Before Midnight

This film series has been following me around since I was in my early 20′s.  It all started with Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004).  These two films were not the most enlightening films and the acting at times was a bit of an eye roll.  But they were great to get lost in.  Totally relatable as I was around the same age as the characters and the actors whenever the films were released.

With ‘Before Midnight’, nine years after the conclusion of Before Sunset, Jesse and Celine live in Paris as a couple, parents to twin girls conceived when they got together. Jesse is also struggling to maintain his relationship with his teenage son, Hank, who lives in Chicago with Jesse’s (now) ex-wife and who, after spending the summer with Jesse and Celine on a Greek island, is being dropped off at the airport to fly home. Jesse has continued to find success as a novelist, while Celine is at a career crossroads, considering a job in government.

As per Wikipedia:

Richard Linklater (Director), Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy all had suggested the possibility of a sequel to Before Sunset. In a video interview in November 2011, Hawke said that he, Delpy and Linklater “have been talking a lot in the last six months. All three of us have been having similar feelings, that we’re kind of ready to revisit those characters. There’s nine years between the first two movies If we made the film next summer, it would be nine years again, so we started thinking that would be a good thing to do. So we’re going to try and write it this year.”

In June 2012, Hawke confirmed that the sequel to Before Sunset would be filmed in summer 2012.  Soon after, Delpy denied filming would take place in 2012, stating that they were still only writing the script and that filming would not take place until “sometime in the next year, year and a half.”

However, in August 2012, numerous reports emerged from Messenia, Greece, that the film was in fact being shot there.   When asked about the reports, this time Hawke stated that he, Delpy and Linklater were in Greece only to write the film, telling MTV News that “we’re here writing a third installment to Before Sunrise. If it works out, we’ll film it, and if it doesn’t, we won’t. It’s not really worth talking about. I’m just here developing.”  However, Hawke and Delpy’s denial was proven to be a ruse when the completion of filming of the new movie, titled Before Midnight, was announced on September 5, 2012, just before the Toronto International Film Festival.  Linklater later said that he aimed to take Before Midnight to a film festival in early 2013.  Before Midnight premiered on January 20, 2013, at a 9:45 p.m. showing at the Eccles Theatre in Park City, Utah at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.  It was then scheduled to have its international premiere out of competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

To The Wonder

The latest Terrence Malick film is due to be released in April 2013 shrouded with his usual secrecy around the piece.  His vague film trailers had my interest during last Fall’s Toronto Film Festival showing.  Yes, this is how long I have been waiting with excitement around its release.

According to IMDb ‘To The Wonder’ tells us about how ‘After visiting Mont Saint-Michel, Marina and Neil come to Oklahoma, where problems arise. Marina meets a priest and fellow exile, who is struggling with his vocation, while Neil renews his ties with a childhood friend, Jane.’

I loved ‘Tree of Life’ and ‘Days Of Heaven’.  They were emotional viewing.  I love Malick’s brand of film making.  There is a lot of room for interpretation coupled with some strong symbolism and messaging about life, relationships, love, grief and death.  Movies you need to ‘walk off’ after you watch them or cry your eyes out.  Whatever you prefer. 

Let’s hope, ‘To The Wonder’ lives up to the hype.

Happy Birthday John Hughes

I’m a tad early as his birthday is on Monday – but I remembered the touching tribute at the Oscars a few years ago.   It would be nice to make reflect upon if you happen to pop in one of his films this week to celebrate his cinematic work.

Happy Birthday Mr. Hughes, wherever you are.

Cafe De Flore

I took ‘Cafe de Flore’ from the library without fully knowing what the story was about.  I spent the weekend kicking about my flat.  I had one my film to get to before winding down.  I had full intentions of pounding away at my laptop as I watched this film.  That never happened.

I won’t tell you what the film is about.  But it was beautiful.  I haven’t watched a film in months that made my heart ache as much as this one did.  Jean – Marc Vallée  is the Canadian film director and screenwriter behind the film. He is best known for the film C.R.A.Z.Y. and also ‘The Young Victoria’.  Again perfect pieces of cinematography and story telling.

If you get a chance, watch it and tell me what you think.

p.s. The musical soundtrack behind this film is brilliant.  Instead of going to bed, I’m going to start digging  through my cd collection to find the songs I just heard.

TIFF Ticket Wish: Stories We Tell

Canadian actor-director Sarah Polley has revealed her new film Stories We Tell is inspired by a painful personal incident in which she learned the man who is her father was not her biological father.

Polley’s documentary film, produced by the National Film Board, premiered at the Toronto Film Festival this past week.

But Polley said she would not give any interviews on the festival circuit, preferring to tell the story behind the film in a blog on the NFB website.  http://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2012/08/29/stories-we-tell-a-post-by-sarah-polley/

In the blog, Polley says a journalist discovered the secret of her parentage in 2007, but she was able to convince him or her to keep the story quiet so she could make a film that examined the issue herself.

