectorClaude LelouchStarsJean DujardinElsa ZylbersteinChristopher LambertFrench famous film score composer goes to India to compose the score for an Indian adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. There he meets the wife of the French ambassador to India, and a complicated relationship ensues.CLAUDE LE LOUCH BORN 1937 CONTINUES TO CREATE UNIQUE AND POWERFUL ROMANTIC FILMS, THE MOST FAMOUS BEING "A MAN AND A WOMAN (1966)" WHICH WON 2 OSCARS. THE ALL TIME FAVORITE OF SHARON AND I IS HIS "AND NOW MY LOVE (1974)" IN HIS 78TH YEAR AND BRINGING A FILM TO TIFF, HOW COULD i NOT SEE IT. HE HAS A HUGE AND SUCCESSFUL FILMOGRAPHY AND IS TRULY AN AUTEUR AS HE DIRECTS AND WRITES HIS WORK. THIS PROBABLY ACCOUNTS FOR HIS 4 MARRIAGES AND IS SINGLE AGAIN, HAS FATHERED 7 CHILDREN, 6 FROM WIVES, AND MOST HAVE GONE INTO THE FILM INDUSTRY. MANY OF HIS WIVES WERE DISCOVERED ON HIS FILM SETS. CLAUDE CERTAINLY HAS A KNACK FOR TELLING LOVE STORIES AS HE BRINGS TOGETHER ALL THE ELEMENTS TO CREATE A WONDERFUL FILM. JEAN DEJARDIN IS TERRIFIC AND WE SHALL BE HEARING MORE ABOUT THE FEMALE LEAD, ELSA ZYLBERSTEIN. DIRECTION, CINEMATOGRAPHY AND PERFS ARE 5 STAR, STORY IS 3 STAR. ANOTHER CATEGORY WORTHY OF MENTION IS THE 5 STAR MUSIC.
Jean Dujardin (The Artist) plays the charming, rakish Antoine. A successful film composer in Paris, he leaves his latest lover behind when he jets off to India to work on a new film. On his first night there, he's dragged to a dinner in his honour, hosted by the French ambassador (Christophe Lambert). It's the kind of tedious affair he's gotten used to enduring, but he's seated beside the ambassador's wife, Anna (Elsa Zylberstein). She's full of life and curiosity; he's comically vain and world-weary. By the time dessert arrives, the sparks have started to fly. Un plus une is steeped in cinema and a complete pleasure to watch. Lelouch fills it with crackling dialogue, heady scenes of seduction, and glorious music, all of which rival anything in his past successes. He also makes sure to shade Anna and Antoine with darker elements from their pasts that give increasing weight to their passion.
Graced by an expert understanding of both love and the movies, Un plus une gains a jolt of energy from its Indian setting and dazzling chemistry from its stars. - DirectorAmos GitaiStarsIschac HiskiyaYitzhak HizkiyaPini MittelmanItzhak Rabin's murder ended all efforts of peace, and with him the whole left wing of Israel died. The movie shows the last of his days as prime minister, and what led to his murder.NEVER HAS A FILM HAD SUCH A DEEP IMPACT ON MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE ISRAELI PALESTINIAN ISSUE. TO THIS MOMENT 1 WEEK LATER IT REMAINS UPPERMOST IN MY THOUGHTS. AMOS GITAI IS A TALENTED AND HONEST FILMAKER, AND EXTREMELY RESPECTED. THE SOURCE MATERIAL TO ME IS AS CLOSE TO ACCURATE AS ANY HISTORICAL INFORMATION CAN BE TRUSTED. THIS IS A MUST SEE FOR ANY AMERICAN JEWISH CITIZEN AS WELL AS ANY ONE INTERESTED IN THE PEACE POLICY. THE ASSASSINATION OCCURRED IN 1995, 20 YEARS AGO.
Timed to the 20-year anniversary of Israeli prime minister and Nobel Peace Prize winner Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Amos Gitai’s “Rabin, the Last Day” de-emphasizes the murder itself in favor of the institutional autopsy that followed, blending archival footage with solemn re-enactments of the Shamgar Commission’s official inquiry into the incident. Whereas this tribunal was legally restricted to examining only the “operative acts of negligence” that might have prevented the tragedy, however, Gitai’s rigorously fact-backed film attempts to understand the greater question of “how” — namely, the cultural conditions that made such a violent tragedy possible — and what the incident says about Israel today. Gitai himself is evidently still grappling with Rabin’s loss, having been inspired by the prime minister’s peace-making efforts to return to his home country after a decade-long period of self-imposed exile, which the filmmaker spent in France. But the very gestures that made Rabin a hero in the eyes of many also made him a target of discontent, particularly among Jews who felt he was acting in defiance of the Torah. Most controversial was his role in signing the Oslo Accords, which established the Palestinian Authority and led to the eviction of Israeli settlements in occupied Gaza — depicted in a scene that intercuts between archival news footage and re-enactments as soldiers demolish homes and drag Jews from their disputed turf. - DirectorKent JonesStarsWes AndersonPeter BogdanovichDavid FincherFilmmakers discuss how Francois Truffaut's 1966 book "Cinema According to Hitchcock" influenced their work.THIS IS A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE ART OF FILM CREATION THAT IS ESSENTIAL TO ALL SERIOUS CINEMAPHILES. MANY DO NOT RECOGNIZE HOW MUCH HITCHCOCK CONTRIBUTED TO THE EXCELLENCE IN CINEMA. Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, James Gray, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and others discuss the importance of the epochal book that transcribed the week-long 1962 interview between Alfred Hitchcock and French New Wave luminary François Truffaut. In 1962, François Truffaut conducted a week-long interview with Alfred Hitchcock, going through the master's career film by film. The resulting book, Hitchcock/Truffaut, remains one of the most influential cinema publications ever written. It was a project of lasting importance for Truffaut: seventeen years after the book's first publication in 1967 and just before his own untimely death, he went back and prepared an updated edition. This documentary deepens the legacy of the project, bringing in contemporary directors to discuss the galvanizing effects of both Truffaut's book and Hitchcock's films.
