by MATTHEW HAYS

The New Film Festival definitely benefits in terms of its placement on the calendar. Though it doesn’t offer the sheer volume of films that the World Film Festival does, it offers up a much, much higher quality of films. It plays much like a best of Toronto event, what with virtually all of the heavy hitting films following on the heels of their North American premieres in Hogtown.

For anyone who’s really serious about movies, I would suggest you buy tickets in bulk, because this year the programming is simply astonishing. There are so many great films playing, I barely know where to begin. Take Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore’s astonishing dissection of American gun culture specifically and violence in general. Or Todd Haynes’ ode to Douglas Sirk, Far From Heaven, a Technicolor dream that stars Julianne Moore and Dennis Quaid (this guy can actually act). Compiled as well here are what I consider some of the utterly, essentially unmissable fare.

WAR AND MEMORY

Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman returns with his droll-while-despairing Divine Intervention. The filmmaker (who also stars in the film) points up the utter absurdity of the Israeli occupation of the territories in a series of vignettes that are illuminating and funny. Especially funny is a gag about panicked Israeli soldiers responding to a balloon with a sketch of Yassir Arafat’s face on it.

Finnish entry The Man Without a Past is a film that manages to be both extremely witty and very touching, while never resorting to cloying sentimentality. The film, from director Aki Kaurismaki, recounts the story of a man who is killed by thugs early on. Then, miraculously, he starts his life anew, not clear on who he is or what his past was. An entirely unpredictable film.

As well, there are two films I haven’t seen but which have attained rather high levels of buzz: The Pianist, Roman Polanski’s Cannes-award-winning film about the Holocaust, and 11’09”01, the highly controversial anthology film in which a broad range of international directors—including Sean Penn, Ken Loach, Mira Nair and Claude Lelouch—made shorts inspired by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. The latter film played to decidedly mixed reviews in Toronto.

FITTING TRIBUTES

Aside from individual winning titles, there are thoughtful tributes being paid to various filmmakers and video artists. Gena Rowlands will attend to discuss her collaborations with her late husband, legendary American maverick director John Cassavetes. Rowlands is widely regarded as the first lady of American independent cinema, having worked on landmark films like A Woman Under the Influence, Opening Night and Gloria. Rowlands will christen the screening room at Ex-Centris which is named after Cassavetes, as well as speaking about her filmmaking experiences.

Canuck experimental legend Michael Snow will also be fêted with an impressive retrospective, including everything from Wavelength (1967) to So Is This (1982) to Prélude (2000). Several of Snow’s installations will be exhibited as part of the tribute. Local video artist extraordinaire Nelson Henricks will be receiving an award, and honoured with screenings of a number of his works, including Conspiracy of Lies, Window, Crush and Legend. Though the temptation is always lurking to go and see the high-profile stuff, keep in mind that many of the feature-length films will be opening in cinemas in coming weeks and months anyway. These retrospectives and tributes represent the really rare opportunities that festivals offer.

A number of short films will also be presented. A standout is La Dernière voix (The City Without Windows), written and directed by Montreal bad boys Julien Fonfrède and Karim Hussain. Narrated by Pascale Montpetit, this is a surreal fable that is full of astonishing imagery and novel ideas, taking a solid chunk of inspiration from Russian master Tarkovsky. :

The New Film Festival screens
from Thursday, Oct. 10 until Oct. 20
Fest info: 847-1242 or www.fcmm.com

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