Nuff said!

Photo by Katarina G.

Way back in 2007 Colin introduced us to Hitoshi Matsumoto: the mad genius challenging Takeshi Kitano as reigning king of Japanese comedy. I've said many times that the Asian film fanbase at Midnight Madness is the most loyal of the various fanbases that make up our community and Matsumoto did not disappoint with his rookie offering Dainipponjin.

Matsumoto returns to Midnight Madness this year with Symbol. Here is the trailer More...

Bong Joon-ho has a new film called Mother at TIFF this year and it's one of the best I've seen at the festival thus far. More akin to Memories of Murder than The Host or Barking Dogs Never Bite, Mother tells the story of an over protective mother (the astonishgly great, Kim Hye-ja) whose adult son with a mild mental disability, Do-joon (Won Bin) is arrested for the murder of a teenaged girl. When the police coherce a confession from Do-joon without taking his mental disability into consideration and close the case, it's up to Do-joon's mother to investigate futher herself in order to find the real killer and save her son.

I could go on and on and on about how and why Bong Joon-ho is my favourite Korean filmmaker, and why you need to see Mother on the big screen, but how boring would that be? REALLY BORING!

Mother has its North American Premiere tomorrow night at the Elgin at 6, and screens twice more before the festival is done. Showtimes below.

Watch the trailer here!

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off for a triple bill of Bad Lt.: Port of Call, New Orleans, Vengeance, and [REC] 2.

Mother screening times:
Wednesday September 16 6:00PM VISA SCREENING ROOM (ELGIN)
Thursday September 17 2:00PM VARSITY 8
Saturday September 19 6:15PM ISABEL BADER THEATRE

That stupid grin. Now I know how I'd look after a lobotomy, because, as chronicled in my glassy eyes, there's NOTHING going on in there. And it only took about 30 seconds for my conversation to disintegrate into uncomfortable silence. While I could blame my buddies (you know who you are) who took the picture and winged me for the walk in-- I had also over estimated my own composure.

 Hell, I've met lots of famous people. Carried conversations. The last time I'd been this star struck, was over ten years ago, after randomly meeting Lauryn Hill, on a documentary shoot in Jamaica.  A director friend of mine told me discreetly "Hey man, stars come and go."

Those words stuck with me for years, guiding me through dozens of meetings, chance encounters with some of my idols, helping me not make a fool of myself. But all of this preparation was DOOMED with meeting Zoe Bell, outside of Ryerson theatre, after tonight’s show.

I wasn't prepared for her to be so nice and gracious. Unaffected, easy going, in no hurry at all, there she stood.

Less than a minute with Zoe and my brain turns to mush. My IQ points sapped more and more with every word exchanged. This is Xena's stunt double, The Bride's stunt double, Tarantino's muse in Death Proof! This IS the woman I know for a fact can kick everyone's ass, and routinely defy death itself.

.Just to put things into context-- I was excited - read: on the edge of my seat excited - when Colin first mentioned to me he had met her in Sitges. I was like no F*n way!

I'm thankful I was able to walk away before things got any worse-- more awkward. Perhaps a blood vessel in my ear could have exploded, spewing blood all over everyone. That would have been a bit more awkward... but I still probably wouldn't have noticed: my brain was jello.

You know, in the car ride home, my friends and I had about a dozen normal "spec" conversations with Zoe. All convo's that ended comfortably, without us looking like morons. There should have been so much to talk about! There's a wealth of material! Xena episodes, the crazy ass movie we JUST saw (see BITCHSLAP) that she stunt co-ordinated-- all of that, evaporates when she entertained having a discussion with us. If I'm going to make it in this business, I got to get some kind of training for this shit. I mean I can drop other names, but I don't want to take away from the other stars I've met who have had no effect on me....

Man those first thirty seconds, when I asked her a few questions (maybe 3ish?) were great, I felt like I was about to have a normal conversation with her.I did manage to get one piece of what I hope to be new and unique information, which I wish to send out into the world:

Her dream stunt is to be behind the wheel of a car during a high speed chase!

