By John H. Foote The talk of the festival right now is a film only those critics arriving from Venice have seen. Joker premiered at the Venice Film Festival to absolute rave reviews, in particular for the performance of Joaquin Phoenix, and is the hottest ticket here. There are two press screenings at the same…
By Craig Leask In the 1950’s Walt Disney had a dream to construct the ultimate amusement park, populated with unique rides and attractions in a clean, family friendly environment. To finance this dream, he created a weekly television program entitled Walt Disney’s Disneyland (1954–58) which launched on ABC on March 29, 1954. In a unique…
By John H. Foote When he comes into view there is unmistakable swagger in his walk, an arrogance, a huge chip on his shoulders, hair perfectly teased into a pompadour, his eyes blaze with seething anger. It is as though he challenges anyone he encounters, as though he has something to prove. Yet once seated,…
By John H. Foote Christmas for film critics is how I like to describe the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) though in fact it is so much more. Along with the festivals in Venice and Telluride, happening as we speak, this is the official beginning of awards season in the film industry, as the studios…
By John H. Foote Since 1994 I have attended the annual film festival in Toronto called TIFF. It began in the late seventies as the brainchild of William Marshall as The Festival Of Festivals, grew to be renamed The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and under the zen-like leadership of Piers Handling has become, I…
By John H. Foote Once again, as in the previous three, this category will be packed with potential nominees and is likely the most diverse of the major categories. Veterans, newcomers alike will compete for one of the five spots for Best Actress. What is thrilling is the diversity among the contenders, not only are…
By John H. Foote Is it possible to show Adolf Hitler as the least bit sympathetic? Vulnerable? Even human? He was, after all, just a man, but a man who put into motion the vilest mass murder of a people in modern world history. Can this man be portrayed as human? Until seeing Bruno Ganz…
By Alan Hurst It has not been a good couple of years for Faye Dunaway. In 2017 she got caught in the maelstrom of confusion during the presentation of the Best Picture award at that year’s Oscars, ultimately awarding the Oscar to Moonlight – the true winner – after having already announced La La Land…
By John H. Foote Bob Dylan once sang that the times were changing. He sang those profound lyrics in the sixties, during a time of enormous, important social upheaval in North America. It is during these times that all forms of art change, evolve, whatever you wish to call it. Yet Dylan could have been…
By Craig Leask It all started with a simple one panel comic in 1938 where Charles Addams introduced a wealthy, but ghoulish, extended family who delight in the macabre. This was the first of some 150 single panel cartoons originally published in The New Yorker magazine continuing to 1988 when Charles Addams passed away. Interestingly,…