TIFF12 - The Final Short List

Carlos Reygadas' Post Tenebras Lux has already brought controversy
in its Cannes screenings. Someone who has seen it told me
recently that it is both deeply poetic and moving and also
terrifying. Reygadas is pushing boundaries in ways that are
about exploring meaning in a variety of contexts.
I hope so much I get to see this.

With three days to go before the games begin, I am finding myself in that place of anticipation and uncertainty: with so many excellent options, how to weed out and fix on the 30 or so I may actually hope to see? The list of 80 + films that I previewed in the posts below, had asterisks indicating those I thought would already push through to a second round but even these have had to be refined. My U of T class will also be seeing films together, and the requirements of that course had to factor into the mix as well.

Li Ruijun's Fly With the Crane has come way up my list, as I consider
the films I want most to see. The premise of a man reflecting on his
own death and trying to reconcile himself to cremation offers the
promise of depth and heart, while the presence of the children may
present humour and lightness also. Ruijun's Summer Solstice was also
memorable from years past.  

Teaching schedules have imposed their way on to the map - and as a result one of my most prized Top Seeds, The Hunt, may go down in flames to scheduling. Both public screenings are off-sale now, and the only P & I screening for the film happens exactly when I must be in class teaching! I may stand in line on the Monday night however, to try to get in Rush to a public screening. This is how it goes: all's fair in love, war and TIFF random scheduling. (And sadly, three of my most sought after films in the whole of the festival are screened at exactly the same time on the first Thursday - Anna Karenina, The Hunt and Amour -- Thus all three go down in flames for me because no secondary P&I screening is being offered, and all three are already Off Sale in the public screenings. Note to self: next year get the P & I pass with the Public tickets attached to it!)

Mary Margaret O' Hara plays a tourist in Austria to attend to a
sick friend, who takes solace in the Kunsthistorische Museum in
Vienna in Museum Hours. There she finds friendship with a guard played
by Bobby Sommer.  I have never seen the work of Jem Cohen but am
drawn to what I've now read about his unusual style. This has become
a must-see for me now.

For fuller descriptions, please see the posts below where I have described each of these films in greater detail. Here I am just listing them again, refined to the 30 odd films I will put priority on. (Again, alphabetically.)

All that You Possess
Amour (Pub screening rush)
Anna Karenina (Pub screening rush)
Beyond the Hills
Clandestine Childhood
(The) Deep
Everyday
Fill the Void
Fly With the Crane
Hannah Arendt
Hijacking

I was already strongly inclined to see Annemarie Jacir's When I Saw You
but the trailer for the film has really excited me.  

(The) Hunt (Pub Screening Rush)
The Impossible
Inch'Allah
Late Quartet
Laurence Anyways
Lore
Love is all You Need
Mekong Hotel
Midnight's Children
Museum Hours
Post Tenebras Lux
Rhino Season

Royal Affair

Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams are just two reasons why
To the Wonder is a top seed. The first and main reason is because
it is incredible that after a masterpiece like Tree of Life, Malick is
already giving us another film. These feasts usually come every six
years, not within 12 months of each other.  Can't wait.

Satellite Boy
Sirga
Still
To the Wonder
Wavelengths 1
Wavelengths 4
When I Saw You
White Elephant
Zaytoun