Heading to The Light

The Lightbox

I’m very excited to have a new theatre in the mix this year. And yet as I type that I am confronted by a new emotion – fear. As a native of the 416 I have had time to familiarize myself with the entrances, exits and most important on a five-movie day, the bathrooms of all of the other theatres that are part of TIFF.

Cumberland, I won’t miss you, your low seats, your swampy bathrooms or your (probably) urine soaked alley line up. You are the cause of many an aggravated case of festival knee and drinking time lost to bathroom lines.

I’ve thought quite a bit (nay too much) about the best approach to The Light(box). If you are heading to The Light from the north, the subway to St. Andrew is a no-brainer. The Yonge-University line is usually air conditioned, has newer material on the seats than the Bloor line and I find it a nice ride assuming everything is running well. There is always a risk of a track level incident resulting in a delay of anywhere from five minutes to much longer,  but that is a gamble you have to take when going underground.

If you are heading to The Light from the east or west you have to go King or Queen streetcar, or the ankle express. As a frequent rider of the Queen streetcar I can say that in the summer it has the potential to battle the vomit comet for overall smell and atmosphere approximating a hot sweaty death. Don’t wear white pants. Check the seat (and the floor under the seat) before you sit down. You are as likely to see an open can of Pabst Blue Ribbon at the back of the car on your way to a 9:00 AM movie as you are on your way to a 9:00 PM movie. However I have appreciated the character of this all-night route more than once on my way back from an ill-advised extra round at one of the many bars open until 4:00 AM. There aren’t really many people in a position to judge your stumbles on the Queen car after midnight.

The King car is a bit more of a hit and miss. They don’t run the extra-long accordion/articulated style car on King like they do on Queen, and size does make a difference. For a morning film you will be jammed in with people going to and from work and appointments as this is the main route to the financial district. It will always be jammed if you are heading to a movie at 9:00 AM and between 5-7:00 PM. Many people walk part way. The slowest part of the ride is naturally right in front of the The Light. You have many restaurants, theatres, Metro Hall and the Roy Thompson Hall and Metro Square within spitting distance. It will get messy, and sometimes getting off at Spadina or Peter coming from the west, or Simcoe coming from the east and walking may be faster.

Either way if you have a tight schedule between The Light and any other theatre besides Scotiabank you may have to hustle and think creatively.

Still very excited at the prospect of a brand new set of bathrooms in the mix.

363 King Street West

New pickup location for the programme books. Allegedly at the corner of King and Peter across from the Shoppers. I guess I’ll find out sometime slightly before the crack of dawn tomorrow.

363 King Street West
August 24: 7am – 7pm

Programme book pickup

I’ve got a feeling

So it’s one sleep until my first movie. My excel, google calendar and iCal schedules are all hyperlinked and good to go. I have my tickets, clean underwear, cash and my metropass.

In festivals past I have run out of or lost some or all of the above by the middle of the week, so for now I will enjoy this moment of preparedness.

One the eve of TIFF09 I have to wonder what will be the moment of the festival for me this year? I have had great memories, like seeing the opening screening of Slumdog, or watching Peter Hook spin for a song-and-a-half at the Drake, and I have just missed out on what I can only imagine would have been the singular experience of attending the Spun party at the Bovine that allegedly led to the infamous mug shot. But really, it’s about the movies, and enjoying the movies with a packed house of people who show up on time, turn off their phones an are there to sit down, shut up and watch the show.

Fest-TIFF Special Episode 1

Chilled out with Social Media Art Director Jai Johnson and gave him the down-low on my festival prep-tivities. I told him about my plan of attack, how I picked some of my movies, and Jai does a Russell Peters impersonation.

 

 Fest-TIFF Special - The Intro [21:04m]: Play Now | Download

Labour Day Holiday?

I got all of my first picks, I have my schedule in Excel already (iCal and plain text list to follow) and I’m a bit confused about what to do on Monday. Maybe a movie?

Green ones are Jane's

Best Box Ever

They drew box 48

I was in box 48.

Got my email at 10:17 EST. Got everything I wanted.

