Field Reports: Toronto Film Festival #4 (Filipi)

Unspoken

First, what the heck happened in the ‘Shoe yesterday? Sheesh.

I saw four films yesterday, two by directors who have visited the Wexner, one by a director whose work we've shown somewhat recently, and one starring a French national treasure (in my opinion).

Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy is in the same key as her recent acclaimed film Old Joy and stars Michelle Williams from Brokeback Mountain and Kelly's dog Lucy. The director who brought us The Long Day Closes and The House of Mirth, Terence Davies, now gives us Of Time and the City, his elegiac ode to his hometown of Liverpool. Chris reminded me that someone in a recent issue of Sight & Sound said it would make a great double-feature with Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg and they're right.

Our Daily Bread director Nikolaus Geyrhalter's 7915 KM is a documentary on the path of the famous Dakar Rally off-road race that spans the titular distance across Africa. The filmmaker interviews individuals who live in towns and villages passed by the race but as the film progresses the subjects refer to the race less and less and the film finally becomes a statement on post-colonial Africa, the world economy, and the dire choices often faced by the people who live there.

I was looking forward to Fien Troch's new film Unspoken as her Someone Else's Happiness was one of my favorites at the Karlovy Vary festival two years ago. It is a serviceable drama about a couple struggling to cope with themselves and each other four years after the disappearance of their young daughter. The plot is immaterial as the film stars Emmanuelle Devos of Kings and Queen and also this festival's A Christmas Tale. Emmanuelle Devos crying is a movie. Emmanuelle Devos laughing is a movie. There is no other actress like her on the planet.

Looking back at the schedule each day one can imagine a completely different day and even festival depending on one's choice of films. By seeing Wendy and Lucy I missed the Dardenne brothers' new film. By seeing Of Time and the City I missed Michael Winterbottom's new film. Such abundance can be frustrating. C'est la vie de festival (or something like that).

- Dave Filipi, Curator, Film/Video