What's poutine? Waiting for Restoration to begin

No line up at Scotiabank Theatre for 10 p.m. screening of Restoration. Immediately ushered into theatre.

Conversation tidbits overheard in audience:

• What time is our movie in the morning?
• Grilled cheese would be perfect.
• I saw a Danish film.
• What's your cell phone plan?
• What's poutine?
• Gluten free french toast. Yuck, that sounds horrible.

-- Debra Black

Riseborough's back for the bacon

Andrea Riseborough is back at TIFF, this time to promote Madonna’s W.E. where she plays Wallis Simpson.

It’s a less-punishing press tour than last year when she was here for three films: Made in Dagenham, Brighton Rock and Never Let Me Go.

And she said during an interview Tuesday she’s glad to be back in Toronto for one simple reason: turkey bacon.

“I ate turkey bacon every day when I was here last year,” the British beauty said with a laugh. “You have the best turkey bacon.”

Linda Barnard

'So you think you're crazy?'

Argentinian filmmaker Carlos Sorin claims his hometown of Buenos Aires has the most people undergoing psychoanalysis in the world – and that it’s becoming the norm.

He didn’t give a specific reason for the trend, but, speaking through a translator, said the practice is openly discussed with people comparing their pyschologists and psychiatrists.

It’s no surprise then that his latest work – The Cat Vanishes – focuses on a man recently released from a sanatorium to a wife who isn’t quite sure he's cured.

Sorin was speaking at the City To City symposium at the TIFF Lightbox along with a host of other Argentinian filmakers whose work is being featured at this year’s festival.

 Carlos Sorin/Paul Irish photo

It’s the third year for the forum which is described as an “exploration of the urban experience, highlighting the best in emerging cinematic talent in a particular locale."

Cameron Bailey, co-director of the festival and host of the forum, said he and others have been keeping a close eye on what’s been happening in Argentina and that there’s a whole new generation of filmmakers and a thriving film culture.

Eight new films are being featured at the festival including Pablo Trapero’s Crane World, a look at the life of a man trying to make a living as a crane operator in Buenos Aires.

Sorin would not be pigeonholed when the discussion came to genre or a “new wave” of Argentinian filmmakers.

“When people talk to me about The Cat Vanishes they say: "'This is such an Argentinian movie.’” he said. “But that’s very hard for me to see. It’s a movie with no localism.”

But Sorin is certain of one thing: the growing prestige of the Toronto International Film Festival.

“This is a very important festival,” he said. “It has an international audience – a real audience. You can tell by the questions we keep getting asked.”

-Paul Irish  

 

Madonna, Geoffrey Rush and Viggo Mortensen make the rounds

Madonna and her manager

Geoffrey Rush plays Angry Birds

Another lovely photo of Viggo

-Malene Arpe

The TIFF party report

TIFF opened with the Davis Guggenheim U2 doc From the Sky Down but judging from Monday's party music volume, it might as well have been his doc It Might Get Loud. It did get loud. One needed leather lungs to converse.  

 

The Blackberry bash at Brassaii for the film 50/50 drew Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Seth Rogen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, schmoozing to thumping 80s rock music.

 

Meanwhile at the Stay Extraordinary Gala at The Hoxton, a new venue on Bathurst St., Deejay Barbie spun teeth-rattling tunes for a crowd who looked barely old enough to drink.

 

Spotted Geoffrey Rush madly texting in front of Living Lighting at King and Portland. Was he ordering a light fixture?

 

Again, the hot venue was the Grey Goose Soho House pop-up on Duncan St., where it's harder to get into than Ruth Madoff's safety deposit box.

Inside, the music blared while the bold face basked in their reflected fabulousness.

 

Everywhere you looked there was Harvey Weinstein, Olivia Wilde, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Chastain, Justin Long, Juliette Lewis, Ralph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Brian Cox, Scott Speedman, Michael Fassbender and Zoe Kravitz.

 

Some of the talent was actually eating, nibbling madeleines piled up at the bar.

 

At the human pile-up at the bar, Gerard Butler stood peeling babes off himself. But no Bono. He must have finally left town.

 

-Rita Zekas

 

Seth Rogen at the BlackBerry Inside Film Lounge at Brassaii/

Joe Scarnici/Getty Images

Neil Young says he was a terror growing up in "Helpless" town

You know Neil Young's classic hit "Helpless," the one where he sings about Omemee, Ontario as the place with "dream comfort memory to spare"?

Turns out not all those memories are so comfortable, especially if you happen to be a turtle or an old lady who ran afoul of Young's youthful brand of mischief.

The Canadian rock icon was at the Princess of Wales Theatre Monday night, for the TIFF world premiere of Neil Young Journeys, the third in a series of musical documentaries on Young, each of them directed by Jonathan Demme.

It's mainly a concert movie, concerning Young's Massey Hall visit last May. But the music is framed by road-trip memories, as Young drives a vintage 1956 Ford Crown Victoria around places of his youth, including the Village of Omemee, celebrated in "Helpless."

Young jokes about what a holy terror he was there as kid, when he used to dress up in a homemade cowboy outfit (there's a picture of him in the movie doing just that).

He'd collect fish and turtles from the local watering hole and carry them through town on his wagon. Sometimes he'd stop at Coronation Hall, a local landmark, to make his own kind of personal statement.

"I think I killed a turtle by sticking a firecracker up its ass ... so my environmentalism roots aren't all that deep!" Young says.

He was in cahoots with a local troublemaker called "Goof," who would pay him five cents to say outrageous things.

"I'd do anything for a nickel," Young said.

"He'd give me a nickel if you'd say, 'You have a fat ass!' to an old lady."

The same pal told him that it was okay to eat the tar bubbles caused by road crews laying asphalt because "it would turn into chocolate."

Young didn't fall for that one.

A screening of Neil Young Journeys was followed by a Q&A with Young, Demme and audience members, moderated by TIFF programmer Thom Powers.

Canadian music icon Neil Young arrives at Princess of Wales theatre/RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR

An expansive Young announced that's he's written the first volume of his autobiography -- no release date yet -- and he's working on the second volume.

The Q&A was like old home week for Young.

Former classmates stood up to offer their memories. Someone who claimed to know Goof gave Young a letter purported to be from him.

Young wondered what Goof wanted him to do now for five cents.

And his old flame from Grade 4, a woman called Mary-Ellen, stood up in the audience to say hello. He hadn't seen her for decades.

"Mary-Ellen, is that you?" Young said, incredulously.

Young topped it off by giving her a dog collar that he won in a contest.

"I still haven't lost my touch," he joked.

-- Peter Howell