TIFF - Day1

The feeling is back again!

Caught myself grinning while looking a the long lineup in front of Varsity cinema today, yes it's back again.
Kind of slow day I guess, as it wasn't packed as you'd expect, but the movie freaks were out with their swinging festival passes and whatnot.

Many good films out there for day 1, such as The Bothersome Man, kore-eda's HANA, Slumming and The Pervert's Guide to Cinema.

But the highlight of Day 1 is Sasha Cohen's appearence as Borat for the midnight madness screening of Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

I tested the waters around 8 p.m to see if I stand a chance of getting a rush ticket for Borat, but as soon as I saw the already 100 people lined up there , just headed back to home.

Now to my review for Day1:

Requiem (Hans-Christian Schmid)
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With Sandra Hüller (winner of best actress from Berlin film festival).

Based on the true story of Anneliese Michel, a 23-year-old student, who died of starvation after an exorcism in Miltenberg, Germany (1976)
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This is no emily rose crap, it's a gutsy and brave documentation of a "possesed girl" situation, no dramatazation, no sentimalism, just a calm, sympathetic and brave observation of the situation and the sufferings of the subject - a simple and lovely faithful college girl who yearns for Ste. Caherine and suffers from the same trials as she did. Sandra Huller gives the performance of her life and her presence on the screen is so strong that robs all the other cast of any importance (favorite scene : where she's dancing in the bar, so freely and innocent).

the film maintains a very balanced line between the 2 rival forces here : Science and religion without siding with either one, nor does it venture in the "deamon showing" business like the american exorcism movies, we never see them, nor we hear them, we just see michaela's reactions and suffering in the most subtle way, a clever take on the subject which made the movie a head and shoulder better than all the typical similar movies, kind of reminded me of "Rosmary's baby" (there are some similarities in tones and style without the paranoid feeling of RB).

I loved how in 1 1/2 hours the momentum is cleverly built and the film driven by the gradual complexity of the situation and tension built, but at the end there's no climax.

the movie ends in a very romantic and poetic scene, where we see Michaela heading back to home to go through more suffering and exorcisms and eventually die, as she said "following my path and for the better cause, a better reason".