Catch Zoe in WHIP IT, and in BITCHSLAP (as every girl's stunt double + stunt co-ordinator)

Bitchslap screens next at TIFF:

Wednesday, Sept 16, 3:15pm- SCOTIA BANK 3

So far this year we've had fun horror. Jennifer's Body served up the carnage with big doses of humor and double helping of HOT thanks to the divine Miss Fox. The Loved Ones peppered it's scares and diabolical mayhem with a kickass soundtrack and some light humor between some of the brutal... Ummm... I dunno, prom footage... Just go see it yourself, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Don't expect too much levity from  [REC] 2. In [REC] directors Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza locked us in an apartment building with a bunch of fast moving zombies (Sorry Mr. Romero). This time SWAT shows up to clean up the mess. Personally, I love a good scare. The kind that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck and doesn't let up till Colin walks on stage to prove the folks that just got slaughtered on screen are still alive! So if [REC] 2 is anything like its predecessor that's exactly what we'll get.

I've been trolling the net in my 15 minutes between screenings and haven't found too much but there was this little gem over at shocktillyoudrop.com. Check it out and then pick up you tickets for [REC] 2 And yes the directors will be in the house for the screening!

[REC] 2 Screenings:

Tuesday September 15 11:59PM RYERSON

Thursday September 17 12:30PM SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4

Saturday September 19 6:15PM AMC 3

You survived the high school carnage and glam glam premiere of Jennifer's Body. The Ryerson is still standing after the premiere of Daybreakers. Which is pretty significant considering what happened to the last TIFF venue that screened a Spiereg brothers flick... Please observe a moment of silence for the Uptown...

Despite our haggard appearance, we are NOT a part of the Zombie walk... Most of us look like this everyday people!  Last night Australia hit one out of the park with The Loved Ones. And tonight we get Bitch Slap!

Our friends over at Movie Meltdown managed to score an interview with two of the stars (Click Here). Here are some highlights:

Erin Cummings (Hel) -

Describing the film: "An action packed in your face exploitation film that is like a train on fire..."

On working with Julia Voth & America Olivo: "we became the sisterhood of the travelling pushup bra."

Next projects: "They're already planning Bitch Slap 2 & 3"

America Olivo (Camero) -

Describing the film: "A loving homage to the exploitation films of the 60s and 70s"

On her character: "A man in a woman's body"

C'mon, you know you want to be at the world premiere tonight. Bitch Slap screens Monday September 14 at 11:59 pm at the Ryerson and Wednesday September 16 at 3:15 pm at the Scotiabank Theater 3.

As a starving student (that's not just a cliché either; I've lived through entire semesters on cafeteria coffee alone) the idea of attending an international film festival like TIFF has always seemed out of my financial grasp. It didn't help that I live in Ottawa, but in my head it was only the rich and fabulous who could afford to enjoy the festival's screenings and stars. This was one of the reasons why I was so excited to be awarded the Sid Adilman Mentorship Programme internship: here was a chance to attend the festival, all of the festival, on a student's budget (i.e.: for free. Students will enjoy absolutely anything if it's free.)

So I arrived at the festival, brimming with excitement and the awareness that I was extremely privileged to be here. I haven't lost that sense of privilege, but what I've realized since arriving in Toronto is that the festival is far more accessible than I ever imagined.

Take the festival programming at Yonge-Dundas Square as an example. Every day a silent film is being screened right there, in front of the Eaton Centre, for FREE. And every night a special event, in conjunction with a festival screening, brings to film-loving Torontonians the stars, musicians and directors behind the festival's line-up. There's been a lot of talk already this week, at various industry programme events, about how new media is influencing cinema and how audiences consume it. Well, pay attention to what's happening at Yonge-Dundas: the free line-up is making cinema 100% interactive.

I was lucky enough to be on-hand yesterday when the annual Toronto Zombie Walk lumbered into the square after terrorizing the city for an hour in search of human flesh and brains, and groggily saluted George A. Romero, the unarguable master of the zombie flick. Romero's newest film, Survival of the Dead, was screening at 11:59 PM as part of the festival's Midnight Madness programme, and his classic, Night of the Living Dead, screened for those assembled at Yonge-Dundas. Again, allow me to stress, the latter was FREE.

Before heading on-stage to greet his fans, Romero said he hoped his new film would live up to their visible enthusiasm.

On-stage, Romero spoke briefly about Night of the Living Dead (1968), about how he felt compelled to do something fun, something different from the commercials on which he built his career as a director, and the fact that he never expected it to become the cult smash that it now is.

