Film Fest 2008 Days 2 and 3

In from 2 full days, which included 6 movies....3 being the Darkest films I've ever seen, of course they were all in a row.

First was Sauna, a Finnish film set in the 1500s. A war between Russia and Sweden has just ended, and a Swedish and Russian border team are traveling the 2 nations mapping out the new borders that were drawn during the war. Of course, its a friggin HORROR film, which I should have expected but I didn't at all....two brothers make up the Swedish team. One is a murdering fiend, the other is the bookish type. Of course one goes crazy when they come across this strange town in the middle of a swamp that is unmapped. Guess which brother goes crazy and starts killing people? Its dark, and has the most terrifying ending of like all time! I HATE Horror movies but it was good nonetheless.

Second was the new Deepa Mehta film called Heaven on Earth. The film was set in Brampton, a suburb of Toronto, and was a different kind of horror film, the kind set in reality. An Indian woman is sent to marry a Indian in Canada. He lives with his mother, father, sister and her unemployed husband and their two children. The father seems like he's a nice guy, but everyone else is totally rotten. The lead's new husband is the worst sort of person who beats up his wife, in front of his niece and nephew, every chance he gets. Ya, really disgusting. Very well done, but very hard to take. A few people left, I think they couldn't take it. There was a bit of imagination thrown in to help the audience get through it, but I'm not sure it helped THAT much.

The third film was a super cool Danish film, Fear me Not. Fear me Not stars this wonderful Danish actor from this movie I loved a few years ago, Adams Apple, his name is Ulrich Thomsen. Ulrich plays this ordinary man, Mikael, who seems to be having problems with day to day life and is taking a sabbatical from work for an indeterminate amount of time. Mikael enrolls himself in a clinical trial for a depression medication being run by his brother-in-law. The depression medication begins to change Mikael for the better, he seems more cheerful and alive. When others involved in the trial start to show violent tendencies the trial is ended. Mikael, however, thinks the medication is working miracles for him so he continues to take it. He starts to act stranger, and stranger, and becomes dangerous. Of course there is a twist, which is pure brilliance, and the film ends pretty much as dark as a film can get. The acting was wonderful, the story very smart. I liked it a lot, I just wish I didn't see two super dark movies before it.

My fourth film, thankfully, was a comedy, Horn of Plenty, a comedic film of epic proportions film which I really enjoyed. The Horn of Plenty is a Cuban film about a fortune that was left for a family line that was created in 1775. A number of people in a small town in Cuba claim to be members of the family line and need to prove their lineage in order to get part of the inheritance. Of course hilarity ensues; affairs, lying, marrying for money, spending all of their inheritance before they get it, etc., etc. A really fun romp where the whole cast is in on the joke the entire film. Very enjoyable.

My fifth film; I originally had tickets to see The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke and directed by Darren Aronofsky, which I really had no desire to see. Then I get a call from Sandy who got tickets to see the Gala presentation of the Duchess starring Ralph Fiennes and Kiera Knightley, a film I was humming and hahing over, but I thought that's better then watching a film that I'm dreading, so I said, sure I'll go see it with you. We've only seen one film festival movie together since she started working for TIFF, almost 4 years ago, how could I pass up the opportunity! As I've said over the years, I don't really enjoy the pomp of the Gala's, yes I know the Visa Screening Room is pretty much the same thing, but the energy in the crowd is different, the US vs THEM seating is so obvious at Roy Thomson Hall, the speeches are wooden and less emotion filled then the Visa Screening Room (I doubt Ed Harris would have cried at a Gala). Ralph Fiennes and Kiera rushed on stage, waved, and were hurried off (though Sandy and I did seem them leave their seats and they passed us in the hallway, up close and personal.) The film itself looked beautiful, the British scenery, the costumes, the sheer magnitude of the film. Ralph was amazing and stoic and containing of his emotions (as usual). Kiera was all joy and sadness, shown through her typical acting stylings of major facial expressions. She can mimic someone about to throw up in horror better then anyone in the business. The film was grande, a bit boring, but interesting. Dominic Cooper, her lover in the film, Mr. Grey, was all passion and brilliance, but ack, it was ok, really very ok. (Dominic also passed us in the hallway and ya, he's damn hot in real life, especially so close) Your mom's will love it.

And my sixth film, phew I'm tired just writing this, The Country Wedding, an Icelandic comedy. And by comedy I mean, complete, utter, crazy, hysterical, farcical, comedy. It was a completely improvised film about 2 families trying to find a red roofed church in a country location in Iceland as they travel in 2 buses, one bus is filled with the bride, her friends and family, the other with the groom, his friends and family. Can you imagine the hilarity that ensues? No, I don't think you can, its a must see, even though its filmed with a very shaky camera, and at times it makes no sense, and there are fights and yelling. It is so outlandish and the audience roared with laughter, just great fun, a good end after so much darkness.