...and the sun sets on TIFF11

Several days after TIFF11 is over and I’m in a funk.

It's as if the city has emptied out.
Gone are George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Adam Brody, U2 and Pearl Jam...
Gone are the industry peeps...
Gone are the tourists...
and gone are my minimal sleep nights...

Can someone remind me what life was like before TIFF? And it’s not like this doesn’t happen every year...how is that year after year, the first week after TIFF is kinda like the end of Christmas?!

This year I closed TIFF by watching Lou Ye’s Love and Bruises. A Chinese director sets his “romance” in Paris...this I had to see! It was uncomfortable to watch. If you saw the film, you know exactly what I mean. The love story that unfolds between two very unlikely people is, in one word, aggressive. And at first, I’m not even sure I enjoyed the film...but as I walked away from it and the more I think about it, I really, really liked the film. A big plus, actress Corrine Yam’s français était incroyable!

Final TIFF thoughts -
11 days of living on adrenaline, trail mix, coffee, granola bars, talkative strangers, friends willing to trust your picks, more coffee...and naps on the subway...TIFF11 was sweet, gripping, aggressive, emotional, trying, educational and funny! Can’t wait to do it all over again in 2012!

And my FINAL rundown of TIFF11 films:

1. First Position - A ballet documentary makes you fall in love with 6 young aspiring ballet professionals.
2. Last Call at the Oasis - It’s not just about turning the taps off when you brush your teeth! 
3. The Oranges - a really funny look at the collapse of two middle america suburban families when it shouldn’t be (funny).
4. Hysteria - the invention of the vibrator inspired by true events in Victorian London.
5. 360 - Travel around the world, watching people making decisions that have ripple effects on the others in the film. Best line in the film “If there’s a fork in the road, take it.” Jude Law made this film REAL easy on the eyes. 
6. Beauty - An intensely power film about a middle-aged gay man living in a very straight world. Shot in South Africa. A couple of scenes were definitely NOT easy to watch. 
7. Girl Model - A documentary about the modeling industry from the point of view of an ex-model turned model scout. Scouting little girls from Siberia and landing them in Japan.
8. Las Acacias – Hate then love Ruben as he travels down the motorway with a woman and her very cute baby.
9. Damsels in Distress - a satirical look at privileged youth with high vocabularies and a ridiculous sense of reality.
10. Love and Bruises - A complicated, aggressive and uncomfortable love story set in Paris.
11. Last Days in Jerusalem - the dysfunctional story of a Palestinian couple period. Nothing more, nothing less. It just happens to unfold in Jerusalem.

At least 3 of the above 11 were picked up for distribution! Check it out!

A sight that will once again return in 2012...the seated line-up at Ryerson Theatre.