“Making this film was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It took five years and tormented me. I didn’t want to make it, and I wanted to give up many times along the way, but I also didn’t want this story to be out there in the words of someone other than the many people who lived it,” Polley writes.

Polley, whose previous films include Take This Waltz and Away from Her, lost her mother at age 11, but reveals that she met her biological father by accident and that the biological connection was confirmed by a DNA test.

She calls her father’s response to news of her mother’s affair “extraordinary.”

“His chief concern, almost immediately, was that my siblings and I not put any blame on my mother for her straying outside of their marriage. He was candid about his own lack of responsiveness towards her and how that may have led her to the point where she sought out the affection of another person. And then he began to write. And write and write and write,” Polley says in the blog.

This was part of the inspiration for Stories We Tell, along with the story as told by her biological father and by others who could speak about it.

Polley said making Stories We Tell allowed her to “be a detective in my own life” and learn more about her mother.

“I’m not claiming that my film lacks self involvement but what I wanted most was to examine the many versions of this story, how people held onto them, how they agreed and disagreed with each other, and how powerful and necessary creating narrative is for us to make sense of our bewildering lives. I wanted the story told in the words of everyone I could find who could speak about it,” she said.

(from http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2012/08/29/stories-we-tell-venice.html)

London – The Modern Babylon (2012)

After lounging all weekend, I forgot that the Toronto Film Festival Tickets went on sale this a.m..  Only after I turned on twitter did I notice that a fellow blogger had just purchased tickets did I then decide to have a mild panic.

I hadn’t done any real research this year mainly because finding and buying tickets on TIFF’s website in the past has been a bit of a pain.  They really need to work on making the process seamless especially for a world-renowned film event.

That aside, I just happened to find the following film and bought tickets for my sister and I for next weekend.  I’m a huge fan of Julien Temple.  He did an amazing ode to Joe Strummer in ‘The Future Is Unwritten’ a few years back.  His style of film making is always very introspective and equally artistic.

Here’s a synopsis of what the film is about:

London – The Modern Babylon is legendary director Julien Temple’s epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown.

From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and above all ordinary people, this is the story of London’s immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever. Reaching back to London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive and the voices of Londoners past and present, powered by the popular music across the century. It ends now, as London prepares to welcome the world to the 2012 Olympics.

The film festival runs in Toronto from Sept 7 – Sept 16, 2012.  If you are in Toronto; it’s worth checking out!

http://tiff.net

Series To Get Stuck Into: Treme and Wallander

Now I won’t tell you loads about these series but they have become my obsession of late. 

Treme is from the makers of The Wire, is about life after Hurricane Katrina.  Simply gorgeous.  It’s an English Major dream.  Beautiful storytelling, likeable characters and stylized momentum that makes sense and is incredibly smart.

Wallander is a British television series adapted from the Swedish novelist Henning Mankell‘s Kurt Wallander novels and starring Kenneth Branagh as the eponymous police inspector.  If you want a series that has more depth than CSI…voila!

Check them out and tell me what you think.

The Shining In My Condo

The hallway in my building

I come home late most nights.  I rarely ever see anyone coming and going in my building.  Nor do I know my neighbours.  Good times? 

A few weeks ago I came up the elevator and walked onto my floor.  Man, did I have this eerie feeling that someone was standing at the other end of the hall.  I turned to look quickly and no one was there.  So I quickly walked to my apartment, as I am putting the key in the lock – again I had a feeling someone was staring at me.  I look – no one.

The Twins in the hallway in Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’

This has happened now a few times.  I blame The Shining.

I can not wait for Iron Man 3!

I know…I can’t believe I am posting Comic Con press on my blog…but for the sake of Iron Man 3.  I will make an exception. 

as per Laineygossip.com

Marvel confirmed that they will, in fact, make Guardians of the Galaxy before The Avengers 2, which will tie into the villain revealed in The Avengers stinger and will likely get off the ground in Thor 2, which is now officially called Thor: The Dark World. More exciting, though, is that Captain America: The Winter Soldier is coming in 2014. That’ll bring back Cap’s supposedly dead friend Bucky, and also (should) tie into Black Widow’s back story.

Angelina Jolie as ‘Maleficent’

Angelina Jolie as Maleficent

My niece is going to freak out on Friday when I pick her up from school.  She is 5 and finds Maleficent terrifying.  But she knows I like Maleficent and tries her best to be understanding when we chat Disney on the walk home to my mom’s. 

Disney just sent out a press release this morning announcing that production on Maleficent began on June 13 with Angelina Jolie in the title role.

‘Needless to say, the Jolie is the centrepiece of the project. But she’s being supported by an interesting stable of players in Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, the lovable Imelda Staunton, Miranda Richardson (two Harry Potter alumni!), Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville. Now that you see them all lined up like that, it is indeed an interesting stable, but it’s also an impressive one.’  (from Lainey Gossip).

Maleficent – in 3D  – doesn’t open until March 14, 2014. Excited?  Um, yes!!!