TIFF Bell Lightbox - Program from Nov 25

TIM BURTON, MARY PICKFORD, BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI AND

BREATHTAKING 70MM CLASSICS AT TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX THIS WINTER

Toronto – TIFF Bell Lightbox is set to keep audiences warm this winter with an impressive slate of programming running from November 25 to February 2.

Exhibitions include Tim Burton, organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, offering a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the world’s most influential filmmakers and artists, and Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star, the inaugural exhibition in TIFF’s new Canadian Film Gallery.

TIFF Cinematheque presents retrospectives on Charlie Chaplin, Italian master Bernardo Bertolucci and Jafar Panahi, one of the major figures of the New Iranian Cinema as well as the relaunch of The Free Screen, featuring a retrospective of Spanish experimental film.

The season also includes an eclectic lineup of contemporary and classic films that will have exclusive engagements of at least one week at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Titles include Lucy Walker, Karen Harley & João Jardim’s Waste Land (2009); Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme (2010); Julie Taymor’s The Tempest (2010); Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) in 3-D, and a new 70mm print of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

Other highlights include Canada’s Top Ten, TIFF’s annual celebration of excellence in national cinema.

Tickets for the Tim Burton exhibition and film screenings go on sale today to the public (TIFF members and non-members). TIFF members can see the Tim Burton exhibition once for free. To learn more visit tiff.net/membership. Tickets for the winter season go on sale today for TIFF members and on November 17 for non-members.  For detailed information, visit tiff.net.

EXHIBITIONS

Tim Burton

As previously announced, after its spectacular run at The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, this groundbreaking exhibition comes to Toronto. TIFF is proud to present Tim Burton, a major exhibition which explores Burton’s creative vision and his artistic development from early significant drawings he made as a teenager to sophisticated renderings used to create characters for his most treasured recent films. Delving deep into Burton’s visual imagination, the exhibition brings together more than 700 items including paintings, drawings, puppets, costumes, storyboards and maquettes drawn from Burton’s personal vault, studio archives and private collections. The exhibition also includes six new sculptural commissions created for The Museum of Modern Art (Balloon Boy, Carousel, Topiary, Three Creatures, Stainboy Diorama and Robot Boy) and one new display window commissioned specifically for TIFF Bell Lightbox. Tim Burton will run from November 26, 2010 to April 17, 2011.

Screenings of Burton’s films, from Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985) to Alice in Wonderland (2010), will be offered in tandem with the exhibition. All of the screenings will also be double-billed with a film that has influenced, inspired and intrigued Burton as a filmmaker. On the weekend of November 26 to 28, all of Burton’s films will screen back-to-back in the ultimate endurance test of unadulterated Burton love, the Burton Blitz.

Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

The inaugural exhibition in TIFF’s new Canadian Film Gallery, Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star chronicles the life and career of one of the first and greatest stars of the silent cinema, Canada’s own Mary Pickford. Amassed over a 30-year period by private collector Rob Brooks, this exhibition draws on his extraordinary collection of 1,900 items including photographs, posters, memorabilia, postcards, and products endorsed by Pickford. It illustrates the profound mark she left upon the film world: Pickford was one of the first film stars to use her stardom to cross the threshold from acting into writing, directing, producing and celebrity branding. The exhibition is complemented by a screening programme that features four of Pickford’s greatest films including her first film as her own producer, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1917), and her second collaboration with noted director Maurice Tourneur, The Poor Little Rich Girl (1917). The exhibition at the Canadian Film Gallery runs from January 13 until July 3, 2011 and is curated by Sylvia Frank, Director of TIFF’s Film Reference Library and Special Collections.

TIFF CINEMATHEQUE

Filmmaker Retrospectives

Modern Times: The Films of Charlie Chaplin

One of the most recognizable and beloved figures in cinema history, Charlie Chaplin’s blend of slapstick humour and pathos will enchant young and old audiences from December 23 to January 10.  Pairing brand-new prints of ten Chaplin-directed feature films with his most hilarious shorts, the retrospective includes classics such as his first feature, The Kid (1921); his farewell to silent cinema and the character that made him famous, Modern Times (1936); his most outrageous work of political satire, The Great Dictator (1940); and his most unabashedly tear-stained melodrama, Limelight (1952).

