The streets of Toronto are alive

It’s only day two of the Toronto International Film Festival and already almost 76 films have been shown. 

Some of them like “Twelve Years a Slave” left audiences speechless. 

Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor in a scene from 12 Years a Slave.

The film by director Steve McQueen is based on the true life story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free black man from upstate New York who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1841 and finally freed in 1853. TIFF describes it as the story is a triumphant tale of one man’s courage and perseverance to reunite with his family that serves as an important historical and cultural marker in American history. The film also stars Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Garret Dillahunt, Paul Giamatti, Scoot McNairy, Lupita Nyong'o, Adepero Oduye, Sarah Paulson and Brad Pitt. 

Almost all of the cast members attended the premiere in Toronto.

“I came out just to see Brad Pitt,” said Eileen Randall of Toronto, who said she’s never missed a festival but always misses Pitt. “He’s been here in Toronto before and every year I miss him.”
 

Actor Brad Pitt arrives for the premiere of 12 Years a Slave at TIFF (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)

“Not this year,” Randall mused.

Celebrity sightings are a big part of TIFF but once the stars leave the red carpets and enter the theater life at the festival resumes with people from all over the world – chatting in their native tongue about the films they saw or are waiting to see.

“It’s amazing. I heard three different languages in the same earshot,” said one TIFF visitor.

“It brings people together from different countries and you get to know them (while standing in line for tickets or waiting for the show to begin),” Randall said. “It also brings in revenue.”

 

One of the many street performers entertaining movie goers – is hoping for that to be true. “This is going to pay my way home,” said the guitar player from Calgary, nodding toward the case on the sidewalk filled with change.

It all starts in Toronto

The red carpets will roll out with tonight’s world premiere of Bill Condon’s “The Fifth Estate” officially kicking off the 38^th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

“The Fifth Estate” is a dramatic thriller and one of several TIFF selections based on real events spawned in the digital world.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate.

As outlined by TIFF the story begins as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl) team up to become underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful. On a shoestring, they create a platform that allows whistleblowers to anonymously leak covert data, shining a light on the dark recesses of government secrets and corporate crimes. But when Assange and Berg gain access to the biggest trove of confidential intelligence documents in U.S. history, they battle each other and a defining question of modern time: what are the costs of keeping secrets in a free society – and what are the costs of exposing them?

 “We have a number of films dealing with the idea of living in an information society, what that means now. (In addition to the Fifth Estate), we have a documentary called “The Square,” about the Arab Spring and the Tahrir Square revolution and how much of that was about information – about Facebook and Twitter and YouTube,” said TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey in a report by CBC News. “These things are now part of our lives. People are asking questions about having political change enacted through media, but also how information about us is held through governments, by authorities.”

Fifth Estate is expected to hit Detroit theaters just in time for Oscar contention.

And an Academy Award is possible for any one of the 146 features films making their world premiere in Toronto. “Every best picture winner since 2007 has played at TIFF, from “No Country for Old Men” to last year’s winner “Argo,” which was based on the CIA operation to rescue six Americans in Tehran during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran in 1980. This year the story will return as the Canadian documentary, “Our Man in Tehran.”

Much of the buzz surrounding the heavyweights has to do with exposure to previous film festivals like Cannes and Sundance. Alffonso Cuaron’s space odyssey “Gravity,” starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney; Steve McQueen’s slavery epic “Twelve Years a Slave”; and Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day” to name a few.

Josh Brolin, Kate Winslet and Gattlin Griffith in a still from Labor Day.

“A lot of that (Oscar buzz) does begin in Toronto because our audience here has become known for having a good nose for quality films and finding films like ‘Slumdog Millionaire,’ ‘The King’s Speech,’ ‘Argo’ and ‘Silver Linings Playbook’ – even going back to ‘American Beauty’ in 1999,’ ” said Bailey. “I would hope that the attention is never limited to those films that might be in the horse race because there’s a lot more going on here.”

Just ask the cinephiles of last year’s festival who camped out in a line that snaked around a Toronto city block to get tickets for “This Is Not a film.” The clandestine documentary was shot partially on an iPhone and smuggled into France in a cake for a last-minute submission to Cannes. A feature by director Jafar Panahi, it depicts his day-to-day life while under house arrest in his Tehran, Iran, apartment. Panahi, who remains under house arrest while appealing his government’s sentence -- six years in prison and a 20 year ban from filmmaking – has a second film coming to TIFF, “Closed Curtain.” The lines are forming now for that one.

