The European Film Festival at Toronto’s Royal Theatre was
decidedly upbeat among the young film fans during l8th
to 30th November of this year.
The 22 contemporary films presented were exciting, and often
deeply emotional, with English subtitles. Selected from the
International Film Fests of Venice, TIFF and Berlin, many have
garnered international recognition and awards. They dealt with a
broad range of universal themes seen from a European point of
view and moreover, they were free on a first come, first served
basis. One ticket per person, to be picked up at least one hour
in advance, defrayed, we hope, by private donations and a host
of smiling volunteers - as well cooperation from the different
European diplomatic missions in Canada and cultural
institutions.
The Italian film, We Can Do That, Si puo Fare, is set in Milan
in the early 1980s and deals with the delicate theme of mentally
ill and handicapped patients at a time when the Italian
government closed down psychiatric hospitals due to their
inhumane conditions.
What to do with them? Up comes Nello, a devoted trade unionist
and troublemaker, whose ideas are decidedly ahead of his time.
Dismissed, he is sent to run a cooperative with these mentally
ill patients and resolutely sets out to work with them,
organizing groups to make and install tiles and generally making
themselves useful.
Against all odds, Nello manages to bring out the best in his new
employees, treating them as workers, developing an innovative
and profitable business that restores their dignity and
reintegrates them into society.
Director Giulio Manfredonia was able to cast some really fine
actors, doubtless of former patients, who portrayed their plight
to stick to the job at hand as they grew up in the modern world.
We understand that this pioneer job action became a role model
for others following in their footsteps.
Another film was Little White Lies, Les Petits Mouchoirs, by
Director Guillaume
Canet, who assembled a cast of some of France’s finest actors to
play a group of yuppies and their inter-action during work and
mostly play. They usually gather together at the beautiful
seaside home of their host, an earnest and correct individual
who wants to do everything just right and manages to upset
everyone.
This year their annual vacation is interrupted by the serious
motor cycle accident of one of the group and they hotly debate
whether to stay with him or return when he is all better and out
of his coma. They finally decide to leave Paris for their annual
romp in the sand and sun, with fine wine, seafood and all the
delights of a beach vacation. In the course of this, they bump
into each other, lie, and pretend all is well, while underneath
the fires burn and bubble over and all the hidden tensions erupt
to the surface and the group is pulled apart, and finally pulled
together again by friendship, loyalty and love.
In the end the wounded motor cyclist dies and the group is
united again at his funeral. The group ensemble is great and
Marion Cotillard is outstanding as the party belle.
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