I think I am with the majority of the audience in attendance at JCVD last night in saying that I was shocked. Not in your normal Midnight Madness sense, of course, where you may be shocked at the sheer amount of corn syrup being sprayed around or the number of fingers severed from someone's hand before you have to look away, but by an actual emotional performance. An emotional  performance by Jean-Claude Van Damme, no less.

What we saw last night was probably one of the most honest performances we're likely to see at this Festival. Van Damme leaves every bit of himself onscreen. His entire life - every problem, every breakdown. You are privy to his confessional, and it all feels very surreal. Director   Mabrouk El Mechri described Van Damme's input into the film as having "his own music". Almost poetic, huh?

See, JCVD isn't a documentary and it isn't fiction. It's somewhere in between. People are comparing it to Being John Malkovitch, but I think it's much closer to Charlie Kaufman's Adaptation than anything else. Here, Van Damme plays - and is very aware of ? himself. He is placed in a highly surreal (and fictional) situation that hinges on his own celebrity. During all of this, we are privy to Van Damme's scenes that depict his innermost thoughts on his real life ? drug abuse, his custody battle, and the culture of celebrity and the way it can build you up only to tear you down.

Now on the surface, the oh-so-hard world of being a celebrity isn't exactly treading new ground - what with the Britneys, Lindsays, and Sarah Palins of the world harping on it at every opportunity. But unlike these (especially the latter), Van Damme is a sympathetic character. Easily the most striking moment of the film comes when these thoughts are communicated directly to the camera in a powerful soliloquy. This speech rocked me to my foundations. and I can already tell that it will earn a place in my top Midnight Madness moments of all time.  Who knew that the star of Lionheart and The Quest could actually ACT? Is it because it is easier to emote in one's native tongue? Is it genuine catharsis?  Seeing the man who jumpkicked Chong Li square in the face in Bloodsport reduced to tears is, in a way, like watching your father cry. This person that you thought to be invincible shows a vulnerability that makes you question your own strength.

What doubles the impact (pun COMPLETELY intended) of this and his other scenes is the fact that many of Van Damme's lines (including the soliloquy),  according to El Mechri, are ad-libbed. This is Van Damme speaking from the heart, as though he has been waiting for years to get these thoughts out (kinda hard to do in Universal Soldier 12). It was made very clear during the Q&A that Van Damme is completely genuine here, and the El Mechri allows him to go where he wants to. This is the mark of a great director. To allow one's actors to hear, and play, their own music.

photos by Ian Goring

Training scheme #1: practice sitting around for weeks before the festival. For the weeks leading up to the festival I just sat around watching movies as much as I could until 2 am then would get up and go to work. I also did my best to live on pizza, hot dogs, and popcorn. As much fun as this ?training? was, it was a disaster. I did manage to survive the festival with limited nodding off during  not-so-stellar films? But I also put on 12 pounds and by the end of the fest I had one of the worst colds of my life.

Training scheme #2: train like you?re Christian Bale prepping for The Machinist. Okay, you don?t have to starve yourself but this is a pretty rigorous regime. Run about 3-4 miles a day 6 days a week. That?s 4.8 kilometers or 24 furlongs for those of you in the UK who never adopted the pesky metric system. Plus you have eat like a rabbit and get plenty of rest. I try to do this for the 6 months before the fest and have found it works really well. The only problem is I HATE exercise and LOVE junk food. C?mon, who doesn?t? Which leads me to:

            Training scheme #3, my chemical romance! This year, in honor of the original Univeral Soldier: JCVD,  I?m gonna rely entirely on the miracles of science to keep me fed and awake. I?ve been popping pills like Jason Schwartzman in Spun... Vitamin C and Zinc people, get your sleep deprived minds out of the meth lab! Plus I?ve got about 20 bottles of 6 hour energy and enough power bars to feed a small independent film crew for weeks. Of course if anyone has any better ideas I?m open to suggestions. I *REALLY* hate jogging!

For the past couple days, we've been asking for your photos and videos from your own Midnight Madness experiences.

We've received some good stuff, but so far only one that's made us stand up and say 'This needs to be seen by as many people as possible'.

This comes courtesy of our friend Sue Maynard.  She informs us that both zombies were nothing but courteous, escorting her not only to the bus stop, but onto the bus and walking her the whole way home.  Tragically, upon arrival at her residence, they burst through her bedroom wall and fed on her sweet, sweet brains.

We'll miss you, Sue.  Life can be cruel sometimes.

Please keep sending in pictures and we'll get them up and treat them with the utmost respect, for the sake of your grieving families.

Jessica Yu's first narrative feature Ping Pong Playa' showed today at the Varsity theatre.  The film depicts the story a young Chinese-American man, "C-dub" as he is known to his friends, who has yet to find a path in life.  He is eventually asked to represent his family at a major ping pong tournament because his brother, the present champion, is injured. The time comes for C-dub to grow up and take control.  The film is funny, moving and an honest portrayal of a young man looking for direction while growing up in a Chinese family.

The screenplay was written by Jessica Yu and Jimmy Tsai (shown here with film producers), who plays C-dub in the film.  This is Tsai's first acting job; as Yu shared with the audience after the screening, Tsai is an accountant.  Never did he dream that he'd be playing the lead role in his first screenplay.  Yu is well known for her documentary background.  In this first feature, she continues to make her audience laugh at all the right places.  Yu mentioned that making the transition from documentary to narrative film was not too difficult.  She enjoyed the collaborative process, which is slightly different from documentary.

You can still see this film and share a few laughs. It screens again on Tuesday, Sept 11th and Saturday, Sept 15th.