A scene from Closed Curtain.

As for the blockbusters headed for mainstream America this fall, we’ll have to wait and see. Chances are a great deal of them will be seen first in Toronto.

For more coverage of the Sept. 5-15 festival visit The Macomb Daily and The Daily Tribune

-- AP contributed to the report 

My interview with Elmore Leonard made me a fan

Macomb Daily file photo/David N. Posavetz

It is a sad day for writers, but also TV fans, readers and students – anyone who has been entertained by the words of Elmore Leonard. The Michigan native and crime novelist,  whose books have launched many Hollywood movie and TV series, died Tuesday morning at his home from complications of a stroke he suffered a few weeks ago.

When I met him three years ago he was two months shy of 85.

It was the inaugural year of the Elmore Leonard Literary Arts and Film Festival and I was granted an interview with the author -- although I don’t think he would have denied anyone a chat provided they were seriously interested in his work. 

Admittedly, I was excited to meet him. 

I considered the menagerie of characters that Leonard created over his nearly six decade writing career. If audiences were not being introduced to them through his books (44-and-counting) or novellas they are discovering them on the big screen. There was always some ambitious director or screenwriter plucking a villain or hero from Leonard’s circus of feisty true-to-life characters. His words inspired almost 30 films and TV movies including “3:10 to Yuma” (based on a shorty story he sold to Dime Western magazine for 2 cents a word). This September, I was hoping to chat with him again about a film debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival that was based on his book. For Leonard’s festival, organizers featured a special showing of the pilot episode for the hit FX Network series, “Justified.” Though not a direct adaptation, at the heart of the TV series that spawned a new generation of Leonard fans, including my son, is Leonard’s beloved character U.S. marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). 

As excited as I was, I was leery, too. A few people who had met him when he was younger gave me the impression that he was aloof and difficult. So, I went to the interview expecting him to honor his commitment to the festival but nod for a handler to give me the old five-finger warning (meaning you are outta here in five minutes).

Instead it was just him who answered the door.

As luck would have it, he was in the middle of writing. After a cordial greeting he ushered me into his office. It was an area in the great room sectioned off by a wooden desk facing a wall of windows overlooking his garden. On his desk was a burning candle, no doubt trying to mask the smell cigarette smoke, an electric typewriter (not quite an antique but definitely not modern) and a stack of paper. As he showed me later the canary paper bludgeoned by pencil corrections were pages of his new book about U.S. marshal Givens.

Following a quick session with our photographer David Posavetz, which included Leonard offering to pose with Poz, he and I settled into a casual conversation about his career and his family. He is the father of five children, and his son Peter, who lived nearby,  followed in his footsteps, going into advertising before achieving his own success as a novelist in 2008. Elmore was gracious and kind, not only in the manner in which he responded to questions but in carrying the conversation onward. For hours we spoke about writing. I learned that while he drafted a screenplay – it was not fun for him.

At one point during the interview, he saw that I was staring at the sheets of yellow paper strewn across his desk. I was straining to read the straightforward and believable Leonardian dialogue that made him famous.  So, he grabbed one and read the words aloud, like they were all new to him. After reading a sentence or two, he put the paper down and made a correction, then read to the end of the page. “I always write in longhand first,” he told me. “I cross out what I don’t want and then just keep adding to it.” When he felt the page was done, he would complete a polished version. It was done, not on a computer, but on his trusty IBM Wheelwriter electric typewriter. 

When we both needed a moment to stretch, he gave me a quick tour of the kitchen and living room (adorned with photos of his family and works of art). We rounded a corner and entered a small room where his wife was working. Stacked on several shelves in the small room were the books he had published over the years. With one children’s book to my name, I can only imagine how proud he was of his 44 titles. He did not gloat or brag but proceeded to tell me a story about several of them including his newest title at the time, “Djibouti.”

By then I could tell by the shadows on the wall it was time to leave, or invite myself to dinner. Even then, he did not rush me out the door. Instead he eyed his collection of books and picked a stack of titles that he knew my teenage son would enjoy.

