TIFF, Day Two

[przed]

Day two of the fest, though day one for me, and I had a fine time. Two films, both of them winners.


Title: JCVD
Director: Mabrouk El Mechri
Country: Belgium/Luxembourg/France
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself. Sort of. Which is to say he plays a washed up action star called Jean-Claude Van Damme fighting for the custody of his kids who goes home to Belgium to try to get his head together and accidentally gets entangled in a bank robbery gone wrong. The film is funny and clever and has moments of surprising emotional depth. And Van Damme has this amazing five minute long monologue that is a wonder to behold. This is one of the films I was most looking forward to and I was not disappointed.

Title: Appaloosa
Director: Ed Harris
Country: U.S.
P's Rating: Highly Recommended
Another film I was looking forward to, and another winner. Ed Harris directs himself and co-star Viggo Mortensen as two lawmen for hire who take on the job of cleaning up the town of Appaloosa. The joy of this piece is not the direction, which is workmanlike, or the story, which has a few nice moments but mostly follows the usual western tropes, but the chemistry between Harris and Mortensen. They are a joy to behold, and the best moments in the film consists of just the two of them and their razor sharp dialogue. Theirs is the most slashtastic on-screen relationship I've seen since Titus and Lucius in Rome, something the stars are clearly aware of. When introducing his stars, Ed Harris called Renee Zellweger "the love of my life in the film," and Viggo "the real love of my life in the film." Awwww.



I didn't even try to get close to Viggo on the red carpet this time, and I ended up sitting reasonably far back, but I did get a couple of fuzzy shots of him on stage, including this one:



Alas, the shot of him and Harris in a big sloppy manhug is just an illegible blur.

Comments

[kortirion.livejournal.com]

I watched 'The Abyss' on tv last night - it amazed me how like Viggo Ed Harris looked in that film, like the elder brother, or at least, a close cousin. Around the eyes mainly, but a definite resemblance... or maybe I'm just 'transferring'! *g* And you've still got 'Good' to come... *envy*

[przed.livejournal.com]

Wow, The Abyss was also on TV here last night. I caught a bit of it, and while I didn't notice it at the time, I can see what you mean about the resemblance. It may just be that they both have faces with virtually no flesh on them, but there is a certain resemblance.

Good is tomorrow night, and yep, I'm totally looking forward to it. Don't worry. There will be a full report. *g*