After wowing audiences at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, IFC Films and Sundance Selects are releasing Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy in theatres and on VOD this weekend. The film, heavily inspired by the likes of Jess Franco, follows an unconventional relationship between two women; Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen, who some might recognize from the TV show Borgen), an orthopterist, and Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna), an amateur lepidopterist (in other words, they study butterflies and moths, among other insects). They engage in a daily game with each other, one where Cynthia exerts total control over Evelyn. Eventually the film reveals there’s much more to this ritual, and as the two women try to accommodate each other’s desires their relationship gets put to the test.

Writer/director Peter Strickland might have made his best work yet with The Duke of Burgundy. Like his previous films Katalin Varga and Berberian Sound Studio, Strickland works with old influences, the kind some would describe as trashy, and makes something entirely unique with them. This time, Strickland takes his inspiration from sleazy 70s Euro erotica films, using it to weave together a beautiful love story about the compromises that come with any relationship.

After the film’s world premiere at TIFF, I sat down with Peter Strickland to talk about The Duke of Burgundy. Read on for the full interview, where we discuss the film’s origins as an ultra low budget affair, the actress’ fears going into the film, the story behind the gorgeous location, and what clichés Strickland tried to avoid while making the film. And be sure to watch The Duke of Burgundy this weekend in theatres or on VOD.

Stylistically speaking, The Duke of Burgundy is similar to Berberian Sound Studio, but all of your films cover very different material. Katalin Varga is a revenge tale, Berberian deals with a mental breakdown, and The Duke of Burgundy is essentially a love story. Do you purposely try to avoid dealing with similar subject matter whenever you start working on a new project?
Maybe now. It didn’t used to be that way. After Berberian there was a chance to do a film involved with sound again, but I thought it might not be such a good move. I’d love to go back to it, though. I’d love to go back to all these subjects, but I think you can’t really do them justice with one film. I think it’s just spreading out your obsessions [Laughs]. Putting them between each other, not next to each other.

Since this is a film about a lesbian BDSM relationship, did you have a harder time selling the film to people in order to get funds?
It’s so weird, because it’s a very different time. Over 2 years ago, when I started this project, Berberian Sound Studio was in the garbage. Berlin rejected it, Cannes rejected it, and I thought we fucked it up. Then I met Andy Starke and Pete Tombs from Rook Films. They offered me to work for them and make a film for 20,000 pounds. All of us thought no one would be interested in The Duke of Burgundy because of a) Berberian being in no man’s land, and b) the subject matter. Then suddenly Berberian got recognized, and surprisingly [the financiers] were really interested. In my mind I thought I was making a sleazy little film, but suddenly people were responding to it positively. So the budget went up drastically. It didn’t go over the budget for Berberian, but that was a purposeful thing to keep it below. That way we could keep control.

What was the casting process like? Did you try to get the two actresses together beforehand to make sure they had the right chemistry?
They met. We went to a hotel to do a read through at a dinner table. It’s always nerve-wracking when you put two actors together who don’t know each other. Very nerve-wracking. We were lucky. Both of them are great. Sidse has a remarkable ability to inhabit another world and bring what I’ve written to life somehow. And Chiara has done well, especially considering it’s her second film. This is her first lead role. Both of them were scared going into it for different reasons. I think Chiara was scared because it’s her first lead role, and Sidse was scared because it was a complete departure from Borgen in every sense. I think she took a huge risk, so just for that alone I really respect her.

You take a bit of time to establish the true dynamics of Cynthia and Evelyn’s relationship.
I wanted to start it off like a genre film, like Olga’s House of Shame or something, with the evil boss everyone’s supposed to be turned on by. Those films are interesting. They completely embody a sexual fantasy, but they’re always portrayed as a terrible house of sin or something. It starts out a bit like that. You start off feeling very sorry for Evelyn being pissed on, and then you feel very sorry for Cynthia having to piss on Evelyn. The idea was to first reveal it’s obviously a game, and then reveal it’s actually more than that.

When films deal with something involving BDSM, a lot of the times there’s an association of something negative or dangerous about it. What surprised me about your film is that it never feels judgmental about the characters or their sexual preferences. There’s some humour about their lifestyle, but it never feels like we’re meant to laugh at them.
No, I never wanted to do that.

Did you have concerns going in over how to portray their relationship, and if so how did you address them?
Whatever you do, someone’s gonna slag you off, so that wasn’t ever really a concern for me. It’s just wrong, especially as a filmmaker, to judge people’s sexual behavior which is consensual. The whole activity of bondage is based on tenderness and trust. I am laughing at the practicalities of this, and how you pit it against real life. I’m certainly not interested in their backgrounds or why they have these desires. It’s like saying why is so-and-so heterosexual? I’m not interested. That’s not the film. The film is about how different needs can work in a relationship.

I haven’t seen a lot of films with that subject. I didn’t want to have the conventional trappings, like the whips, the leather, the rubber, or handcuffs, because it’s a cliché. It’s far more interesting to still have that intense bondage dynamic without the stuff you’d expect. And the other important thing was to show the mask behind the masochist, and how the masochist controls the dominant one. The films I had seen, the dominant person, whether it’s a man or woman, is inherently dominant. But of course, that’s not the case usually. And the idea of a masochist wanting a truly dominant person is absurd, because the masochist wants to control it. It’s something we all know, but I hadn’t seen it done in films before.

