It’s so nice to see that year after year, the system we use to get our tickets is so reliable. For out-of-towners, one way to get tickets for Toronto is to buy them in advance through the lottery system. Some of our members do this, but I’ve never bothered due to the exorbitant cost. It’s true, upon arrival at the box office on Day One, a large percentage of the films we want to see are marked “rush only.” Those of you who know me know that I don’t “rush.” (Photos show the extremely helpful ticketboard. Shows marked in red are designated “Rush Only”.) However every morning when the box office opens, tickets for nearly every film are released for day of sale. .”)
The hardship with this method is the necessity to be at the box office when it opens at 7 a.m., and even better, about 45 – 60 minutes before it opens! Fortunately, I love to get up early and hit the box office when I’m Toronto. It gives me such a feeling of satisfaction, and we almost always get the tickets we want.
Today our target was Thom Fitzgerald’s 3 NEEDLES. There is always some anxiety surrounding the Canadian films as they often sell out quickly, and 3 NEEDLES was not listed as a “best bet” on the festival website. However, there was no problem at all getting the three tickets we needed. I felt very satisfied to see our system working once again.
We caught a French film, DOUCHES FROIDES last night, and I was pretty underwhelmed. Things could only go up from there, and up they did go with the first film for today, SARAH SILVERMAN: JESUS IS MAGIC. I’ll be doing formal reviews at a later date, but Sarah’s edgy humor kept the audience laughing.
Tonight we are going to the first party of our TIFF career, in celebration of Sarah Silverman’s movie! We’ve never been invited to parties before, and this year we received two invites (we also received a invitation to THE SQUID & THE WHALE party). I still don’t know how we got on the list, but I suspect, at least for the Sarah Silverman party, Eric D’Arbeloff has something to do with it. He produced Sarah’s film (he also produced WALK ON WATER and LADIES IN LAVENDAR, in addition to Nicole Holofcener’s films) and we have had several e-mail correspodences over the years but have only met briefly. I may find out tonight and will have to thank him if that’s the case!
Chris has arrived in Toronto, and I will be meeting him in a few moments for SHANGHAI DREAMS, the latest film by the director of BEIJING BICYCLE. Meanwhile, Scot is seeing LIZA WITH A Z, with Liza Minnelli herself in person at the screening! How wild is that?
Okay, Chris just called, he’s in line! Gotta go. More later…