TIFF 2009, Day Four

[przed]

Willem Dafoe did not show for the screening of Daybreakers, alas, but Sam Neil did stand beside me in the lobby for a few seconds. (I seem to have a Sam Neil sighting every second year or so. My favourite is still when I sat behind him and his wife for The Joy Luck Club. He wept like a baby at the end, which I still find utterly endearing.)


Title: Bright Star
Director: Jane Campion
Country: Australia/U.K.
P's Rating: Recommended
This is the story of the relationship of poet John Keats and Fanny Brawne, the woman he loved. I have to admit, I'm no fan of the romantic poets, but you'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by this story. Keats and Brawne meet when both are fairly young, fall deeply in love, even though financial and social realities prevent them from marrying, and are parted forever only two years after they meet when Keats dies of tuberculosis. The film is delicately handled yet still packs an emotional wallop. It reminded me, favourably, of Persuasion, which is still my all-time favourite Austen adaptation.(For the Pros fen among you, there's a scene that uses the "alone and palely loitering" line, and I couldn't help but think of Bodie.)


Title: Daybreakers
Director: The Speirig Brothers
Country: Australia/U.S.
P's Rating: Recommended
The film is set in a world where most people have been turned into vampires, the human population is dwindling and the vampires' food is running out. Ethan Hawke plays a vampire scientist trying desperately to find an artificial substitute for blood, who runs into some of the last remaining humans who think they may have a cure for vampirism. (The lovely Willem Dafoe plays a bad ass human, and does his usual bang up job.) It's not a perfect films--there's some clunky dialogue and overplayed sappy music every time there's a serious scene, just in case you didn't get it--but it's an ingenious concept, and the Spierig brothers have a genius for the gory, funny, gross out moment. (I'd highly recommend seeking out their first film, Undead. It's a scary/funny zombie flick with a nutty sci fi twist at the end.)

Comments

[sooguy.livejournal.com]

Great reviews. I might try to grab tickets to Daybreakers here at the Sudbury Festival (not sure how they managed to secure that one.)

Is UNDEAD that one we saw at the last screenings at the Uptown, where the guys did a lot of the CGI on their ancient laptops? I am not even sure I remember that movie in very much detail.

[przed.livejournal.com]

That is indeed Undead. And they were back to having to do some of their own effects when the money ran out on this one. Though they were doing them on shiny new Macs this time round, so there was undoubtedly less gnashing of teeth.

[miwahni.livejournal.com]

Bright Star sounds just right for a rainy Sunday afternoon. I'll watch out for the release of that.

[przed.livejournal.com]

It's a lovely film, if completely heartbreaking, so be warned.

[norfolkdumpling.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're having such a good time - and finding some fab films to see.

Oh, and I may love Sam Neil more than is possibly appropriate. He just always seems like such a nice bloke, and I always love his roles.

[przed.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen, Neil is a very nice bloke. So it amuses me no end that he's now making a career out of playing evil baddies. (You've seen him in Reilly Ace of Spies, yeah?)