And the way you show their relationship feels very observant. You’re never condoning or condemning them for what they like. It just is what it is.
I really was mindful of not wanting to be for or against sadomasochistic activities. I’m observing what they do. It’s something with many parallels to filmmaking, performance, with all our lives. With persona and power, it’s in all relationships, even down to social conditioning between men and women, and who the man is supposed to be. In many countries the man is supposed to be the one who’s always going to know where you’re going to go on the date, how you’re going to get there, etc. If you’re allotted that position of being the dominant one, like any human being you just want to have some time out. You just want to sit back and wear your pajamas like Cynthia.

I got that feeling with Cynthia. Sometimes she wanted something more conventional within the relationship, but at other times it felt like she was just bored with the routine itself.
She’s bored. She’ll do [the games] because she has vicarious pleasure from it, from seeing Evelyn’s intense excitement for it. It’s almost like a turn-on for her. She’s not against the games as such. What she’s against is the fatigue of doing it again and again and again. She doesn’t really like doing these things to Evelyn, but it’s that thing about compromise. What’s worse: Evelyn suppressing her desires, or Cynthia doing something she finds repellant? Who is right, who is wrong? I don’t want to wag any fingers. I want to present a world, and you out in the audience can wag your fingers amongst yourselves and sort it out.

You have these very evocative, abstract sequences where the film feels like it’s overwhelmed with emotion.
That’s Nick [Knowland], he’s a great cinematographer. He worked with the Brothers Quay, so I was a big fan of his work. The whole film was like a bit of a spell. It has this intense sexual headiness. It was a case of trial and error until we would find the right superimposition that worked. It did create something quite special, which somehow caught that mood of abandon or whatever you want to call it.

Did you shoot the film on a set, or in a real house?
It was all found spaces.

How long did it take to find the location?
It took a while, but not too long. I first saw that house in Hungary and went to visit it. I went there and thought, oh my God, this is terrible. I imagined something a bit smaller. We found out afterwards that it was the weekend house of János Kádár, the communist leader of Hungary, so it has a bit of a history to it. It was a bomb site, completely gutted. No furniture, no wallpaper, nothing. It stank to high heaven of mold and damp. It was disgusting. You would literally vomit if you went into the bathroom. But we had this amazing production designer, Pater Sparrow, who completely made it into something else. We didn’t have money to re-tile the bathroom, so he just scrubbed all the white tiles and put blue stickers over them. He would find these really cheap ways of literally papering over the cracks. I do prefer shooting in found spaces. I could never believe we were in a studio in Berberian because I knew we were creating a studio within a studio. I can enjoy this one more because I know those spaces existed in real life.

Berberian Sound Studio primarily had two locations, and this film mostly stays within one area. Does making films with characters in small, limited settings interest you?
Well if I’m brutally honest, a lot of it is budget [Laughs]. But I wouldn’t dream of doing a film with lots of people. I don’t want to rush into making films, I want to take my time bit by bit. I want to play it safe. Comfort zones. Very underrated things.

Do you think your next film(s) will be similar in that sense, then?
I don’t know. I certainly realized I love writing and directing, but I don’t want to be a hack for hire. What’s weird about it is that my inspiration does come from hacks. Actually, that’s not true. I mean, Jess Franco wasn’t a hack, he was a visionary. But it’s a mixture of things. Some of these exploitation films, the producers were the driving force. But I don’t know, to be honest. I’ll just go with the flow and see what happens.

This review delves into some of the film’s reveals in the first act. While this review only contains very mild spoilers, those wanting to go in blind might want to hold off reading until after they see The Duke of Burgundy.

Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy is a deceptive little love story. The opening credits, with its warping effects, filters and dreamlike mood, immediately shows how much Strickland owes his film’s style to sleazy Euro erotic films from the ’70s (think Jess Franco). But Strickland knows what attracts people to that kind of low-grade cinema, similar to the giallo films that inspired Berberian Sound Studio, isn’t necessarily the content or quality. It’s the specific, singular mood these sorts of films create, the off-kilter atmosphere that makes people so fascinated with trying to re-create the same thing. The Duke of Burgundy takes that distinctive form, the hazy, dreamlike reverie one associates with old Euro erotica, and uses it to tell an achingly beautiful love story.

At the start of the film, Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna) comes to the large estate of Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) to do her daily chores as a maid. Cynthia cruelly dominates Evelyn throughout the day, insulting her work and ultimately punishing her for forgetting to wash a pair of panties (what that punishment is exactly I’ll leave as a surprise). It’s at this point, right after the extremity of Evelyn’s punishment, that Strickland starts pulling back the curtain. Cynthia and Evelyn are, in fact, lovers, and the maid routine is a ritual the two act out almost every day. Suddenly the roles in the relationship switch; Evelyn turns out to be the one in control, giving Cynthia explicit instructions on how to behave during their role play. It’s the first of many surprising, inventive subversions of expectations throughout.

