TIFF ended on Monday night.
A little extreme? Perhaps.
But from a media and buying perspective, when the sun came up on Tuesday, all that was left at the festival was odds and ends. Some of those odds and ends are pretty great, whether it
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
Frontloading is fine by me. By ghosttown you mean clearing the air of all the junket whores, studio bores and foreign press in the first few days so the rest of us can go about our business?
Anyone who buys in that insane overblown hype bubble has a 75% chance of being burnt for the early price that pay. TIFF should always front load. Who can spend 10 days doing business that should take 4? Miss films? So does everyone. Get em when the heat is off and for a better price. Need to see them with an audience? Why then do most buys come from P&I or before public screenings?
So TIFF resumes being a festival, something it was a long time before it wanted to become Cannes 2. Thats a good thing I think. Festivals basically survive on public admissions, so as long as those numbers are steady then things are fine at TIFF.
Toronto has yet again proven to be a big wash on the coverage front. At least at Cannes we get first reactions to films that proved exciting and invigorating. This year at TIFF we got belated thoughts of movies that we’ve been hearing about for months. And, of course, the major publications only went to see the movies that will be receiving major releases over the next few months and not the small festival movies that needed them.
Kamel: Actually, no. Variety is a major publication, and our team saw lots of movies that need attention. Speaking just for me, I’ve already seen and reviewed How to Fold a Flag and Get Low.
Speaking as just a regular fan of movies who goes to Sundance for the second weekend so the crowds are less, I think spreading out the film debuts would be great. I can see how business types might not like it but I wonder if business is ultimately hurt by catering solely to biz at the expense of dedicated movie lovers who provide word of mouth and are opinion leaders among their friends when it comes to film.
Then again, I have never been to TIFF so maybe it is a business festival and not a festival for movie lovers.
Joe, I had indeed forgotten about Get Low. The only film from TIFF so far that might actually have a presence solely because of this particular festival.
But, then again, I wasn’t really including Variety in my comment. I routinely find Variety reviewing lots of films that haven’t a hope in hell of being distributed.
Has there been any official reviews on Gloria 39? It has a great cast (Bill Nighy, Julie Christie, Romola Garai) and was screened this week, but i havent seen any official word on the film.