Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Tueday, August 28----------The Toronto International Film Festival has become a key launching pad for the careers of films in the North American market. This is even more true for films chosen for the Gala Presentations.....mainly American prestige pictures and international titles from known auteurs. Early buzz for the awards season can be created here, and with over 3000 journalists attending from all over the globe, the international aspects (and pressure) are enormous. A film can either be made in Toronto (witness AMERICAN BEAUTY) or killed off there (witness last year's star-studded dud ALL THE KINGS MEN). The Opening Weekend contains a troupe of cinematic treasures that will certainly be among the most-talked about films of the new season.

Eastern PromisesMichael ClaytonRenditionTerra 

TERRA
Featuring a unique and stunning animation style, this is an exciting adventure tale that inspires a balance of environmental concerns and hope for peace. Voicing the characters are actors Evan Rachel Wood, Brian Cox, James Garner, Chris Evans, Danny Glover, Amanda Peet, David Cross, Dennis Quaid and  Luke Wilson.

EASTERN PROMISES
Legendary Canadian director David Cronenberg returns to the Festival with a stunning companion piece to the remarkable A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. Viggo Mortensen stars here as the mysterious Nikolai, who is the driver for Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), a Russian restaurateur in London who has deep ties to the underworld. Naomi Watts is Anna, a midwife drawn into their dark world when she saves the newborn child of a young Russian woman who dies on the operating table. 

LE DEUXIÈME SOUFFLE
This is French director Alain Corneau’s thrilling adaptation of the José Giovanni story that spawned the classic 1966 film by the late, great gangster-movie director Jean-Pierre Melville. As the iconic gangster Gustave “Gu” Minda, Daniel Auteuil more than fills the considerable shoes of his predecessor, the legendary Lino Ventura. Monica Bellucci sets the screen on fire as the glamorous Manouche, the woman who will do anything for the criminal she loves.

THE LAST LEAR
Amitabh Bachchan is one of the giants of contemporary Indian cinema. In this film, he plays he first-ever English-language part as a legendary stage actor making a movie for the first time. The story emerges in flashback on the set of the film, when the veteran thespian is gravely ill, after being wooed out of retirement to make his first movie.  

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE
In 1998, the luminous Cate Blanchett made her mark in the role of Elizabeth I in Shekhar Kapur’s Academy Award-nominated ELIZABETH.  She now reprises that character, her own career come to full blossom, playing Elizabeth several years from where we left her. In this fiery tale, a breathtaking sense of romance, history and the great clash of empires  brings a swashbuckling vigour and bracing passion to the story of a legendary queen. 

THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB
Director Robin Swicord transports the enduring literary stories of Jane Austen to the urban setting of Sacramento, California. Based on the best-selling novel by Karen Joy Fowler, this joyous film portrays six present-day friends who converge at an “all Jane Austen all the time” book club to devour Austen’s six novels. The impeccable cast includes Maria Bello, Amy Brenneman, Maggie Grace, Kathy Baker and Emily Blunt as the women who have all been hurt in love, and Jimmy Smits, Hugh Dancy and Kevin Zegers as the men they desire.

Sandy Mandelberger, Toronto FF Dailies Editor