From here, The Duke of Burgundy uses the extreme conditions of Cynthia & Evelyn’s relationship to delve into universal issues anyone with a partner goes through, namely the issue of compromise. Cynthia clearly doesn’t enjoy Evelyn’s routine, but she continues to participate because of how much it pleases her lover. Take away the BDSM qualities, and what Cynthia feels is one of the biggest hurdles with any relationship. It’s about doing something you don’t like to please the one you love, and Strickland beautifully conveys that core theme with a level of precision cutting straight through the gorgeous style.

Don’t take that as a knock on The Duke of Burgundy’s style, though. In Strickland’s previous film Berberian Sound Studio, he showed how much his style puts an emphasis on sensations and emotions. It’s easy to get into a character’s headspace because every frame dedicates itself to evoking their strongest feelings. It’s the same thing here, with each image and sound seemingly designed to emphasize the intensity of Cynthia & Evelyn’s love. Strickland repeatedly delves into Evelyn’s perspective at the height of her lust for Cynthia, and it’s a feeling so strong it threatens to break the film; abstract images inspired by the avant-garde take over (one sequence, obviously inspired by Stan Brakhage, might be one of the best things put on screen all year), and the effect is stunning. Strickland appears to have finally found the perfect mix of form and content, and in doing so has made his best film to date.

It’s also a very funny film. Strickland offsets the more intense moments with plenty of opportunities to poke fun at his own creation. A lot of the humour comes from breaking down the fantastical qualities, putting an emphasis on the logistics of Evelyn’s wants. None of the comedic elements feel out of place either, mainly because the characters always take things seriously (no matter what way you cut it, lines like “So had I ordered a human toilet, none of this would have happened?” delivered earnestly is just plain funny). And that’s key to The Duke of Burgundy’s success. Strickland never mocks or judges Cynthia & Evelyn. He presents a unique, fairy tale-like setting, one that feels timeless, and presents something relatable through it. It’s rendering the ordinary into something extraordinary, and watching Strickland’s sublime interpretation is nothing short of exhilarating.

The Duke of Burgundy is in on VOD and theatres including Landmark’s Nuart Theatre in West LA and IFC Center in New York now.

It’s hard to discuss what exactly goes on in The Duke of Burgundy because it might ruin writer/director Peter Strickland’s surprises. Following the relationship between two entomologists, Cynthia (Sidse Babett Knudsen) and the younger Evelyn (Chiara D’Anna), the film shows the unconventional partnership between the two women. They go through a daily ritual, Cynthia ruthlessly barking orders at Evelyn to clean around the house and punishing her if she doesn’t do her job right. It’s a dominant and submissive relationship, but how those roles are assigned, along with how those roles shift throughout, make for captivating viewing.

Inspired by the 70’s erotic films of Jess Franco, The Duke of Burgundy’s style is at once familiar and yet completely odd. Taking place primarily at a gorgeous estate, covered in vines and surrounded by trees, Strickland uses the setting to establish the film’s fairytale-like atmosphere as well as Evelyn’s intense love for Cynthia. Strickland pushes the intimacy between the two women to the breaking point, and when Evelyn’s passion consumes her the film goes into several astoundingly abstract sequences, much like the climactic freak out in Strickland’s last film Berberian Sound Studio. The tactic works much more effectively here because of how closely the form ties into the characters’ emotions.

And amazingly, for a film dealing with a BDSM relationship, Strickland never shows a hint of judgment or negativity towards Evelyn and Cynthia’s preferences. Yes, some of their dialogue, including a discussion over whether or not they want to buy a “human toilet,” is naturally funny to hear. But the humour comes from the absurdity of what’s being said; the film never laughs at Cynthia or Evelyn for their desires, nor does it try to explain their kinks. It’s the most refreshing part of a wonderfully off-kilter experience. The Duke of Burgundy is sensual (kudos to Strickland for showing how nudity isn’t needed to make something erotic), stunning, and riveting from start to end. It’s one of the festival’s real discoveries, and should continue to elevate Peter Strickland’s status in cinema.

Still parsing through the lineup of 59 films announced by the Toronto International Film Festival last week? Well TIFF was just getting started. Today the festival revealed films set to play in several programmes. Read on to learn what programmes were announced, along with some of the more notable films in the bunch.

First up is Midnight Madness, one of the more popular programmes of the festival. The programme dedicates itself to wacky, shocking, funny, scary and extreme films from around the world. Every night of the festival brings a new, exciting premiere at the stroke of midnight for the programme’s passionate and dedicated fans. Programmer Colin Geddes tends to launch some big genre films every year, with past festivals premiering films like You’re Next, Insidious, The Raid: Redemption and Oculus. This year the programme opens with Sion Sono’s latest film Tokyo Tribe, and closes with Adam Wingard‘s The Guest. Other films playing are It Follows, which caused a stir earlier this year at Cannes; Jermaine Clement & Taika Waititi’s vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows; Kevin Smith’s Tusk; [REC]: Apocalypse, the fourth entry in the hit Spanish franchise, and Big Game, the new film from the director of past TIFF film Rare Exports starring Samuel L. Jackson as the president.

