Uh, what city was this filmed in?

From time to time there are certain things that preoccupy me about a movie. It may have nothing to do with the plot or characters. Indeed, that was the case with the new film by Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, screened this week by the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF), Dream Scenario. Sure, the plot was intriguing and fantastical, about a man who starts showing up in hundreds – nay, multitudes – of people’s dreams. Poor bearded Paul Matthews (Nick Cage), mild mannered biology professor at some obscure college named Osler. Learned, middle class and envious of colleagues’ professional achievements, Cage finds fame in today’s world of social media-like influencers, by benignly making guest appearances in an ‘I‘ll see you in my dreams’ sort of way. The film did and didn’t work for me. Quirky and interesting, yes. But pedestrian and predictable too. But, say what you will, what I’m really trying to get at here is that, watching it, I wanted more than anything to know where the movie was made. There were certain background or atmospheric scenes that raised the question. Obviously, it was set in the autumn but with astonishing maple tree colors, so it has to be in the North American Northeast. Massachusetts, Vermont? I thought I spotted a Massachusetts license plate. But there was something different about the streetscapes. They didn’t especially look “American.” Nor the houses. Where had I spotted streets like this before? But the greater giveaway was in the institutional college settings' emergency exit signs showing the international green running figure, which Canada adopted a few years ago. Even the house that the Matthews family lived in had a “Montreal or Toronto” look. And those deep leafy streets and vivid fall colors? Even the college’s name was a giveaway “Osler,” a TO institutional name if ever there was one. Sure enough, the movie was shot in The Big Smoke.

I re-subscribed to Netflix this summer, opting for the cheapest ad-based plan at only $6.77 (Cdn) a month. And what I got hooked on, for the first time, were binge-watching TV series, like Maestro in Blue (from Greece), The Tailor (Turkey), Catastrophe (UK) and Love and Anarchy (Sweden). While I watched a few movies – among them Despite Everything, Le Weekend and Fair Play - more numerous were all the ones I discarded as utterly unwatchable – slow-paced, derivative, cliched, losing the plot. Here they are: Do Not Disturb, Side Effects, The Age of Adaline, Forgotten Love, NYAD, Capitani, Rebecca, Crazy Stupid Love, Manifest, Transatlantic, Florida Man, Love is in the Air, Bodies, Sleeping Dog, Marcella, Love….Glad I’m only paying $6.77 a month!

Film clips: Windsor the next Telluride?

After receiving a WIFF email today the thought occurred to me that Windsor could be the next Telluride or Sundance. Such has the festival’s gravitas picked-up, like an increasing snowball – and now garnering national recognition – that WIFF is taking on the trappings of the “small festival that could.” International stars increasingly are attending, as are audience members from outside the area with Windsor more and more being seen as a destination festival. Accordingly, says WIFF in the email recapping the past year and most succesful yet, with 186 features and over 300 screenings. “Most importantly, we had people from all over North America visit Windsor to experience film and community at WIFF, affirming our vision of becoming a nationally recognized, industry-leading cultural destination.” 

The Globe and Mail recently did a story about the Toronto’s film festival’s touring series called the Film Circuit, which distributes TIFF films to communities across Canada. Windsor’s fest director was quoted. “We were part of Film Circuit for 18 years and grew with them, learned from them about building relationships with distributors and filmmakers and how it all works, and now we’re here,” says executive director Vincent Georgie of the Windsor International Film Festival. “We then forged our own path forward, but absolutely with a debt due to TIFF.”

I’m in Greece. But before leaving home in Canada I had re-signed with Netflix but to its low budget platform for less than $10/month but which includes commercials. Really no big deal as they are few and far between and don’t last long and are sometimes even interesting. I was able to watch Netflix in England but this cheaper platform isn’t supported in Greece. Different strokes for different countries, I guess.

In England, in Exeter in southwest England, there’s a little idiosyncratic gem of a museum at the city’s university, The Bill Douglas Cinema Museum (photo above). Douglas, now deceased, was a British filmmaker and as importantly a major collector of thousands of pieces of cinema paraphernalia. What’s most intriguing is the display of early 20th century and pre-20th rudimentary moving image machines or contraptions that mimicked motion such as mirrors, peep shows, optical illusions, dioramas and phantasmagoria or modified magic lanterns to project “supernatural” images. 

 

In Greece, movies still have intermissions

At first I was startled when, during a screening of Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet), halfway through the movie, the screen went dark and a blue “intermission” sign (in Greek and English) flashed as the house lights came up. This wasn’t that long of a film, was it? To tell truth it provided an opportunity to escape the screening. I’m here in Athens and attended Anatomy because I knew it was in three languages including English. I was a bit skeptical of just how much English would be spoken and hoped for subtitles accordingly. I had reason to be. Rather little, it turned out, and the subtitles were only in Greek. The film is also a court drama and I’m not turned on much by courtroom procedurals. But I used the handy intermission to escape, not after taking a few photos of this classic Euro theatre, which looked like it had the same signage since the 1950s. That’s one thing I like about Europe – the old cinemas haven’t closed, there are still plenty of them in the city centers and people of all ages attend. At Anatomy perhaps half the crowd was 60-plus…..While I walked out of Anatomy, the other night I attended May December, Todd Haynes’s latest take on ennui and mental illness and starring previous collaborator Julianne Moore. Moore as Gracie is a sex offender implicated in the seduction of a 17-year-old, some twenty years later and now husband Joe (Charles Melton). (The plot is roughly based on a true story, that of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau.) Just as she was in a previous Haynes’s film, Safe (1995) outwardly Moore’s character is upbeat and together but underneath seething is disassociation and trauma. Playing opposite is Natalie Portman, an actress, Elizabeth Berry, who wants to portray her story and is doing research. Why Gracie would allow such a thing is beyond me but the irony of her interrogating Berry on being an actress, as per the real Portman,