"We were just a bunch of young people that had a commercial production company, doing commercials, industrial films, and the like, and we all wanted to make a movie and we wound up making Night of the Living Dead," he explained.

"We were sort of pissed off that the '60s hadn't really changed the world and some of that anger is in the film. But basically we were just trying to make a good old-fashioned horror film that pushed the envelope a little bit. I'm still stunned. When we first made the film I had no idea that it would be showing here tonight. It's still stunning to me. Somehow it survives. And the new film is called Survival of the Dead. There's a bit of irony there. Thank you all for being willing to keep watching this stuff!"

He was then presented with the oddest trophy I have ever seen - a silver CN Tower being overwhelmed by a bloody, severed hand - in honour of his becoming a Canadian citizen and deciding to reside in Toronto. The trophy was presented to him by Kyle Ray, Toronto city councillor, who joked that the assembled crowd looked something like a council meeting. He presented Romero with the prize in honour of his efforts to "bridge understanding between the living and the undead through the cinematic arts."

"I saw the film in '69 and it made a difference in cinematography, just made a complete shift in what people expected in film," Ray said.

The undead crowd responded in a fashion that was altogether too lively if you ask me: are zombies really supposed to whoop?

"It's a celebration of the dead," said Zombie Walk organizer Thea Munster of the gathering.

"Hey, TIFF's all about the beautiful. It's time for the ugly and the dead to rise."

And rise they did. A dripping, sticky, oozing crowd of undead Jessica Rabbits and Marios and Quentin Tarantino's The Brides, complete will ripped clothing and gaping head wounds. The care given to these costumes was incredible.

"It's awesome," said "zombie" Katie Balforth of the experience.

"It's good to do something like this for Romero. He's kind of the father of zombies so it's good to get out and dress up and show him some respect."

As a fan of the horror genre, and of a good brain-munching zombie flick, it was fairly incredible to witness hundreds of fans like me face-to-face with someone who was, for many of them, a hero. The people in the square yesterday night were real fans of cinema...the sort of people you see dressed up at the opening night of a science fiction or fantasy movie.

Their excitement was tangible. It's the same excitement, the same palpable sense of expectation, that I've felt at every single public screening that I've attended here. Forgive me for getting sentimental here, but I'm very glad to see that everyone, regardless of student status or ability to purchase a festival ticket package or not, can get a taste of that raw passion for the movies.

Last night it was as though Romero's zombies dragged their rotting, bleeding, decomposing bodies out of his film and onto the street. And I honestly believe that what I witnessed is how cinema ought to be enjoyed.

Enough of this stoic consideration of a film in a darkened theatre. Let's howl at the movie screen, jeer, laugh, cry. Not only is the programming at Yonge-Dundas free, it's completely immersive.

All photos by Michelle O. For the full list of free TIFF programming visit http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/programmes/yongedundassquare. 

With George Romero's Survival of the Dead screening tonight, all the undead want to look their best. There are several sites to help you (like here and here), but here's a few basic tips for zombies and vampires alike.

Want the ghastly pallor of death? Avoid clown white. Unless you are a vampire or zombie clown, which are admittedly the most frightening of the undead. If you aren't, try a foundation or base 2 shades lighter than your own skin.

Try other colors for shading than black. Use a red or brown eyeliner or eyeshadow to enhance pallor, sunken eyes and cheeks. Try a blue lipstick for bruising and cyanotic chic. Yellow's good for sick and ready to blow a viral load. Go easy on the theatrical grease paint.

Go Green! Yes, from EC comics to Zombie Lake to Harry Knuckles and the Treasure of the Aztec Mummy, green zombies are a classy and classic look! Use all the black and red you want. Huge black raccoon eyes emphasizing your orbits are where it's at. Consider stopping all color at the jawline and bringing raspberry or strawberry jam for spitting.

 And unless, you're looking for the Zombie Lake look, avoid water based pigments, especially tempera or watercolor paints. Stick with the theatrical oil based paints and put them over a base of facial cleanser or tiny amount of cold cream.

Paul Stanley says, “Powder it, baby!” and “Don't Touch!” no matter how itchy it gets and you shouldn't doubt Paul Stanley's cosmetic advice. Well, unless, Alice Cooper, Marilyn Manson or Rob Zombie disagree.