- DirectorGabriel MascaroStarsJuliano CazarréMaeve JinkingsJosinaldo AlvesIremar works at the rodeo in North East of Brazil. From his home, the truck used to transport the animals, he dreams of a future in the region's booming clothing industry.VISUALLY CAPTIVATING THIS FILM GRABBED ME AND KEPT MY EYES GLUED TO THE SCREEN THROUGHOUT. UNFORTUNATELY THIS LEVEL OF FILM HAS VERY LITTLE CHANCE OF A USA DISTRIBUTION. HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE AVAILABLE AT THE PSIFF, AND PERHAPS BRAZIL WILL SUBMIT IT FOR OSCAR CONSIDERATION.
Few films have explored the particularities of rodeo life (though Nicholas Ray's ruggedly beautiful The Lusty Men is a definite precursor to Neon Bull). Fewer still have brought to the rodeo the sort of painterly vision that Mascaro and cinematographer Diego Garcia display here, with sweeping widescreen images that not only capture the pastoral beauty of the Brazilian landscape but also embrace their characters with deep affection. We come to love this ragtag band of labourers — even Iremar, who, though ornery and boastful, possesses an artist's heart and an optimism that's tougher than leather. it displays sensitivity to the demands of this life, as co-worker Galega (Maeve Jinkings) struggles to balance long hours with the demands of being a single parent — the scenes involving her young daughter are among the film's most touching. - DirectorLars KraumeStarsBurghart KlaußnerRonald ZehrfeldLilith StangenbergThe story of the man who brought high-ranking German Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice.BRINGING THE PERPRETATORS OF INJUSTICE TO THE SLAUGHTERED JEWS IN WW 2 GERMANY IS A MAJOR OBSESSION OF MINE. IN POSTWAR GERMANY AS IT FLOUISHED ECONOMICALLY, THEY MORE AND MORE IGNORED THE CRIMES COMMITTED. AUSTRIA ELECTED AN ADMITTED NAZI TO ITS HIGHEST POST. FRITZ BAUER IGNORED THE ROADBLOCKS CREATED IN GERMANY TO BRING THE GUILTY NAZIS TO JUSTICE. AN EXCELLENT FILM, IT WOULD STILL HAVE EARNED MY HIGHEST RATING BECAUSE OF ITS CONTENT.
Few figures encapsulate the conflicted character of postwar Germany better than Fritz Bauer, the Attorney General who was instrumental in bringing the elusive Adolph Eichmann to trial in Israel. THE PEOPLE vs. FRITZ BAUER is both a portrait of this complex man and a riveting historical thriller that chronicles the Herculean efforts and tremendous risks undertaken en route to apprehending the chief engineer of the Nazis' Final Solution. It is the late 1950s. Flourishing under the economic miracle, Germany grows increasingly apathetic about confronting the horrors of its recent past. Nevertheless, Fritz Bauer (Burghart Klaussner) doggedly devotes his energies to bringing the Third Reich to justice. One day Bauer receives a letter from Argentina, written by a man who is certain that his daughter is dating the son of Adolph Eichmann. Excited by the promising lead, and mistrustful of a corrupt judiciary system where Nazis still lurk, Bauer journeys to Jerusalem to seek alliance with Mossad, the Israeli secret service. To do so is treason — yet committing treason is the only way Bauer can serve his country. Featuring deeply textured performances from Klaussner (The White Ribbon) and Ronald Zehrfeld (Barbara, Phoenix), and propulsive direction by Lars Kraume (The Coming Days), THE PEOPLE vs. FRITZ BAUER transports us to a time when much of the world was eager to forget the atrocities of the Second World War, despite the fact that many of the perpetrators remained at large. But make no mistake: it is also a film about the world of today, where justice continues to be undermined by economic interests. - DirectorErmek TursynovStarsMikhail KarpovRoza KhayrullinaErzhan NurymbetYermek Tursunov (Kelin, The Old Man) completes his trilogy about Kazakh identity, in which an orphaned young boy takes to the mountains and lives among a pack of wolves in the days before WWII.THIS VERY UNUSUAL FILM FROM Kazakhstan GOT A 10 FROM ME FOR ITS 5 STAR CINEMATOGRAPHY. I SUSPECT THAT ONLY KOZY AND I WOULD BE WOWED BY THE VISUAL ONLY.
