TIFF adds more titles

Jul 10, 2008 by Ian Evans

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced more titles to unspool between September 4th and 13th.

Newly announced Galas:

• The world premiere of Secret Life of Bees, directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, follows a young girl (Dakota Fanning) who escapes her problems by running away to a place where she finds solace in beekeeping. The film, set in 1964 South Carolina, also stars Paul Bettany, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Alicia Keys.

• The Duchess, directed by Saul Dibb, examines the life of the Duchess of Devonshire, Georgiana Spencer (Keira Knightley), a leader in Britain’s Whig Party. Ralph Fiennes plays her distant husband, while Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell and Charlotte Rampling round out the cast.

Special Presentations:

• Every Little Step is a documentary on the creation of the current Broadway revival of A Chorus Line.

• Ghost Town, directed by David Koepp, follows Bertram Pincus (Ricky Gervais), a man who dies and gets revived, only to discover he can now see ghosts including Frank Herlihy (Greg Kinnear), who pesters him into breaking up the impending marriage of his widow Gwen (Téa Leoni). Also starring Billy Campbell, Kristen Wiig and Dana Ivey.

• After we saw some teasers at last year’s Festival Religulous by Larry Charles has political humorist and author Bill Maher traveling around the globe interviewing people about God and religion.

• Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time Redux is the long-planned “reworking” of his legendary, romantic and one and only martial arts film, previously unreleased in North America. Set in ancient China, Ouyang Feng (Leslie Cheung) is a fallen swordsman who is afraid of love after having his heart broken. But the bounty hunters that work for him, like “Blind Swordsman” (Tony Leung Chiu Wai) and Hung Chi (Jacky Cheung), discover the intangible secret of true love while Ouyang retains his attitude towards his fighters and the precious lessons that they have taught.

• Happy-Go-Lucky by Mike Leigh, is the story of Poppy (Sally Hawkins), an irrepressibly free-spirited school teacher who brings an infectious laugh and an unsinkable sense of optimism to every situation she encounters as a single woman in London.

• Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla is the story of a crooked land deal by a Russian mobster that everyone wants a piece of. It stars Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, Thandie Newton, Chris Bridges, Jeremy Piven and Idris Elba.

• Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman: One night in a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman about a recurring nightmare. The two men conclude that there is a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the Lebanon War in the early 1980s. An astonishing and powerful animated feature that journeys into the director’s memory in search of some missing pieces.

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