Next up is Vanguard, the programme people like to describe as Midnight Madness’ older, darker sister. This area of the festival reserves itself for some truly wild, original material. This year we’ll be seeing the likes of Dave McKean (MirrorMask) with his latest film Luna; Fabrice du Welz‘s Alleluia; Takashi Miike‘s Over Your Dead Body, and, most excitingly, Peter Strickland‘s The Duke of Burgundy, his follow-up to Berberian Sound Studio.

TIFF Docs is, well, exactly that. The documentary arm of the festival is set to show off new works from Frederick Wiseman, Joshua Oppenheimer, Ethan Hawke, and Nick Broomfield, among many others. As always, documentary fans have plenty to chew on here.

Finally, Masters deals exclusively with top-tier arthouse filmmakers from around the world, and this year brings yet another impressive line-up of names. Roy Andersson finally emerges with his new film A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, and Jean-Luc Godard‘s latest Goodbye to Language 3D will also screen. Works from renowned directors like Michael Winterbottom, Ann Hui and Hong Sang-Soo will also screen. Also screening is Leviathan, a film we raved about at Cannes this year.

Read on for full descriptions of everything announced today. The Toronto International Film Festival happens from September 4th to 14th, 2014, in Toronto, Ontario. For more information, including how to buy tickets, you can visit www.tiff.net/thefestival.

Midnight Madness

[REC] 4: Apocalypse (Jaume Balagueró), Spain World Premiere
Angela Vidal wakes up in a high-security quarantine facility, sole survivor and witness to the horrific events inside the building. But does she remember what happened to her? Is she carrying a virus? Distrust spreads through the isolated facility while new, even more deadly forms of evil spread even faster.

Big Game (Jalmari Heleander), Finland/United Kingdom/Germany World Premiere
The fate of the most powerful man in the world lies in the hands of a 13-year-old boy. Plunged into a deadly game of cat and mouse, Oskari and the president must team up to survive the most extraordinary night of their lives.

Cub (Jonas Govaerts), Belgium World Premiere
Young, imaginative 12-year-old Sam heads off to camp with his Cub Scouts pack. In the woods, he stumbles upon a strange treehouse and a masked, feral child. When his leaders ignore his warnings about the mysterious boy, Sam starts to feel increasingly isolated from the pack, and convinced a terrible fate awaits them all.

Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (Mark Hartley), Australia International Premiere
Director Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood, Machete Maidens Unleashed!) continues his delightful documentary disinterment of down-market movie detritus with this chronicle of the rise and fall of 1980s action-exploitation juggernaut Cannon Films, whose contributions to the cinematic canon include American Ninja, The Delta Force, Death Wish II and Masters of the Universe.

The Guest (Adam Wingard), USA Canadian Premiere
The follow-up to Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s wildly popular You’re Next, The Guest tells the story of a mysterious and devastatingly charming visitor, David (Dan Stevens of Downton Abbey) who arrives on the doorstep of a bereaved family claiming to be the best friend of their dead son, a young soldier who died in action. The Petersons welcome David into their home and into their lives, but when people start mysteriously dying in town, their teenage daughter Anna (Maika Monroe of It Follows) starts wondering if David is responsible.

It Follows (David Robert Mitchell), USA North American Premiere
For 19-year-old Jay (Maika Monroe), the fall should be about school, boys and weekends at the lake. Yet after a seemingly innocent sexual encounter she suddenly finds herself plagued by nightmarish visions; she can’t shake the sensation that someone, or something, is following her. As the threat closes in, Jay and her friends must somehow escape the horrors that are only a few steps behind. With a riveting central performance from Monroe and a strikingly ominous electronic score by Disasterpeace, It Follows is an artful psychosexual thriller from David Robert Mitchell (whose The Myth of the American Sleepover premiered at Critics’ Week in 2010). The film also stars Keir Gilchrist, Daniel Zovatto, Jake Weary, Olivia Luccardi, and Lili Sepe.

Midnight Madness Opening Night Film.

Tokyo Tribe (Sion Sono), Japan International Premiere
Set in an alternate Tokyo of the near future, director Sion Sono continues his run of sensational films with the explosive street gang tale Tokyo Tribe. Tokyo Tribe is the first live-action adaptation of the best-selling manga series Tokyo Tribe 2, by Santa Inoue, which has sold two million copies and has been published in Asia and the west to great popularity.

Tusk (Kevin Smith), USA World Premiere
Wallace (Justin Long) is a podcaster on a mission who thinks he has found the story of a lifetime in Howard Howe (Michael Parks), an adventurer with amazing stories and a curious penchant for walruses. When Mr. Howe’s true desires unfold, things take a dark turn and Wallace faces a terrifying transformation at the hands of his captor. As his friends Alison and Teddy (Genesis Rodriguez and Haley Joel Osment) search the backwoods of Canada to rescue him, they discover a nightmare from which there is no escape. Conceived from one of indie legend Kevin Smith’s own Smodcast’s, Tusk is an unprecedented tale that is equal parts hilarious and horrifying.

