illustration by Angel D’Amico
New Year's Evolution
Issue #26
Our film editor reports back from the Toronto Film Festival on what — and what not — to watch in 2006. Continued from the story in Venus No. 26
By Rebecca Flint-Marx
Published: December 1st, 2005 | 3:16pm
If the Toronto International Film Festival is an indicator of what we can look forward to — or dread — on screens for the rest of 2005 and the year to come, then steel yourself for both welcome surprises and unexpected disappointments.
A murderous schoolmarm, an enigmatic pin-up queen, and a raucous chorus of female prisoners were some of the more memorable characters to emerge during the 10-day celluloid marathon. And while the number of female filmmakers paled — to nobody’s surprise — in comparison to that of their male counterparts, the festival’s more than 300 selections offered one thought-provoking portrayal of women’s lives after another. So although women are still not adequately represented behind the camera, it was hard to leave Toronto without the conviction that certain directors are at least doing women justice in front of it. What follows is a forecast of what you might be watching — or avoiding — in 2006.
VERS LE SUD
Charlotte Rampling has been an unforgettable presence since she made her uncredited screen debut in The Knack in 1965. In Vers le Sud, she offers another indelible performance, this time as a Wellesley professor vacationing in late-1970s Haiti. Her character is the queen bee of a trio of white women who frequent a beach resort that is home to a population of strapping, half-naked men who have little to do but fulfill their guests’ desires. While Vers le Sud fails to adequately acknowledge the political oppression that serves as a backdrop to the men’s sexual exploitation, it does present a knowing and often poignant view of female rivalry and erotic longing. At the age of 60, Rampling has become almost synonymous with icy hauteur: while it’s something she expresses effortlessly, her periodic thaws in Vers le Sud are even more fascinating.
NORTH COUNTRY
More stellar work in front of the camera came courtesy of Felicity Huffman in Transamerica and Charlize Theron in North Country. The fact that the latter premiered at Toronto points to the festival’s role as an awards campaign launch site, where the high concentration of press and critics bestows a generous dose of early publicity. A Best Actress nomination for Theron wouldn’t be surprising. What was surprising was how Theron — in the role of a single mother suing a mining company for sexual harassment — avoided the kind of Suffering Diva gimmickry that accompanied her Extra Pounds and Prosthetics portrayal of another abused woman in Monster. And it was a relief to see that Niki Caro’s big-budget follow-up to Whale Rider largely sidestepped the bloat and pathos that usually accompany Hollywood Big Issue films. Caro may have sold her services to the big H, but she didn’t sell her soul in the process.
SISTERS
Unlike North Country, Julia Solomonoff’s Sisters (Hermanas) may never see the light of day in this country, and that would be a shame. Solomonoff, an assistant director on The Motorcycle Diaries, is Argentinean, and her film is set in both Argentina during the instability of the 1970s and in the placid Houston suburbs of 1984. The title characters are Elena (Valeria Bertuccelli) and Natalia (Ingrid Rubio), who are connected by blood but few shared personality traits. Where Elena is content to be married with a child (and living in the Houston burbs), Natalia is an exiled journalist on a tireless quest to find out who was responsible for the disappearance of her boyfriend back in Argentina.
While the film bears some of the hallmarks of a thriller, its emphasis — and strengths — lie in its dissection of the sisters’ relationship to one another and to the secrets of their past. An orderly film whose spare construction poses a contrast to the messy emotions it contains, Sisters deserves to be seen by an audience outside of Buenos Aires, and if the distribution gods are benevolent, it will be.
To read about more 2006 films, including The Notorious Bettie Page, The Quiet, Mrs. Harris, Gentille, Sympathy for Lady Vengeance, and Wah-Wah, see Venus issue No. 26.
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