It’s 10:09 p.m. on Wednesday night, and we’re all packed (except for my laptop, of course) and ready to go to the Toronto International Film Festival tomorrow morning. I must mention how generous and cool Scot is, as he let me extend our trip by two days… for a couple of reasons, but mainly so I could see Tsai Ming-Liang’s THE WAYWARD CLOUD on Friday night. It helps a little that Scot gets to see the new Takashi Miike flick, THE GREAT YOKAI WAR, and we get to join Beth for the Hugh Dillon Redemption Choir show on Friday night. (For those of you who don’t know, Hugh Dillon is a Canadian actor who has appeared in HARD CORE LOGO and the forthcoming DOWN TO THE BONE… he’s also in a rock ‘n roll band.)
As for Toronto preparations, for the first time I advance ordered tickets online. Tickets for Canadian films are notoriously difficult to get at the festival, so just to play it safe, I got my tickets to Atom Egoyan’s WHERE THE TRUTH LIES. So I’m sure to see that one anyway! (I’m actually just hoping that I get to say hello to Arsinee Khanjian!
Speaking of our fabulous Canadian friends, I have been in touch with Daniel MacIvor, Wiebke von Carolsfeld, and Kish Iqbal (Ellen Page’s agent) via e-mail, and we are planning to get together at various points during the festival. I’ve spoken to Marilyn and discussed our plans to meet up at the Saturday screening of CAPOTE, starring her fabulous son, Phil. The biggest surprise of all is the fact that I’ve received invitations to TWO parties! I’ve never partaken in the party scene in Toronto, but that all changes this time out. On Friday night, we’ll be heading to Sarah Silverman’s party celebrating her new film SARAH SILVERMAN: JESUS IS MAGIC, and on Tuesday night we’ll be joining Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels to celebrate the release of their film, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE.
So the excitement is mounting. I will do my best to blog each day from Toronto and let you know what’s going on, but it all depends on our internet access. Now I’ve got to put a few finishing touches on my film list and get to bed!