During the Toronto International Film Festival you’ll see stars sipping lattes at the Starbucks in Yorkville and dolled-up on the red carpet at Roy Thompson Hall, but my favourite way to see them is up on the big screen. Celebrity gazing is a pleasant enough festival diversion, but the star attraction is the films.
Over the last 35 years the festival has run over 10,000 movies through their projectors. Obviously not all have gone on to win awards and break office records, but the festival has a surprisingly good track record at picking and showcasing hits. Chariots of Fire, The Big Chill and The Princess Bride all took home the fest’s People’s Choice Award and recent Oscar winners from TIFF include four award winner No Country for Old Men and Capote, which earned a Best Actor Oscar for its star Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
This year as the Oscar buzz is already building for TIFF treats Black Swan (director Darren Aronofsky’s follow-up to The Wrestler), Paul Giamatti’s performance in Barney’s Version and the Bruce Springsteen documentary The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, I thought I’d look back at movies that used Toronto as a springboard for later success.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Although not technically a TIFF premiere — it was first shown at the Telluride Film Festival — director Danny Boyle credits the Toronto festival audience’s reaction to the film with saving it from a terrible fate — going direct to DVD.
RAY
Before Ray premiered at the 2004 TIFF Jamie Foxx was best known as a comedian whose credits included dressing in drag as the ugliest woman in the world, Wanda Wayne, on In Living Color who occasionally dabbled in serious films like Oliver Stone’s Any Given Sunday. After TIFF he was a serious actor, on the path to winning a Best Actor Academy Award.
ROGER & ME
At the start of the festival 21 years ago Michael Moore was an unknown documentary filmmaker hawking a self-financed film about the economic impact GM CEO Roger Smith’s decision to close down several auto plants in Flint, Mich. By the festival’s end Moore was a media celebrity with a People’s Choice Award and a film that would go on to win ten other major awards — although no Oscar. Moore would have to wait until Bowling for Columbine — which also played at TIFF — won the 2003 statue for Best Documentary.
There are many types of movies about people who deal in death to make a living. There’s the cold blooded killer story, the revenge drama and even comedic takes on killing for fun and profit. Assassins can be men, women, children and even robots.
In this week’s The American George Clooney plays another kind of murder engineer, the troubled, introspective assassin. There are as many kinds of cinematic killers as there are kinds of weapons for them to use.
Here’s a look back at the philosophies of some of the screen’s most memorable death merchants.
Charles Bronson, as the skilled slayer in The Mechanic (soon to be remade with Jason Statham and Ben Foster), teaches his young protégé, played by Jan-Michael Vincent, some basic hitman lessons. “Murder is only killing without a license,” he says, adding that when you shoot someone do it right. “You always have to be dead sure. Dead sure or dead.”
That’s key killer advice, but slow down, there is a progression to becoming a hitman. In The Professional Leon (Jean Reno) details the system. “The rifle is the first weapon you learn how to use,” he says, “because it lets you keep your distance from the client. The closer you get to being a pro, the closer you can get to the client. The knife, for example, is the last thing you learn.”
Along the way movie assassins also learn that relationships are verboten. Remember what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Smith (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie)? “Your aim’s as bad as your cooking sweetheart,” taunts John to Jane, “and that’s saying something!”
Day of the Jackal’s would-be Charles de Gaulle assassin (Edward Fox) adds, “In this work you simply can’t afford to be emotional,” although sometimes feelings inevitably get in the way. Just ask Prizzi’s Honor’s Charley Partanna (Jack Nicholson) who memorably said, “Do I ice her? Do I marry her?”
Once they’ve learned the ropes, one question remains: Why do movie assassins kill?
Max Von Sydow plays one of the great movie killers in Three Days of the Condor, Sydney Lumet’s classic story of conspiracies and murder. His reasoning for doing what he does is chillingly simple. “The fact is, what I do is not a bad occupation,” he says. “Someone is always willing to pay.” The Matador’s Julian Noble (Pierce Brosnan) agrees, “My business is my pleasure,” he said.
He is an Oscar nominee, a multiple Independent Spirit Award winner and the star of more than 40 movies.
He can leapfrog comfortably from comedy to drama — in this weekend’s Takers he plays a cop hot on the trail of some bank robbers, next he’ll be seen yukking it up in Rio Sex Comedy. He can do it all, and on top of that he has at least one IMDB message board titled “Hottest Man Alive.”
So why is Matt Dillon the forgotten movie star?