 Rob Zombie is ready to evaluate your look.

The Toronto Zombie Walk terrorizes TIFF on Saturday September 12 starting at 3pm in Alexandra Park and ending at 6pm at Yonge/Dundas Square with a free screening of Night of the Living Dead. (And starts up again in the Midnight Madness line).

George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead screens at TIFF on:  Saturday September 12, 11:59PM - RYERSON / Monday September 14, 12:30PM - SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2

The press just can't get enough of Colin with his fancy new beard and his winsomely unbuttoned work shirts. He's the programmer equivalent of Megan Fox (Jennifer's Body) or Xavier Samuel (The Loved Ones) and The Toronto Star is clearly smitten.

"I've been with the film festival for 23 years. I was an audience member for nine years. I know what works and what doesn't at midnight," says Geddes. "If you're a diehard film festivalgoer, there's a possibility that you've already seen three or four films. This could be your fifth film. You're tired. It's my job to wake you up."

 Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter is "succumbing to the madness":

Filmmakers love the midnight showings partly because the crowds lining up to get in are zealous moviegoers who are not afraid to show how they feel about a film. And fest organizers are eager to court their enthusiasm, even if it means deviating a bit from Toronto's reputation as a prestige fest. "We're not trying to be the six o'clock film and we don't have the chi-chi parties," said "Body" producer Dan Dubiecki, who is also in Toronto with "Up In the Air" and "Chloe." "Midnight Madness is the party. It's the party for the die-hard fans."

But best of all, The National Post has "Tales from TIFF!" a two-page comic spread with Colin in graphic form telling the story of the infamous 2006 Borat screening!

Click it! Click it! Click it!

Tomorrow at 6PM, George A Romero will be at Yonge and Dundas Square to welcome the "Special Director's Cut Edition" of the Toronto Zombie Walk, and to introduce a free screening of his original zombie classic/masterpiece, Night of the Living Dead.

More important than that though, the event is to celebrate the fact that Mr. Romero after years of living in Toronto has finally got his hands (through legal or illegal means, I can't verify) on a Canadian Citizenship card!  Isn't that crazies? (sic, and I'm sorry for that)

To commemorate the event and to welcome him to Canada officially, an award (pictured left) will be presented to Mr. Romero.  The text engraved on the base went through many drafts and many discarded suggestions.  The final inscription is below, but personally I think that my ignored (sniffles) suggestion would have looked much better below the bloody zombie hj that rests atop it.

George keep our land gory and diseased.
O Canada, we stand on guard for zombies.
- O Canada (revised)
TIFF and the Toronto Zombie Walk congratulate longtime Torontonian, George A. Romero on becoming a Canadian citizen.
Presented on September 12th, 2009.

Here's what made the award in the end.  It's okay, I guesssss.

And don't forget that the North American Premiere of GEORGE A ROMERO'S SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD is later that night at... When else? Midnight.

Sexy/funny horror flick Jennifer's Body premiered at a Midnight Madness screening last night to a sold-out crowd that had no problem with staying up late to express their enthusiasm for the film and to engage its cast and crew in a Q & A session well into the early morning.

Starring the ethereal Megan Fox, up-and-comer Amanda Seyfried (also starring in Atom Egoyan's Chloe, another official TIFF selection) and written by Juno screenwriter Diablo Cody, it's no wonder the film was generating buzz even before the festival opened.

But it's more than just star power that makes the film so tantalizing. Body is the brainchild of two real horror buffs, meaning that the film is treated not only as a loving homage to the genre, but was given an infusion of everything that two kickass femmes thought the genre was lacking.

For Karyn Kusama, the movie's director, horror films were a childhood passion.

"I look back on a lot of them fondly," she said.

"And I think that they have a lot to do with growing up and how you find a repository for all of your childhood anxieties. So it was a natural fit for me, but I was really lucky that it came in front of me."

For Cody, horror flicks were similarly worshipped, but off-limits, only adding to their sex appeal.

"I've loved horror films my entire life, but when I was a kid I was restricted from watching them, most of the time, which made that section of the video store all the more tantalizing," she said.

"So now to be able to make a horror film is very delicious; it's nice."

