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So it appears as though I’ve made it through Day 1 of my Toronto International Film Festival adventure. All I need now is someone to massage my sore feet and a nice shot of something potent. And to think…it’s only just begun….
Yesterday was one crazy day of last-minute stuff and time on the road. John and I recorded our radio show in the morning, and I rushed back home to check for any last-minute updates and to take all of the piles that I’d created throughout the house and pack them into bags. The packing wasn’t too much of a challenge (thanks to my patented packing technique: put stuff in piles, narrow down the piles, shove them into the biggest bag you can find, and then take everything you’d narrowed down from your previous piles and shove it all in anyway). The updates, however, were not quite so simple. It seemed that everyone was making plans on Wednesday morning, and I had all kinds of things to confirm and request and look into. Fortunately, I ended up confirming for a Saturday screening of The Duchess and requesting a spot at a Sunday screening of Slumdog Millionaire. So our schedule was filling up — and, the rest of the time, we figured we’d just wait in lines and get into whatever we could.
I ended up hitting the road by about noon. I emailed my brother-in-law (my host for the festival) to tell him that, if all went well, I should be there by about 8. I loaded my junk food and CDs and audiobooks and various other forms of entertainment into the car, and I was on my way.
The drive went surprisingly well (other than one time, when the GPS insisted that I exit the highway in the middle of nowhere — fortunately, I know better than to trust my GPS blindly. She’s a sneaky, sneaky little computer who sometimes likes to send me into the middle of nowhere. But I happen to know the general way to Toronto, so I wasn’t falling for it.). Even with the traffic and the construction, I made it to the duty free only a few minutes later than predicted. I stopped for a pit-stop (since who knows how long it’ll take to get through customs), a bottle of amaretto (for my gracious host), and some gas, and I got back into the car and crossed my fingers for no line and a friendly customs officer. And I got my wish. In fact, getting across the border was so easy that I was almost too stunned to drive away.
The road trip gods were definitely smiling on me yesterday. And even after stopping to hang out at Wendy’s and do a little light reading, I still arrived just before 8. I lugged my bags up the stairs to Ed’s place and freshened up a bit, and then we took to the streets for some muchies and a couple of drinks. Then we came back, tried to figure out where I needed to be for today’s first screening, and watched a couple of episodes of Flight of the Conchords (which I now officially love) before turning in for the night.
This morning, I got up and got right down to business. Since Ed lives in an attic apartment with no air conditioning, I figured I’d wait until the very last minute to take a nice, cold shower. So I set up shop in the living room (a.k.a. my bedroom) and did a bit of work before I had to head out.
My screening for the day was scheduled to start at 4. So I left at 12:30. No, I’m not kidding. At the time, it seemed like a good idea. Before I left, I double-checked the day’s location (and found that it wasn’t the location that I’d previously programmed into my GPS) and packed my bag for the day. The packing of the bag, you see, is very important for a film festival attendee. You need to have everything you could possibly need for the entire day, but you also have to remember that you’ll be wandering aimlessly, lugging it all around. So I had to pick and choose. But I kept the camera (you never know who you’ll run into at TIFF), a notebook, my folder of festival info, an umbrella, and a book. This weighed approximately 120 pounds. Or at least it did after walking all day. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
So I left at 12:30. That gave me 3 1/2 hours to find the theater and a parking space and grab something to eat. It took me about an hour to do the first two. I ended up grabbing a parking spot when the GPS said I was a half-mile away. That, I later decided, was completely unnecessary, but I did it anyway. So anyway…I found a parking garage and parked at the very top. There was no elevator in sight, so I started my day with five flights of stairs. Though I had an idea of where I was and where I needed to be, I decided not to take chances. After all, I could just see myself losing my car in the parking garage and wandering aimlessly for the rest of the week. So as soon as I figured out where, exactly, I was parked, I sat down and drew a map in my festival folder. Then I continued to hike.
By the time I reached the building that housed the theater, I was hot and sweaty and tired. And it was only 1:30. I had 2 1/2 hours to kill. I started by wandering around like an idiot for a while, after which I wandered down an escalator and found a Subway that was manned by a single woman who really didn’t seem very interested in making me a sub. But she did anyway. I then found a chair, and I took my time eating my lunch while doing a bit of reading. After sitting around for a while — long enough that I figured someone would soon yell at me for hogging a table — I got up and decided to explore a little bit more. I went back upstairs, where I found stacks of festival booklets. I grabbed one. Then I went up another couple of levels and found a food court (I then kicked myself for eating in the basement instead of finding this glorious food court). I sat down for a while and studied the book, after which I wrote up a draft of a review. Then I got up again and made my way into the Festival store, where I contemplated paying $33 for a T-shirt. Then I wandered around and looked at the board outside the box office — even though I had no idea what any of it meant.
I sat down for a while longer and mentally berated myself for my poor planning. You see, I’ve never been to TIFF before. John and Clay, however, have. The plan was to come with John and Clay so I’d have someone to show me the ropes. But then I got this email for this Thursday afternoon screening and decided to come a bit early. Clearly, I wasn’t thinking. So here I was, sitting in a food court by myself, trying to figure out how to check my voice mail from Canada, with absolutely no clue as to what I was doing.
Sure, I’ve been to a film festival before. In fact, the Cleveland Film Festival is pretty much my favorite week of the year. But this is no Cleveland. While Cleveland is getting crazier and crazier and more crowded and claustrophobic with every passing year, it’s still a cozy little affair. It all takes place in one movie theater, in a mall downtown. Sure, there are lines and schedules and things to figure out, but it’s all quite compact and easy to navigate. There can be up to eight or so movies playing during each time slot, but they’re all color-coded, and they’re all in the same building. Simple. When you show up for the day, you park in the lot, you enter the mall, and you’re there until you can’t watch movies anymore.