With credits like his he should be on the A-list, hobnobbing with the Toms — Hanks and Cruise — and Will Smith, and yet his brother Kevin, who plays a wannabe celebrity on Entourage, probably has a higher Q score. Here’s a look back at why Matt Dillon should be on Hollywood’s hot list.
Troubled Youth
Dillon first got noticed playing troubled teens in Over the Edge, My Bodyguard, Little Darlings and Liar’s Moon, but it was the screen adaptations of three S.E. Hinton novels that made him a star. Tex, The Outsiders (where he shared the screen with Cruise, Rob Lowe and Patrick Swayze) and Rumble Fish made him a teen idol, but also earned him some serious fans as well. Roger Ebert wrote that Dillon has “the kind of clarity, the uncluttered relationship with the camera that you see in only a handful of actors.”
He’s Really Blossomed
He was typecast as a brooding teen early on but breakout roles in several comedies proved he could more than just a gloomy Gus. In There’s Something About Mary, he used one of the most all time politically incorrect (but hilarious) pick-up lines to woo Cameron Diaz. Even better is Randy, his character in One Night at McCool’s. When nice guy Randy’s one-night stand lets it slip that her boyfriend is a killer who might come after them, he doesn’t run but in a beautiful bit of understatement says, “It’s just the sex and the violence all in one night is a little much.”
Wild Things
On the dramatic side he is an Oscar nominee for his work as the racist cop in Crash, an award winner for his realistic portrayal of a drug addict in Drugstore Cowboy and he steamed up the screen as the high school counsellor in the campy Wild Things.
The new film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World begins with a title card that reads “Not so long ago in the mysterious land of Toronto, Canada.” It establishes that the movie is set in Toronto, but not the Toronto we usually see in films. That Toronto often subs for New York or Chicago.
The Toronto of Scott Pilgrim comes complete with Casa Loma, Lee’s Palace and other T-Dot landmarks. It’s probably the most expensive movie to feature Toronto as itself, but it’s not the only one. Here’s a look back at Toronto on-screen:
Lawyerin’ and doctorin’ jobs!
For many people, the first on-screen glimpse of Toronto onscreen came from the backseat of a 1960 Chevrolet Impala. Goin’ Down the Road, the story of Pete (Doug McGrath) and his pal Joey (Paul Bradley), two Maritimers who set out in a Chevy to find a better life in Toronto, (SCTV joked they were looking for “lawyerin’ and doctorin’ jobs”) is a city time capsule circa 1970.
Look for great shots of Yonge Street attractions including the classic Sam the Record Man spinning double disc neon sign. The signs are gone now, making their last appearance in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk.
Long live the new flesh!
Although David Cronenberg has made more than a dozen films in T.O. and says, “I love shooting in Toronto,” film critic Geoff Pevere says, “Toronto had never seemed weirder,” than in the director’s epic Videodrome.
The story of a sleazy UHF television station programmer who becomes spellbound by the hallucinatory power of porn movies, is set in Toronto and not only used many of the city’s locations, but its unique references as well. Civic TV allegedly refers to CityTV, which, in its early days used to air soft-core pornography late at night.
Yonge and Dundas and Beyond
For a look at the down-and-dirty Yonge Street Strip, once the body rub capital of Canada, check out Ron Mann’s 1974 Super-8 documentary The Strip. On the other end of the scale is Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, the story of a Toronto escort and the woman who hires her to test her husband’s fidelity. Toronto has never looked lovelier than this.
“At the level of metaphor, it’s interesting because Toronto is a prostitute. As a city, very often it pretends to be New York or Chicago or San Francisco,” Egoyan said. “So it’s interesting, since this is a film about that.”
There was a time when people would consistently pay money to see actors Feather Step and Dos-y-dos on screen.
For most of the twentieth century dance movies were a Hollywood staple, making stars out of hoofers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers and seeing half the Best Picture Oscars from the years 1958 to 1968 going to movies with smooth dance moves.
Some dance movies from the classic age are memorable — Singin’ in the Rain has a rare 100 per cent positive rating on RottenTomatoes. Others not so much. Remember Yolanda and the Thief? Me neither. But generally audiences were enthralled by Astaire’s graceful moves or Kelly’s athletic style. Producers of this weekend’s Step Up 3D are hoping for a throw back to those heady days and that audiences will be lured to the theatre by their film’s mix of dance and eye popping 3-D.
