FEW DEALS IN TORONTO

By Kevin Lally

FJI correspondent Daniel Steinhart reports on acquisition activity from the Toronto International Film Festival.

There seems to be a heightened sense of uncertainty at this year's Toronto Film Festival, as the future of independent film distribution looks primed for some kind of transformation. In the last year, Warner Bros. shut down its specialty divisions Warner Independent and Picturehouse. Paramount restructured its Vantage division. New Line has been downsized. And a number of boutique distributors, such as ThinkFilm, have been plagued by financial troubles. While there are still numerous specialty labels out there, fewer players and company cutbacks point to reduced acquisitions at the festival market. So it is with great interest that industry analysts, producers and distributors watch the business dealings in Toronto. What follows is my own cursory look at some of the films that have generated deals and interest at the festival.

The festival kicked off last week with a spurt of acquisition announcements for a handful of films playing in Toronto. Regent Releasing picked up the North American rights for Brillante Mendoza's Serbis, a Filipino film about a family-run porn house. Like Tsai Ming-liang's Goodbye, Dragon Inn, which centers on another shambolic movie theatre, the main point of interest is not the films playing on the screen, but the action taking place off-screen. The theatre is alive with hustlers cruising in the shadows, a wild goat on the loose, a purse snatcher chased by a cop, a projectionist tending to a festering boil on his rump, and the management family, who are suffering from the strain of adultery and personal missteps. A melodrama of sorts, the film has great kinetic camerawork, which seems to take its cue from the bustle of the theatre's encroaching Manila neighborhood.

Another welcome acquisition was Cinema Guild's securing of U.S. rights for Jia Zhang-ke's part-documentary, part-fabrication, 24 City. Jia conducts a series of interviews with workers�both real and invented�of the state-owned Factory 240, which is being shut down to make room for a new housing community. Like some of the director's previous films, 24 City details the effects of the modernization of China, but in this film, he accomplishes the task mainly through direct talking-head interviews. While there are some elegant shots of industrial spaces, the film spends most of its time with the interviewees, recording life stories that are rich and moving.

The other documentary distribution deal was Strand Releasing's pickup of Terence Davies' Of Time and the City. (See previous TIFF post for my brief assessment of the film.) Cinema Guild and Strand should be commended for acquiring these challenging works, but how extensively they'll be distributed remains to be seen. Unfortunately, this burst of acquisition activity didn't seem to carry into the rest of the festival. Reports of new deals died down until early this week.

The big news in Toronto came on Sunday, when Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler won the top prize, the Golden Lion, at the Venice Film Festival. By the time of the film's packed press and industry screening on Monday, word was already trickling in that Fox Searchlight had inked a distribution deal. As I watched the film, I couldn't help but wonder why the Venice jury had awarded the film. (Perhaps, it's more telling of this year's competitive lineup at Venice.) While it's actually a pretty good movie, it's far from a top-tier festival winner. The film concerns an aging pro wrestler named Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke), whose fame has faded and who must scrape by on the independent fighting circuit. The movie seems to be at once an ironic take on the kind of underdog he-man vehicles that Sly Stallone produced in the late '70s and '80s and very much of a piece with that cycle of films. A fight is presented out of sequence, denying us the kind of sympathetic alignment that the Rocky fight sequences excelled in and instead focusing our attention on the bodily destruction that The Ram puts himself through. But the film also aims directly for the heart, in no small measure through Rourke's performance. Rourke delivers a strong emotional portrayal, but it is also a great bodily show. We see his character either lumbering around, protected by a uniform of threadbare parka, baggy jeans, work boots, and tangle of long blond hair, or else strutting around the ring showing-off his roided-out, battle-scarred body. Fox Searchlight is aiming for a December release, so expect an aggressive awards campaign for Rourke.

A couple of other films have drummed up interest, but so far no deals. The Burning Plain from screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams and Babel) was highly anticipated but didn't seem to attract any buyers. (Unfortunately, I missed the film to nurse an oncoming cold. Yes, four films a day and moving from air-conditioned theatres to rainy streets can take its toll on the body.) Also, Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles met with general approval but no deals. The film takes up a much-fabled event for movie and theatre lovers: Orson Welles' staging of a fascist-themed Julius Caesar at the Mercury Theatre in 1937. I found the film very likeable, with a spot-on performance by Christian McKay as Welles.

There are still four more days left in the festival and so many films here that deserve to be seen by more than just festival audiences. Let's hope that for the good of the market and film culture, business picks up.