In Stranger, Tursunov has crafted a magnificent work of classical cinema with a rich narrative that has roots both in Kazakh folklore and in the nation's more recent history. The physically imposing actor Yerzhan Nurymbet, who worked with Tursunov on Kelin, here delivers a wrenching performance as Ilyas, a man who bears the pain of his nation with dignity and strength.
Musing philosophically on the themes of freedom and fate, Stranger is a compelling parable about the essence of the human spirit.
Orphaned by the brutal Soviet collectivization campaign of the 1930s, a young Kazakh boy takes to the mountains and lives amongst a pack of wolves. Kazakh director Yermek Tursunov first thrilled Festival audiences in 2009 with his groundbreaking debut feature, Kelin. In his new pastoral epic, he charts the turbulent history of Kazakhstan in the early twentieth century, telling the story of a nation fighting to retain its humanity. - DirectorJames VanderbiltStarsCate BlanchettRobert RedfordDennis QuaidNewsroom drama detailing the 2004 CBS "60 Minutes" report investigating then-President George W. Bush's military service, and the subsequent firestorm of criticism that cost anchor Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes their careers.THIS FILM GETS A SOLID 10 FROM ME BECAUSE OF ITS CONTENT, NOT ITS EXCELLENCE. IT HAS FOR ME BEEN A DISGRACE THAT THE PRIVILEGED HAVE PROTECTED THEIR OWN WHILE SENDING THE POOR INTO HARMS WAY, ESPECIALLY IN THE HALLS OF CONGRESS. IN MAY OF 1970, UNIFORMED AND ALL, I WAS READY TO SERVE AS A NAVAL PHYSICIAN. WINDING DOWN OF VIET NAM AND 3 CHILDREN ALLOWED ME TO BE ON CALL FOR THE NEXT 12 YEARS. I WAS SUCCESSFUL IN THAT ROLL OF THE DICE. THE ALL VOLUNTARY MILITARY NEGATED THE NEED FOR THE DRAFT. HOWEVER RATHER AND MAPES STORY, DESPITE SOME FLAWS, WAS FOR THE MOST PART TRUE. BUSH THROUGH HIS POWERS WAS ABLE TO SET HIS OWN MILITARY STANDARDS. TO ME THIS IS DISHONORABLE IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD. THIS FILM COMES OUT THIS FRIDAY, OCT 16 2015, SO I AM RUSHING TO COMPLETE MY TIFF 2015 TASK.
Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford star as 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes and anchor Dan Rather, in this gripping docudrama about the newsmagazine’s investigation into George W. Bush’s alleged draft-dodging during Vietnam. Two names that invariably spring to mind when we think of hard-hitting political television journalism are Dan Rather and 60 Minutes. Rather contributed to many stories for CBS's flagship news-magazine program, including the one that essentially ended his forty-year association with the network in 2006: an exposé on how, as a young man, George W. Bush allegedly got a cushy post with the Air National Guard to avoid deployment in Vietnam. Coming as it did late in his re-election campaign in 2004, the story had the potential to end Bush's presidency after one term. Instead, it derailed the careers of both Rather and Mary Mapes, the Peabody Award-winning producer behind the controversial story. - DirectorAndrew HaighStarsCharlotte RamplingTom CourtenayGeraldine JamesA married couple preparing to celebrate their wedding anniversary receives shattering news that promises to forever change the course of their lives.APPEALING FILM TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE MANY DECADES OF MARRIAGE. EXTREMELY WELL CONSTRUCTED AND THE UNDERPLAYED BUT CONTROLLED PERFS ARE REALLY AMAZING. I NEEDED SHARON'S INPUT TO UNDERSTAND THE SUBTLE NUANCES....TYPICAL OF THE MALE SPECIES.
It is an immensely moving and nuanced portrait of long-term love and marriage.
Retired couple Geoff (Courtenay) and Kate Mercer (Rampling) pass their days quietly on their country property near a small Norfolk village. One day Geoff receives a letter notifying him that the body of Katia, an old girlfriend of his, has been discovered, perfectly preserved in the Swiss Alps where she fell on their hiking trip nearly fifty years earlier. As the news sinks in, hidden tensions between Geoff and Kate begin to emerge. Geoff, though not insensitive to his wife's feelings, can't help but be drawn into the past while Kate becomes consumed by jealousy and uncertainty. Outwardly composed as she sets about planning the details of their upcoming forty-fifth wedding anniversary party, Kate begins to contemplate the "what ifs" of her life, a line of thought leading to the realization that maybe she's the one who made a mistake all those years ago.