Dance on film died out during the late 1960s as movies with social messages and hard hitting dramas took centre stage but one actor single handedly brought back hip swiveling to the big screen. John Tavolta’s performances in Saturday Night Fever and Grease opened the flood gates for dozens of high stepping films in the 1970s. Here’s a list of the good, the bad and the ugly of ’70s and ’80s dance.
The Good
Loosely based on the life of screenwriter Dean Pitchford, Footloose is the story of a spunky Chicago teen (Kevin Bacon) who moves to a small town where dancing and rock music have been outlawed. John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Rob Lowe were all offered the lead role, but Bacon sizzles as Ren McCormack, the rebellious boy who teaches the town to kick up their heels to the tune of Let’s Hear it For the Boy. (Honourable Mention: Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. Not a dance movie but Pee-wee’s (Paul Ruebens) Peewee Dance to the song Tequila is a classic.)
The Bad
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo isn’t remembered as a great movie (it isn’t) or for Ice-T’s performance, no, it is best remembered as the facetious name given to any unnecessary sequel. For example, Tron 2: Electric Boogaloo or perhaps Titanic 2: Electric Boogaloo.
The Ugly
Newsweek called 1980’s spirited but ridiculous attempt to cash in on the disco craze Can’t Stop the Music, “the first all-singing, all-dancing horror film; the Dawn of the Dead of the disco era.”
When people talk about chemistry in movies most often they refer to the sexual sparks that fly — or not — between the leading man and woman, but it’s just as important between actors who aren’t necessarily going to fall into bed clinched in a mad embrace.
That connection — as elusive and indefinable as it may be — is just as important to comic actors as jokes or pratfalls. Laurel and Hardy had it. So did Abbot and Costello. And so do Steve Carell and Paul Rudd, who team up for a third time in this weekend’s Dinner for Schmucks. Here are some other droll duos:
Matthau and Lemmon
Jack Lemmon called Walter Matthau the “best actor I’ve ever worked with.” Playing off the differences in their personalities and appearances they made nine films together, some classic — The Odd Couple — some not — Grumpier Old Men — but whatever the movie, they had an ease about them that couldn’t be faked.
Stiller and Wilson
In the early aughts it seemed like you couldn’t have one without the other. Described as “the yin and yang of Hollywood A-listers” Ben Stiller — dark and edgy — and Owen Wilson — laconic and expressive — made four films together in four years — Meet the Parents, Zoolander, Starsky & Hutch and the Royal Tenenbaums — and say that even if the film work dried up they would still find a way to work together.
Pryor and Wilder
Roger Ebert said Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder “make a good team, Wilder with what he calls his ‘low-key high energy,’ Pryor with his apparent ability to con anybody out of anything.” The pair was magic on screen but apparently didn’t always see eye to eye off screen.
We can all conjure up an image of what Merlin the Magician looks like. He appears in dozens of movies, everything from the Disney cartoon Sword and the Sorcerer to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
While we may not be able to nail the specifics — eye colour or height — the basics are easy — kindly old man with a long white beard, pointy hat, flowing robe. That’s the likeness of the magician that has graced movies for decades — including this weekend’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, starring Nicolas Cage as a magician and Jay Baruchel as his nerdy protege — but over the years there have been a number of interpretations of the character. Here’s a look back:
Knightriders
George A. Romero brought the Arthurian legend forward to present day, and, of course, along with that comes a modern take on Merlin. Played by Brother Blue, an Ivy League-trained actor and pastor, in his only onscreen credit, the wizard is a harmonica-playing hippie with butterflies painted on his face and forehead who spouts Woodstock-inspired dialogue like, “Magic got to do with the soul, man. Only the soul’s got destiny. It got wings. It can fly. That’s magic. The body’s just got a few minutes down here in the dirt with the rest of us.” Far out, man.
Son of Dracula
A rock ‘n’ roll Merlin! A blend of horror, comedy, and music, Son of Dracula stars Ringo Starr as the wizard in a story that could only have emerged from the drug addled 1970s. The story scarcely makes sense, but it is fun to see Ringo and co-star Harry Nilsson (along with cameos by 70s rock legends John Bonham and Keith Moon). Luckily the movie does have a great gothic soundtrack (featuring Ringo, Peter Frampton and George Harrison) making it one of the rare movies which is actually more fun to listen to than to watch.
