Barbet Schroeder

Posted by Damon Schreiber (Toronto, Canada) on 17 September 2008 in People & Portrait and Portfolio.

The last film we saw at the Toronto International Film Festival was Inju: The Beast in the Shadow, based on a novel by the Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo (a pen name taken from the transliteration of Edgar Allen Poe). It was directed by Barbet Schroeder who is most famous in North America for having directed Barfly, back in 1987.

One of the great things about the Festival is the spontaneity and accessibility it provides to an audience of regular people. My wife and I had no tickets but waited in the rush line. Shortly before it began, a nice lady behind us gave me a voucher, and another lady sold my wife a ticket at a discount. So instead of paying $41 as we'd expected, we paid $15 and got good seats.

After the screening, the director sat on the edge of the stage and conducted a question and answer session with the audience. I was close by and took lots of photos but the light was so low, I wish my camera was a touch more light - sensitive, or that I'd thought to put on my 50mm f/1.4 lens. After the QA session, Barbet was just stone cold chatting up my wife, asking her if the scenes in Japan were authentic. She pronounced that he had done a fine job in that regard.

Oh, and the film was quite enjoyable as long as you take the plot with a grain of salt and concentrate on the performances and the atmosphere.

[St. Charles & Queen's Park Crescent, Toronto]

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