Michael Dwyerat the Toronto Film Festival
PRESS conferences at major international film festivals are usually inane and a complete waste of time. Helpfully, the Toronto papers send along journalists so we can read about the conferences without suffering through them.
There were a few crumbs. Thandie Newton said Oliver Stone's W. - in which she plays Condoleeza Rice - may not be the hatchet job many expect: "We were going for a human portrait, authenticity, naturalism. So it's not as simple as to say it's a slamming or disrespectful. It's not didactic, not from what I've seen anyway."
Fast-rising Canadian actor Michael Cera, who followed Junoand Superbadwith another endearing performance in Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlistat this year's festival, said he's getting meaner in his next movie, Youth in Revolt. His character is "a little bit more despicable" and "does some pretty treacherous things," said 20-year-old Cera.
The press-conference nadir was struck when Appaloosadirector Ed Harris was joined by co-stars Viggo Mortensen, Jeremy Irons and Renée Zellweger. Asked if it was easier to get naked on screen or to shoot big guns, Irons responded: "That's a total load of rubbish."
When filming in New Mexico was mentioned, Zellweger actually was asked if she liked tacos. If you must know, she replied: "Oh, yes, the tacos were great."
Kisses makes the front page
LANCE Daly's Dublin movie Kissesmade the coveted front page of the Festival Daily distributed free at all festival venues across the city. On casting pre-teen newcomers Kelly O'Neill and Shane Curry in the lead roles, Daly explained that he had a choice between them and "other kids who were disciplined and could act, but who we didn't feel would have sold the story and the characters in the same way".
And he discovered new elements in film-making - sugar highs, looming boredom and short attention spans - on his first movie with children in the central roles. It was worth it, given the warm response Kissesreceived from audiences and critics alike at Toronto.
Irish-Canadian co-production
Versatile Canadian director Thom Fitzgerald will film Alison Dye's novel The Sense of Thingsnext summer as a co-production between Irish company Samson Films (which produced Once) and Canadian company Eagle Vision, it was announced in Toronto this week. Fitzgerald's diverse movies include The Hanging Garden, Beefcakeand 3 Needles.
Shortlisted for the Whitbread prize, Dye's tragi-comic novel follows a young woman's redemptive journey from emotional isolation to self-awareness. The adaptation is by Irish screenwriter Jackie Mills, and the script was developed with backing from the Irish Film Board and Manitoba Film and Sound.
Tuff quickies on the underground
One of the more enterprising fringe events at the Toronto Film Festival is Tuff (Toronto Urban Film Festival), a programme of one-minute movies showing on platform monitors on the city's subway network. Not that you get to see many because the underground train service here is one of the most efficient in the world. There's an alternative opportunity to view the shorts online at www.torontourbanfilmfestival.com
Disco Worms to boogie in 3-D
"Earthworms have rhythm too." So goes the tagline for one of the odder entries screening at Toronto, Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms. A Danish-German co-production, this 3D computer-animated romp is described in the festival programme as "a comic and toe-tapping tale about a young worm pursuing a dream, to entertain the insect world through the power of boogie".
Fox on the other Walk of Fame
Dubbed "Hollywood North" because it's used so often to double for US cities in movies, Toronto now has its own Walk of Fame. Among the Canadian inductees this week were James Cameron and Michael J Fox, who set up a foundation to support those who share his Parkinson's disease condition. Asked about the US elections, Fox said he did not want to sound partisan because of his foundation's activities, but admitted he has a T-shirt that reads "Barack to the future".