World Enough and Time

This is the full list of movies I would see if I had unlimited funds, time and could control the schedule – or managed to get my hands on one of those time-turner thingies that Hermione has in the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Bold movies are the ones I really want to see, ‘g’ next to the page number means I want to see it more than a  ‘y’ (corresponds to green or yellow post-it flags)

Masters

Antichrist – Lars von Trier, y95

Special Presentation

Up in the Air – Jason Reitman g144
Soul Kitchen – Fatih Akin y155
Cracks – Jordan Scott g118
Mr. Nobody – Jco Van Dormael  g121
The Joneses – Derrick Borte y123
Triage – Danis Tancovic  g127
The Vintner’s Luck y130
The Boys Are Back g131
Valhalla Rising – Nicolas Winding Refn g135
The Good Heart – Dagur Kari y136
Leaves of Grass – Tim Blake Nelson g138
Partir – Catherine Corsini y141
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel y144
Life During Wartime – Todd Solondz p149
The Road – John Hillcoat g154
A Single Man – Tom Ford y158
Kamui Gaiden – Yoichi Sai y159
Defendor – Peter Stebbings y160
Vengeance – Johnnie To g164
Good Hair – Jeff Stilson g166
The Waiting City – Claire McCarthy y170
My Son, My Son, What HaveYe Done – Werner Herzog y174

Discovery

Beautiful Kate – Rachel Ward y190
The Disappearance of Alice Creed – J Blakeson y192
Heliopolis – Ahmad Abdalla y201
Last Ride – Glendyn Ivin g204
My Tehran for Sale – Granaz Moussavi g205
Samson & Delilah – Warwich Thornton y207
Gama no Abura – Koji Yakusho y210
Chamesh Shaot MeParis – Leon Prodovsky g212
My Dog Tulip – Paul/Sandra Fierlinger g215

Vanguard

Bunny & the Bull – Paul King y222
Stilyagi – Valery Todorovsky y227
Fish Tank – Andrea Arnold g230
Yi Ngoi – Soi Chang g234
The White Stripes Under Great White Norther Lights – Emmett Malloy g235

Visions

Morrer como um hommem – Joao Pedro Rodrigues y247

Mavericks

An Afternoon with Chris Rock – g260

City to City

Korot – Danny Lerner y65

Contemporary World Cinema

Balibo – Robert Connolly y289
Cole – Carl Bessai y291
Same Same but Different y295
Down for Life – Alan Jacobs y299
The Time That Remains – Elia Suleiman y304
Celda 211 – Daniel Monzon y307
My Year Without Sex – Sarah Watt y315
Tanner Hall – Francesca Gregorini, Tatiana von Furstenberg y321
Bran Nue Dae 0 Rachel Perkins g323

Reel to Reel

Schmatta:Rags to Riches to Rags – Marc Levin y346
Cleanflix – Andrew James, Joshua Ligairi g362
Waking Sleeping Beauty – Don Hahn g365
Year of the Carnivore – Sook-Yin Lee g379

Midnight Madness

Jennifer’s Body – Karyn Kusama y433
Bitch Slap – Rick Jacobson g437

Front of the line

The line today started at around 6:30 AM (for an advertised 10:00 AM opening time) and at around 8:00 AM a nice festival line marshall came out to tell us the line breakdown for coupon holders vs people coming to buy a programme book. It’s easy to distiguish the older employees from the new ones as the newbies pass the line of people with incredulous looks – you can hear them thinking ‘why are they here so early – and why do they look so peaceful?’

I can only wonder at what time the  line for pick up next Thursday September 2 will start. With a posted opening time of 7:00 AM I fear it may be a 5:00 AM start time.

To paraphrase Murtaugh, I may be getting to old for this shit.

Programme Book Pick-Up

For Your Consideration

With the full list of films available you can go through and select the movies you want to see, you need to re-evaluate when it comes time to make your selections. Whether you are seeing one movie or 40 there will always be tough choices – and odds are you will occasionally end up on the wrong side of the coin toss. So go back and think about what your priorities are based on what you know. Some of the things I take into consideration are listed below.

-the actors (like realizing that Amanda Seyfried is in Jennifer’s Body, and totally changing my mind about trying to get into that movie after watching the last episode of season 1 of Veronica Mars again)

-the director (you may hear Jason Reitman and think ‘Juno backlash’ but I will always remember is the way I felt during the opening credits of Thank You For Smoking)

-the programmer (yes I will always for for Jane Schoettle over anything else when it comes to a scheduling conflict, and if I end up having a slot where it’s Jane against Jane – well there are worse problems that I could have)

-the theatre (not a factor until the schedule comes out on Tuesday, but never underestimate the appeal of the Scotiabank and it’s indoor lineups after wading through a thunderstorm to see Alatriste at the Ryerson)

-the release date (the onerous process of cross-referencing with the published release dates so that I have to consider that while I do love Amanda Seyfried, Jennifer’s Body is scheduled to be released in September)

TIFF Tent

The TIFF box box office is a lovely tent on the southwest corner of Nathan Phillips Square. Closest streetcar stop off the Queen line is York St, the physical location this year is almost exactly in the middle of the Queen and Osgoode subway stops. There is a small merch setup on the north side of the tent, but the main access point for coupon pickup and drop off will be on the Queen St side.

Not sure how I feel about them moving the box office again this year, but I would think this location will be less disruptive to street traffic than the massive lineup last year that wrapped around the Toronto Life Centre.

TIFF Tent