Fashion, Fascists and F**king: The Films of Bernardo Bertolucci

Launching on January 6 with his international breakthrough (and #43 on TIFF’s Essential 100 list) The Conformist (1970), this complete retrospective celebrates the visually lush, erotically charged oeuvre of one of cinema’s modernist masters. Bertolucci’s fascination with the intersection of sexuality and politics has given birth to a series of provocative films including Before the Revolution (1964), centred on a young upper-class man caught between his bourgeois upbringing and his revolutionary political beliefs; Luna (1979), the controversial family drama about a mother who attempts to save her drug-addicted son only to slip into an incestuous relationship; and The Dreamers (2003), a luxuriously erotic tribute to young lust and the transformative power of the cinema starring Michael Pitt, Eva Green and Louis Garrel. The retrospective also includes Bertolucci’s striking debut feature, La commare secca (1962), an adaptation of an original story by Pier Paolo Pasolini; The Spider’s Stratagem (1970), his first rumination on Italy’s Fascist heritage and his first collaboration with his soon-to-be regular cinematographer Vittorio Storaro; the taboo-busting Last Tango in Paris (1972), starring Marlon Brando in one of his most indelible performances; and hidden treasures such as La via del petrolio (1967), a poetic documentary that links the continent-spanning odyssey of oil production to the evolution of the cinema itself; and Love and Anger (1969), an anthology of politically charged short films from five major European directors.

Jafar Panahi: Offside

From December 2 to December 9, Jafar Panahi’s body of work will have its first retrospective in Toronto. One of Iran’s most acclaimed directors, whose recent political imprisonment sparked international furour and protest, Panahi is one of the major figures of the New Iranian Cinema. His cinema owes much to Italian neorealism, with his documentary style and preference for mostly non-professional actors, and a fierce belief in human and social rights. Launching with the Toronto premiere of his new short The Accordion, which premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival officially ending Panahi’s imposed filmmaking silence, the retrospective presents his five award-winning features, including his stunning feature debut The White Balloon (1995), a charming tale that follows the misadventures of a young girl as she sets out to buy a lucky goldfish on the eve of Iranian New Year; The Circle (2000), a politically daring and formally sophisticated suspense film that interweaves the stories of several women as they struggle to navigate the oppressive patriarchy of modern Iran; and Crimson Gold (2003), a wrenching portrait of class disparity in Tehran that won the Jury Prize in Cannes that year.

Special Presentations

70mm

Starting on December 9, three cinematic masterpieces — Stanley Kubrick’s science-fiction landmark 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Jacques Tati’s comedy classic Playtime (1967) and David Lean’s epic desert adventure Lawrence of Arabia (1962) — will be presented in their original 70mm format, offering audiences the unique opportunity to experience the breathtaking clarity and dramatic impact that have made this format the most visually spectacular widescreen process ever devised.  A brand new print of 2001: A Space Odyssey will begin its exclusive engagement on December 9 with an introduction by visual effects wizard Douglas Trumbull.

The Grey Fox – 30th anniversary screening

Thirty years after its release, Phillip Borsos’ poignant, elegiac Western remains one of the greatest of all Canadian films. Released from prison in 1901, thirty years after his incarceration, highwayman Bill Miner (stuntman-turned-leading-man Richard Farnsworth) finds himself unable to adjust to the startling twentieth-century world he encounters. Gorgeously photographed by Frank Tidy, The Grey Fox captures British Columbia’s countryside in all its glory and the gloomy half-life of its not-quite-established towns and features sterling performances by Farnsworth and the late Jackie Burroughs. This special presentation will take place on December 5. Guests in attendance include Philip Borsos’ wife Beret Borsos, their filmmaker son Angus Borsos, andThe Grey Fox screenwriter John Hunter and producer Peter O’Brian.

