Actress Jennifer Hudson was put to the test for her role as a
housekeeper in the 1960s South in the movie “The Secret Life of Bees.”
TORONTO — Viggo Mortensen played the piano in a hotel lobby, John
Malkovich clarified he was here in “Disgrace” (not disgrace), and
questions about the Obama-McCain presidential race proved you can run
but you cannot hide from American politics.
Paris Hilton was live and in a documentary called “Paris, Not France,”
Mark Ruffalo scored a triple play with “The Brothers Bloom,”
“Blindness” and “What Doesn’t Kill You,” and Mickey Rourke emerged as
the Comeback Kid at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The 33rd annual event ended Saturday night with Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog
Millionaire” winning the Cadillac People’s Choice Award.
Based on the novel “Q & A” by Vikas Swarup, it’s the story of an 18
-year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is one question away
from winning 20 million rupees (roughly $438,000 in U.S. dollars) on
India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.” Fox Searchlight
will release it into theaters in late November.
First runner-up for audience favorite was “More Than a Game,” a
documentary about an Akron high school basketball team that includes
future superstar LeBron James. Second runner-up was “The Stoning of
Soraya M.,” the dramatization of a true story about “honor” killing
starring Shohreh Aghdashloo.
Other winners: best Canadian first feature, “Before Tomorrow,” about
an Inuit woman and her grandson trapped on a remote island; best
Canadian feature, “Lost Song,” a portrait of post-partum depression;
and Diesel Discovery Award, “Hunger,” starring Michael Fassbender as
Irish hunger striker Bobby Sands.
Also, Prize of the International Critics to both “Lymelife,” about
life and Lyme disease in 1970s Long Island, and “Disgrace,” an
adaptation of the J.M. Coetzee novel starring Malkovich as a professor
in Cape Town whose life falls apart after an affair with a student.
Here is a snapshot of some of the sights and sounds of the festival,
with more to come as the fall movies roll out:
Moviemaking as history lesson: Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, who plays
a housekeeper in the 1960s South in “The Secret Life of Bees,” said
she didn’t realize how unaware she was about the civil rights era
until she was hired for this movie.
Then, she immersed herself in history to the point where she was
terrified “because I did so much research that my mind was just
clouded with the South being so horrible and people being lynched and
people being hosed and beaten, crazy stuff like that.”
But when director Gina Prince-Bythewood asked her to meet co-star
Dakota Fanning at a North Carolina store, Hudson complied. Prince-
Bythewood handed Hudson a shopping list and said, “Whatever you do,
don’t hit anyone.” Once she was inside, the all-white employees
treated Dakota like a “queen” and were rude or dismissive to Hudson,
asking her to empty her pockets at one point.
When the actresses went to buy ice cream, the clerk told Dakota, “You
know she can’t be in here, right?” Hudson said, “Did I hear him right?
… I sit down at the parlor and there’s this white man eating his
food and he leans over to the clerk, ‘Can you get this [N-word] out of
here, I’m trying to eat my food.’ And the only thing I can hear was
Gina in my head, ‘Whatever you do, don’t hit anybody. ‘ ”
It had been a set-up, to test their reactions and get them into the
1960s frame of mind, and it worked.
Reminder it’s all in the details: Mickey Rourke’s character in “The
Wrestler” may have a body built on steroids and exercise but he also
has an old-fashioned, oversize hearing aid and a pair of reading
glasses, which lend a touching vulnerability to Randy “The Ram”
Robinson.
Finding religion … or not: Bill Maher and director Larry Charles
(“Borat”) say they didn’t plan for their comic documentary about
religion called “Religulous” to come out in an election year but
consider the timing fortuitous.
“Laughter, I would say, is a good weapon to make points,” said
Charles, whose long graying beard makes him look like an extra from
“The Ten Commandments.” He acknowledged, “This is a hard subject, and
it’s a hard subject for people to hear their beliefs threatened and
questioned — these kind of core beliefs — and by using comedy, it
makes that a more palatable equation.”
But Maher says if you’re religious “you’re defending indefensible,
primitive mythic thinking. If you’re an adult and you still believe
this stuff, I’m sorry, you can’t have it both ways, you’re a rube.
There are just no two ways about it. We all have this imaginary person
in our mind who is somehow this smart person but he’s a religious
person, but he’s never any of us.”
Sorry I missed: Mortensen, here in “Appaloosa” and “Good” and soon to
be seen in “The Road,” playing the piano in the lobby of the Sutton
Place Hotel.
Glad I missed: A New York Post critic whacking Roger Ebert with a
rolled-up program or festival binder. An embarrassed Ebert wrote about
it, explaining how he tapped the person in front of him to signal he
was blocking his view of the “Slumdog Millionaire” subtitles and the
critic swatted back. Ebert’s medical condition has left him unable to
speak, so tapping was his way of communicating.
I was at a press conference when this happened but witnessed cross
words at “The Wrestler” when a man confronted someone who appeared to
be saving a pair of seats, forbidden at jam-packed screenings. No
fisticuffs ensued, just sharp words exchanged in a 580-seat theater
with almost no place left to plop down.
Pittsburgh connections: Gaylen Ross, who starred in “Dawn of the Dead”
and “Creepshow” many years ago, directed a documentary called “Killing
Kasztner,” about Dr. Israel Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew who negotiated
with Adolf Eichmann to save Jewish lives.
Kevin Smith’s “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” set largely in
Monroeville, had its world premiere, and “The Hurt Locker” stars Brian
Geraghty, who lived in Pittsburgh from roughly ages 3 to 7 and
attended North Allegheny’s Espe Elementary School.
Wacky questions: “Pride and Glory” director Gavin O’Connor was asked
if he and his twin brother, Greg, were made to dress alike as
children. Keira Knightley was questioned about reports that she
opposed movie-poster enhancement of her breasts and asked if she’d
prefer to have a son or daughter some day, and Ricky Gervais was
quizzed about his imperfect teeth in “Ghost Town.” It turns out
they’re really his.
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