Director Spotlight
Running from June 20 to June 28, Weird Science: The Idiosyncratic Archaeology of Peter Lynch, features his wonderfully eccentric and obsessive Canadian protagonists and their struggles to define a space for themselves in increasingly indifferent environments. Sometimes his protagonists confront nature, like Troy Hurtubise, whose quixotic quest to become invincible through his bear-proof suit is captured in Project Grizzly (1996) or Andy Bahr, whose reindeer drive across 2,400 km of hostile terrain in 1929 is stunningly re-traced in The Herd (1998). But Lynch’s anti-heroes also define themselves in the context of myth, as in A Whale of a Tale (2004), or try to separate themselves from our technology and media-saturated culture, as seen in the self described cyborg Steve Mann in Cyberman (2001). As part of Cinematheque Ontario's Lecture Series, in Cinematic Archeology, or You are What You See and Hear, Lynch will discuss his development as an artist and the role that certain places and films have played in it. Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend (1945) will be screened as his Carte Blanche selection following the lecture. In conjunction with the retrospective, Grizzly Proof will be on view at Trinity Square Video's Gallery from June 20 to July 12. There will be an opening launch on June 19 from 5pm to 8pm, for further information contact Trinity Square Video, 416- 593-1332. The exhibition was commissioned by New York's Flux Factory and features work by international and Canadian artists inspired by Project Grizzly.

Featuring 14 films running from July 18 to August 23, Maestro: The Films of Luchino Visconti reveals the director’s consummate and consuming cinema in all its paradoxical and opulent splendour. Visconti’s fascination with the moral disintegration of families and the end of dynasties gave birth to a string of masterpieces, including: the ravishing chronicle of a Sicilian aristocratic family’s downfall during the Risorgimento, The Leopard (1963); the exquisitely baroque and incestuous Sandra (1965); the melodramatic masterpiece of fraternal jealousy, Rocco and His Brothers (1960); the moving and operatic study of Bavaria’s mad king, Ludwig (1973); and the grand tragic romance, Senso (1954). The series also includes the rarest of Visconti’s films, L’Étranger (1967), the morbidly languid Death in Venice (1971) and his sensational opera prima Ossessione (1943).

Desire and despair abound in Bad Company: The Films of Jean Eustache, a revelatory look at the confessional and unsparing oeuvre of French cinema’s outlaw poet, running from July 11 to July 17. The series opens with the monumental The Mother and the Whore (1973), a searing chronicle of disenchantment in post-‘68 Paris. Also included is his rigorous and picaresque Bad Company (1963), which screens with the wry short comedy Santa Claus Has Blue Eyes (1966); the remarkable autobiographical portrait of adolescent confusion, Mes Petites Amoureuses (1974); the beautiful ethnographic documentary, Le Cochon (1970); the voyeuristic and transgressively humorous A Dirty Story (1977) and the ingenious exploration of the gap between word and image, Photos of Alix (1980).

Special Programmes and Screenings
Summer in Japan: 24 Japanese Classics “A Wreath for Madame Kawakita,” a remarkable series running from July 4 to August 18, is the perfect opportunity to revisit masters such as Kurosawa, Ichikawa, Shindo, Oshima and Imamura and discover lesser-known Japanese directors. The series runs in honour of the centenary of the birth of Madame Kawakita, a fundamental figure in the introduction of Japanese cinema to the world. This series is loaded with treasures such as: Boy (1969), a stunning and trenchant tale of child exploitation and automobile accident scams; A Full-Up Train (1957), a daring black comedy of postwar Japan; Onibaba (1964), a stark and vivid supernatural story of two women who make a living off seducing and killing samurai in the sixteenth century; Tora-San’s Sunrise and Sunset (1976), one of the best in the long series of Yamada’s legendary comedy-dramas; Tokyo Drifter (1966), a captivating, surreal barrage of aesthetized violence and incongruous songs; Vengeance Is Mine (1979), a precise and affecting examination of deceit and violence; Kurosawa’s legendary Rashomon (1950) and the Toronto Premiere of the critically acclaimed documentary, Into the Picture Scroll: The Tale of Yamanaka Tokiwa (2004).

