26th Toronto International Film Festival Coverage: Day Three
Zoinks! The first Saturday of the film festival is always busy and this one was no exception.
We had press conferences for Hearts in Atlantis, Training Day, Un Crabe dans la Tete, Thirteen Conversations About One Thing and The Business of Strangers. Followed that up with red carpet premieres for Novocaine, Tape, Buffalo Soldiers and Prozac Nation. Somewhere we worked in a small dinner and then edited a ton of photos.
If you’re going to start the day off with a press conference, spending time with a legend is a good way to do it. Hearts in Atlantis, directed by Shine director Scott Hicks, stars Anthony Hopkins, Anton Yelchin, Hope Davis and Mika Boorem. Based on a Stephen King novel, the film blends a young boy’s coming-of-age with some supernatural happenings.
Hopkins was very proud of the work done by his young co-stars. Speaking about Anton Yelchin, Hopkins said, “…it’s remarkable to me when a young man this age comes on set and not only has a grasp of the part, of what he’s doing, but does it with such enthusiasm, with such confidence, without being obnoxious. He was just so there, and so was Mika.”
The Business of Strangers press conference featured two women who are no strangers to the audience. Stockard Channing has had a long career of great roles and currently plays the First Lady on The West Wing, while Julia Stiles has always shown strength and intelligence in her work despite her young age. Besides The Business of Strangers, they also talked about the business of Hollywood. Discussing film criticism, Channing felt that “…in the younger generation now there is a real concern with box office, and young actors often talk about that as opposed to any great knowledge of it or focus upon it, as opposed to talking about the films themselves. I do think Julia’s absolutely right in saying the function of a film critic perhaps should be to get us back to first principles which is enjoying the film, the experience of film, especially alternative experiences.” An especially fitting comment at the Toronto festival, where film lovers can follow the screening of a Hollywood blockbuster with a premiere of the a probing film from Iran. Like the city it’s based in, the Festival has many flavours.