25th Anniversary Special Events
TIFF [2000]
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| Tribute To Stephen Frears |
In honour of the fest's silver anniversary, and inaugural 21st century
showcase, Festival Director Piers Handling conceived several special
celebratory programs. The first was a free public screening of Sergei
Eisenstein's 1938 Russian epic "Alexander Nevsky",
accompanied by a live-to-picture performance of Prokofiev's "Alexander
Nevsky Cantata" by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. If TIFF 2000
had a dominant theme, it was to look back affectionately at the pioneering
steps of narrative filmmaking while embracing the latest technological
breakthroughs. Are today's camcorder-wielding backyard auteurs the Eisensteins
of the second 100 years of filmmaking? I'll get back to you around TIFF
2100...
Year One
"Year One" revived several features from the Festival's 1976
debut at the Ontario Place Cinesphere (you may have seen it as an alien
base in the laughable Canadian s.f. feature "Starship Invasions",
starring Christopher Lee), including Barbara Kopple's "Harlan
County, USA", Akira Kurosawa's "Dersu Uzala",
and Jean-Charles Tacchella's "Cousin, Cousine". Regrettably,
nothing from that same year's Roger Corman or Sergio Leone marathons
were included.
Tributes
"Tributes", once an annual feature at the TIFF for such major
film personalities such as Robert Duvall, Warren Beatty,
and Jean Luc Godard, were revived in Bloomberg's Tribute To
Stephen Frears. The versatile, enduring director's varied cross-Atlantic
productions have been a regular fixture of the festival starting with
"The Hit" in 1984, through to "The Grifters"
(1990), and "The Snapper" (1993). This year, Frears
brought his new film "Liam" along for "Special
Presentations", marking a return to his grittier, Thatcher-era
TV efforts.
[Preludes ]
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