What We Do in the Shadows Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, New Zealand/USA Canadian Premiere
Vladislav (Jemaine Clement), Viago (Taika Waititi), and Deacon (Jonathan Brugh) are three flatmates who are just trying to get by and overcome life’s obstacles—like being immortal vampires who must feast on human blood. Hundreds of years old, the vampires are finding that beyond sunlight catastrophes, hitting the main artery, and not being able to get a sense of their wardrobe without a reflection, modern society has them struggling with the mundane like paying rent, keeping up with the chore wheel, trying to get into nightclubs, and overcoming flatmate conflicts.

Vanguard

Alleluia (Fabrice Du Welz), France/Belgium North American Premiere
When Gloria and Michel meet on a dating site, nothing suggests the destructive and murderous passion that will be born of their crazy love. Alleluia is inspired by a 1947 article about nurse Martha Beck and swindler Raymond Fernandez, who became involved in a deadly, tragic affair.

The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland), United Kingdom World Premiere
Peter Strickland’s eagerly anticipated follow up to Berberian Sound Studio and Katalin Varga is a gorgeously dark melodrama following two women who test the limits of their unsettlingly intense relationship. Starring Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen) and Chiara d’Anna.

Goodnight Mommy (Ich seh, Ich seh) (Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala), Austria North American Premiere
In the heat of the summer in an isolated house in the countryside between woods and corn fields, 10-year-old twins wait for their mother. When she returns with her head wrapped in bandages after surgery, nothing is as it was before. Stern and distant now, she shuts the family off from the outside world. Starting to doubt that this woman is actually their mother, the boys are determined to find the truth by any means.

Hyena (Gerard Johnson), United Kingdom International Premiere
Michael Logan is an anti-hero for our times: a natural predator, a high-functioning addict, and corrupt police officer. But his dark world is evolving: a recent influx of ruthless Albanian gangsters is threatening to change London’s criminal landscape. Michael’s razor sharp instincts have always kept him one step ahead, but now his increasingly self-destructive behavior and the sheer brutality of the new gang lords send Michael spiraling into a descent of fear and self-doubt.

Luna (Dave McKean), United Kingdom World Premiere
Renowned artist and filmmaker Dave McKean (MirrorMask) brings his distinctive blend of live action and gorgeously wrought animation to this dreamlike reverie about four people – Grant, Christine, Dean and Freya – whose long weekend in an isolated house by the sea brings up old resentments and the life of a dead child is revisited in a series of strange dreams.

Over Your Dead Body (Takashi Miike), Japan International Premiere
A star, Miyuki Goto (Ko Shibasaki) plays Oiwa, the protagonist in a new play based on the ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan. She pulls some strings to get her lover, Kosuke Hasegawa (Ebizo Ichikawa) cast in the play, even though he’s a relatively unknown actor. Other performers Rio Asahina (Miho Nakanishi) and Jun Suzuki (Hideaki Ito) lust after Miyuki. Off stage the cast’s possessive love and obsessions exist as reality. Trapped between the play and reality, the cast’s feelings for each other are amplified. When it becomes clear that love is not meant to be both on and off stage, love turns into a grudge and crosses the blurred line between reality and fantasy.

Shrew’s Nest (Musarañas) (Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel), Spain World Premiere
Spain, 1950s. Monste’s agoraphobia keeps her locked in a sinister apartment in Madrid and her only link to reality is the little sister she sacrificed her youth to raise. But one day, a reckless young neighbour, Carlos, falls down the stairwell and drags himself to their door. Someone has entered the shrew’s nest… and perhaps he’ll never leave.

Spring (Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead), USA World Premiere
A young man in a personal tailspin flees the US to Italy, where he sparks up a romance with a girl harbouring a dark, primordial secret in this edgy, romantic drama with a supernatural twist.

They Have Escaped (JP Valkeapää), Finland North American Premiere
A boy and a girl meet at a custody center for youth with difficulties. The boy has come to serve his obligatory civil service. The girl is one of the youths in custody, and she is constantly in trouble, with a fire inside her and a lust for life that can’t be quashed or controlled. The boy becomes infatuated with the girl. He is a quiet one; a stutterer. But there is a fire inside him as well. Rules, laws, punishment; the shackles of the hostile environment with no understanding around them can be broken. They steal a car and flee together. Thus begins a journey with endless escapes.

Waste Land (Pieter Van Hees), Belgium World Premiere
Leo Woeste is a homicide investigator living with his girlfriend Kathleen and her five-year-old son, Jack. Kathleen gets pregnant unexpectedly just as Leo must solve his most bizarre case to date: the ritual murder of a young Congolese man, which may or may not involve Leo’s hedonistic new colleague, Johnny Rimbaud. As the case’s complexity mounts by the minute, Leo is pulled away from Kathleen and his role as a father, and heads deeper and deeper into the Waste Land.

The World of Kanako (Kawaki) (Tetsuya Nakashima), Japan International Premiere
When beautiful straight-A high school student Kanako goes missing, her mother asks ex-husband Akikazu — a drifting, irresponsible former cop — to find their daughter. He embarks on a desperate search in the hope of reuniting his family by any means necessary. But as his investigation progresses, Akikazu starts to discover the darkness that lies behind his daughter’s impeccable façade. Clue by clue, revelation by revelation, he starts his descent into the hellish underworld of Kanako’s secret life…

TIFF Docs

Beats of the Antonov (Hajooj Kuka), Sudan/South Africa World Premiere
Beats of the Antonov follows refugees from the Blue Nile and Nuba Mountains in Sudan as they survive displacement and the trauma of civil war. Music, a cornerstone of their traditions and identity, becomes itself a vehicle for survival.

