From September 8 to 18, some of the biggest names in world cinema will be at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) to support their current project with great fanfare. glamour. Jennifer Lawrence, Steven Spielberg, Daniel Craig, Olivia Colman, Jessica Chastain, Park Chan-wook, Viola Davis, Hirokazu Kore-eda and even singer Taylor Swift, to name but a handful, will thus cross the threshold of the sparkling TIFF Bell Lightbox, home of the event.
The reporter shows up there one day before all this beautiful, rich and famous world, his head full of cinematographic discoveries and interviews that await him, his eyes already filled with stars, although he made a bright sunshine upon arrival.
Landing in downtown Toronto the day before the opening, we are not too out of place from the start compared to Montreal: up to the skyline, the orange cones follow one another, just like the works of construction. It’s hard to believe, but the next day, the red carpet and the flashes of cameras will eclipse this dismal panorama.
What’s more, after an essentially virtual vintage in 2020 and another hybrid in 2021 due to the pandemic, there is an obvious desire to celebrate in the air.
That’s good, since the 2022 program has enough to satiate the appetite of the most greedy moviegoers – at the risk of making them graze indigestion.
If big titles have just been unveiled at the Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Festival, eternal competitors of the TIFF, due to the whims of the calendars, many prestigious productions will have their baptism here. Perhaps the most anticipated is The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg’s new film, described as a largely autobiographical work – that’s all we know about it since nothing has leaked out so far. Let’s hope all the same that the immense American filmmaker, at just 75 years old, is not already delivering his cinematographic testament: we still want more.
Another biographical film that piques curiosity, in a “crazy stiff” register this one: Weirdabout the life and career of comedian “Weird Al” Yankovic (Daniel Radcliffe, we presume Swiss Army Man that Harry Potter), whose parody songs and music videos caused a sensation in the 1980s and 1990s. Evan Rachel Wood (Westworld) plays Madonna there. We look forward.
Craig, Fonda, Crowe and company
Just as we can’t sit still while waiting to discover the detective comedy Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mysteryfollowing the huge surprise success Knives Outfor which director Rian Johnson and the star Daniel Craig. It is also a world premiere, like the film The Woman Kingby Gina Prince-Bythewood, about a general (Viola Davis) who leads a faction of warriors, the Agojies, in the kingdom of Dahomey, now Benin.
And Moving Onby Paul Weisz, where Jane Fonda and her friend Lily Tomlin take revenge on an evil widower… And Brosa gay romantic comedy that gets the “vulgarly hilarious” treatment from producer Judd Apatow (Super bad, Trainwreck)… And The Menuby Mark Mylod, a black horror comedy where Ralph Fiennes plays a disturbing chef and Anya Taylor-Joy, a perplexed guest… And The Good Nurseby Tobias Lindholm, a medical thriller where Jessica Chastain, a suspicious nurse, and Eddie Redmayne, a fellow serial killer, confront each other…
Without forgetting Causeway, by Lila Neugebauer, where Jennifer Lawrence plays a veteran who suffered a major brain injury, but who only thinks of going back to Afghanistan. Neither The Greatest Beer Run Everby Peter Farrelly, whose first film since his controversial Oscar victory with Green Book. Once again, the director revisits the 1960s, with, this time, the Vietnam War as a backdrop; with Zac Efron, Russell Crowe and Bill Murray.
Will we still be talking about some of these films when the Oscars come? That’s the point ! Given its positioning, TIFF is a privileged showcase for the industry.
From one “buzz” to another
To the list are obviously added a myriad of category A productions preceded by a ” buzz after Venice and Telluride: The Whaleby Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, black swan), whose star, Brendan Fraser, is said to be the professional comeback of the year;Empire of Lightby Sam Mendes (007 Skyfall, 1917), a sentimental story set in 1980s England, with Olivia Colman; The Wonderby Sebastián Lelio (Oscar for best foreign film for A fantastic woman), where Florence Pugh plays a nurse tasked with finding the medical origin of an apparent miracle that occurred in an Irish village in 1859…
Between screenings, TIFF is also an opportunity for us, critics and journalists, to fill up on interviews with some of “all this beautiful, rich and famous world” in view of the theatrical release of the films. A marathon that begins, in short, but on a bed of glitter rather than asphalt. There are worse jobs.