The Toronto International Film Festival ends this weekend. But it's not too late to enjoy the festival if you haven't already done so. There are still two full days of screenings, and the following picks are films we recommend that you check out.
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
Not to be confused with the upcoming film Coco Before Chanel (which chronicles the early years of Coco Chanel), starring Audrey Tautou, to be released on Sept. 25th, the film Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky being featured at TIFF ’09 focuses on the affair between Coco Chanel and Russian composer Igor Stravinsky in Paris in 1920.
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky was the Closing Film at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It is based on Chris Greenhalgh's 2002 novel Coco & Igor.
The story begins in 1913. Chanel is madly in love with the wealthy aristocrat Arthur “Boy” Capel. She is devoted to her work and is a rising star. At the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, she attends Igor Stravinsky’s premiere of his revolutionary work "Rite of Spring." But the work is too radical for the Parisian aristocrats, and the audience vehemently reacts with boos and jeers. It is deemed a primitive scandal. But Coco is fascinated. Stravinsky is shattered by the violent reaction of the bourgeoisie.
Seven years later, Coco Chanel has become a rich and established woman. But she is devastated by the sudden death of Boy Capel in a car crash. She meets Stravinsky again, but this time, he is a penniless refuge living in exile in France following the Russian Revolution. Coco Chanel is intensely drawn to him and decides to offer the homeless Stravinsky and his family refuge in her luxurious villa in Garches.
A passionate and intense love affair between Chanel and Stravinsky ensues.
REMAINING PUBLIC SCREENING
Saturday, September 19, 09:00 AM SCOTIABANK THEATRE 1
London River
London River is the latest film by Oscar-nominated Franco-Algerian director Rachid Bouchareb. He earned much acclaim for his 2006 film Days of Glory (Indigènes), which tells the story of soldiers from France’s North African colonies who fought valiantly against the Nazis during World War II.
In London River, Bouchareb explores the emotional aftermath of the terror attacks in London on July 7, 2005, through the despairing eyes of two parents from different cultures brought together by the search for their children who have gone missing.
In the English Channel island of Guernsey, widower Elizabeth (Brenda Blethyn) is worried about the fate of her daughter Jane after hearing about the horrific events in London. Meanwhile, Ousmane (Sotigui Kouyaté), an African immigrant living in rural France, sets out to travel to London in search of his estranged son Ali, who was living in North London at the time of the attacks.
Through a chance meeting in London, they both discover that their children had been living together at the time of the attacks.
Although Elizabeth and Ousmane are bound by destiny, they are culturally worlds apart. Their common journey leads them to walk a common path. Through the process, they learn about each other and confront their cultural misconceptions. They give each other strength and form a deep bond.
It’s also interesting to see how Ousmane discovers how Africans abroad live their lives. Many films depict black people from the West returning to Africa to rediscover their roots, but Bouchareb turns the process of discovery the other way.
Official website: http://www.tadrart.com/tessalit/londonriver/gb.html
REMAINING SCREENINGS
Friday, September 18, 08:45 PM AMC 6
Saturday, September 19, 12:15 PM CUMBERLAND 2
A Hindu''s Indictment of Heaven
A Hindu’s Indictment of Heaven is a short film (11 minutes) by Toronto director Dev Khanna (Plums & Prunes TIFF’07) is an interesting exploration of the concepts of the soul mate, eternal happiness and the afterlife.
Can we truly love only one person in our lives? Is there such a thing as eternal bliss? Will we be truly reunited with the ones we love at the gates of heaven?
These are questions that Dev Khanna asks in A Hindu's Indictment of Heaven. Khanna finds some of these clichés interesting because, in his Hindu heritage, there is no such thing as a St. Peter standing at the pearly gates of heaven.
“I wanted to create a middle ground or a bridge between two cultures that can ultimately create a deeper understanding of the idea of love and happiness,” he says.
In the film, a woman chooses to wait at the gates of heaven for 10 years for her soul mate to show up. But there’s a twist when he arrives. He’s not alone.
REMAINING SCREENING
Friday, September 18, 09:00 PM AMC 7
Women without Men
Iranian video artist Shirin Neshat’s (pictured on top of this article) first feature film, Women Without Men, is a unique and beautifully shot story about four women from different walks of life living through the turbulent times of early 1950s Iran. The tension-filled political backdrop is the 1953 U.S. and British-backed coup which deposed the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh and reinstated the Shah to power.
Each woman in the film fights to seek her freedom. Their shackles take different forms.
Munis wants to break free of her overbearing and religiously conservative brother, who wishes to marry her off. She sits in front of the radio all day and listens to the protests in the streets of Theran against the imperial powers. She yearns to fight for her country’s freedom, but she must first earn her own freedom.
There are many parallels, which Shirin Neshat herself points out, between Munis and Neda Agha-Soltan, the woman who died before the world’s eyes and became a martyr for this year’s protesters in Iran.
The other women in the film battle in their own way to emancipate themselves either from prostitution, the suffocation of the traditional role of women in Iranian society, and the abyss of a loveless marriage.
The film is an adaptation of a novella by Shahrnush Parsipur.
REMAINING SCREENING
Saturday, September 19, 09:15 AM SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4
