Second Look: The Help

Imagine that a movie was to made about the struggle for women's rights and equality. Now imagine that it was to be made completely by men - the director, writer and producer are all male. That's not so terrible, perhaps. There are many talented men who demonstrate a keen understanding and awareness of a woman's point of view and who could do a fine job.

But now imagine that the characters in that movie were overwhelmingly men. That would really raise some eyebrows. Yet you could still defend it as a side of the story that needed to be told. Surely there were men who helped out in the women's cause, right? It wouldn't be an altogether convincing defence but one you could make nonetheless.

Alright then. Now imagine that this movie wasn't just one side of the story but was the only perspective given to the exclusion of all others. Year after year, for decades, the only time a woman has her story told it's from the standpoint of a man who saves her and helps her gain dignity. Isn't that just a lovely message after all, that women should be given equality?

Fellini: Spectacular Obsessions, June 30–Sept 18

TIFF Bell Lightbox follows its sensational Tim Burton exhibit with another presentation that pays loving tribute to a master director. Fellini: Spectacular Obsessions runs for the next three months at the Toronto International Film Festival home.

Additionally, they will be screening two related series. Fellini Dream Double Bills is a film series of Fellini films paired with a related film that shows his influence or inspiration. Each film pairing was specially selected by a film luminary or TIFF programmer. The Double Bill programmers were Atom Egoyan, James Schamus, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Isabella Rossellini, Jesse Wente, Piers Handling, Miranda July, Frédéric Boyer, Molly Haskell, Deepa Mehta, Radley Metzger and Lightbox Artistic Director Noah Cowan.

The other series that accompanies the exhibition is  Days of Glory: Masterworks of Italian Neorealism. It screens many of the great films from this vital cinematic movement and offers work by such masters of Italian cinema as Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Credit where credit is due - Natalie Portman and the stunt double controversy [UPDATED]

Just as the acclaimed film Black Swan is released today on DVD and Blu-ray, it's been hit by another controversy.

Previously, it was embroiled in a minor scandal over costume design. The Mulleavy sisters of the Rodarte fashion house claimed that they were screwed out of a Costume Designer credit because they were responsible for some of the key ballet costumes. The film's actual Costume Designer Amy Westcott was asked to keep quiet because the producers didn't want any friction leading up to the Oscar nominations. But once the nominations came out and Westcott was left off the ballot (likely because people bought into the Mulleavy hype) she finally spoke out and made it clear that she was the department head, the Mulleavy sisters answered to both her and Darren Aronofsky, and that the sisters were properly credited.

Now along comes another claiming she was screwed out of a bigger credit. Soon after Natalie Portman won the Best Actress Academy Award for her bravura performance as Nina, we started to hear some grumbing from her stunt double in the film, Sarah Lane. This was a surprise, since earlier interviews with her made her seem quite gracious.

Second look: The Social Network

Writer: Aaron Sorkin, based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich
Director: David Fincher
Producer: Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Cean Chaffin
Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, Armie Hammer, Max Minghella, Josh Pence, Rooney Mara, Brenda Song, Rashida Jones
Talkie drama
2 hours

Up until this weekend's stunning upset victory by The King's Speech at the PGA Awards, the frontrunner and presumed lock to win every major awards event including the Oscars had been The Social Network. But so far, all the awards have been overwhelmingly critics' awards, including the Golden Globes. Critics everywhere deemed it to be edgy, relevant and current -- so much so that you'd think it was without question one of the greatest films of all time.  But film critics have a different way of watching films than general viewers and filmmakers themselves. Critics have the advantage of seeing way more films than most because it's their job; however, they tend to watch films more for content rather than for either easy enjoyment or for artistry and technique.

Now along come the industry awards, and the PGA's preference for The King's Speech indicates that filmmakers are less enamoured of The Social Network's cinematic qualities. Although many are brushing it off as a quirk of the preferential ballot that the PGA and the Oscars use for the 10 Best Film options, they actually made the smart, correct choice. If you really look closely at The Social Network as a film, there's simply not much going on.

That's not to say that it's bad -- it's a good film, perhaps very good, but just not great. And certainly not the "best."

Second look - 2001: A Space Odyssey

Writer: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke; based on the story "The Sentinel" by Arthur C. Clarke
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Cast: Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester, Daniel Richter, Leonard Rossiter, Margaret Tyzack, Robert Beatty, Douglas Rain
Science-fiction art film
2 hour 21 minutes

43 years after the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey and 10 years after this futuristic film was set, it's amazing to see how well this film has aged. It was truly ahead of its time, and thereby achieved a certain timelessness. It still has the power to astound, mystify and thrill the audience.

On seeing it again, you cannot help but think that this film could never be made today. It doesn't follow any formulaic plot. It doesn't spell everything out for you the way films are expected to nowadays. Long silences are artfully employed - dialogue barely occurs between characters. Its special effects are lo-tech but actually special - they are far more impressive than our modern computer animated effects.

Second Look – Polytechnique

Writer: Jacques Davidts
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Producer: Don Carmody, Maxime Rémillard
Cast: Karine Vanasse, Maxim Gaudette, Sebastien Huberdeau,  Évelyne Brochu, Johanne-Marie Tremblay
Drama, 77 minutes

At a press conference on Monday announcing the nominees for the 2010 Genie Awards, the brilliant film Polytechnique came out on top with a total of eleven nominations including Best Picture and Best Director for Denis Villeneuve. It’s an astounding and deeply moving film, and one that I chose for my top 10 list of 2009. Yet in the following day’s news items, one could see how twenty years later, the Montreal Massacre still inflames the emotions of many. Most of the more appalling things that were posted anonymously on message boards at news sites such as theglobeandmail.com and cbc.ca have since been removed, but some remain such as the following:

Oh yeah - almost forgot - this whole thing has nothing to do with misogynistic Canadians - It has to do with the fact that Marc Lepine's real name was Gamil Gharbi and he was raised by a misogynistic muslim father.

The claim that Marc Lepine was Muslim is an oft repeated lie from hateful misogynists who apparently need to express racism and religious intolerance as well. Lepine was baptized a Catholic and legally changed his name to Marc Lepine when young. His parents separated when he was seven and he hated his father. But even now, some men it seems would conveniently assign his murderous actions to his father’s heritage than to his Catholic upbringing or to misogyny or to gun violence. It appears there are many nasty people out there who secretly agree with the murderer’s anti-feminism and cannot sympathize with his victims.

Second look - J’ai tué ma mere (I Killed My Mother)

Writer/director: Xavier Dolan
Cast: Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval
Gay coming-of-age drama, 96 minutes

In Toronto theatres now, J’ai tué ma mere (I Killed My Mother) returns to Montreal Thursday for the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois. It is indeed an impressive debut film by Montrealer Xavier Dolan.

Dolan took Cannes by storm last year, winning three awards: the Art Cinema Award (C.I.C.A.E.), Prix Regards Jeune and the SACD (Societe des auteurs et compositeurs dramatiques) Prize at the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. It went on to win two awards at the Lumiere Awards in France, and numerous awards in Festivals as far-flung as Bangkok, Reykjavik and Zabreb. It was also named to Canada’s Top Ten by the Toronto International Film Festival, and was Canada’s submission to the Academy Awards in the Best Foreign Film Category. It received 5 Jutra Award nominations, 4 for Dolan himself.

All of this praise is mostly justified. It is quite a strong first feature by a precocious filmmaker, at only 20 years of age. He not only wrote and directed the film, but produced it and starred in it as well. Could he really be the next Orson Welles? Is J’ai tué ma mere another Citizen Kane?