Toronto 2005: Day Seven - Confessions of a Festival Junkie

Day Seven

It's always seemed to me that there was a thin line that separated history from nostalgia.

There was a rather small gathering of critics Wednesday over at Norman Jewison's Yorktown Productions to herald the publication of his autobiography "This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me" that reminded me of that thin wall. In addition to all the on-screen things that are associated with Jewison, he can also claim without debate the title "friend of the Toronto Film Festival." In addition to being a great champion of the event, he used to host an annual barbecue at his farm that's about a half-hour beyond the airport.

The shindig predated his involvement in setting up the Canadian Film Centre, Canada's equivalent to the American Film Institute. As the Toronto fest grew, the intimate rendezvous at the farm evolved into a larger three-ring circus at the CFC.

What took me aback momentarily was the fact that virtually everyone in the press corps that attended the first edition of this event appeared to be present to pay homage to Norman. It doesn't include a lot of people, but certainly Roger Ebert, Rex Reed, William Wolf and the Toronto Sun's Bruce Kirkland are the only people that come to mind. There's an additional absent friend that ties into the book and the festival. That's Jay Scott who was the critic at the Globe and Mail newspaper and the person who was supposed to write Jewison's biography.

Scott died about a dozen years ago and I would periodically hear that some other journalist had been given his notes and drafts. I suspect most of that scuttlebutt was no more than an urban legend. Regardless, the subject decided maybe it was time he told his own story and let the chips fall where they may.

In addition to Montreal smoke meat and a little bubble of calm, I have to admit I took great delight when Roger Ebert declared, "this has to be the best Toronto festival ever." Roger went on to say that people ask him what the best five pictures are this year and he tells them he can't even begin to answer that because he's seen one great film after another. I certainly didn't press him to name names.

Certainly the initial sense that the 2005 Toronto lineup was a catastrophe has softened among critics and industry attendees. People have caught up with a handful of good or very good pictures and have upgraded the festival to "passable" or "soft."

Sentimentality also threatened to creep in when I bumped into Al Maysles at the Sutton Place. He was truly a mentor when I lived in New York City and thought my future was in film editing. Mostly we caught up on the past couple of years and swapped stories. He was about to screen Meet Marlon Brando, so I told him a couple of choice tales about the actor and he half seriously invited me to provide some commentary when the picture goes out on Criterion.

Al told a story about our common friend Conrad Hall. Steve Zallian had asked Al to shoot some material of the chess players in New York parks for Searching for Bobby Fisher that was being made in Toronto for budgetary reasons. Zallian called him back and was very complimentary. But when Conrad called him back, Al was over the moon. He said that the footage was so wonderful that it was going to force him to shoot his stuff differently.

Maysles had been doing a series of filmmaker portraits for IFC but that project ran out of money and the one he most wanted to do had to be scrapped. He was all set to go on location with Roman Polanski.

Jay Scott also got recalled when I ran into Bert Manzari who's spearheading the Sundance Cinemas that should start to appear late next year. Bert went to school with Jay in New Mexico, or was it Arizona? We flew up together for the funeral and to no great surprise he can't help but associate the festival with his late friend. I have to admit that I hear his voice from time to time at this year's festival and he doesn't appear to be agreeing with Ebert's assessment.

by Leonard Klady