Jennifer's Body is certainly not lacking in sex appeal itself. But unlike other films within the genre, which tend to treat sex as the inciting incident to violence (Halloween's (1978) Michael Myers killed his sister after she engaged in sexual acts with her boyfriend and in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake (2003) it's the celibate Erin who is the only survivor), writer and director had a softer approach to budding sexuality.

"It's very easy to get away with a very negative depiction of sexuality, as though sexuality itself is the horror," Kusama explained.

"The seductions and the sexuality that Jennifer projects does have this sort of carnivorous and consuming and negative impact, but on the other hand [Seyfried's character] Needy has this positive relationship with [her boyfriend] Chip that's open and awkward but very real and connected and engaged. Instead of the cliché of the genre, that a lot of meaningless sex, whatever meaningless really means, leads to murder, this was reversing a lot of those trends."

As far as the age-old union of horror and teenagers goes, Kusama says that they're both the perfect subjects and audience of the genre.

"Teenagers are in danger," she laughed.

"I mean, despite being teenagers, it's a naturally precipitous place to be, so horror movies in my opinion just speak to the terror that young people feel and can't articulate. And I also feel the visceral pleasure of movies from childhood on involves being afraid, wanting to laugh, wanting to cry, wanting to love. So to me this movie answers a lot of those adolescent needs, and beyond, I hope."

As far as the notable reversal of male assailant/female victim to femme fatale/unassuming male victims is concerned, Cody claims that, in her mind, a female villain was a natural choice.

"I think there's nothing scarier than a bitch!" she exclaimed, explaining that she was always outside the queen bee's social circle at school.

"So for me I think the bitch should take her place in the catalogue of classic horror characters: Dracula, Frankenstein and a bitchy, attractive woman."

Both Fox and Seyfried admitted that they can't tolerate horror films. When asked why, then, they would want to terrorize young girls like horror films terrorized them as children, Fox shot back, "why not scare the hell out of boys?"

Why not indeed.

Jennifer's Body will screen tomorrow at noon at the Ryerson Theatre and on Thursday, Sept. 17 at 08:30 pm at Varsity Cinemas.

Anyway tonight is FRIDAY so you have no excuse to miss Daybreakers. And yes, Willem Dafoe will be in attendance. Mr. Dafoe is in no less than four films at TIFF (My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done, Daybreakers, L'Affaire Farewell, and Antichrist) this year and had this to say about the Spiereg brothers (directors of Daybreakers & 2003 Madness/Uptown Closer Undead) and what drew him to Daybreakers:

"...my taste at the time was to do something really different. So it was through those dialogues and them talking about what they were trying to do that they seduced me into joining them. And once I sign on, I'm there, and I really enjoyed them a lot. I admire how they work. I haven't seen the movie, but I think it'll be a fun movie." S.T. VanAirsdale -Movieline

C'mon, you know you want to be there... get to the RUSH line now!

Jennifer's Body screens again on Saturday, September 12 at 12:00 pm at the Ryerson and Thursday September 17, at 8:30 pm at the Varsity 8.

Daybreakers premieres on Friday, September 11 at 11:59 pm at the Ryerson and encores on Sunday September 1, at 12:30 pm at the Scotiabank Theatre 2.

Want the lowdown on Bitch Slap? Check out this interview with writer, producer, director Rick Jacobson:

Sanjay Rajput: SR

Rick Jacobson: RJ

SR: Bitch Slap has been described as "An Intelligent Exploitation Film" what does that mean?

RJ:        When Eric Gruendemann and I were close to finishing the script we looked at it and coined the term "Thinking Man's Exploitation Film". When you think of an exploitation film you think of a pretty straightforward storyline. You don't think of it being too complex or the characters being too complex but here we were sitting on a script that had all of this and was quoting from Joseph Conrad, Sun Tzu, and William Congreve.

            More than anything else it has a complex story structure. It has a linear A story that goes along in real time, then it has a B story, like Memento, that runs in reverse. As the A story goes along the B story goes in reverse and they meet at the end with a big reveal and fun twist. It's not just your simple hot chicks running around shaking their tits and ass... Well, it is, but  there's also a fun level of intelligence in the characters that you don't find in typical exploitation films.

More...

