The lineup for TIFF keeps growing as September grows closer and this morning the festival revealed their slate of homegrown films that will jostle for attention next month.
Leading the pack are new films from three of the biggest Canuck directors working today, with Guy Maddin, Bruce McDonald and Jean-Marc Vallée all arriving in Toronto with new projects to show off. So let’s get to it. The visually audacious Maddin will bring “Keyhole” which is already on our must-see list based on a few early stills (with a few more arriving today which you can see above and at the end of this post). Starring Isabella Rossellini (in yet another collabroation with Maddin; she also starred in “Brand Upon The Brain” and “The Saddest Music In The World”), Jason Patric, Udo Kier and “Kids In The Hall” member Kevin McDonald this is a picture that Maddin previously described as “a crime film about a family of gangsters holed up in a big house, but there’s been a fissure along gender lines and everyone trembles in fear and loathing within a house divided. In the backstory, [Rossellini would] be the adoptive mother of an Amazon warrior.” Uh, awesome. The TIFF synopsis says it’s “a rousing gangsters-meet-ghosts sonata in which dream and waking life are deliriously blended to arouse the eerie lusts and sadness that can slumber in an old home – in every home.” Either way, this should be a big ticket.
Meanwhile, McDonald returns to rock ‘n roll once again with “Hardcore Logo II” a sequel to his cult classic which actually already premiered at the Whistler Film Festival last year. It seems to be a docu-drama of sorts as the picture stars the director himself with the premise that the deceased Joe Dick — played by Hugh Dillon in the original film — has possessed the spirit of a young girl, Care Failure, from the Toronto sleaze-rock band Die Mannequin. As that spirit takes over, McDonald, who has been following the band as they record their next album, must save Care from the same fate as Joe Dick. Check out some pics below.
Jean-Marc Vallée will continue his fall festival jaunt, arriving in Toronto following his Venice appearance, with his new effort “Café de Flore.” The director of “C.R.A.Z.Y.” and “The Young Victoria” is no less ambitious this time around as his film will follow two parallel stories; one of a mother and her child, who is afflicted with Down syndrome, set in the 1960s; and one set in the present day about a contemporary couple. TIFF says it’s “an epic love story between a man and woman. And between a mother and her son. Two people from two different eras who live two extraordinary moments of passion that shake their lives. A mystical and supernatural odyssey on love.” Vallée is certainly no stranger to grand sweeping tales, so this should be one to watch. Vanessa Paradis stars, image below.
Other highlights: as expected, the Jay Baruchel/Seann William Scott hockey comedy “Goon” will premiere; also debuting will be the embarrassing-looking ethnic comedy clash “Breakaway” starring Russell Peters, Camilla Belle and Rob Lowe (trailer below); and current massive Quebec comedy hit “Starbuck” will make its “North American Premiere” (not really) in Toronto with the film drawing comparisons to the work of Judd Apatow. You can check out that trailer below as well.
Full lineup at TIFF.
