My Toronto schedule

OK … it is September and that means time for Victor’s Insane Annual Vacation. Got my results from the lottery earlier today, and it was … sweeeet. I am nearly certain I got all my first choices, and I know I got everything I feared I might not: a notorious Lars Von Trier film on the first night (there’s few screenings Thursday evening and so they always fill up early), the high-profile Cannes winner by Michael Haneke, and films by Hollywood/Toronto auteur royalty like the Coen Brothers, Steven Soderbergh and Atom Egoyan.

I was surprised how many films with apparent religious themes there were this year, and I scored tickets to several that looked like they could be interesting — AGORA, VISION, HADEWIJCH — despite the TIFF Guidebook’s best efforts to chase me away (which it succeeded in doing so with LOURDES: check out this walkoff and ask yourself if the equivalent contempt toward another group would pass muster in the Sensitive Socialist Republic of Canuckistan). I manfully resisted the Charles Darwin biopic (titled CREATION no less), and I wrote off Michael Moore sometime before the premiere of FAHRENHEIT 9/11. But what would a festival devoted to the finest in the art of the cinema be without a Russ Meyer homage called (I am not kidding) BITCH SLAP.

Anyway, here is my schedule, always subject to change if good buzz elsewhere, particularly from Telluride and Venice, requires. And to drops from tiredness and/or poor buzz.

Thu, 10 Sept
600 Ryerson AN EDUCATION (Lone Sherfig, Britain)
900 Ryerson ANTICHRIST (Lars Von Trier, Denmark)

Fri, 11 Sept
915 Scotia1 LIKE YOU KNOW IT ALL (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
1230 Scotia1 FACE (Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan/France)
330 AMC7 IF I KNEW WHAT YOU SAID (Mike Escareal Sandejas, Philippines)
515 AMC2 SAWASDEE BANGKOK (Wisit Sasanatieng / Aditya Assara / Kongdej Jaturanrasame / Pen-ek Ratanaruang; Thailand)
945 Scotia1 DOGTOOTH (Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece)

Sat, 12 Sept
915 Scotia1 VISION (Margarethe von Trotta, Germany)
1145 AMC7 MY TEHRAN FOR SALE (Granaz Moussavi, Australia/Iran)
230 AMC4 IRENE (Alain Cavalier, France)
515 Scotia1 THE WHITE RIBBON (Michael Haneke, Austria)
900 Scotia1 LES HERBES FOLLES (Alain Resnais, France)

Sun, 13 Sept
1230 WinterGarden DORIAN GRAY (Oliver Parker, Britain)
230 Ryerson VALHALLA RISING (Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark)
530 Ryerson THE ROAD (John Hillcoat, USA)
930 Varsity4 BIG DIG (Ephraim Kishon, Israel, 1969)

Mon, 14 Sept
900 Scotia1 A SERIOUS MAN (Coen Brothers, USA)
noon Ryerson GET LOW (Aaron Schneider, USA)
215 Scotia1 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED (J Blakeson, USA)
500 Scotia1 AGORA (Alejandro Amenabar, Spain)
900 Varsity2 MY DOG TULIP (Paul & Sandra Fierlinger, USA)
midnight Ryerson BITCH SLAP (Rick Jacobson, USA)

Tue, 15 Sept
1100 Elgin CHLOE (Atom Egoyan, Canada)
100 Scotia3 THE WARRIOR AND THE WOLF (Tian Zhuangzhuang, China)
300 Ryerson THE INFORMANT! (Steven Soderbergh, USA)
600 Ryerson BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS (Werner Herzog, USA)
845 AMC3 TALES FROM THE GOLDEN AGE (Cristian Mungiu / Ioana Uricaru / Hanno Hofer / Razvan Marculescu / Constantin Popescu; Romania)

Wed, 16 Sept
945 Scotia2 PARTIR (Catherine Corsini, France)
1215 Scotia2 SCHEHEREZADE, TELL ME A STORY (Yousry Nasrallah, Egypt)
400 WinterGarden LEAVES OF GRASS (Tim Blake Nelson, USA)
600 Elgin MOTHER (Bong Joon-ho, South Korea)
900 Ryerson LE REFUGE (Francois Ozon, France)

Thu, 17 Sept
900 Scotia1 THE DAMNED UNITED (Tom Hooper, Britain)
noon Ryerson MICMACS (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, France)
345 Scotia2 I KILLED MY MOTHER (Xavier Dolan, Canada)
530 Varsity8 MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE (Werner Herzog, USA)
745 Bader ECCENTRICITIES OF A BLOND HAIR GIRL (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal)
midnight Ryerson SYMBOL (Hitoshi Matsumoto, Japan)

Fri, 18 Sept
830 Scotia2 VINCERE (Marco Bellocchio, Italy)
130 Scotia2 THE TIME THAT REMAINS (Elia Suleiman, Palestine)
400 Cumberland1 I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND (Gyorgy Palfi, Hungary)
615 Varsity4 L’ENFER DE HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT (Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea, France)
900 Ryerson MR. NOBODY (Jaco Van Dormael, France)

Sat, 19 Sept
900 Varsity4 POLICE, ADJECTIVE (Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania)
1230 Scotia4 AIR DOLL (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan)
400 WinterGarden HADEWIJCH (Bruno Dumont, France)
700 AMC9 ENTER THE VOID (Gaspar Noe, France)
midnight Ryerson ONG BAK 2: THE BEGINNING (Tony Jaa and Panna Rittikrai, Thailand)