Fantasia Festival, July 21st 2011: "The Divide"

Concordia Hall Theatre.

Interior (thankfully inside with lots of AC; it's 45°C outside!).

On a thursday evening.

Tonight is the canadian premiere of Xavier Gens' lattest effort called The Divide. Mitch Davis is there as always. He asked if some of us have seen Gens' other films; Frontier(s) got some isolated love, Hitman, not so much....! Confronted to a lack of enthusiasm, Davis followed with a "Come on! Come on!!!" while gesturing the crowd with his arms. He then asked us to welcome Xavier Gens. Despite what happened a few seconds earlier, he was greated with a good round of applause. He said he was really happy to be there.

He then welcomed actors Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc, and "a great canadian actor from Vancouver", Gens said, Michael Eklund. Gens and Biehn bowed down to each other several times while the latter received a standing ovation from at least two thirds of the crowd. Biehn thanked the crowd repeatedly until every one sat down. They chatted a bit and Biehn said at one point that filming The Divide was one of his best filming experiences ever. "This one's a dark motherfucker, though!", he added.

Gens concluded by saying if anyone of us ever planned to shoot a movie in Winnipeg, "don't shoot during the winter!". He mentionned something about the temperature being somewhat cold.

Here's a description for the film taken from the official guide:

Comet-like missiles streak down upon New York City, reducing it to a scream-filled apocalyptic firestorm. A group of eight strangers frantically take refuge in the fortified basement of their damaged building [...]. The attack is over, but what happens after the shelter door closes is a genre-defying ride into the psychosis of the city's survivors and a haunting insight into mankind's corruption when societal rule has crumbled.

The movie starts right into the attack and the race to the shelter described in the summary. Then we see the opening credits. Awesome way to start the film! If things weren't bad enough, the shit hits the fan once the group is isolated downstairs.

Everyone is this movie pulled off great performances. I for one really loved Michael Eklund! Michael Biehn was great too as Mickey. Lauren German was pretty and really good. Milo Ventimiglia was crazy, literally.

I thought the whole concept of people stuck together in a room going crazier as time goes by worked pretty well. Sure, there were some clichéd characters but they were reasoned at some point or another during the movie which pleased the audience in the theatre. Some attendees were trying to reason the characters in their own way with the use of "Oh, you fucking idiot!!!" and "Shut up, man!!!".

Visually, I'd say the movie was pretty well shot. There was a generous use of the steadicam in the movie and it was well done. The sets were dirty and the action on-screen was dirty and it was all good to me.

There was a good score all throughout the movie also, which helped put the accent on some moments.

The movie received a good round of applause after the projection. Davis, Gens, Biehn, Eklund and Blanc all came back on stage for a Q&A. Here's what I picked up.

- There is a special "Thank you" destined to actress Melissa George near the end of the credits. It left me wondering. The question was addressed later in the Q&A were Gens revealed that George was originally supposed to play the role of Eva, now interpreted by Lauren German. She had to leave the movie to go and shoot A Lonely Place to Die for reasons I didn't understand after one month of pre-production and rehearsals. German was brought in 10 days before shooting.

- The movie shot for 5 weeks in Winnipeg.

- At some point during pre-production, they almost had to call off the shoot because one of the producing company took away their money. The company said that it was impossible to shoot the way they wanted to shoot (improvising a lot) in the time they had and for other reasons. Gens revealed that an intern in Winnipeg saved the day when his parents offered to cover for the money that was taken away.

- There was a script for the movie (obviously!) but Gens admitted that they improvised a lot throughout filming.

- Michael Biehn praised Michael Eklund for his final performance in the movie considering the fact that "this guy had nothing but a handful of lines in the original script", he said. The audience approved.

- A bit more on improvising. Gens said that Lauren German is a very by the book actress. She insisted a lot to respect the script. Eklund and Gens shared a conniving look... Eklund proceeded to tell a story about a deleted scene. Gens came to him and said that German's character comes to his character in the scene and asks him to leave the room so she can have a chat with Rosanna Arquette's character. Gens told Eklund that whatever happens, "do not leave the room"! The director calls action, German comes in, asks Eklund to leave; he doesn't move. Instead, he shows a stool for German to sit on, lights up a joint and shares it with Arquette because "she's in on it too", Eklund said. The three actors do their scene and as soon as the director cut, German stormed off the set and went directly to Gens. She complained that this is not was was supposed to happen. Gens agreed, that this his not what he asked them to do and refered to Eklund and Arquette as "unprofessionnal". German then left in anger. Eklund said that he went to see Gens and asked him if this is what he wanted. Gens replied with two thumbs up and a huge smile!!! Audience loved the anecdote.