If you're a fan of surreal animated humor like Robot Chicken or 2005 madness selection The District! then check out A Town Called Panic. This press kit released before it screened at Cannes earlier this year has a plethora of information. Unfortunately large parts of the kit are in French so for those of you who are still afraid of all things from France because of Martyrs here are a few tidbits from an interview with directors Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar:

Animators they're compared to or influenced by: "...there are people whose creative universes really speak to us: Trey Parker and Matt Stone's South Park or Matt Groening's Futurama... the animation Terry Gilliam created for Monty Python's Flying Circus stands out for its shear fearless outrageousness..."

On what Aliens would think of human's if they watched their film: "... we think they'd assume we're slightly retarded or else absolute geniuses... [though] they'd conclude that this is the stupidest question they've ever heard."

A Town Called Panic screens Friday September 18 at 11:59 pm at the Ryerson and Saturday September 19 at 3:45 pm at the AMC 3.

Over my last 8 years at TIFF  I've seen a huge influx of mainstream movie goers slowly infiltrate the hoards of genre film freaks who regularly worship at the alter of Madness. I can't speak for the days back in the early 90s, but when I started the big ticket Madness flicks were things like Ichi the Killer or Bubba Ho-tep. Every now and then an Underworld would sneak it, but when Borat literally broke the projector (yeah, I like to reference that event in my posts!); well people started looking a lot closer:

"...Midnight Madness has grown in the past few years to become the hot spot for the biz and one of the most prominent platforms to launch an adrenaline pic." Jennie Punter Variety

 "...TIFF's Midnight Madness block of films offers the best in rock 'n' roll movies, horror films, science fiction, extreme comedy, martial arts and, when you're really lucky, combinations of two or more of the above."  James Rocchi MSN Movies

The Saw franchise, Cabin Fever, and Hostel all got kick started at the madness. Sure, you could've seen those at the multiplex, but admit it, the movie snob in us all likes to say "Nah, I'll pass I saw that one at TIFF!" Can you see Jennifer's Body or Daybreakers in a few weeks or months? Sure, but try bringing a Beach Ball in or turning to the person sitting next to you to discuss the merits of Romero, Argento, & Miike. Conversations like that are reserved for September after midnight in the Ryerson.

"...TIFF seems to be jam-packed with whacked-out horror films." CityNews.ca producer and movie buff Brian McKechnie.

Like any good virus, Midnight Madness is spreading to the rest of TIFF. Current TIFF selections like The Hole or Vengeance could've easily played the Madness. That's fine by me, I got a festival pass and 10 Midnights just isn't enough!

I  might be wrong (too lazy to fact check) but I think that Panique au village (A Town Called Panic) is the first G rated film to play Midnight Madness. No blood and guts in this one, gang, but it makes up for it by being wall-to-wall insanity. Check out the trailer below to see what sort of hilariously accented French nonsense is going to hit the screen when Cowboy, Indian, and Horse come to the Ryerson on Friday, September 18th.

Check out the trailer here!

More...

Our friends over at Homepageofthedead.com did a great interview with George A. Romero on George A. Romero's Survival Of The Dead. The full interview is here (click on Speaking of the Dead: An Interview with George A Romero.)

A few tidbits (for those who stayed up too late to read the whole thing):

George's message this time out. "It's mainly about tribalism, which I think is what is screwing the world up - tribalism, nationalism, religion -people taking sides. All of my zombie films have had a little touch of that, but this is specifically about it."

For you gorehounds out there: "It's restrained compared to Day or Dawn... It certainly has more than Diary and there's one really sort of spectacular sequence, but we're worried whether the MPAA will allow it - where they pull a guy apart..."

And a message to the fans: "Basically what I want to say is forgive me... the biggest thing that bugs me is that fans want me to do either the last movie I did or do another Dawn or do another this or do another that - and that pisses me off! That's not what I'm about! I'm gonna make a movie, look at it, if you don't like it that's fine. If you like it, then I love it. In other words don't punish me because this was not as good as Dawn. This is what I'm thinking right now..."

George A. Romero's Survival Of The Dead screens at TIFF on: Saturday September 12, 11:59PM - RYERSON  & Monday September 14, 12:30PM - SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2

It's been a while since we've seen a true sequel at Midnight Madness. Despite what some might think, Banlieu 13 wasn't a followup to Banlieus 1-12. Trust me, I checked IMDB.  But that isn't to say sequels and re-imaginings haven't always been a big part of the madness.

