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Well, I’ve made it through my four-day run at the festival. And, once again, my last day here was full of surprises (or at least one very big, very pleasant one).
Once again, I slept in a bit (which was probably best, since I was up until 3). I got up in time to get a little bit of work done before Ed and I headed down the street to his favorite breakfast place, where I had the tastiest crepe I’ve ever tasted outside Paris. Then we rushed back out the door, down the street through the rain, and back to the apartment to pick up the Ridiculously Heavy Bag of Essentials. Then we were back off again, headed back toward Yonge and Dundas, where Clay would be waiting for us.
We met up with Clay, who said that he and John would be joining us for the movie. Then we wandered around the corner to Tim Horton’s, where John was waiting for us. Then we walked a couple of blocks to the Ryerson Theatre. When we got there, I noticed that there was a red carpet set up outside — which seemed pretty odd to me. But it was marked as a “Special Presentation” in the catalog — whatever that meant. So maybe someone important was showing up. Really, though, I didn’t give it a second thought.
Ryerson is a big university theater — and a huge one at that. And with a half hour to go before the movie, it was already packed. We had two choices: the side or the front. We chose the front — row five, to be exact. The seats were cramped, and we were way up in front — but, in the end, no one complained.
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As I was sitting there, waiting for the movie to begin, I did what I usually do in situations like this one: I eavesdropped. And that’s when I saw a woman a couple rows ahead of me hold up her ticket, which had a black Sharpie scribble on it. She was telling the women next to her that she’d run into Michael Caine and got his autograph. I nudged Clay and retold the story. “Michael Caine is here!” I told him.
“Where?” he asked.
“Here. In Toronto. That woman has his autograph.”
“Well,” he concluded, “if he’s in town, he’ll be here.”
With that, I almost passed right out in my chair. I’ve done a lot of cool stuff in the last few days. I’ve seen all kinds of famous people — whether from a distance on the red carpet or close-up in a roundtable. But we’re talking about Michael Caine here. Perhaps I haven’t mentioned lately that I loveMichael Caine. And, really — who doesn’t? He’s Michael Caine! So I tried not to get my hopes up too much, not knowing whether the woman’s story was legit. But I did load my freshly-charged batteries into my camera in anticipation.
Finally, it was time for the movie to start. A man walked onto the stage, and Clay pointed out that it was the festival director (I’m guessing he knew this because he shelled out the $34 for the catalog). And if the festival director was introducing the movie, it had to be a big deal. The TIFF director explained that this was the world premiere of Is There Anybody There?, and he introduced the director, John Crowley. Crowley came to the stage and talked about the movie for a few minutes. He talked about what a great experience it was — and how it was an honor to work with Michael Caine — who, he said, was fortunately able to make it to the festival today.
As Michael walked out on stage, everyone in the theater got to their feet. It was amazing to have such an incredibly talented actor take the stage — and just a few feet in front of us. I think John almost passed out. I might have, too, had I not been eavesdropping. I was just plain thrilled.
The two of them said a few words before the movie began — and they promised to return later for a Q&A. Then the movie began. Caine was spectacular (no surprise there), and Milner was perfect (just as he was in Son of Rambow). And the story was beautiful — touching enough to keep me at the point of tears through most of it, while still funny enough to keep me laughing out loud. And full of wonderful surprises. It was sweet and funny, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And when it was over, Crowley and Caine came back to answer some questions — and I pulled out my camera to document every second.
While I really enjoy filmmaker Q&As in general, this one was just phenomenal. To have a chance to listen to such a talented, experienced actor talk about what he does and how he does it and how he prepares for his roles was really a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And I savored every minute of it. I savored it so much, in fact, that I totally forgot that I had my voice recorder on me — and I could have actually recorded the whole Q&A and kept it forever. I was kicking myself for it later — but, at the time, that didn’t matter. It was just such an incredible experience.
And then it was over. Caine and Crowley left the stage, amidst another booming round of applause (and another standing ovation), and it was time to head out of the theater. As we were getting out of our seats, Clay turned to me and said, “Well, there you go. You picked this one, and we were here for the world premiere of a movie that will get Michael Caine nominated for an Oscar.” And, you know…he could just be right. Now, won’t that be a cool story to tell at next year’s Oscar party?
After we finally made our way out of the theater, we met on the sidewalk out front to plan our next steps. John and Clay had hunted down the Fox Searchlight reps, who told them that we weren’t on any kind of list for the 6:00 screening — so that was out. Ed had to get home to pack at some point — because he had to head out for a business trip to Labrador early on Monday morning — so we couldn’t have a late night. But we were still up for wandering around, so I suggested heading back to Roy Thompson Hall for tonight’s gala: The Duchess. Clay laughed at me, but, really…it’s a great movie. And it’s Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes. Why the heck not? So the guys decided just to humor me and follow along.
This time, we didn’t get lost on our way to RTH (thanks to Ed, who happens to live here and know his way around). Once again, the crowd was huge. And there were actually people from Pizza Nova wandering around, handing out free slices of pizza (which, btw, were quite tasty). But we didn’t have a lot of time to hang out and eat pizza — because the festivities began almost as soon as we arrived.
It all started rather slowly. SUVs pulled up, and the doors were open to reveal…no one I knew. But then, one of the vehicles pulled up, and the screams began before I even saw who was in the car. It was Ralph Fiennes. He did a great job of working the crowd — and I think I got some great shots (I’ll have to go through them all and post them once I get home). And then, after he’d made the rounds and headed inside the red carpet tent, another car arrived. This one brought even more (and louder) screams from the crowd — because it was the one that brought Keira.
Though she did work the crowd quite a bit, my view of her was usually blocked by security guys — but she was absolutely stunning in a blueish-lavender gown.
After Keira headed for the red carpet, I waited around for a while, hoping to see Dominic Cooper. But, eventually, the press photographers started packing up, and they started letting the ticket holders into the theater, so I figured that meant that the show was over. Clay and John had already gotten bored and taken off, so Ed and I took to the streets on our own. We decided to head to a Korean barbecue that he had just discovered (which, btw, was tasty). Then we decided to head back to the apartment and start our respective packing.
So in the morning, I’ll be loading up the car and heading back home. And while I didn’t get to see as many movies as I would have liked, the experience was incredible. I got to rub elbows with talented actors and filmmakers, and I got to see some great movies. And now I know what to expect (and how to prepare) for next time.
And now, I’ll say good night. But stay tuned for my Toronto recap, which I’ll be writing and publishing on N&W.com as soon as I get back to the office and get settled back in.
