BLUE RUIN Director Profile: Jeremy Saulnier

Jeremy Saulnier's second feature BLUE RUIN has been picking up lots of positive buzz since it first screened at Cannes, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize. His first, the hilariously violent (or maybe violently hilarious?) MURDER PARTY (2007) was picked up by Magnolia Pictures at SXSW and earned honours at the Slamdance (Audience Award, Best Feature), Vail (Grand Jury Prize), and Sidewalk (Special Jury Prize) film festivals.


In between, he's been busy working as a cinematographer for other independent filmmakers. He has shot all of Matthew Porterfield's films (HAMILTON, PUTTY HILL, and most recently, I USED TO BE DARKER), as well as Michael Tully's SEPTIEN.

While sticking with the theme of murderous violence, BLUE RUIN marks a huge leap forward for Saulnier as a writer/director. Jettisoning the laughs for straight up tension, BLUE RUIN will certainly be one of the most buzzed-about films in the Vanguard programme this year.
BLUE RUIN screening times:

• Mon., Sept. 9, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 8:00 PM
• Wed., Sept. 11, TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 12:00 PM

A FIELD IN ENGLAND trailer and posters

Ben Wheatley's black and white English Civil War freakout plays in the Wavelengths programme, but it could easily have fit in amongst the other Vanguard titles, so we're going to feature it here. Wheatley's a TIFF favourite, with his last two features (2012's Sightseers and 2011's Kill List) showing in the festival. Here's the trailer:

And now for the gorgeous posters. First, the official one:

Now a limited edition one designed by The Twins of Evil (Luke Insect and Kenn Goble), and included only with vinyl copies of the soundtrack (now sold out):

Finally, a fan art one designed in woodcut style by Richard Wells:

A FIELD IN ENGLAND Screening Times:

• Friday, Sept 13th, 9:00 PM RYERSON THEATRE
• Saturday, Sept 14th, 9:00 PM TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX 3

SEX, DRUGS, AND TAXATION Trailer and Posters

Christoffer Boe's film documents the unlikely friendship between two of 1960s Denmark's most interesting men: Mogens Glistrup, a radical libertarian, and the hedonist capitalist Simon Spies. Their friendship, forged by being outsiders in a conformist country, took them through years of adulation and success, with slight detours into the welcoming arms of vilification and imprisonment. Boe's story about Spies and Glistrup covers just a few decades from 1965 to 1984. Here's the trailer (alas, no subtitles, but I think you'll get the general idea):

And I love these posters, with one for each character as well as the primary one:

The quotation from Simon Spies on this one reads: "I have no vices, only appetites."

And Mogens Glistrup's is, very loosely translated: "Tax evaders can be compared to railway saboteurs. They do a dangerous job but one that's good for the country."

A tidbit from programmer Steve Gravestock's programme note: Sex, Drugs & Taxation is one of the most daring movies to come out of Denmark since the Pusher trilogy — and it's certainly the only one you'll see this year where a man in a bathrobe chases off a full-grown gorilla by waving his penis at it.

SEX, DRUGS, AND TAXATION screening times:

• Saturday September 7, Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, 9:30pm
• Sunday September 8, Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, 7:45pm
• Friday September 13, Scotiabank 2, 12:00pm

THOU GILD'ST THE EVEN Trailer and Posters

Turkish writer-director Onur Ünlü’s mysterious, fantastical-scatological fable follows a barber who survives a suicide attempt and finds himself falling in love, succumbing to murderous jealousy, and trying to make sense of life in a village where his neighbours are invisible, immortal or possess the ability to stop time.
Described as a kind of Turkish superhero movie, THOU GILD'ST THE EVEN has a fascinating premise and gorgeous black-and-white cinematography. Behold the trailer:

I found two poster designs for the film, both using the Turkish title. I expect that one of these will be used with the English title at the festival.

This film about the ordinary sorrows, worries and troubles of townspeople with extraordinary abilities plays TIFF as part of the Vanguard lineup.
THOU GILD'ST THE EVEN screening times:

• Sunday September 8, Scotiabank 14, 10pm
• Tuesday September 10, Scotiabank 8, 1:15pm
• Friday September 13, Scotiabank 11, 7pm

THALE Director Profile: Aleksander Nordaas

Young Norwegian writer-director Aleksander Nordaas is bringing his feature Thale to Toronto after a number of screenings at other North American festivals. Audiences at SXSW in Austin and the Seattle International Film Festival have already been wowed by Nordaas' "thale" of a mythical creature called a huldra accidentally discovered by two forensic cleaners.

