Day One of the Toronto International Film Festival always comes with certain earmarks.
The hype around town is at a fever pitch, with even the casual observer feeling the desire to get in on the fun. Neighborhoods dotted with festival activity suddenly become places people linger, and every bank of lights or line of barricades becomes cause to crane one’s neck. All of that will dissipate for many by Monday, but for now, it’s like prom night.
For many, the TIFF routine begins with something upbeat, effervescent, and fun. Heavy drama and human tragedy will come, but many decide to wade into those waters slowly. Clearly, this is a lesson I need to re-teach myself.
For some, Day One was highlighted by the eternal life of rock-and-roll thanks to Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive. The film about vampire rock stars energized the Ryerson Theatre audience gathered for its premiere, many member of which found themselves charmed by Loki himself, Tom Hiddleston. To give Hiddleston a fitting sparring partner, Jarmusch turned to Tilda Swinton, a woman he described after the film as “the bohemian queen of our lifetime.”
For others, Day One was the time to further their film education. These filmgoers, hearty folk who weren’t worn out by 15 whole hours of Mark Cousins’ The Story of Film, turned out for a sixteenth chapter of sorts — A Story of Children and Film. Look for more on that tomorrow.
As for me, I wasn’t smart enough to begin with anything upbeat or effervescent. I dropped myself into the deep end and began with the North American premiere of Asghar Farhadi’s The Past (Le Passé). The film sent its audience home wondering about the mistakes they’d made in their own lives, and whether the only way to atone for them is to make them all over again. The cast members, led by Berenice Bejo, Tahar Rahim, and Ali Mosaffa, do their best to live up to the human complexity of Farhadi’s previous film A Separation, and while they don’t quite get there, what they achieve is both fascinating and honest.
As an opening act, Day One brought with it a lot of excitement, joy, and cinematic bliss, all of which should get cranked even higher as the weekend begins.