isn’t lost. The film, set in Savannah Ga., is visually filmed through a southern summer haze, and really doesn’t come to a conclusion about anything. But the theatre I saw it in, the Ideal, is Athens’ oldest, dating from 1921 and hosting the largest screen (top photo) in Greece. And did I mention there also was a 10 minute intermission, as the film was cut right in the middle of a scene (a car travelling along a highway)?…..And last night, I walked a few kilomtres along Leoforos (boulevard) Vasilissis Sofias, past the first modern-era Olympic stadium (1896), the city’s massive art museum, its giant concert hall, its under-renovation iconic Hilton, and yes, even the American Embassy, to see Napoleon (Ridley Scott). Now, Napoleon is almost three hours long. What did I think of it? The battle scenes are among the very best ever filmed, the period settings fantastic. As for Joaquin Phoenix as N? Well, let's say we'll just stick to the sweeping history.  And of course this theatre, the Athinaion (second photo), had an intermission. At first I thought these Greek cinema intermissions were a throwback and kind of bizarre. But then I got it. They provide the perfect opportunity for the audience to order another snack (the theatre makes money) and go to the restroom. In North America we would have to leave the film and miss part of the movie. These Europeans are smart!

It's now film festival season in Windsor

With the Windsor International Film Festival (WIFF) closing out another boffo – if not yet its most boffo year – Sunday, it’s time to plunge right into the city’s second-in-a-row – count ‘em – film festivals: Media City, which got under way last night and runs until Nov. 11 Yes, it’s now film festival season in little old Windsor, Ontario, Canada, fast, it seems, becoming a cinematic destination on international festival circuits. But Media City, now in its 26th season, is clearly the senior festival (WIFF celebrated its 19th), and has always had a large international presence. And, for the genre it screens, holds an important niche among avant-garde festivals. It’s a lesser known festival than WIFF because it screens edgier, more abstract and experimental works. The event shows films in Windsor and Detroit but is centred around Windsor’s Capitol Theatre. Some 60 cineastes from Germany, France, Serbia, South America and Asia are here for tonight’s launch party. And influential Argentinian director Narcisa Hirsch is the focus of tonight’s post-party screening. “Hirsch has spent seven decades as one of the foremost figures of the South American avant-garde,” the festival, long headed by Oona Mosna, says. Tonight's event features rare films never before screened outside of Argentina. Over the next several days some 70 films altogether will be screened. The festival is underwritten to the tune of more than $200,000 in provincial and federal funding. Media City’s guide is 120 pages. A full festival pass is $30 CAD and single tickets are “pay what you like.”

My brush with fame

If you can’t see a film at least you can be in the personal presence of a great movie artist. Accidentally, that is. I’m in England and a week ago was travelling by train back to London from Liverpool. The train had well departed the Liverpool station – perhaps half the way to London – and going at substantial speed, when two women came into first class where I was sitting (the perks of a BritRail pass). Their arrival seemed so out of place that I joked, “How did you guys get on the train – jump on it moving at full speed?” And one of them had a boxy suitcase, upon which seeing I quipped, “Wow, that’s something straight out of a 1940s movie about a transatlantic voyage.” My jokes, lame or not, aside, this woman smiled, perhaps indulgently, at me. She was very good looking and seemed to have a sheen about her. She almost looked like…… She slid into her seat opposite me but by the window. Meanwhile, a “mate” who I’d struck up a conversation with across the aisle, at one point turned to our female companion and said, “Before you go to sleep, I just wanted to say, I really enjoyed you in The Crown.” She plays Princess Margaret. Okaaay….is this confirming who I thought this woman might be? And then my friend types something out on his phone and shows it to me. “Don’t say anything but that’s Helena Bonham Carter.” Suspicion confirmed! So, for the rest of the trip to London’s Euston Station here was one of the world’s foremost actresses nestled in her seat sitting across from me, sometimes perusing her phone or trying to get some shuteye. I thought I heard from time-to-time softy purring sounds. She did adjust her foot when I grabbed my cellphone cord after it became unattached (not that she did it). I don’t know who her companion – an older woman – was but she sat separately down the aisle. But why was HBC on this very train? Simple. Earlier, when in Liverpool, I happened to, yes, take a Beatles tour. As our bus passed a major arena people in costume were pouring out of the local Comic Con. The tour guide didn’t know if anyone famous was attending. One the passengers piped up, “Helena Bonham Carter is.” “She’s pretty famous,” quipped the guide.

