A lot of the films Will picked, I picked as well, so here’s a selection of the others that I am quite excited about. These lists should provide a good starting point, but be sure to read the full TIFF 2010 schedule.
Strange Case of Angelica
Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/Spain/France/Brazil
A photographer falls in the love with the dead body of a young girl he is hired to photograph. Apparently she becomes animated when he sees her through his camera lens. A mediation on death and photography? That’s all I need to know about this film.
More info here.
See the rest of Shelagh’s TIFF 2010 Picks after the jump.
Vanishing on 7th Street
Brad Anderson, USA
Brad Anderson is one of the best directors working in the US today, with such strange and visceral thrillers as The Machinist and Transsiberian. The trailer for this new film make it look a bit too Hollywood cliché (and it doesn’t help to have Hayden Christensen as the star), but I have hopes that with Anderson at the helm there is more to this than meets the eye.
See the trailer here.
More info here.
Balada Triste
Alex de la Iglesia, Spain/France
Alex de la Iglesia is one of Spain’s foremost genre directors. His early work ushered in the great era of Spanish horror/fantastic film (which I will shortly be studying for my PhD.) His latest offering is a parody of the Spanish Civil War. There is a clown with a machine gun. Sold.
More info here.
Never Let Me Go
Mark Romanek, United Kingdom
Based on the brilliant Kazuo Ishiguro novel of the same name, you can’t reveal too much without giving away the secret of the story. This secret is slowly, subtly and brilliantly revealed in the book through first-person narrative, a feat I have my doubts can be repeated on screen. But, with Carey Mulligan in the lead, there is a chance.
See the trailer here.
More info here.
The Sleeping Beauty
Catherine Breillat, France
No one quite knows how to examine female sexuality like Catherine Breillat, and with such brazen intimacy and lack of fear as well, from Un Vraille Jeune Fille to A Ma Soeur. Her take on the famous fairy tale looks to be just as raw and controversial.
More info here.
Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow
Sophie Fiennes, United Kingdom/France/Netherlands
The documentary section of TIFF has improved tremendously since they hired Thom Powers as programmer. Director Sophie Fiennes (yes, same family) brought us a strange and endearing portrait of film scholar Slavoj Žižek in Perverts Guide to Cinema. Now she’s bringing this same attention to French artist Anselm Kiefer.
See the trailer here.
More info here.
The Housemaid
Im Sang-Soo, South Korea
Korean director Im Sang-Soo is probably not as well known as he should be outside of his native country. That might change with this film, a soap-opera-style tale of love, betrayal and cleaning. Jeon Do-youn won best actress award at Cannes for her portrayal of the “innocent” maid. With gorgeous art direction, the film looks to have some good high drama and an amazing score.
See the trailer here.
More info here.
Biutiful
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Spain/Mexico
Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (Babel, Amores Perros) returns with what appears to be a fairly straightforward story with a relatively small cast in comparison with the great orchestrations of his previous work. I’ve always found his attempt to make stories just a bit too coincidental and as tragic as possible a bit annoying, but with Javier Bardem and Barcelona starring, I’m willing to give this one a shot.
See the trailer here.
More info here.
Monsters
Gareth Edwards, United Kingdom
This is director Gareth Edwards’ first feature film, and it seems to be following in the footsteps of films such as District 9, which look at what happens long after alien invasion, zombie apocalypse, etc. This one follows the story of a photojournalist who is attempting to get a young girl out of an alien infection zone in Mexico.
See the trailer here.
More info here.
Kaboom
Gregg Araki, USA
After a swirl of controversy over this film’s last-minute pull from the Film4 Frightfest line-up, (it was alleged by one of the directors of the festival that director Gregg Araki (Splendor, Mysterious Skin) stated he didn’t want the film to be seen by “a bunch of geeks”, a statement Araki emphatically denied saying and which was retracted by the Frightfest staff), Toronto audiences can see Araki return to his roots of strange genre bending and campiness with this new film about demons, cults, and armageddon. Araki has a unique talent for cutting al his work with a terrifying and raw emotional knife.
See the NSFW trailer here.
More info here.