I Am Here (Wo Jiu Shi Wo) (Lixin Fan), China International Premiere
During the summer of 2013, 12 young boys battle each other for the No. 1 spot in Super Boys, a decade-old American Idol-style TV talent show in China. They discover who they are and learn to love each other in the process. From the director of Last Train Home.

Iraqi Odyssey (Samir), Iraq/Switzerland/Germany/United Arab Emirates World Premiere
Tracing the emigrations of his family over more than half a century, this riveting documentary epic from acclaimed expatriate Iraqi filmmaker Samir (Forget Baghdad) pays moving homage to the frustrated democratic dreams of a people successively plagued by the horrors of dictatorship, war, and foreign occupation.

Merchants of Doubt (Robert Kenner), USA Canadian Premiere
Documentarian Robert Kenner (Food, Inc.) investigates the shadowy world of professional skeptics, whose services are bought and paid for by corporations, think tanks and other special interests to cast doubt and delay on public and governmental action on climate change.

National Diploma (Examen d’Etat) (Dieudo Hamadi), France/Congo North American Premiere
A group of young Congolese high-school students who are about to write the exam for their National Diploma in Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo, gather in a maquis (communal house) to help each other prepare. It is common practice to be ejected from classes during the school year for failing to pay “teachers’ fees”, but the students are determined, and resort to all means at their disposal to earn a diploma, a stepping stone out of a life of poverty.

National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman), France/USA North American Premiere
Master documentarian Frederick Wiseman (Crazy Horse, At Berkeley) takes the audience behind the scenes of this London institution, which is inhabited by masterpieces of Western art from the Middle Ages to the 19th century. In a perpetual and dizzying game of mirrors, the film presents a portrait of a place, its inner workings, and its relationship with the world, its staff, its public and its paintings.

Natural Resistance (Jonathan Nossiter), Italy/France North American Premiere
A group of Italian vineyard proprietors live a life many can only dream of. In their converted 11th-century monastery and winery in Tuscany, Giovanna Tiezzi and Stefano Borsa find a way to grow grains, fruit and wine that create a link to their ancient Etruscan heritage. Ten years after Mondovino, the wine world has changed just like the world itself. The enemy is now far greater than the threat of globalization. But against the new world economy, these natural wine rebels offer a model of charmed and joyous resistance.

Red Army (Gabe Polsky), USA/Russia Canadian Premiere
Red Army follows the most successful dynasty in sports history: the Soviet Union’s Red Army hockey team of the 1980s. Told from the perspective of its captain Slava Fetisov, the story portrays his transformation from national hero to political enemy. From the USSR to Russia, the film examines how sport mirrors social and cultural movements, and parallels the rise and fall of the Red Army team with the Soviet Union. An inspiring story about the Cold War played out on the ice rink, and the man who stood up to a powerful system and paved the way for change for generations of Russians.

Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke), USA International Premiere
Director Ethan Hawke explores the life and lessons of pianist, teacher and sage, Seymour Bernstein. Since giving up a career as a concert pianist at age 50, Seymour has dedicated his life to teaching his students about music, happiness and the power of detaching satisfaction from success.

Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Ma’a al Fidda) (Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan), Syria/France North American Premiere
The collaboration between exiled Syrian filmmaker Ossama Mohammed and young Kurdish activist Wiam Simav Bedirxan distills footage from thousands of clandestine videos to create a shattering, on-the-ground documentary chronicle of the ordeal being undergone by ordinary Syrians in the ongoing civil war.

Sunshine Superman (Marah Strauch), USA/Norway/United Kingdom World Premiere
Sunshine Superman tells the story of Carl Boenish who pioneered and popularized the activity of BASE jumping (jumping from fixed objects with a parachute). Carl married Jean Campbell and together they travelled to Norway in 1984 to jump from the cliffs of Trollveggen. Against the backdrop of the midnight sun, tragedy strikes.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield), USA/United Kingdom World Premiere
Nick Broomfield digs into the case of the notorious serial killer Lonnie Franklin, known as the “Grim Sleeper,” who terrorized South Central Los Angeles over a span of 25 years.

The Look of Silence (Senyap) (Joshua Oppenheimer), Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/United Kingdom Canadian Premiere
Through Joshua Oppenheimer’s work with perpetrators of the Indonesian genocide, a family of survivors discover who killed their son. The youngest brother is determined to break the spell of silence and fear under which the survivors live, and confronts the men responsible for his brother’s murder.

This Is My Land (Tamara Erde), France World Premiere
This film follows several Israeli and Palestinian teachers over one academic year, observing their exchanges and confrontations with students, their debates with their respective ministries’ curriculum and its restrictions, and offering an intimate glimpse into the profound and long-lasting effect that the Israeli/Palestinian conflict transmits onto the next generation.

