Songs from the Second Floor – Kanehsatake – Katalin Varga – Beijing Bicycle – Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench – Domestic Violence – Viola

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2014: Prep for TIFF

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A Syllabus for the 2014 Toronto Film Festival

I probably had the best time you can possibly have at TIFF 2013, where I saw 34 features or feature-length shorts programs. I found plenty to admire even in the weakest of them, and I flat out adored at least a dozen others. If I had to invent any regret about last year, it could only be that I went in colder on some of the directors' past bodies of work than I'd wanted to. I made time in the weeks pre-TIFF to see Albert Serra's lovely, eccentric Don Quixote adaptation Honor de cavallería, which definitely helped me appreciate his louche and strange Casanova/Dracula mashup Story of My Death. I also screened Wiseman's High School; I got to ask him a question about it in Toronto, which he found incredibly stupid. The payoffs of this prep work were so rich that this year I vowed to do more, investigating at least one prior film by directors who have a new feature programmed at this year's TIFF. Some, like Jean-Luc Godard or Olivier Assayas, have been favorites for a long time but I still have plenty to pick up from their filmographies. Some, like Hong Sang-soo, Pedro Costa, and Wang Xiaoshuai, are major names I've never caught up with, and many others I've only made contact with once or twice in the past: Ramin Bahrani, Naomi Kawase, Isabel Coixet, Céline Sciamma... Wherever possible, I've selected a movie I've never seen by each director, and I'll be linking to a new, short review in the weeks leading up to TIFF. This MUBI Notebook page might be the quickest snapshot of what's playing in all the festival's sections, with more announcements still to come. Hopefully if you see a name you love or find yourself wondering about, I've got a DVD here ready to pop in!


2004: Los Muertos
TIFF14: Jauja


2000: Songs from the Second Floor
TIFF14: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch
Reflecting on Existence


1998: Late August, Early September
TIFF14: Clouds of Sils Maria


2005: Man Push Cart
TIFF14: 99 Homes


2005: The Upside of Anger
TIFF14: Black and White


2006: Climates
TIFF14: Winter Sleep

2009: Guy and Madeline on
a Park Bench

TIFF14: Whiplash

2009: Map of the Sounds of Tokyo
TIFF14: Learning to Drive

1997: Ossos
TIFF14: Horse Money

2010: Heartbeats
TIFF14: Mommy

2009: Hadewijch
TIFF14: Li'l Quinquin

2004: To Take a Wife
TIFF14: Gett: The Trial of
Viviane Amsalem


2009: Last Train Home
TIFF14: I Am Here

1998: The Replacement Killers
TIFF14: The Equalizer


2001: In Praise of Love
TIFF14: Goodbye to Language 3D

2013: Joe
TIFF14: Manglehorn


2007: All Is Forgiven
TIFF14: Eden


2004: Hotel
TIFF14: Amour fou


2006: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies
TIFF14: The Search


2004: Woman Is the Future of Man
TIFF14: Hill of Freedom


2006: Hanezu
TIFF14: Still the Water


2006: Blockade
TIFF14: Maidan


1998: The Cruise
TIFF14: Foxcatcher


2010: The Myth of the
American Sleepover

TIFF14: It Follows

2004: Mondovino
TIFF14: Natural Resistance


1993: Kanehsatake
TIFF14: Trick or Treaty?


2011: Play
TIFF14: Force majeure


2012: Viola
TIFF14: The Princess of France


1997: The Winter Guest
TIFF14: A Little Chaos


2009: Daddy Longlegs
TIFF14: Heaven Knows What


2001: Baalbeck
TIFF14: The Valley


2002: Forget Baghdad
TIFF14: Iraqi Odyssey


2007: Water Lilies
TIFF14: Girlhood


2002: Waiting for Happiness
TIFF14: Timbuktu


2009: Katalin Varga
TIFF14: The Duke of Burgundy


2003: The Bottom of the Sea
TIFF14: Wild Tales


1996: Private Confessions
TIFF14: Miss Julie


2001: Beijing Bicycle
TIFF14: Red Amnesia


2001: Domestic Violence
TIFF14: National Gallery


2007: The Banishment
TIFF14: Leviathan