- When a guy asked Gens what he learned from his Hollywood experience when he directed Hitman, the latter replied that he would never work for the Twentieth Century Fox ever again, which got some to clap their hands. He admitted that the movie was not really good, that he didn't have creative control, he had to follow the script. He said that it was really important for him that he would have creative control on his next project, just like he did with Frontier(s). He said he was really happy of his experience on The Divide.

- At one point, some guy raised his hand to ask a question. On Davis' signal, he said: "So, my question is for Mr. Biehn... Can I call you Mr. Biehn!??". I didn't see Michael Biehn's reaction and I didn't hear the question since I was busy slapping my forehead in shock!

- Michael Biehn said that it was a very tense set giving the emotions the actors and their characters had to go through during their time in the shelter. Because of that, some actors didn't stay in good relations while others did. As a proof of that, he said that since they were all sleeping in the same hotel, they had to draw a line on the floor to separate the "good" and the "bad".

- Eklund revealed that the actors were put on a diet during the shoot, which not only made them look weaker as the shoot went on (to reflect the time the characters spend down there with nothing but beans to eat) but it also contributed to their craziness, both on-screen and on the set.

- It was revealed that the movie shot chronologically.

- The four guests were signing any kind of memorabilia in the lobby after the Q&A. I complimented the gang for the movie, especially Eklund. I got myself a small sized poster of the film signed by them.

I'll give The Divide a rating of 8.5 out of 10.

Next up: Monster Brawl

Mood: Happy

Fantasia Festival, July 17th 2011: "The Troll Hunter"

Immediately following "A Lonely Place to Die", I was in line for my next movie, "Trolljegeren" a.k.a. "The Troll Hunter", from Norway. The movie was preceeded by the clay-mation animated short "Det siste norske trollet" a.k.a. "The Last Norwegian Troll", also from Norway. It was a charming and also funny tale about trolls and Norway and its landscape. It was narrated by Max von Sydow.
http://fantasiafestival.com/2011/en/films/film_detail.php?id=713

Let's move on to "The Troll Hunter". We're told right off the bat that the document we are about to watch is a chronological rough cut of material that Filmkameratene A/S received in October 2008. The package came in anonymously. I contained 2 hard drives combining a little less than 300 minutes of footage. Filmkameratene A/S had the footage analysed to determine whether it is real or if it is some kind of hoax. Specialists determined it was real. People laughed in the Concordia-Hall theatre when that last subtitle line appeared. In a simple way, it set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Here's a short description taken from the official guide.

A trio of student filmakers [are] striking out to the remote parts of Norway on assignement. Their task: Find and question the illegal poacher roaming the region, killing bears, a carefully regulated animal population, as he goes. [...] They track the man down, a solitary soul named Hans who roams the countryside in his battered Land Rover and pungent trailer. But once they finally get Hans to talk, what they find is not at all what they expect.

Said like that, you may wonder what's so funny. I assure you, all sorts of hilarity ensues in this movie, slash, fake-documentary! Dialogues between the characters sometimes turn out to be pretty funny. There's also some physical comedy.

Considering the fact that this is based on "found footage", character's will be talking about different stuff, theories, for which you might not get any answers. I didn't really mind, I had fun with the rest.

Visually, you obvisouly get the shaky camera but it is honestly pretty stable. It only shakes a lot when the cameraman goes on running for reasons to be seen. A lot of the story happens at night, so you will get the obligatory night vision mode a few times. The visuals effects for the trolls are pretty neat too, considering the small reported budget of $3.5 million.

Sound effects were also top of the line. Those beasts roars were really loud and scary.

All the actors/actresses were fine, but a special mention goes to Otto Jespersen, who plays Hans. Terrific!

I believe everyone had a really good time tonight, and I did too!

I'll give "The Troll Hunter" a rating of 8.5 out of 10.

Next up: "The Divide"

Mood: Happy