Nordaas has previously directed one feature (2005's Sirkel) and one other short film (2008's In Chambers, which is embedded below).  As reported by Twitch, Nordaas recently released an animated short film featuring pieces of driftwood in an aquarium. You can see Kind of Fishy below or download a longer version at its own dedicated web site.

THALE Screening Times:

• Wed., Sept. 12th, 6:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
• Thurs., Sept. 13th, 8:45 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 2
• Sat., Sept. 15th, 4:15 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 7

ROOM 237: Review

I'll start with a confession. I hadn't actually watched Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film The Shining until about two years ago. There were lots of reasons, the main of which was that I was never a real fan of "horror" films. After seeing it, of course, I discovered that The Shining is not the slasher film that I'd anticipated (and feared). Instead, it's a dense and moody psychological thriller, and the type of film that I actually love. That being said, I may have only seen the film twice in my life.

Which makes me completely different from the motley band of nutjobs and conspiracy theorists who populate Rodney Ascher's creepy Room 237, each of whom has probably watched the film on slo-mo dozens of times. From the man with the relatively mild theory that the film is really all about the extermination of America's indigenous population to the guy who's convinced that The Shining is Kubrick's cryptic confession to filming the faked Apollo moon landings in a studio, Ascher's "subjective documentary" turns out be at least as scary as watching Kubrick's film itself.

Ascher wisely chooses to allow his "theorists" to only be heard in voiceover and never seen. Instead, he uses visuals from The Shining and many other films, including almost all of Kubrick's other work. The result is deeply unsettling, especially when combined with a rather sinister score. While the various theories can often provoke guffaws of disbelief, the relentless accounting of the film's eccentricities has an alienating effect that reinforces how weird The Shining really is.

For instance, while not convinced by one of the commentator's convoluted geography of the hotel's floor plan, I did become convinced that Kubrick may have purposely messed with the audience's spatial awareness simply to heighten our sense of unease.

What Ascher's film demonstrates most ably is the limits of auteur theory when taken to its absolute irrational end. Each of these people is convinced that not only was Kubrick aware of every tiny detail they tease out of the film, but that he alone was the visionary behind each choice. I'm aware that Kubrick may have been a bit of a control freak, but I'd be very surprised if every decision of the cinematographer, editor, production designer and even the actors sprung from the mind of the director.

In the end, while we may come out of Room 237 laughing at these "crackpots," I'm convinced that for many of us, our next viewing of The Shining will be a lot more terrifying.

ROOM 237 screening times:

• Thurs., Sept. 13, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 6:00 PM
• Sat., Sept. 15, Cineplex Yonge & Dundas 2 5:45 PM
• Sun., Sept. 16, TIFF Bell Lightbox 3 12:00 PM

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO sweeps awards at FrightFest

What a scream! London's FrightFest has just wrapped up and Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio has collected all the top awards: Best Film, Best Actor (Toby Jones) and Best Director! Way to amp up my anticipation for this unique "giallo" homage.

Total Film has the full list of winners along with some photos.

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO Screening Times:

• Mon., Sept. 10th, 6:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
• Tue., Sept. 11th, 2:45 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 3

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO: What's a "giallo"?

In Berberian Sound Studio, Toby Jones plays the part of a meek English sound engineer who is in Italy working on the sound mix for a "giallo" film. For those not familiar with this genre, I thought I'd provide a little background.

Example of a "giallo" paperback novel

"Giallo" is the Italian word for yellow and refers to a series of cheap paperbook mystery novels with yellow covers that were popular reading from the 1930s onward. Though the books were often in the vein of Agathie Christie or Ellery Queen, when filmmakers began adapting them in the 1960s, they soon added their own very distinct touches, taking the films into territory more associated today with the horror and slasher genres.

Poster for Dario Argento's The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

Directors like Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Sergio Martino made dozens of these films, rather quickly and cheaply, during the 60s and 70s. They were often filled with operatic levels of violence, not to mention liberal amounts of nudity and sex.

Poster from Sergio Martino's All the Colours of the Dark (1972)

Though best known for their often-garish visual style, giallo films were also innovative in their use of music and sound, which is where our poor sound engineer comes in. Many of the plots were based on madness and psychological horror, and the sound design was integral to setting the right mood.

Poster from Andrea Bianchi's Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975)

In fact, many of these films were shot completely without sync sound, so everything from dialogue to foley effects was recorded later in a studio, perhaps somewhere like Berberian Sound Studio.

p.s. You might notice a certain similarity in the posters I've included. A (presumably male) hand poised over a woman in peril. These films were nothing if not formulaic, but they've been a huge influence on succeeding generations of trashy thrillers.

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO screening times:

Mon., Sept. 10, 6PM:  THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Tues., Sept. 11, 2:45PM  CINEPLEX YONGE AND DUNDAS