TIFF 2009 Films Showcase Drama, Great Stories
A Prophet, Bright Star Among Notable Toronto Fest Movies
Sep 14, 2009
Put it this way, as hundreds of films are screened by thousands of people at film festivals, trends and themes inevitably emerge. Happily, with films like Bright Star, the love story of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, and Rabia, a strange and grizzly story of latin American immigrants in Spain, there seems to be a shift towards small, well-told stories at TIFF 2009. And without a joker-savant like Cohen (Cohen opened Borat at TIFF 2007) or a crazy comeback like Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler, TIFF 2008) to eat up all the oxygen, there is more room for other films to breathe.
Jacques Audiard's A Prophet Dazzles at TIFF as at Cannes
Having won the Grand Prix at Cannes 2009, director Jacques Audiard's A Prophet is hardly a small film. But it does take an unknown young actor - Tahar Rahim - and cast him in the film's central role as an illiterate nobody rising through the underworld ranks in a French prison. Rahim carries the full weight of the brutal, two hour plus prison drama on his shoulders with stunning results. The masterful film is about power, servitude, survival and loyalty and is as gripping a story of organized crime as anything Martin Scorcese or Francis Ford Coppolla ever told.
The Vintner's Luck by Whale Rider director Niki Caro is a much stranger and fantastic story. Set in 19th century in France, it tells the story of a peasant wine-maker striving to make the perfect wine. He does so with the help of an angel. Note... not all angels come from heaven. Far from perfect, and at times downright nutty, the film is still notable in its bold efforts to tell a story that is part boy-to man coming of age drama, part foodie film, part sexytime and and part period drama. All that and what may be the first man versus angel full-contact wrestling scene (or was it a love scene?) ever contained in a period drama. It's got one helluva story, even if it is a little boozy in its execution.
What these and many other 2009 TIFF films - great or small - have in common is the story of the underdog rising up. Not surprising, perhaps, given that it's going down in the same year that history's first African American president sits in power in the White House.
TIFF Premieres Slumdog Millionaire in 2008
To tell small, strange, wonderful stories is also to follow, perhaps, the remarkable heels of Slumdog Millionaire. The film opened at TIFF 2008 to great fanfare, much more than director Danny Boyle said he ever dreamed of. Remember, over 400 films are screened over 10 days at this festival. It's not unusual for brilliant efforts to fly completely under the radar. Slumdog, famously went on to win an astounding 8 Oscars, including Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director.
More small gems to come? Looks like it.
Jai Ho.