From June 13 to August 1, Ciao Marcello! A Tribute to Marcello Mastroianni winnows the legendary Italian actor’s career to its highlights, charting some of the various shades of his acting style. His speculative, distant and expressionless demeanour is revealed in several films such as: Il Bell’Antonio (1960), a buried treasure featuring Mastroianni as a ladykiller torn between the demands of sacred and profane love; The Organizer (1963), as the seemingly absent-minded professor who incites workers in a textile factory to strike; La Notte (1961), as an exhausted novelist attempting to distract himself from the boredom of his marriage; as Fellini’s alter ego in the seminal 8 1/2 (1963) and as the cynical gossip columnist in his breakthrough role in La Dolce Vita (1960). Mastroianni’s comedic talents shine in Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963), a charming and sexy trio of short stories co-starring Sophia Loren and Divorce - Italian Style (1961), a hilarious look at sex, murder and marital fidelity.

From July 25 to August 20, Cinematheque Ontario returns to one of world cinema's greatest innovators and stylists, Alain Resnais. This occasion is accompanied by four impossible-to-see films by recently deceased novelist and director Alain Robbe- Grillet. Memory/Montage/Modernism: Alain Resnais and Alain Robbe-Grillet reveals the connections and differences among these two artists, welded forever in the history of cinema by their epochal collaboration on the remarkably stylized Last Year at Marienbad (1961). Resnais’s preoccupation with time, memory and regret pervaded his oeuvre, from the deeply moving modernist landmark Hiroshima mon amour (1959) to the wrenching and political Muriel (1963), from the chilling Holocaust meditation Night and Fog (1955) to the powerful cinematic exploration of Picasso’s painting of the Spanish village bombed by Franco in 1937, Guernica (1950). Robbe-Grillet’s fascination with labyrinthine narrative and temporal mazes resulted in nightmarish and erotic psychodramas that included L’Immortelle (1963), an enigma simultaneously set in Istanbul and the labyrinths of the mind, and L’Eden et après (1970), a philosophical S&M fantasy thriller.

On August 22, the Toronto International Film Festival Group and the Royal Academy of Dance are proud to present In Conversation… with Dame Antoinette Sibley DBE at Cinematheque Ontario. Sibley became one of the leading ballerinas of her generation and danced throughout the world. Her famous partnership with fellow dancer Anthony Dowell, beginning with Sir Frederick Ashton’s The Dream in 1964, became one of the great collaborations of the '60s, '70s and '80s. One of Canada’s best and most versatile ballerinas, Veronica Tennant will discuss Sibley’s career and life following a special screening of Sibley’s film debut, The Turning Point (1977), which also stars Mikhail Baryshnikov. In Conversation With . . . is a programme of TIFFG which, in association with the Brian Linehan Charitable Foundation, honours the work of the late Brian Linehan, one of Canada’s great journalists and on-air interviewers.

All Cinematheque Ontario screenings are held at the Art Gallery of Ontario's Jackman Hall, 317 Dundas Street West (McCaul Street entrance), Toronto. Regular tickets are $5.90 for members and $10.14 for non-members. Limited Runs and Special Presentations are $7.08 for members and $11.56 for non-members. Lecture Series tickets are $9.91 for members and $15.33 for non-members. Prices do not include GST, building fund fee or service charges. Members’ advance tickets on sale now. Non-members may purchase tickets for any screening starting June 10. Films playing at Cinematheque Ontario that have not been rated by the Ontario Film Review Board are restricted to individuals 18 years of age or older. The Toronto International Film Festival Group Box Office is located at Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street West (street level, north entrance, open Monday to Saturday, 10am – 6pm), or call 416-968-FILM or toll-free at 1-877-968-FILM.

Cinematheque Ontario, a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group (TIFFG) is a year-round screening programme dedicated to presenting transformative world cinema through thoughtfully curated retrospectives, filmmaker monographs, and international programme tours. Cinematheque Ontario presents an ambitious selection of more than 400 films annually, including acclaimed director’s retrospectives, national and regional cinema spotlights, thematic programmes, exclusive limited runs, and classic and contemporary Canadian and international cinema, including many new and rare archival prints. For more information visit cinemathequeontario.ca

The Toronto International Film Festival Group is a charitable, not-for-profit, cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world. Its vision is to lead the world in creative and cultural discovery through the moving image.

The Group embodies a passion for film and a commitment to making a difference in people’s lives. With an annual budget of nearly $20 million, the Group has grown exponentially from its roots as a modest “Festival of Festivals” expanding its breadth across the globe and reaching audiences of 900,000 per year. Currently, the Group employs more than 120 full-time staff, 500 part-time and seasonal staff, and counts on the largesse of more than 2,000 volunteers year-round.

Cinematheque Ontario thanks its supporters Bell, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Canada Council for the Arts, City of Toronto Economic Development Office, Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council.

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For more information, please contact the Communications Department at 416-934-3200 or email proffice@tiffg.ca