Choosing 2004 Toronto Film Fest Films ...

We're in the process of choosing films to attend as part of the Toronto International Film Festival. We'll probably do 10 each this year. 3 of us went together on a 30 coupon book. Last year I did 16 and R did 13. Too many.

I feel that this would be a good time to review the do's and do NOT do's of TIFF:

"Short" films, are not short. Oh, and don't forget to check the description for whether or not they are *silent*. I can only handle so much silence. Along those same lines, if there is a piece by Jim Jennings, maybe consider a different program.

Bruno Dumont -- not a happy filmmaker.

Piers Handling. If he wrote the description for the film you are about to see, read it carefully. Twice. Maybe three or four times. Then realise that what is described there will have little to do with the film you see. Go to the film. Be traumatized. Dash out of the theatre. Burst into tears and call your girlfriend on your cell phone. Fun times -- live the dream!

Make time in your film fest schedule for trips to the gym. Otherwise you will be spending extra time at the massage therapist afterwards.

If it's towards the end of the film festival and you just can't see another film and you still have a ticket, DON'T GO. Instead, give your ticket to someone in the rush line -- preferably an elderly woman who is waiting alone. It will make her day *and* yours.

Take some carrots and celery or other vegetables into the theatre with you -- you can only eat so much popcorn.

Piers Handling -- again, don't trust his write-ups.

To be fair, in reviewing the descriptions this year, I felt that reviewers were a little more honest about some of the stuff you might see in the films e.g. "ABC's rape is perhaps the most shocking scene in the film festival!". See .. excellent comment. And now I know to NOT GO to this film. Piers' descriptions are *marginally* better this year, but I read them and I still feel he is being coy and evasive. I think, "Huh, that sounds interesting" and then I read that he wrote the review. That completely reframes the review. Disappointing. Again, for you TIFF purists .. I don't need the plot given away, I just want to be able to choose to NOT GO to films with extreme violence.

So .. I've avoiding films with phrases like "reckless sexuality with devastating consequences" and "dark searing look at the loss of innocence". Maybe I'm missing out.

Oh. If you are going. Take the exercise thing to heart. We're not made to sit in uncomfortable cinema chairs for 10 hours a day!

UPDATE

Roro, Deuce and I got all our first choices! Yay! I'm seeing:

Walk on Water, Eytan Fox

Touch the Sound, Thomas Riedelsheimer

My Summer of Love, Pawel Pawlikowski

Double Dare, Amanda Micheli

Mondovino, Jonathan Nossiter

Saving Face, Alice Wu

ScaredSacred, Velcrow Ripper

The World, Jia Zhang-ke

ZERO the inside story, Elida Schogt

Writer of O, Pola Rapaport

Brodeuses, El?onore Faucher

11 isn't too bad. Better than last year -- 16. WAY too many.