With the final film list for the 2009 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival now less than a week away, I thought I would relieve my anxiety over the line-up by publicly posting some notable absences that could, and should, be announced next Thursday. There are 199 films that have been announced so far (rated and ranked here), a number that is only 50 short of last year’s 249 final tally. So without further ado, here are 25 titles that I hope are included in those remaining 50-ish titles:
36 Views of Pic Saint-Loup (Rivette) – Likely to be one of the last films by the master, the general unavailability of his work on Region 1 DVD, to virtually non-existent theatrical runs, to the overall quality of everything I have seen by him (save for Paris nous appartient) make this my holy grail for the festival this year. Venice got it, so did New York, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was left out. If that is the case, here’s hoping that its uncharacteristically short running time and impending stellar reviews will aid a significant theatrical run.
Raging Sun, Raging Sky (Hernandez) – I ended up falling onto the wrong side of the fence for Hernandez’s Broken Sky, what I thought to be an overlong and pretentious film about a trite relationship scenario. But there is something that I keep coming back to with Hernandez that fascinates me and makes me want to learn more about his work, and what better than a(nother) wordless, three-hour look at homosexual relationships? Armond White loved it (as well as Broken Sky), but so does Variety, so who knows.
Ne Change Rien (Costa) – I was only slightly bummed to learn that Pedro Costa’s new film premiering in Cannes last May was a documentary about a singer. Then I saw Where Lies Your Hidden Smile? Costa is one of the greats in filmmaking right now, and I can’t wait to see what he does with the documentary format this time (though most of his films are arguably documentaries, in some respects, anyway).
Dogtooth (Lanthimos) – I know nothing about this Cannes winner other than the fact that it was one of the true surprises of the Croisette this year, and that it’s ‘fucked up.’ I’m told that I should keep it that way, so I will, hopefully only until September…
Socialisme (Godard) – I don’t even know if this is finished yet, but if it is, why not show it (another likely final film for a New Wave master) in North America’s biggest festival?
Canary (Adams) – This film, which has something to do with ‘organ harvesting,’ has had somewhat of a cult explosion on Twitter after premiering last Spring, and recently screening in New York. Apparently illiciting droves of walkouts at every screening the film has had, it has started endless tweet debates and round-table discussions at TheAuteurs. I don’t know if it is eligible for the festival because of having screened so much in North America already, but maybe it is.
White Material (Denis) – Claire Denis makes a film with Isabelle Huppert. All I know, and need to know, about White Material.
Kinatay (Mendoza) – Serbis was an interesting, flawed film, and this sounds like it will be the same. The ‘interesting,’ over time, has outweighed the ‘flawed’ for me, and any film that can be called “worst film to ever screen at Cannes” by Roger Ebert (his reputation for bestowing this praise is cause for optimism) and then pick up the Best Director award is ok by me.
Katalin Varga (Strickland) – If it weren’t for Porumboiu apparently making another masterpiece, I had anticipated this would be the year’s Romanian darling (though Strickland is British, so maybe it wouldn’t have counted anyway). I think this was the best reviewed film out of Berlin this year, and I’ve been dying to see it since word came out there.
Unmade Beds (Dos Santos) – From the filmmaker behind Glue, as strong as any other film about adolescent discontent. This is said to be just as strong a film, and it will be interesting to see what Dos Santos does outside of Argentina.
15 More:
Everyone Else (Ade)
Land of Madness (Moullet)
Castro (Moguillansky)
Manila (Martin)
Oxhide II (Liu)
No One Knows About Persian Cats (Ghobadi)
Bluebeard (Breillat)
77 Doronship (Aguero)
Persecution (Chereau)
The Tree (Serrano)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Ramsay)
Bellamy (Chabrol)
The Winter Queen (Verhoeven)
The Milk of Sorrow (Llosa)
Father Of My Children (Hansen-Love)
How many more rounds of titles are they going to announce, do you know?
the full film list is being posted online on Thursday the 20th. They usually do their announcements on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so there might be one more this Tuesday, the 18th, but I think that will be the only one before the full thing on the 20th.