My time with Elmore Leonard that afternoon could not have been better. I was inspired. I was entertained and I felt enriched having met him.  

One final note
If there was one Elmore Leonard quote I'll remember it's this -- as I am a vacuum when it comes to interesting facts ...
 
“Don't go into great detail describing places and things, unless you're ­Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language.
You don't want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.”
 

A fireman hangs his hat in two homes

WFD district chief Willoughby with a fellow firefighter.

Firefighters have two homes: the house they live in with their kin and the other they share with members of their fire brigade. My brother Al has hung his hat on the hook and ladders of the Windsor Fire Department for 33 years. From his roaring days as a rookie, to his glory days as a gallant captain and mentoring chief, he’s been packing an overnight bag for his second home. 

Other people may have two homes - college students have their dorm and then go home to their parents’; retirees have a home-base and maybe a vacation place.

But not only do firefighters have two homes, they have two families depending on them. It could be unclogging a sink or rocking a sick child to sleep or climbing a shaky ladder with a fire hose (that has the force of a jet engine) or running into a burning building to rescue a comrade.

No wonder they hang up their helmets at age 60.

Firefighter Joe Ventimiglia, left, with retiring district chief Willoughby.

"Today is 33 years to the day," said WFD District Chief “Willoughby,” adjusting the tie of his dress blue uniform while awaiting the arrival of his wife Sue and their children, Trisha (Frank), Dawn (Jessie), Kristopher (Niky) and first grandchild Alayna. Because it was the last shift of his career, he would not be fighting any fires. Instead, he fought a blaze of pokes and jokes from his fire-station family.

"I've got a few stories to tell," said firefighter Rob Fawcett, with a grin at the chief. "We were coming back from a run in a new truck," Fawcett said. (A new fire rescue vehicle can cost between $500,000 and $1.5 million depending on its bells and whistles.) While turning a corner near a lot in the city, Fawcett said he hollered a warning to his chief about some boards protruding into the street. The chief proceeded cautiously but took the corner too sharp and loud scraping and crunching sounds were heard. He stopped long enough for Fawcett to jump off the truck and survey the damages (pick up the pieces), then motored on.

Willoughby said nothing, nor did Fawcett when he saw his chief back at the fire hall, using rolls of Duct tape to try and fix the little white lights on the big red truck.

Other firehouse anecdotes had to do with Willoughby's cooking - his famous butter tarts (I have the recipe archived if you want it) and cabbage rolls (this one is still a secret) and infamous pig head soup. Even I remember when all of the firefighters were calling in sick after Willoughby made a pot of soup out of the leftovers from a pig roast. Although delicious (the pot was emptied), the meat was bad after being left too long in a warm car.

No soup today.

For this firehouse party the crew planned a meal fit for a chief. There were several bowls of salads, sweet corn, barbecue chicken and most importantly 20 slabs of pork ribs, Fred Flintstone-size ribs.

They were cut and marinated the night before in a special brine recipe created by firefighter Mark “Chevy” Chevalier.

“He was a great captain and great chief,” Chevalier said, turning the ribs. “A lot of guys showing up today are off duty, but they came in for Al (some like Ray Gauthier even brought Bundt cakes). It shows you how well he’s respected.”

He received parting gifts – an engraved brass fire extinguisher and T-shirt splattered with barbecue sauce.

Then at 6 p.m. the all-call paging tone for chiefs rang out and everyone came to attention as a voice over the air announced that Willoughby was officially retired. That’s when it hit home for Willoughby and Sue, who, as the wife of a firefighter had to spend many nights alone with her children, wondering if he was in harm’s way. They were both teary-eyed as they listened, following the announcement to firefighters from across the city chiming in with their goodbyes and congratulatory messages. Even the “peons” - as senior members call the rookies - hailed greeting to the chief.

Willoughby responded with his last address as district chief, in which he told everyone what a pleasure his life has been as their leader, friend and fellow firefighter.

“You are the heart and soul of the department, acknowledged by citizens every day. I will always be proud of the fact that I was a firefighter and that I was part of Windsor Fire and Rescue,” Willoughby said.

Now the chief is down to taking care of one home, but he’ll always have two families.