Toronto, however, is very different. At any one time, there could be, oh, 20-some movies playing. Some will be in the same building. Some will be in some other theater, in some other part of the city. They’re spread out over miles.
Also, with Cleveland, you won’t get a lot of big names showing up. Last year, I remember, the old lady from the TV show Wings was there. That was a pretty big deal. Other than that, it’s indie filmmakers who are often very talented but generally unknown. Here, of course, everyoneshows up. Tomorrow, I’ll be in the same room as an Oscar winner. John likes to tell the story about how, at Toronto one year, he ended up sitting in a bar with Nick Nolte, just a day or two before The Mugshot was taken.
But anyway…after making myself look busy for a while longer, I made my way to the theater at around 3:30. I asked about The Brothers Bloom screening in house 20, and they handed me a little ticket. I was on the list for the screening, but no one asked my name or anything. I was surprised.
I got up to house 20, and I signed in. No one checked to make sure I was supposed to be there. Again, I was a bit surprised. For all the energy it takes to get on these lists, I would have liked someone to confirm that I’d done the work — and that I truly deserved to be there. But I got into the screening, so that’s really all that mattered.
I made my way into the theater and took an aisle seat, a few seats from a guy who appeared to be wearing a tuxedo. No kidding.
After a few minutes, I made a couple of observations about my surroundings.
1) The theater was totally posh. I mean, the theaters back home are generally pretty decent, but this one was actually really comfortable. Nice plush seats with actual padding. Very nice.
2) I was one of the only people there (me and Tuxedo Guy, maybe) who didn’t know everyone else there. People would walk into the theater, and it was like Norm walking into Cheers. Everyone was yelling at everyone else and talking about parties and screenings and things. I tried to eavesdrop and figure out when and where to show up and pretend that I was on the list, but I didn’t get any useful information. Mostly, they were just name-dropping and talking about who was interviewing whom later in the week.
So there I was, at my first screening at the Toronto Film Festival. I’m not going to lie to you. I felt really, really cool. And it didn’t hurt that the first screening just happened to be The Brothers Bloom, the latest movie by Rian Johnson (Brick), starring Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, and Mark Ruffalo. I was absolutely captivated (and surprised) from beginning to end. It’s definitely a big change from Brick, but it’s still just…magical. And beautiful. And I’m officially a big fan of Rian Johnson. I’m looking forward to the roundtable with him tomorrow.
After the screening ended, I promptly returned to the food court, took a seat, and scribbled down a page of notes. Then I decided to head back to the apartment.
Fortunately, it had cooled down a bit, since it was now 6 — so the hike wasn’t as bad as it was at 1. I had no problem finding my car back, either. I did, however, almost collapse in the stairway before I made it to the top. And I had a heck of a time trying to figure out how to get out of the garage. But I finally made it.
The problem, however, was that my GPS seemed to be completely unable to locate any satellites. Sure, it was a little cloudy out, but come on. Fortunately, I know a little bit about Toronto. Though I never technically lived here, I did spend a whole lot of time here, back when my husband and I were dating (and in the first eight months of our marriage). So I know the main streets. I also kinda remembered which roads I’d taken to get where I’d gotten. And, if all else failed, I had a pile of Toronto map books on the floor next to me.
Fortunately, though, I didn’t need them. Traffic was slow enough that the GPS finally found its satellites before I had to make any major turns. Though I could have made it back without it (or so I like to think), I’ve also decided that I will never again give my husband crap for buying the thing. It’s a nice little gadget to have — as long as it’s not telling me to take random exits in the middle of nowhere.
Eventually, I made it back to Ed’s. I immediately changed into shorts, dumped off my ridiculously heavy bag, and walked right back out the door. You see, one other thing that I acquired during my time in Toronto seven years ago is a craving for Pizza Pizza. And I knew that there was one just a few blocks away from Ed’s place. So I wandered down the street, ordered twice as much pizza as I needed, and came back to my living room / bedroom to eat it.
Though I’ve never really been a city girl (and driving in any city bigger than Columbus totally freaks me out), that’s one thing that I really love about the city: the ability to walk to places. Back home, there are a couple of restaurants within walking distance, but there aren’t any sidewalks — so it would mean walking in the grass, beside a busy street. Here, I can just wander down the street a couple of blocks, and I’ve got pretty much every kind of food within a few blocks of sidewalk. And though every other person walking down the street has little white cords coming from the headphones in their ears, I chose to turn my MP3 player off. I actually enjoy the sounds of the city. And it was a nice night to be wandering the streets and taking it all in.
So now I’ve got to start figuring things out for tomorrow. I’ve been back and forth via email and cell phone (praying all the time that my roaming fees aren’t that high), and I think we may have a plan. John’s already in town, and Clay will be showing up in the morning. And it’ll be nice to have the old guys around. If nothing else, I can stop sitting in food courts by myself, looking like an idiot.
So far, I’ve just got the roundtable in the morning. After that, who knows. John’s going to try to pick up some tickets for an afternoon screening. After that, I’ll be taking the night off. Ed’s band has his big CD release concert tomorrow night, and there’s no way I’d miss that — not even for a one-on-one interview with George Clooney.
As for now, it’s about time to crash. I can’t say that I’ve ever been so exhausted after seeing just one movie. Hopefully, I’ll get into the swing of things a bit better tomorrow. And maybe I’ll take a few more things out of my bag. it’s not all so essential after all.