Cabinet of Curiosities, Miscellaneous
In The Spaceman and King Arthur (also known as Unidentified Flying Oddball), a loose adaptation of adaptation of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Merlin is presented against type as an evil character intent on dethroning Arthur. Also out of character is Merlin’s Shop of Mystical Wonders, a horror film about a grandfather spinning tales for his grandson about Merlin’s modern-day store. The wizard sells magical spells and curiosities meant to help people but usually turn out to have the opposite effect. In this movie “abracadabra” usually means “abracadaver.”
Sometimes they are diabolical. Occasionally dastardly. They are, of course, supervillains, the evil geniuses who give Superman, Batman and other caped crusaders a reason to get up in the morning.
Supervillains like Professor Moriarty and Dr. Fu Manchu, with their craving for world domination and habit of calling everyone around them “Fools!,” have been scaring moviegoers for decades, but the Professor and the Doctor are rather conventional compared to the Lightning from the 1938 film, The Fighting Devil Dogs.
Lightning was the first crime mastermind to wear a wild costume — a black shiny helmet and robe that later inspired Darth Vader’s outfit — and he set the tone for hundreds of cinematic supervillians.
In this weekend’s Despicable Me, a new supervillain, Gru (Steve Carell), rethinks his plan to steal the moon after becoming a dad. It’s a comedic take on the standard baddie, but nonetheless Gru has most of the accoutrements of his evil trade.
Here’s a checklist:
Accent
Having a sinister accent is par for the supervillain course. Gru’s sounds like a cross between Ricardo Montalban and Bela Lugosi, but he is just the latest in a long line of baddies with a brogue. Who could forget Batman & Robin’s icy Mr. Freeze? Played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, the frosty bad guy intoned, “The Ice Man cometh!” in a menacing accent that sounded a lot like, well, Schwarzenegger.
Doomsday Devices
What’s an evil overlord without a diabolical device of destruction? Gru has an arsenal of shrink and freeze rays, but those pale by comparison to Doctor Otto Octavius (Alfred Molina) and his Spider-Man 2 explosive superweapon or the Green Goblin’s Pumpkin Bombs — Jack-o’-lanterns that can melt through a three-inch-thick sheet of steel.
Catchphrase
All good supervillains have a motto. Gru could learn a thing or two from the Clown Prince of Crime, the Joker (Jack Nicolson) who cackled, “Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?” to his victims before offing them. It’s catchy, but not as memorable as Mr. J’s other well known quote, “This town needs an enema.” Even better is Terence Stamp’s haughty command “Kneel before Zod!” from Superman II.
A.K.A.
Finally, Gru fits the baddie bill but does fall down in one aspect of supervillainy, however; no evil nickname. Perhaps he could take his lead from the Joker a.k.a. “the Harlequin of Hate” and go by the Fiend of Fatherhood.
Like Scooby Doo and Inspector Gadget before it, this weekend’s first saw the light of day as an animated television show. Director M. Night Shyamalan first came across Avatar: The Last Airbender, when his daughter said she wanted to be one of the characters, Katara, for Halloween.
After that, watching the show became “a family event in my house,” says the director. “When I saw the cartoon, I thought it was so well thought out in term of mythology. It had Buddhism, martial arts and CGI (and it was) character-based. I knew it would make a great feature film … I knew we could do something that wasn’t going to be just a great treat for the eyes, but also for the mind and the soul.”
Shyamalan is shooting high, hoping to turn The Last Airbender (they had to drop the Avatar part of the TV show’s title) into a trilogy. “I have always wanted to develop a long mythology-based franchise like The Lord of the Rings,” he says.
One television-cartoon-to-big-screen adaptation that lasted more than one installment was The Flintstones. The animated modern stone-age family (with friends Barney and Betty Rubble) ruled Saturday morning television for six years, before making the leap to the big screen in 1966 in The Man Called Flintstone, a musical James Bond parody.
After that, the show came back to TV in various incarnations — one even featuring the Marvel Comics superhero The Thing — but a return to the big screen took almost 30 years. In The Flintstones, the 1994 live action version, John Goodman Yabba-Dabba-Dooed his way through the film as Fred. Unable to leave well enough alone a prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, followed in 2000. Soon though, Fred and Wilma will be back where they belong, in an animated film, set to be released in 2011.
During the Toronto International Film Festival you’ll see stars sipping lattes at the Starbucks in Yorkville and dolled-up on the red carpet at Roy Thompson Hall, but my favourite way to see them is up on the big screen. Celebrity gazing is a pleasant enough festival diversion, but the star attraction is the films.