The Free Screen

From January 5 to February 2, the first installment of The Free Screen at TIFF Bell Lightbox features From Ecstasy to Rapture: 50 Years of the other Spanish Cinema, an unprecedented retrospective of Spanish experimental cinema of the last half century. Featuring numerous restored prints and preservation video transfers, this important international touring programme provides a rare overview of an alternative national cinema whose contribution to the international avant-garde stretches far beyond the renowned legacy of Dali and Buñuel. Presented in six programmes arranged by theme and technique, this series was curated by Antoni Pinent for the Contemporary Cultural Centre of Barcelona. Some of the highlights include Documents/Itineraries, a programme of shorts and réalités beginning with Fuego en Castilla (1958-59), a film by José Val del Omar, a visionary filmmaker and one of the most relevant and enigmatic figures to emerge within the Spanish film industry; Appropriations/Great Super 8, an eclectic mix of Super 8 shorts and 16mm found-footage films that traces the avant-garde ethos developed by the experimental film communities in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia; and Painting-Movement: Jose Antonio Sistiaga’s … ere erera baleibu izik subua aruaren, a rare opportunity to see the 35mm restoration of one of Spain’s most celebrated cinematic works, the only full-length Spanish film created with a camera-less technique.

The Free Screen is committed to independent and avant-garde works and to an exploration of numerous art forms and disciplines as they relate to works of art made for the cinema. All screenings in this series are FREE, unless otherwise indicated.

Essential Cinema

TIFF Bell Lightbox’s inaugural programme based on the 100 most essential films of all time continues with repeat screenings of last season’s greatest hits as well as debut screenings of Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic Blade Runner (1982) — introduced by legendary visual effects wizard Douglas Trumbull — and the epochal masterpiece of African cinema La Noire de… (1966).

EXCLUSIVE ENGAGEMENTS

Every Thursday, the best of international and Canadian cinema past and present will have exclusive engagements of at least one week at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Screening dates and times for all titles will be available on tiff.net the Wednesday before each film’s debut.

Release date: November 25, 2010

Vision

Margarethe von Trotta, 2009, Germany, Mongrel Media

A passionate portrayal of the extraordinary life of Hildegard von Bingen, the 12th-century Christian mystic and pioneering proto-feminist whose work as a theologian, healer, composer and playwright brought her recognition from the Church hierarchy, even the Pope himself.

Waste Land

Lucy Walker, Karen Harley & João Jardim, 2009, Brazil/UK , eOne Films

Gorgeously photographed and accompanied by an absorbing score by Moby, Waste Land is a revelatory exploration of the mind of Brazilian artist Vik Muniz as he explores the world’s largest landfill outside Rio de Janeiro and crafts stirringly beautiful portraits in collaboration with the local catadores (garbage pickers). Muniz’s collaboration with these inspiring characters as they create photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both dignity and despair as the catadores begin to re-imagine their lives.

Release date: December 2, 2010

Kings of Pastry

Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker, 2009, Netherlands/USA/UK/France

Kings of Pastry is a delicious behind-the-scenes exposé of one of the world’s most intense cooking events. Every year in France, the country’s greatest pastry and dessert chefs gather to be judged by their peers in a gruelling culinary competition. The winner joins the ranks of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France (MOF), an exclusive group of France’s best craftsmen, who are honoured with the right to don the MOF’s red, white and blue collar. On December 2, master documentarians D.A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back) and Chris Hegedus (Startup.com) will introduce the film and discuss their decades-long collaboration, which has yielded such acclaimed films as The War Room, Down From the Mountain and Only the Strong Survive.

Edward Scissorhands

Tim Burton, 1990, USA

Created by an inventor who dies before he can replace his razor-sharp digits with actual hands, teenage Frankenstein Edward (Johnny Depp) is discovered in his castle by local Avon lady Peg, who brings him home and tries to incorporate him into neighbourhood life. Although Edward’s talents at hairdressing and topiary make him a local sensation, when he falls in love with Peg’s beautiful daughter Kim (Winona Ryder), he becomes a hunted pariah once again.

