First Two Days

Opening Night Feed, Friday, September 4

Conversation with Michael Haneke, Saturday, September 5

The Festival opened on Friday with a screening of the complete Red Riding trilogy, a miniseries produced for British television. I watched the first installment Red Riding: 1974. I thought it was beautifully shot and wonderful to look at, but I lost interest in the story. I didn’t see any motivation for the lead character’s behavior and on top of that the actor portraying him wasn’t very good. For some strange reason, David Thomson said that Red Riding is superior to the Godfather trilogy. I don’t see any basis for comparison at all; I would never associate the two films.

After the screening, I went to the Opening Night Feed to eat and spend time with friends. Alexander Payne was accompanied Anouk Aimee to the Feed. Aimee is one of this year’s tributes. Even though my predictions were wrong, I am very excited about the actors and filmmakers selected this year for tributes.

Following the Feed I went to the first Alexander Payne selected screening of The Day of the Outlaw, an old western by Andre de Toth starring Robert Ryan. The film print was from the Scorcese’s personal collection. It had great scenes filmed in Wyoming during the winter. Afterwards, I caught Gigante, a charming romantic comedy from Uruguay.

On Saturday morning I woke up early to watch Todd Solondz’s new film Life During Wartime, by far the best film I’ve seen at the Festival so far. (I’ve also seen Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant and Lone Sherfig’s An Education and was under whelmed by both.) Welcome to the Dollhouse is still my favorite film by Todd Solondz, but I really feel that Life During Wartime is his best film. It is the perfect balance of dark, uncomfortable humor with dramatic insight. Every scene is its own perfect vignette, it’s so incredibly well written. The cast is amazing, Charlotte Rampling has a brief cameo and it’s so good. Beck and Devendra Banhart contributed to the soundtrack. Also, the film was shot on the RED and it looks great.

After work I caught the last minutes of Michael Haneke’s conversation with Scott Foundas. My favorite comment by Haneke: “I love working with children.” Then I tried to get into Fish Tank screening but the theatre was full so I went to the Sheridan Opera House to see the Anouk Aimee tribute. The tributes are always emotional and inspiring. Aimee shared stories about working with Fellini, Jacques Demy, Claude Lelouch, Robert Altman, Sidney Lumet; the list went on and on spanning over 60 years in the film industry and working on some of the greatest films ever made. (Model Shop, the film she made with Jacques Demy in Los Angeles was just released on DVD)

Afterwards I went to another Alexander Payne screening, this one titled El Verdugo, a 1963 Spanish film by Luis Garcia Berlanga.