Tuesday, August 12, 2014

2014 TIFF announces Cinematheque selections


ÔSHIMA, FORD, PARAJANOV AND HU IN THE TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL'S TIFF CINEMATHEQUE PROGRAMME OF RESTORED CLASSICS
Free Admission!

The Toronto International Film Festival® presents the TIFF Cinematheque programme featuring newly restored classic films from around the world, including Nagisa Ôshima’s Cruel Story of Youth, John Ford’s My Darling Clementine, Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova), King Hu’s Dragon Inn, Wu Yonggang’s The Goddess and a special tribute screening of the late Harun Farocki’s In Comparison.

The lineup features selections by the TIFF Cinematheque programming team led by Brad Deane, Manager of Film Programmes, and including James Quandt, Steve Gravestock, Andréa Picard and Jesse Wente. TIFF Cinematheque is now in its 24th year.

“This year’s TIFF Cinematheque lineup presents a couple of masterpieces of their genre — important works that not only helped define but also set the bar for the Western and the martial arts film,” said Deane. “In addition, we have included some of the most daring and emotionally devastating films in the history of cinema. These vivid, beautiful restorations bring these films to life, presenting fans with an opportunity to revisit the classics and for new audiences to discover them for the first time.”

TIFF joins the film world in celebrating Harun Farocki’s genius, generosity and lasting legacy with a tribute screening of one of his late great films, In Comparison. From his participation in TIFF Cinematheque’s first Godard series, through his own retrospective and subsequent films at TIFF, and his seminal installation, ‘Workers Leaving the Factory in Eleven Decades’ which was included as part of the opening exhibition at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Farocki has played a central role in TIFF’s programming as both an esteemed artist and colleague.

As part of TIFF's ongoing commitment to accessible film education, tickets to all TIFF Cinematheque screenings during the Festival are free and will be distributed at the Steve & Rashmi Gupta Box Office at TIFF Bell Lightbox on a first-come, first-served basis two hours before each film screening.

The Color of Pomegranates (Sayat Nova) Sergei Parajanov, Armenia
“Watching Sergei Parajanov’s The Color of Pomegranates, or Sayat Nova, is like opening a door and walking into another dimension, where time has stopped and beauty has been unleashed,” said Martin Scorsese. Scorsese's Film Foundation has restored the original Armenian version of Sayat Nova — a visually dazzling biography of the eponymous 18th-century Armenian poet and musician related through a succession of opulently exotic tableaux. Restored in 2014 by The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project at Cineteca di Bologna/L'Immagine Ritrovata in association with the National Film Centre of Armenia and Gosfilmofond of Russia. Restoration funding provided by the Material World Charitable Foundation and The Film Foundation.

Cruel Story of Youth (Seishun zankoku monogatari) Nagisa Ôshima, Japan
Master director Nagisa Ôshima’s seminal second feature — a brutal and beautiful portrait of two doomed, rebellious young lovers living fast and dying young in the sleazy backstreets of Tokyo, has never been crueller or more visually glorious than in this pristine 4Krestoration. Cruel Story of Youth was a landmark in Japanese cinema, exploring the country's postwar malaise with a razor-sharp sense of style. Starring Miyuki Kuwano and Yûsuke Kawazu. The digital restoration was performed in 4K by Shochiku Co., Ltd. under the supervision of Takashi Kawamata, cameraman of Nagisa Ôshima. Courtesy of Janus Films.

Dragon Inn King Hu, Taiwan
In this dazzlingly restored presentation of legendary director King Hu's classic, a heroic trio of outlaw warriors square off against sinister assassins at an isolated desert inn. It is the middle of the Ming dynasty, and the loyal Minister of Defence, Yu Qian, has been executed by the emperor’s chief eunuch, Cao Shaoqin. Yu’s children have been sentenced to exile, but as they travel toward the empire’s border, Cao dispatches his top agents to kill them. Starring Jun Shi, Ling-Feng Shang Kuan, Ying Bai and Feng Hsu. This digital restoration was made in 4K by the Chinese Taipei Film Archive at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in Bologna from the negative. The director of photography has supervised the color grading

The Goddess Wu Yonggang, China
Silent screen legend Ruan Ling-yu gives a fierce and tragic performance in her signature role as a wronged prostitute in Wu Yonggang's early classic of Golden Age Shanghai cinema. 2K digital restoration courtesy of the China Film Archive.

Tribute Screening
In Comparison Harun Farocki, Germany/Austria
Spanning continents and cultures, In Comparison focuses on the brick — that very basic unit of foundation — and traces its contexts, from the collective efforts of a community building a clinic in Burkina Faso, through semi-industrialized mouldings in India, to industrial production lines in Germany, France, Austria and Switzerland. Eschewing traditional commentary, but certainly employing a deft, willful and playful point of view, In Comparison presents various methods of labour production, allowing for an assessment that changes with every layer and goes well beyond a simple binary divide. Never schematic but nevertheless possessing a notable (and charming) structure, this striking 16mm colour film reveals the innate beauty of forms, rows, clay, fabric and skin gleaming in the sunlight. Farocki died on July 30. He was an inspiration to many at TIFF. We present this screening in his memory

My Darling Clementine John Ford, USA
John Ford’s classic western — the mythic tale of Wyatt Earp’s gunfight with the corrupt, cattle-rustling Clanton clan at the O.K. Corral — is restored in near hallucinatory detail and clarity. Henry Fonda as Earp embodies the forces of order and civility in the “wide-awake, wide-open” town of Tombstone. The supporting cast, includes Victor Mature as the consumptive Doc Holliday and Walter Brennan as the grizzled Clanton patriarch. 4K digital restoration courtesy of Fox. Scanned in 4K from Museum of Modern Art's nitrate 35mm fine grain master and restored in 4K at Cineric Inc. Audio was restored from the source element at Audio Mechanics.

Previously announced TIFF Cinematheque titles include:

Speaking Parts Atom Egoyan, Canada
Lance is a film extra looking for his first speaking role. When Clara, an idealistic television writer, checks into the hotel where Lance works, he seduces her into casting him in her current film. Meanwhile, Lance’s co-worker Lisa prowls video stores, obsessively viewing and re-viewing the movies in which Lance appears as an extra. Haunting images and obsessive sexualities merge, as these three people become fatally entangled in a web of psycho-sexual desire. This digital restoration was supervised by Atom Egoyan at Deluxe Toronto. Courtesy of eOne.

Crime Wave John Paizs, Canada
Winnipeg director John Paizs’ 1985 classic brilliantly apes the look of ’50s educational films and trashy crime movies in its story of a teenage girl who develops an odd obsession with a frustrated would-be screenwriter. Courtesy of eOne and Library and Archives Canada.

The 39th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 4 to 14, 2014.

Purchase Festival ticket packages online 24 hours a day at tiff.net/festival, by phone from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET daily at 416.599.TIFFor 1.888.599.8433, or visit the Gupta Box Office in person from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET daily at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, until August 20.

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About TIFF
TIFF is a charitable cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world through film. An international leader in film culture, TIFF projects include the annual Toronto International Film Festival in September; TIFF Bell Lightbox, which features five cinemas, major exhibitions, and learning and entertainment facilities; and innovative national distribution program Film Circuit. The organization generates an annual economic impact of $189 million CAD. TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by contributors including Founding Sponsor Bell, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, the City of Toronto, the Reitman family (Ivan Reitman, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels), The Daniels Corporation and RBC. For more information, visit tiff.net.

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