Check out this comprehensive site of Madness History and you'll see that sequels frequently pop up in the lineup.  And while I'm not a big fan of remakes, I'm a sucker for sequels. There's something fun about watching a familiar villain dispatching hapless teens in increasingly clever ways. So if the plot doesn't always hold together it's okay because not every sequel is following the Godfather II model. But nobody will argue that the best sequels are the ones that further a riveting narrative established by a preceding chapter. Whether you're a fan of reboots, continuations, or "more of the original with a 2 on the end" then it looks like this year's madness has something for you.

Just to make sure you aren't going in blind and in case you haven't had time to Netflix all your homework this year, here's some background based on what I remember:

More...

Hitoshi Matsumoto's second film, Symbol is one of this year's Midnight Madness selections, and promises to be one of the strangest of the program's history. Coming from the writer/director/star of 2007's Dai-Nipponjin, nobody should be surprised.  The film opens in Japan a couple days before screening at TIFF so unlike most films at the festival its marketing campaign is in full swing.  Of course, it's a weird one.

First are the two teaser trailers that have been released:

Teaser 1

Teaser 2

The poster:

Thanks to Jason Gray for the tip on the Hello Kitty promotion. More images of Kitty (is that too familiar?) in Matsumoto's pyjamas can be found linked off of his blog entry.

After doing TIFF for a few years I thought I had the whole scheduling thing figured out.  With a festival pass I almost always got 90% of my first choices through the lottery and eventually I figured out ways of increasing my odds of getting my first choices:

1)      Avoiding 1^st screenings of world premiere Special Presentations. These would always be popular so if I really wanted to see it I'd check out the 2^nd screening.

2)      Avoiding evening screenings at the Elgin. A lot of those seats went to Elgin Pass Holders and again, the remaining seats would be pretty in demand and I'd be content catching a second screening.

I never got that bent out of shape about not getting a first choice ticket... until 2006. Which was the year that Borat premiered during Midnight Madness.  While all you dedicated Midnight Maniacs were in there watching Michael Moore try to fix a projector and Colin being threatened with castration; I was back at my Hotel watching some show called "This Hour has 22 Minutes".  I'm not kiddin, seriously... Check it out

That was when I learned a  powerful lesson: With Great Power Must Come Great Responsibility. Wait... That was Spider-Man; what I meant was that I needed a Midnight Madness pass. No other pass at the festival GUARANTEES you a seat at the World Premiers of Jennifer's Body (written by Oscar winning TIFF Alum Diablo Cody's new flick) & George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead. If you already have a 10 or 30 ticket pass, go ahead and get a madness pass too. The extra cash is worth it, plus you'll be able to use your tickets on some of the other genre films playing at TIFF this year.... More about those in another post.

                Last year's Madness was all about discovery:  emerging directors and talent coming to show off their midnight skills. Plenty of screenings sold out, but if you got to the Rush line in time you got a ticket. But this year, you've got films and directors with entrenched fanbases all competing for those precious  seats in the Ryerson.  Don't be left empty handed in the Rush line while the rest of us are tossing around a beach ball waiting for the premiere of Ong-Bak 2 or [REC] 2; get your pass now!

On the Tuesday, the day before the Festival started, all the TIFF programmers who had arrived early got together for a meeting to share where we each are in our film selection process. TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey lead us through discussion as we explained the new works we have seen and what we are anticipating seeing in the market and in the various sections of Cannes. Noah Cowan also brought us up to speed on some of the developments with Bell Lightbox. More...

In the process of selecting films, many of the big decisions get made in Cannes. Not in the Cannes that you read about in the papers with the red carpets, the stars, the premieres, etc., but rather in the "Marche" or Market. Underneath the glitz and glamour in Cannes is a frenzy of film screenings for buyers and sellers of cinema, where films get shown for the first time and the bidding for various internationals rights begins. This is where I reside. Don't ask me about the new Jane Campion or Ken Loach or Pedro Almodovar unspooling in the main Festival in Cannes, cause I'm not interested at the moment. I'm on the hunt for the wild and grisly goods for Midnight Madness. More...