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Toronto International Film Festival 2006: Midnight Madness Titles Announced

By Mathew Kumar

Our favourite programme of the festival, the Midnight Madness, has been announced by the Toronto International Film Festival Group surprisingly early, but, we suppose, that’s to stop the voracious barnacles of genre movie fans smashing the hull of the good ship Midnight Madness by trying find as many leaks as possible. We really enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean 2, can you tell?
But this year with the early launch only a couple of dribbles slipped out, and not, necessarily, from our most hotly anticipated titles. As always, the 10 films of the programme run from the thought provoking through horrifying to absurd, but hopefully never anything but entertaining. Our top picks this year have to go to Anders Morgenthaler’s Princess, a Lone Wolf and Cub take on that old chestnut, the murderous revenge trip through the pornography industry; S&Man (pronounced “Sandman”) JT Petty’s perhaps ironically programmed documentary which explores the voyeuristic aspects of the horror genre and the disturbing extremes some independent filmmakers can go to; and of course, The Host, Bong Joon-ho absurdly anticipated (by Korean audiences, at least) giant monster flick, in which a huge, slimy, scaly creature terrorizes Seoul’s Han River.
The whole press release is available at TIFFG’s website, and it’s worth noting that if you’re a student, the Midnight Madness Pass is probably the best value of the entire festival, with all 10 showings only $100.

Comments

  • http://www.publicspace.ca/sidewalksale.htm Jonathan

    You didn’t mention the most exciting news of all: As expected, Midnight Madness is presenting the world premiere of Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan! (Yes, it unspooled in Cannes – outside of any of the festivals – but I guess that didn’t count as the world premiere.)
    I just hope that it’s not on Opening Night, because then I would have to choose between Borat and the party – and there is no way the party would not win out.

  • http://www.torontoist.com mathew

    Oh, I forgot to type “yeah, and some people are probably totally excited about the Borat film, but we’re all like ‘Meh’”.

  • http://www.publicspace.ca/sidewalksale.htm Jonathan

    Well, it also turns out that despite what the TIFF news release says about their screening being the world premiere, Borat‘s getting its North American premiere about two weeks from now at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival.

  • Wayner

    “10 tickets for $100″
    This is their idea of student pricing???
    What a joke.
    “Hey, let’s reduce the price per ticket but only under the condition that they buy all 10 of them!”
    The films look good but this ‘reduced, student’ pricing is a farce.

  • http://www.publicspace.ca/sidewalksale.htm Jonathan

    Well, it’s no 100 tacos for $100, but the Midnight Madness student pass is, in the broader context of TIFF tickets, passes, and coupon books, a terrific and much-welcome option. It’s obviously aimed at people who would see at least five Midnight Madness films (at $20 a pop) anyway, so why not toss in five more, as few of the weekday MM screenings are as well attended as they could and should be. Or you could always just buy a Festival Pass at the student price of $431, which gets you one ticket to each of fifty movies of your choice – that works out to $8.62 per film.
    The best value at the Festival, however, is probably the Wavelengths Pass, which at $65 gets you a ticket to each of the Wavelengths screenings. Of course, Wavelengths is the programme for avant-garde, experimental, and mostly non-narrative films that tend toward the abstract, and that is named for the groundbreaking 1967 Michael Snow film that exemplified those qualities.

  • alex

    keep in mind that that is $100 for ten films that you are probably never going to get a chance to see on a screen as big as the Ryerson or ever at all for that matter (last year’s SPL, GREAT YOKAI WAR, BANGKOK LOCO, etc). Plus guests, Q&A and that crazy energy before and after the screening. A deal in my books and a good reason to sleep through dull classes!

  • Bob Scramento

    What the fuck! No screening of the newly restored Holy Mountain and El Topo? Those are prime candidates for midnight madness

  • http://www.publicspace.ca/sidewalksale.htm Jonathan

    Bob: Midnight Madness is strictly for new films. I don’t believe TIFF has ever done a midnight screening of a classic. Restored prints of older films are generally shown in the Canadian Retrospective or the Canada Open Vault programmes if they’re Canadian, or in the Dialogues or Special Presentations programmes if they’re not.
    Alex: The Great Yokai War (the second best film of last year) already came out on DVD in Canada a few weeks ago (if you go by Eye Weekly) or is coming out this September (if you go by Amazon.ca). Although I try to avoid watching movies anywhere but a theatre anyway, you’re right that The Great Yokai War is a movie that must be seen in a movie theatre, preferably one with an excessive sound system, as Ryerson’s is set up.

  • Leo Y.

    I found a trailer for that S&man movie. Looks like it showed at South By Southwest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e23q5kyZxR4

  • Bob Sacramento

    Given the fact that Jodorowsky kick started the midnight movie phenomena with those films, that’s the main reason why I was hoping they would be included under Midnight Madness.
    I’m hoping that because they screened them at Cannes earlier this year they will still make an appearance.