The Yes Men Are Revolting (Laura Nix and The Yes Men), USA World Premiere
For two decades, The Yes Men have pulled off hilarious and spectacular media hoaxes to expose corporate crime. In this intimate portrait, they are now approaching middle age and struggle to stay inspired as the worst crime of all threatens the planet. Can they get it together before the ice caps melt?

Masters

1001 Grams (Bent Hamer), Norway/Germany/France World Premiere
When Norwegian scientist Marie attends a seminar in Paris on the actual weight of a kilo, it is her own measurement of disappointment, grief and love that ends up on the scale. Starring Ane Dahl Torp, Laurent Stocker and Stein Winge.

A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (En duva satt på en gren och funderade på tillvaron) (Roy Andersson), Sweden/Norway/France/Germany North American Premiere
Like a modern-day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, Sam and Jonathan, two travelling salesmen peddling novelty items, take audiences on a kaleidoscopic journey through human destinies. This is a trip that shows us the beauty of single moments, the pettiness of others, the humour and tragedy that is in us, and the frailty of humanity.

The Face of an Angel (Michael Winterbottom), United Kingdom World Premiere
Why are we fascinated by murder? Inspired by the killing of British student Meredith Kercher in Italy, this film looks beyond the salacious headlines to explore both the media and the public’s obsession with violent stories, whether fictional or real. Starring Daniel Brühl, Kate Beckinsale, Valerio Mastandrea and Cara Delevingne.

The Golden Era (Huang jin shi dai) (Ann Hui), China/Hong Kong North American Premiere
Xiao Hong, one of the most famous female writers, lived through the most turbulent times in contemporary China. Her estrangement from her father sparked a long quest for an emotionally satisfying life. She was rescued from poverty by writer Xiao Jun, but their competitive relationship brought her more heartache than joy. While escaping the Japanese invasion, she married novelist Duanmu Hongliang and fled to Hong Kong. Starring Tang Wei and Feng Shao Feng.

Goodbye to Language 3D (Adieu au langage 3D) (Jean-Luc Godard), France North American Premiere
The idea is simple: A married woman and a single man meet. They love, they argue, fists fly. A dog strays between town and country. The seasons pass. The man and woman meet again. The dog finds itself between them. The other is in one, the one is in the other and they are three. The former husband shatters everything. A second film begins: the same as the first, and yet not. From the human race we pass to metaphor. This ends in barking and a baby’s cries. In the meantime, we will have seen people talking of the demise of the dollar, of truth in mathematics and of the death of a robin.

Hill of Freedom (Ja-yu-ui eon-deok) (Hong Sang-soo), South Korea North American Premiere
South Korean master Hong Sang-soo crafts yet another delightful, soju-saturated tale of love thwarted in this story of a heartsick Japanese man who travels to Seoul to attempt a reunion with the woman he still pines for. Starring Ryo Kase, Sori Moon, Younghwa Seo and Euisung Kim.

Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev), Russia Canadian Premiere
Kolia lives in a small fishing town near the Barents Sea. He owns an auto-repair shop that stands right next to the house where he lives with his young wife Lilya (Elena Liadova) and his son Roma (Sergueï Pokhodaev) from a previous marriage. The town’s corrupt mayor Vadim Shelevyat is determined to take away his business, his house, as well as his land. First the mayor tries buying off Kolia, but Kolia unflinchingly fights as hard as he can so as not to lose everything he owns. Facing resistance, the mayor starts being more aggressive. Starring Alexey Serebryakov, Elena Lyadova, Vladimir Vdovitchenkov, Roman Madyanov and Anna Ukolova.

Revivre (Hwajang) (Im Kwon-taek), South Korea North American Premiere
A middle-aged man who has recently lost his wife to cancer indulges in fantasies about a young woman at his work in the new film from Korean master Im Kwon-taek (Chunhyang). Starring Ahn Sung-ki, Kim Qyu-ri and Kim Ho-jung.

Timbuktu(Abderrahmane Sissako), France/Mauritania/Mali North American Premiere
Luminous, lyrical and poetic, set during the early days of the 2012 fundamentalist takeover of northern Mali and inspired by real people and real events, Timbuktu is a searing drama about the everyday woes and resistance of ordinary people in a city overrun by extremist foreign fighters. Starring Ibrahim Ahmed aka Pino, Toulou Kiki and Abel Jafri.

Isolation is the name of the game in Peter Strickland’s new thriller Berberian Sound Studio. The film concerns itself with a British man Gilderoy, played perfectly by Toby Jones, a sound engineer who is asked to come to Rome to work on the sound design of a new Giallo film that is currently in post-production at the Berberian Sound Studio.

The film begins with Gilderoy walking into the Studio for the first time. The first person he runs into is the receptionist who warns Gilderoy, before he can get a sentence out, that she doesn’t speak a lick of English. This is a running idea throughout the film. Gilderoy is the only person in the film who speaks English thus whenever anyone else talks to each other in the film it’s in Italian. There are numerous shots of him looking lost or in wonder of what is being said. A lot of the shots that are framed around Gilderoy are tight close ups on his face.