Release date: December 9, 2010

2001: A Space Odyssey

New 70mm print

Stanley Kubrick, 1968, USA

Film # 26 on the Essential 100 list

Stanley Kubrick’s science-fiction masterpiece chronicles an intergalactic mission to find the source of a mysterious black monolith discovered by American astronauts on the moon – a mission complicated when the ship’s renegade computer HAL 9000 decides that its human cargo is inadequate to carry out such an important task.

Release date: December 16, 2010

The Tempest

Julie Taymor, 2010, USA, Maple Pictures

Celebrated stage and film director Julie Taymor returns to her theatrical roots for this gender-bending, postmodern Shakespearean adaptation starring the regal Helen Mirren as Prospera, a sorceress banished to an island with her young daughter Miranda by her usurping brother.

I, Don Giovanni

Carlos Saura, 2009, Italy/Spain, Mongrel Media

Based on the life of 18th century Italian lyricist Lorenzo da Ponte, who collaborated with Mozart on his classic opera Don Giovanni, Saura’s film is an inspired look into the creation of one of the greatest musical works of all time and a sexy, visually sumptuous journey into the past.

Release date: December 23, 2010

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Henry Selick, 1993, USA

Burton’s delightfully twisted entry into the holiday film canon was also his first ambitious attempt to revive the dormant art of stop-motion animation for an entire feature film. When Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloweentown, discovers the concept of Christmas, he embarks on a plan to take the place of Santa Claus and spread joy instead of fear – but not everybody is ready for Jack’s version of Christmas.

Playtime

70mm print

Jacques Tati, 1967, France/Italy

French director-performer Jacques Tati, one of cinema’s true comic geniuses, made his masterpiece with the inexhaustibly inventive Playtime, which follows Tati’s inimitable alter ego Monsieur Hulot as he attempts to navigate his way through a Paris that has been transformed into a byzantine maze of glass and steel, abounding in mechanical contrivances that tend to hamper rather than help the humanity they’re meant to serve.

Release date: December 30, 2010

Enter the Void

Gaspar Noé, 2010, France/Germany/Italy, eOne Films

French provoke-auteur Gaspar Noé (I Stand Alone, Irreversible) returns with this psychedelic sexual melodrama that propels the viewer into the drug-addled headspace and perspective of a small-time drug dealer in Tokyo whose murder leaves him a lingering ghost watching over his sister. A controversial and provocative exploration of drugs, sex and the afterlife.

Film Socialisme

Jean-Luc Godard, 2010, Switzerland/France, Mongrel Media

Hotly anticipated and debated since its first screening in Cannes, Jean-Luc Godard’s symphony in three movements is a rich and densely layered cinematic treatise on language – film language, music, literature, the text of history – and a melancholic love letter to a Europe in tragic decline. Combining the humour and tenderness of his Nouvelle Vague films with political urgency and cutting insight, Godard idiosyncratically addresses a host of pressing contemporary issues with classical lyricism and essayistic grandeur.

Lawrence of Arabia

70mm print

David Lean, 1962, UK

Featuring an inordinately rich cast – Alec Guinness, Omar Sharif, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, and Peter O’Toole – this Academy Award®-winning spectacular biopic is based on accounts of British officer T. E. Lawrence’s efforts to unify various desert tribes against the Ottoman Turks during World War I.

Release date: January 13, 2011
London River

Rachid Bouchareb, 2009, UK/France/Algeria, Mongrel Media

In the wake of the 2005 London terrorist attacks, two strangers are drawn together in a search for their missing children. Elisabeth, a Christian, and Ousmane, a Muslim, overcome their cultural differences and prejudices to form a friendship which lends them strength through their shared tragedy.

Nostalgia for the Light

Patricio Guzmán, 2010, France/Germany/Chile
In Chile’s Atacama Desert, astronomers peer deep into the cosmos in search for answers concerning the origins of life. Nearby, a group of women sift through the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, dumped unceremoniously by Pinochet’s regime. Master filmmaker Patricio Guzmán (The Battle of Chile, Salvador Allende) makes thoughtful and unexpected links between these separate but related searches for truth.

