There’s no such thing as too early when it comes to lining up for tickets.
There’s no such thing as not having a credit card be an excuse when it comes to lining up for tickets.
There’s no such thing as shoddy reception on your phone when it comes to lining up for tickets.
There’s no such thing as too many snacks when it comes to lining up for tickets.
You all getting this? I’m passing on VALUABLE INFORMATION here. Take it, use it, abuse it, fuse it...? I don’t know, I’m running on no sleep right now (I’m writing this before I take my nap), but it seemed like a good rhyme at the time.
Anyway. Let me start at the beginning. I’m a nervous sleeper, so at around midnight last night I settled in to attempt some semblance of sleep. It being my first year of actually lining up for tickets at the Toronto International Film Festival, I was a little unsure as to when would be a good slash appropriate time to show up. Also, I live in a pretty sketchy area, so it was also a matter of when I wanted to be walking around in the dead of night.
So I lay there, patiently waiting for my alarm to sound at 3:45AM. When it finally gonged, that was when I knew I was in trouble-my first yawn of the night. Uh oh. I change, getting into my run clothes for my regularly scheduled 9AM Saturday Run Club. It should be over by then, I thought. I might have to run a bit to get there on time, but I’ll definitely have my tickets by then.
Oh, oh, me. How naive I was. How very naive.
I arrived at the Metro Centre at 4:30AM and it was roughly 200 people huddled along the side of the building in a line that greeted me with disdain. How late is she, they must have thought, accusing me of gaining extra sleep while they looked like they had spent all night sitting in camping chairs in the humid, yet breezy night previous. Chastised, I made my way to the end of the line and sat. And sat. And sat. And tweeted. And facebooked. Caught up on some emails.
I was super bored. Get that? It’s pretty boring sitting in wait. I had brought a book with me (an interesting one at that-not the tome I’m trying to get through that puts me to sleep every time I attempt a page), but it was too dark to read, and my iPod had only one disc of another audio book which I had already quickly whizzed through.
It wasn’t until around...6AM that we were allowed in the building. To sit in yet another line. Which I sat in for another four hours. Oh yes. Four hours. In that four hours I developed a deep seated hatred for the kids behind me (they can only be described as kids-my god, the obnoxiousness! Please, kill me if I had ever been that bad...), learned most of the lyrics to the musical soundtrack of Spring Awakening, and got through a pretty fair chunk of the first book in the Of Fire and Ice series by George R. R. Martin.
It was still boring, though.
7AM hit us like a tidal wave. 7AM was when the box office opened-everywhere. Online, on the phone, in person...my phone would no longer obey simple facebook and twitter commands, and knowing I didn’t have a credit card, I couldn’t exactly calling the TIFF number ad nasuem, because what would I pay with? I was stuck.
So of course I called home and talked to my mum for twenty odd minutes. Oh yes, my phone company is going to love me this month...
But then, N-lovely, lovely N came to my rescue. Through the power of facebook messaging and the fact that she was working in the building right above me for TIFF, she made some delightful purchases for me. Let’s take a look, shall we?
Hysteria (2011)
Dir. Tanya Wexler
Starring: Maggie Gyllenhaal, Felicity Jones, Hugh Dancy, Rupert Everett
The story about the invention of the vibrator. To help women recover from their...'hysteria'.
Albert Nobbs (2011)
Dir. Rodrigo Garcia
Starring: Glenn Close, Mia Wasikowska, Jonathan Rhys Myers, Aaron Johnson
Posing as a man so she can work as a butler in Dublin’s most post hotel, “Albert” meets a handsome painter and looks to escape the lie she has been living.
A Simple Life (2011)
Dir. Ann Hui
Starring: Andy Lau, Deanie Ip
The story of an amah who, after a turn in health, gets taken care of by her former employer.
We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011)
Dir. Lynn Ramsay
Starring: Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller
The mother of a teenaged boy who went on a high school killing spree tries to deal with her grief and feelings of responsibility for her child’s actions.
Awesome, right? I know! N is SO KICK ASS! And a great runner. And is fabulous. Better than anyone you know. I swear.
I, in turn, decided to wait in line for a little longer and get some tickets for myself. Three hours later I made it to the front and am now in hard copy possession of the following:
Wuthering Heights (2011)
Dir. Andrea Arnold
Starring: Kaya Scodelario, Nichola Burley, James Howson
The classic story of Heathcliff and Cathy, two foster siblings with an intense, turbulent relationship.
The Sword Identity (2011)
Dir. Xu Haofeng
Starring: Undisclosed
Once upon a time in the Southern Chinese city of Guancheng, there lived four families, each of them faithful keepers of martial arts. Anyone who wanted to establish a new sect, or a new form of kung fu, had to fight his way through the family’s gates.
Seriously. Guys. These films look like the shit. I am so freakin’ excited about this lot. They all combined pretty much make up for the fact that I wasn’t able to grab A Dangerous Method (2011), the new David Cronenberg film. That was a bummer. Was super looking forward to Viggo Mortensen psyching out the sexually frustrated Keira Knightly. Also? Michael Fassbender. Come now! Oh well. It’ll come out soon(ish) enough.
For now, however...I’ve got a bunch of kick ass films to watch that I’m thoroughly excited about. Wahoo!!!
What a line up! Can't wait for the reviews!
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