A MUSIC LOVER’S TIFF 2013: THE WHOLENOTE PREVIEW | continued from page 10Martin and sound manipulator Andrew Chalk help set off the film’sstunning images.Gabrielle, the title character of Gabrielle is a young woman withWilliams syndrome, a genetic condition characterized by learningdisabilities, among other medical problems. She has a contagious joie devivre and perfect pitch (exceptional musical gifts are a positive blessingof Williams syndrome). Gabrielle and her boyfriend are membersof a choir that is preparing for an important music festival. In thefilm’s press notes, writer-director Louise Archambault discussedthe emotional impact of the choral singing on the crew, calling it“raw emotion mixed with love and hope.”She also spoke of the interaction of professional actors with thechoir members most of whomwere non-actors. <strong>The</strong> actor whoplayed the choir director, forexample, had a musical backgroundand a brother who wasintellectually disabled so hewas attuned to that world. Healso took the time to observethe choirmaster of Les Muses(the actual choir in the filmfrom the Montreal school thatoffers training to artists with adisability). <strong>The</strong> special appearanceof Quebec legend RobertCharlebois is an additional treat.Visitors.In Gloria, a Chilean 50-something divorcedgrandmother hasn’t lost her zest for life andmusic. She hangs out at dance clubs and singsalong when she drives her car. Camilla Eganof ExBerliner interviewed the director SebastiánLelio shortly before his star, PaulinaGarcia, was awarded the best actress prizeat the Berlin film festival earlier this year.Une Jeune Fille.He affirmed the importance of music to his film: “Music was alwaysvery necessary for this film. All the songs that you hear are alwayscoming from within the scenes. From radios, from the discos, or sung.<strong>The</strong>y are all songs that I love. From Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love,’ tothe more Hispanic romantic ballads that Gloria sings in the car. Or thebossa nova, which was in a way at the heart because for me... <strong>The</strong> filmitself is like a bossa nova: a bittersweet poem about daily life.” As forUnberto Tozzi’s original <strong>version</strong> of ‘Gloria,’ which has a prominent placein his film, Lelio called it “a cheesy pop masterpiece.”Toa Fraser, fondly remembered for the delightful Dean Spanley,returns to the festival with Giselle, featuring the Royal New ZealandBallet’s performance of an updated <strong>version</strong> of the celebrated ballet withmusic by Adolphe Adam. Adding another layer, Fraser imagines a lovestory between the principal dancers à la Carlos Saura’s Carmen, whichhe conveys through his imaginative images.Jóhann Jóhannsson, the composer of Denis Villeneuve’s highly toutedthriller Prisoners, will be performing music from the film at the MusicGallery September 8, two days after it has its world premiere at theElgin <strong>The</strong>atre. Jóhannsson, who will be joined by the ACME StringQuartet for his concert, has been described as an “intrepid musicalenigma” by the BBC while the Music Gallery notes that he “frequentlycombines electronics with classical orchestrations and fuses diverseinfluences including minimalism, baroque music, drone music andelectro-acoustic music.”For the first time since his fondly remembered busker love story, Once(2006), writer-director John Carney returns to the musical scene withCan a Song Save Your Life? Kiera Knightley, Mark Ruffalo and CatherineKeener star in this drama about an undiscovered young singer anda washed-up producer who meet, see something special in each otherand ultimately make beautiful music togetherAccording to Piers Handling, MARY Queen of Scots, Austriandirector Thomas Imbach’s bio-pic is “amongst the most thrillingtreatments of a historical subject I have ever seen.” That may be, butfrom a WholeNote perspective, what has caught my imagination is theGiselle.music credit by the 81-year-old Sofia Gubaidulina. For someone whoearned her living as a young composer writing film scores for the Sovietmovie industry, one can only imagine how divine her return to the bigscreen might be.All Is By My Side shows us Jimi Hendrix before he was famous.As TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey puts it: “It’s a portrait of theicon as a young man that features charismatic hip-hopstar André Benjamin (one half of OutKast) as a sensitive,struggling guitarist on the verge of becoming a rocklegend. Director and writer John Ridley makes wonderfuluse of archival footage that contributes to both the film’sauthenticity and its emotional impact. Contemplativeconversations on the class andracial politics of the 1960s rockworld illuminate Jimi’s hippieperspective, balancing the moreintense moments that reveal hisneuroses. But Ridley’s masterstroke was casting Benjamin.Entirely natural in his performance,he knows how to allowthe camera in, and can conveyboth the inner struggle of thistroubled genius and the electricpersonality that would makehim a star.”“All the vinyl albums thatyou see at the hero’s house…are mine” – Jim JarmuschRobert Lepage’s first film since winning the tenth GlennGould Prize is Triptych, which he wrote and co-directedwith Pedro Pires. Based on Lepage’s theatre piece Lipsynch,the film explores the unexpected connections among three characters,one of whom is a jazz singer.In Quebec filmmaker Catherine Martin’s Une Jeune Fille (AJourney) which is directly inspired by Robert Bresson’s classic Mouchette,a teenager (Ariane Legault) runs away to the Gaspé where shemeets a quiet 30-something man (actor/musician Sébastien Ricard).<strong>The</strong>y bond over classical music.Attila Marcel, Sylvain Chomet’s first live-action feature film (he’sbest known for the ingenious Triplets of Belleville), centres on a mutepianist who lives with his two eccentric aunts in Paris. It’s said to invokecomparisons to Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati but Chomet’s trackrecord in itself is incentive enough to see it.In Young and Beautiful, François Ozon (<strong>The</strong> Swimming Pool)portrays a 17-year-old girl in four seasons and four songs, all by thegreat Françoise Hardy. <strong>The</strong>y are “L’amour d’un garçon” (<strong>The</strong> Love ofa Boy), “A quoi ça sert” (Why Even Try?), “Première rencontre” (Firstencounter) and “Je suis moi” (I Am Me).One Chance is based on the true story of Paul Potts, the amateuropera singer working as a mobile-phone salesman who rose to fame bywinning Britain’s Got Talent and became a YouTube sensation.And in the trivia department, Rolfe Kent (composer of the theme ofDexter) has scored three films in this year’s festival: Dom Hemingway(starring Richard E. Grant and Jude Law), Bad Words (Jason Bateman’sspelling bee comedy) and Jason Reitman’s serious new film, Labor Day(featuring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin).Individual tickets to TIFF 2013 are available as of September 1. Consulttiff.net for information.Check <strong>The</strong> WholeNote blog after the festival for a report on TIFF 2013with a special emphasis on films that used music in interesting ways.Paul Ennis, <strong>The</strong> WholeNote’s managing editor, is a Torontobased,classically trained musician who has spent many yearsprogramming and writing about movies.70 | September 1 – October 7, 2013 thewholenote.com
TSTorontoSymphonyOrchestraPeter OundjianMusic DirectorSEASON PRESENTING SPONSORSEPTEMBER CONCERTSSure to sell out!ITZHAKPERLMANLANG LANGe Hönnnnemanemann© PetererALISAWEILERSTEINElgar Cello ConcertoWED, SEPT 18 AT 8:00pmTHU, SEPT 19 AT 8:00pmPeter Oundjian, conductorAlisa Weilerstein, celloBritten: Variations and Fugue on a<strong>The</strong>me of PurcellElgar: Cello ConcertoDvořák: Symphony No. 7Season Opening Gala:Lang Lang Plays MozartSAT, SEPT 21 AT 7:00pmPeter Oundjian, conductorLang Lang, pianoMozart: Piano Concerto No. 17, K. 453Wagner: Overture to TannhäuserMozart: Piano Concerto No. 24, K. 491To purchase Gala tickets and for moreinformation, please call TSO SpecialEvents at 416.593.7769 X 261.Perlman Plays TchaikovskyWED, SEPT 25 AT 8:00pmTHU, SEPT 26 AT 8:00pmPeter Oundjian, conductorItzhak Perlman, violinJoaquin Valdepeñas, clarinetBritten/arr. Colin Matthews:Movements for a Clarinet Concerto(CANADIAN PREMIÈRE)Walton: Symphony No. 1Tchaikovsky: Violin ConcertoTICKETS START AT $33CONCERTS AT ROY THOMSON HALLTSO.CA416.593.4828OFFICIAL AIRLINESEPTEMBER 21 GALA PRESENTING SPONSOR
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