Release date: January 20, 2011

Incendies

Denis Villeneuve, 2010, Canada, eOne Films

After their mother Nawal’s death, twins Simon and Jeanne embark on a journey to the Middle East that shines a disturbing light on their mother’s past and culminates in a shocking revelation. Based on the acclaimed play by Wajdi Mouawad and directed by Genie Award-winner Denis Villeneuve (Polytechnique). Winner of Best Canadian Feature Film - Toronto International Film Festival 2010 and ET Canada Award for Best Canadian Feature Film - Vancouver International Film Festival 2010

Release date: January 27, 2011

The Agony and Ecstasy of Phil Spector

Vikram Jayanti, 2009, USA/UK

One of the greatest producers in pop music history, Phil Spector used his trademarked “Wall of Sound” style to generate legendary hits for groups as diverse as The Ronettes, Ike and Tina Turner and The Beatles. While living a decadently reclusive life east of Los Angeles, Spector’s famous penchant for wild behaviour reached its tragic zenith when the actress Lana Clarkson died from a gunshot wound at his house. Charged with murder, Spector would go through two trials, during which he conducted a career-spanning interview with Vikram Jayanti of the BBC in 2007. Jayanti uses this interview as the basis for this candid portrait of Spector, who is equal parts charming and frightening, comparing himself to everyone from Galileo to Leonardo da Vinci, Bach and Roman Polanski while savaging pop legends from Brian Wilson to Paul McCartney.

CANADA’S TOP TEN

Established in 2001, Canada’s Top Ten is devoted to celebrating excellence in Canadian cinema and raising public awareness of Canadian achievements in film. A panel of film experts selects the ten best features and ten best shorts made in Canada during the past year. Canada’s Top Ten lists are chosen from features, shorts, documentaries, animation and experimental films. The 2010 Top Ten feature films and Top Ten shorts will be announced at a press conference on Tuesday, December 14. Films will be screened starting January 20. A selection of the films will tour venues across Canada in early 2011.

TIFF Membership

The opening of TIFF Bell Lightbox has inspired TIFF to create a new membership programme that offers audiences exciting opportunities to experience year-round programming in unique and special ways. TIFF members will enjoy priority access to programming including Tim Burton film programmes, discounts on all screenings, free entry to exhibitions, regular TIFF insider updates, invitations to exclusive members-only events, and more. To learn about all the benefits of being a TIFF member, please visit tiff.net/membership.

Visit tiff.net or call 416-599-TIFF (8433) and 1-888-599-8433 for more information. TIFF Bell Lightbox is located at Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

About TIFF Bell Lightbox
TIFF Bell Lightbox, a breathtaking five-storey complex located in downtown Toronto, provides a permanent home for film lovers to celebrate cinema from around the world and will propel TIFF forward as an international leader in film culture. Designed by innovative architecture firm KPMB, TIFF Bell Lightbox’s fluid structure encourages exploration, movement and play. The campaign to build TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by founding sponsor Bell, the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, the City of Toronto, the King and John Festival Corporation - consisting of the Reitman family and The Daniels Corporation – major sponsor and official bank RBC, major sponsor BlackBerry, HSBC Bank Canada, Visa†, the Copyright Collective of Canada, the Slaight Family Foundation, NBC Universal Canada, the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation, Mackenzie Financial, the Harbinger Foundation, CIBC and BMO. The Board of Directors, staff and many generous individuals and corporations have also contributed to the campaign. For more information on the TIFF Bell Lightbox campaign, visit belllightbox.ca.

About TIFF

TIFF is a not-for-profit cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world through film. Its vision is to lead the world in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image. TIFF generates an annual economic impact of $170 million CAD and currently employs more than 100 full-time staff and 500 part-time and seasonal staff, and counts upon the largesse of over 2,000 volunteers year-round.

TIFF is generously supported by Lead Sponsor Bell, Major Sponsors RBC and BlackBerry, the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the City of Toronto.