THE BIJOU @ TIFF: O Canadian Titles!

Although the word "International" is part of the name of the Toronto International Film Festival, it's still Canada's premier festival, and naturally features quite a few homegrown films.  Some of the most notable of these have already been announced (like David Cronenberg's A DANGEROUS METHOD), and today TIFF announced the bulk of the rest.  Here are a few that sound intriguing:

CAFE DE FLORE:  From the director of Young Victoria, an "epic love story" that's also a "mystical and supernatural odyssey," starring Vanessa Paradis.

GOON:  In the popular Canadian genre of inspirational hockey dramas, this one boasts a script by Jay Baruchel and a fine cast:  Liev Schreiber, Allison Pill, Seann William Scott, Eugene Levy and Baruchel himself.

KEYHOLE:  Guy Maddin makes strangely arresting, often fascinating films that don't look or behave like anyone else's.  His latest is described as a "gangsters-meets-ghosts sonata," and stars Maddin's muse Isabella Rossellini along with Jason Patric.

THE MOTH DIARIES:  The new film from Mary Harron (American Psycho) is a thriller set in the everpopular locale of a girls' school, where one girl thrives while another starts to weaken.  It stars Lily Cole, Sarah Bolger and Scott Speedman.

388 ARLETTA AVENUE:  Nick Stahl and Mia Kirshner in a film shot entirely from the point of view of surveillance cameras.  

DOPPELGANGER KARL:  I'm just going to reprint the festival description of this one in its entirety:  "Following a near-death experience, Karl comes to believe that Paul is his doppelgänger. When Karl finally reveals himself to Paul, a unique and troubled relationship begins to form, a relationship that is severely tested when Karl grants Paul the privilege of reading his 20,000 page manuscript, A Book About How Much I Hate Myself. When Karl's book is published 17 months later in a vastly edited version credited to two other authors/doppelgängers, Karl and Paul hit the road to confront the plagiarists but end up confronting themselves instead."

And that's what film festivals are like.  More TIFF titles to come...