September 7, 2006

TIFF, 9/7.

TIFF 06 "Launched in 1976 as the 'festival of festivals,' the Toronto International Film Festival has grown into the greatest film event in North America, rivaled only by Cannes as a leading showcase, market, and discovery zone for international cinema." Eugene Hernandez issues his first dispatch, revving up indieWIRE's special coverage in earnest. The fest of fests opens tonight with Zacharias Kunuk and Norman Cohn's The Journals of Knud Rasmussen and runs through September 16.

Also: "Every day through the end of the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, indieWIRE will be publishing interviews with filmmakers in the Discovery section of the festival, which TIFF describes as 'provocative feature films by new and emerging directors.'" The first interviewee is Thicker Than Water director Árni Ólafur Ásgeirsson.

J Robert Parks previews his track through the festival.

Updated.

Girish does his considerable bit to rouse interest in Pedro Costa, whose Colossal Youth will be screening next week.

As Movie City News launches its special coverage, Leonard Klady examines a certain Toronto anxiety.

Cinematical's James Rocchi is looking forward to the next week-n-a-half as well.

In the New York Times, Sharon Waxman previews Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, screening at the fest at midnight tonight. "[I]n a world in which resurgent anti-Semitism has become - sometimes literally - an explosive topic, the movie may well hit a particular nerve, especially in Europe." Yes, she really wrote, "in a world."

Robbie Freeling at Reverse Shot: "I won't deny that Babel represents an improvement on Amores perros, but that doesn’t necessarily make it worth 142 minutes of your time."

"Meanwhile, in the parallel festival that buyers and sellers inhabit, distributors are eyeing the menu just as hungrily, looking for a few choice dishes." Gregg Goldstein in the Hollywood Reporter.

Update: Anne Thompson: "On the eve of the Toronto International Film Festival, here's the Q & A I did in Cannes with Alejandro González Iñárritu.



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Posted by dwhudson at September 7, 2006 9:53 AM

Comments

It's funny, too, that Sharon Waxman said "literally" because I fear she's taken the character Borat, played by a *Jewish* actor, a bit too literally. He speaks in malapropisms and is clearly misguided in many ways. I understand Waxman's sensitivity on the matter, being Jewish myself, but me thinks thou doth fret too much. In short, lighten up!

This is the same character who, in the film, embarks on a cross country trek to marry Pamela Sue Anderson. In character as Borat, Cohen told Premiere Magazine: "She have legs that is more wide at top than at bottom and lovely white teeths that are grow only on the inside of her mouth. Also she obvious have much milk in her tit for feed her children and husband."

I think I'll choose to laugh at this film rather than take it the wrong way.

Posted by: Craig P at September 8, 2006 11:05 AM