海角大神

The 39th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, running 11 days and showcasing about 350 movies, did something a bit different this year. It officially designated聽Friday聽鈥淏ill Murray Day.鈥� Murray, represented in the festival with the heartwarmer 鈥淪t. Vincent,鈥� braved a downpour to pose for selfies. A fan, honoring the villain in 鈥淕hostbusters,鈥� dressed her baby in a Stay Puft Marshmallow Man costume.聽

Murray wasn鈥檛 the only comic personality here. Jon Stewart showed up with his directorial debut, 鈥淩osewater,鈥� starring Gael Garcia Bernal as the London-based Iranian-Canadian Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari, who was accused of being a spy and imprisoned while covering the 2009 Tehran presidential election as a result of a satirical appearance on 鈥淭he Daily Show.鈥�

Capably directed but a bit pallid, given the severity of its subject, 鈥淩osewater鈥� was most memorable in Toronto for Stewart鈥檚聽 press conference in the historic Princess of Wales Theatre. 鈥淭here were times when I was directing,鈥� he said, 鈥渨hen I would say to myself, 鈥業 am Kubrick!鈥� But most of聽
the time I would say, 鈥榊ou鈥檙e in a lot of trouble.鈥� 鈥� The trouble extended to Iran鈥檚 state-run media. 鈥淭hey suggested that the CIA and the Zionist lobby funded the film,鈥� said Stewart. 鈥淚 guess I鈥檓 still waiting for the money.鈥�

The Toronto mayoral election is in full swing, and several people outside the theater hoisted 鈥淛on Stewart For Mayor鈥� placards. Michael Moore, in town on the 25th anniversary of his documentary 鈥淩oger & Me,鈥� declared Rob Ford鈥檚 tenure 鈥渁 train wreck.鈥� 聽

Because of a controversial decision by the Toronto festival honchos to limit the first four days of the event, usually the most Hollywood-heavy of times, to films premi猫ring in North America, the red carpet was not quite as frantic as in previous years. Still, stars abounded. At a studio-sponsored reception, I found myself small-talking with Channing Tatum and Vanessa Redgrave, one of those odd couple pairings that are standard at festival time. Not so odd in this case: Both appear in Bennett Miller鈥檚 鈥淔oxcatcher.鈥� One of the best films I saw here 鈥� probably the best, along with the Swedish marital-discord movie 鈥淔orce Majeure鈥� 鈥� 鈥淔oxcatcher鈥� is about billionaire John E. du Pont, well played with deadly seriousness and a prosthetic nose by Steve Carell. (Asked about the switch to a dramatic role, Carell said, 鈥淧eople just live. They don鈥檛 know whether they are in a comedy or a drama.鈥�) Du Pont became a patron of the US Olympic wrestling team and ended up murdering one of its members, Dave Schultz, played by Mark Ruffalo, in 1996.聽

Another movie I liked was Barry Levinson鈥檚 鈥淭he Humbling,鈥� based on a late novel by Philip Roth about a celebrated actor, played by Al Pacino, who loses his grip on life when he no longer thinks he can act. Pacino was represented here by two films actually, the other being David Gordon Green鈥檚 鈥淢anglehorn,鈥� at which, during its press conference, he accidentally knocked over three glasses of water and seemed quite pleased with the flourish. Pacino is marvelous in 鈥淭he Humbling鈥� 鈥� he鈥檚 not in his familiar lickspittle, over-the-top hoo-ha mode. (A scene where he accidentally ingests a horse tranquilizer and suffers the slurry consequences is a classic.) For all his antics, he鈥檚 one of the few actors of his generation who still has an avidity for acting.

A perfect complement to Frederick Wiseman鈥檚 wonderful documentary 鈥淣ational Gallery,鈥� about the famous British art museum, was Mike Leigh鈥檚 鈥淢r. Turner,鈥� featuring Timothy Spall鈥檚 Cannes award-winning performance as the great British painter J.M.W Turner. It鈥檚 highly uneven but with passages as mysteriously and torrentially beautiful as Turner鈥檚 own canvases. Spall鈥檚 Turner spends a lot of screen time grunting, and he explained the rationale. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e free-range grunts. Without the inward implosion I don鈥檛 think we would have the outward explosion 鈥� those extraordinary paintings.鈥� The grunts, a kind of running gag, provoked laughter from the audience, prompting Leigh to comment afterward that 鈥渢his is first screening where I realize we made a comedy.鈥�

I always like talking to Leigh, who famously lacks a filter. I brought up something I had heard about 鈥淭opsy-Turvy,鈥� his great film about Gilbert and Sullivan. Is it true that there is a factual error in the movie that makes it painful for him to watch it? 鈥淵es,鈥� he winced. 鈥淲e made reference to Oslo at a time when it was still called 海角大神a.鈥澛�

鈥淟ove and Mercy鈥� is a kind of biopic fantasia about Beach Boy great Brian Wilson, starring Paul Dano and John Cusack as the young and the older Wilson. Wilson himself was in the audience for its premi猫re. It must have been wrenching for him to watch such a tortuous movie about his life. Earlier I spotted him at a crowded reception, sitting alone and silent on a couch, and nervously ventured over to say hello. I told him I remember as a boy going to one of Leonard Bernstein鈥檚 Young People鈥檚 Concerts in New York, where Bernstein marveled at the harmonics of 鈥淒on鈥檛 Worry, Baby.鈥� He looked at me and lit up.

Conflicted genius was a thematic thread here. Tobey Maguire, overdoing the Brooklyn belligerence, is Bobby Fischer in 鈥淧awn Sacrifice.鈥� In the otherwise-too-conventional 鈥淭he Theory of Everything,鈥� Eddie Redmayne is remarkable as Stephen Hawking. He allows us to grasp the afflicted scientist in his full humanity.

Benedict Cumberbatch, in the equally overly conventional 鈥淭he Imitation Game,鈥� is terrific as Alan Turing, the genius cryptanalyst who helped crack the Nazis鈥� Enigma code but in later years was arrested for homosexuality before killing himself in 1954 at the age of 41. Cumberbatch, who has also played Julian Assange and Sherlock Holmes, is especially good at playing bristlingly brilliant types, though he told a reporter here that 鈥淚 get slightly riled sometimes that people might imagine me to only be the go-to guy to play smart people.鈥� Is it too late to shoehorn him into the sequel for 'Dumb and Dumber'?

Old masters were also featured in Toronto, of course. At 83, Jean-Luc Godard takes his first foray into 3-D with the intractable 鈥淕oodbye to Language 3D.鈥� Maybe I was wearing the wrong glasses. The great Polish director Krzyszstof Zanussi had 鈥淭he Foreign Body,鈥� which deals, among other things, with the consequences of capitalism in contemporary Poland. I spoke with Zanussi, expecting him to be in lion-in-winter mode, but he still battles to make the movies he wants to make. 鈥淵ou think your achievements give you an immunity, but they don鈥檛.鈥� He deplores the lack of 鈥渉igher ideals鈥� in life and in art 鈥� 鈥渨e need something more spiritual鈥� 鈥� and lectures on 鈥渟trategies of life,鈥� drawing on scenes from his own movies.聽

This is what I love about the Toronto festival. It gives voice to a Polish master while, a few blocks away, the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man holds court. It鈥檚 all about yin and yang.