Adding to the confusion, the film they are working on is never shown. Images reflect on the actor’s faces as they watch the film they are producing. Other than 2 or 3 minutes of a film that consists of shots of landscape, there are no scenes that take place outside the studio. Strickland aims to keep you feeling as alone and secluded as possible. And it works.

From the look of Berberian Sound Studio, making sound for film can be as fun as it is as frustrating. Using everything from fruit, instruments, and different pieces of flooring and ground (dirt, grass etc.), Gilderoy and his team begin to craft the sounds for their new film. For example, when someone is getting hacked to death by a serial killer, cutting up a watermelon is used.

Strickland’s filmmaking works wonders (for a while) for the film. References to some of the great Italian horror directors, like Dario Argento and Mario Bava are thrown in. Even David Lynch, the great surrealist filmmaker, has a hat tipped to him. The tone of the film is quiet and calm. But you can tell something is amiss. You feel like at any time something could go awry. Credit goes to Strickland for keeping the audience on its toes throughout the film.

Jones’ performance as Gilderoy is one of his best. As a man who is slowly losing his mind, Jones keeps his performance in check. He doesn’t go overboard with acting and stays on the right side of the camp. The same cannot be said about Strickland. While roughly 80% of the film is well done and a very good example of claustrophobic filmmaking, the final 20% loses the plot. The film ultimately goes nowhere, which is very unfortunate considering what preceded it.

Rarely do I think films need to be longer but in this case, I think another 20 minutes could have been beneficial to the film. Berberian Sound Studio feels like Strickland ran out of money and had to just release what he had filmed. Because of this the film never becomes what it originally set out to be. While Berberian Sound Studio isn’t a total loss, it has great atmosphere, sense of dread, and some great performances, I can’t quite recommend it since it derails from its plot about 20 minutes before it ends.

Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio is very much a movie about movies. In it we follow Gilderoy (the excellent character actor Toby Jones), a sound man who accepts a job offer in Italy on a giallo slasher. Its 70s setting helps put the focus on Gilderoy’s analog sound work which requires some creative ways to get desired sounds. All we see of the giallo film is a psychedelic credit sequence but there are plenty of times where we watch Gilderoy stabbing cabbages, pouring hot oil on a pan or blending tomatoes to mimic the sounds of the heinous acts we aren’t able to see. Eventually all of the fake brutality gets to Gilderoy, and he slowly becomes unable to tell the difference between the film and his own life. Strickland uses plenty of tools to show Gilderoy’s feelings of alienation (there are no exterior shots) and loosening grip on reality, but the results are a mixed bag. Some sequences, like one where Gilderoy is mimicking sounds of the night, are executed beautifully in a way where it’s hard to tell what’s real and fake. On the other hand, Strickland makes a big mistake by subtitling all of the Italian in the film which, since Gilderoy can’t speak a word of the language, doesn’t give us the same feeling of confusion or alienation that he has. By the end Berberian Sound Studio dives right off the deep end with a moment similar to Bergman’s Persona, but its abrupt ending doesn’t make for a conclusion that’s too fulfilling. Berberian Sound Studio is definitely unique with some wonderful moments that nail what Strickland is going for, but it’s too uneven to be something truly great.

RATING: 7/10

Berberian Sound Studio

Next up was Here Comes The Devil, a US/Mexican horror film that left me feeling baffled after its screening. It starts off with a graphic sex scene between two women which ends with a machete wielding madman trying to murder one of the women before fleeing to a mountain. Suddenly the focus shifts to a vacationing family who let their son and daughter go hiking up the same mountain. The children don’t come back but are found by the cops the next day. The parents soon notice that their kids seem very distant, and when a check-up at the doctor reveals that the daughter doesn’t have a hymen the mother assumes that they were sexually assaulted by someone. Of course things aren’t that simple, and soon enough the mother starts to believe some sort of evil presence is involved while her husband takes the usual ‘skeptic/rational’ role. At the beginning of Here Comes The Devil I wasn’t enjoying the cheap and cheesy execution. The thing was shot on what looks like a poor DV camera, the compositions were laughable with their extreme close-ups and similarity to comic book panels, and the aggressive sound design was grating. But as it went on I started to warm up to director Adrián García Bogliano’s weird methods. His use of quick zooms and shoddy special effects felt like they came straight out of a student film, but the story kept the film going at a nice momentum. Towards the climax I even started to warm up to some of the absurd framing, but it wasn’t strong enough to salvage too much. Here Comes The Devil may be awful a lot of the time, yet I can’t deny its power at keeping me invested throughout.

RATING: 6.5/10

Here Comes The Devil

NEXT UP: I take on Thomas Vinterberg’s seemingly divisive The Hunt and try to not get seasick while watching Leviathan.

Recap of some of my Tweets from today:

Follow @WayTooIndie for full coverage of the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival!

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO: Some fantastic moments but it gets too bogged down in its insanity to be truly great #TIFF12

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 11, 2012

Now in the hot docs cinema waiting for HERE COMES THE DEVIL to start #TIFF12 twitter.com/WayTooIndie/st…

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 11, 2012

HERE COMES THE DEVIL: A very strange movie that almost (Almost!) won me over in the end

— Way Too Indie (@WayTooIndie) September 12, 2012