Dialogues

TIFF [1999]

George A Romero

A relatively recent addition the the TIFF lineup, the "Dialogues" series offers distinguished filmmakers a chance to host a screening of a film that's influenced their art or their lives in a profound way, and engage in intimate Q & A's with fans. In past years, I've enjoyed discussions with David Cronenberg at his selection of Tod Browning's "Freaks", John Sayles at "The Informer", Robert Towne at "The Four Feathers", and John Waters' at the immortal Burton/Taylor howler "Boom!".

"Mr. Romero, will you please sign all 200 of my "NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD" collector trading cards?"

George A. Romero, the Pittsburgh-based horror maverick, chose Powell and Pressburger's 1951 "Tales Of Hoffman". Romero did not have a film in the festival (unlike the other directors in the series), but was in Toronto overseeing postproduction of his new thriller, "Bruiser", starring Peter Stormare. While a British-produced Technicolor adaptation of a famous opera (and performed in English) might seem an unlikely choice from the man who brought cannibalism into the mainstream, Romero countered that the deliberate artifice of parts of the film ignited the notion in his mind that perhaps he could make movies himself one day, and fueled his appreciation of "fine arts" beyond comic books and B-pics. Romero reminisced that as a teen, he would periodically sign a 16mm print out of a local library in the Bronx, but often had to fight another young fan named Martin Scorcese for it! Fortunately for TIFF audiences, a rare pristine print from the British Film Institute eluded Romero and Scorcese's hands and allowed us to share Romero's reverie in the film's "constant metaphor for the transforming power of imagination through art".

Lawrence Kasdan

Lawrence Kasdan presented "Yojimbo", the 1961 Japanese samurai classic that showcased some of the most highly visual and kinetic filmmaking ever realized. Kasdan praised Kurosawa as the greatest director who ever lived (the "Shakespeare" of cinema), and pointed out that underneath all the action and broad performances, lies a "mature philosophy that enriches our lives".

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