Toronto December Film Listings

In December the Lightbox has some pretty cool stuff playing like the Exclusive Engagements of Margarethe von Trotta’s Vision, Henry Selick’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3-D, Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void and Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialisme. There are going to be double-billed Tim Burton films with movies that inspired them or share similar characteristics and though I do not think they are all perfect match-ups, I am still really looking forward to see some of the accompanying titles as they are by some fun auteurs like Mankiewicz, Harryhausen, Wood, Tashlin and Waters. The Jafar Panahi retrospective is topical as the Irainian director has been recently released from political imprisonment. The Essential Cinema series is coming to a close and, thankfully, next up is Chaplin. Elsewhere, I am curious to see what Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck does in his second film, the big-budget and all-star cast The Tourist. The Bloor Cinema and the Japan Foundation are programing a few Japanese films. The Toronto Film Society has a musical and holiday double-bill on December 6th and 12th. And, the Pleasure Dome’s fall programs last screening is on December 4th.

I am sure I missed a few things but that is it for now. In the following space I will be adding the titles alongside a generic one-out-of-four star rating to the films I actually see.
*****Big Fish (Tim Burton, 2003)
** (Worth Seeing)

*****Corpse Bride (Tim Burton & Mike Johnson, 2005)
* (Has redeeming facets)

*****Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Tim Burton, 2007)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****Batman Returns (Tim Burton, 1992)
*** (A Must-See)

*****Crimson Gold (Jafar Panahi, 2003)
*** (A Must-See)

*****Offside (Jafar Panahi, 2006)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****The Mirror (Jafar Panahi, 1997)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1947)
*** (A Must-See)

*****Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994)
**** (Masterpiece)

*****Bride of the Monster (Edward D. Wood Jr., 1955)
** (Worth-Seeing)

*****2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
**** (Masterpiece) Essential Cinema # 26

*****Early Monthly Segments In tribute to Will Munro


*****Pee-wee's Big Adventure (Tim Burton, 1985)
*** (A-Must-See)

*****Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
** (Worth-Seeing)

*****Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin, 1936)
**** (Masterpiece)