Interestingly, this being England, so many major locations have been film settings. This includes King’s Cross train station, where you can see on the concourse floor star stickers with the names of famous films shot there from the 1930s to present. These include Harry Potter, Friday the Thirteenth, The Imitation Game, Alfie, all the way back to Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps ….. Also, at St. Bartholomew the Great parish, London’s oldest dating from the 12th century - and which offers wonderful free lunchtime classical concerts – many movies had scenes shot there. These include Shakespeare in Love, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sherlock Holmes, The Last Knight and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.

The Great Escaper and escape into WIFF

The Great Escaper (Oliver Parker) is a charming film that befits the end-of-careers of both Michael Caine and Glenda Jackson. Set in a remote British town it tells the story of Bernie Jordan, a WW II vet who desperately wanted to attend the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France. He misses the official tour and schemes his way, by himself, aboard a ferry, to Normandy, where he’s of course befriended by his comrades who’d arrived before him. Meanwhile, wife Rene (Jackson) remains coyly mum at the assisted living facility, while staff are gripped with worry about where Bernie disappeared to. This picture is the perfect vehicle for both these stellar talents. Caine didn’t want to play the role – he’d been musing retirement for some time and finally announced it the other day - but after a few script readings couldn’t resist. He’s perfect for the twinkly eyed irascible veteran. And Jackson – you won’t recognize here she’s aged so much – also is in the role of his wife. Fortunately or unfortunately, her real life aged physical presence – she died earlier this year – fits exactly the persona of an old housebound woman, weak physically but wise enough to josh the often-befuddled staff. This film is based on a true story, where Jordan ended up becoming a British media hero, in addition of course to being a WW II one….I saw it at the Kino cinema (photo) in Rye (one time home of author Henry James) on England’s southeast coast. This small cinema in an ancient building featuring an outdoor patio with two floor café, where you could nurse away a beer or glass of wine efore the film on a pleasant early autumn afternoon.

Happy to see the announcement of Windsor International Film Festival’s (WIFF) 19^th lineup, with more films than ever – 186 features and 38 shorts – running Oct. 26 – Nov 5. As always, there’s a strong lineup of flicks screened at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which always leads me to tell people, “Why go to Toronto when you can see some of the best two months later here?” Regardless, WIFF's proved a more than solid event. Forty-seven movies will be screened before released commercially. The festival continues to grow and even obtain gravitas, this year announcing the first ever $25,000 award to the best of 10 Canadian films, that will be screened on the event's first weekend. Too bad I’ll have to miss the fest as I’m in Europe. But the event truly rocks. And as someone who has attended several film festivals in Canada and the United States, WIFF has grown to be among the best, not just in breathed of selections but planning and organization. Here's to WIFF! And I’ll be sure to attend next year’s 20^th.

Notes from Britain

Want to see a film and have a beer while at it in, in Britain? It will cost you. In Canterbury – a charming city just as you might expect, full of half-timbered Medieval buildings – I stumbled upon a little theater run by the British Curzon cinema chain. Curzon, as I've discovered, can play a lot of mainstream flicks, but this small theatre was a through-and-through arthouse. It had a great little lounge, serving up coffee, beer and wine, even pizza, and intimate screening rooms. It was a Sunday afternoon and I opted for The Lesson (Alice Troughton) with Julie Delpy, Richard E. Grant and Daryl McCormack. The film is a quiet Hitchcockian thriller set in a mansion in the bucolic English countryside. Delpy plays an aging matriarch and art curator, married to a high strung “Great Novelist” type (Grant), whose lives become mediated by an aspiring writer (McCormack). It’s a slow burn and captive enough though I had some difficulties with the presumption of the plot – did McCormack really have to be the fulcrum between Grant and Delpy’s characters? But my point is that it cost me a grand total of $33.75 (CAD) for one beer and one ticket to the film. It’s expensive in the UK! 

In London, I wanted to see the film Fair Play (Chloe Domont) “set in the cutthroat world of high finance” and an “erotic thriller.” Its subtitle is “Competition is Close.” It’s screening at, among other places, the Regent Street Cinema, when I walked by it last weekend. Great, I’ll go next week. Then I saw it opens on Netflix Oct. 13. (It was even advertised this way at the theatre.). My question: why go to a movie and pay relatively big bucks when I can wait a week and see the same thing online?

The London Film Festival kicked off last night – with gala opening Saltburn (Emerald Fennell), which got five stars in today’s Telegraph - and runs till Oct. 15. The festival looks to have a great line-up but I came upon it late and virtually all films have long been sold out. Maybe next year, if I come back to London, I'll be aware and book earlier. The festival’s centerpiece venue is the British Film Institute (BFI) (photo) on the Southbank, sandwiched between the National Theatre – where some of Britian’s greatest playwrights’ works are performed – and Royal Festival Hall, a famed orchestra space. This is the most spectacular building devoted to film I’ve ever been in. Besides having several screening rooms, there is a Mediatheque, where the public can relax in numerous deep cushioned pods and view 95,000 titles from the BFI’s archives. There's a film library. There’s also a spacious café and a sprawling bar. It’s a space made in film heaven.