For those of you who have seen and loved My Week With Marilyn starring Academy Award nominated Michelle Williams, this film is for you. For those who haven’t – what is wrong with you? Well if you have any romance in you these two movies are really worth your time. The first is a dramatized version of Colin Clark’s journal of a week spent with Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier on a film set in the UK. That film gives great insight into this tragic figure and her short but brilliant career as the archetypal Hollywood Star and sex symbol. Love, Marilyn is a documentary based on archival footage of her, interviews with all the significant people in her life and a collection of her letters, journals and other writing that has recently been discovered and published. The director had a series of contemporary actors offer their time to read and perform Monroe’s written words including all of the following: Ben Foster, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Evan Rachel Wood, Elizabeth Banks, Uma Thurman, Jeremy Piven, Viola Davis, Adrien Brody, Lindsay Lohan, Ellen Burstyn, Glenn Close, Jennifer Ehle, Jennifer Ehle, F. Murray Abraham, Jack Huston, David Strathairn, Janet McTeer, Oliver  Plat , Lili Taylor, Stephen Lang.

It is very effective and evokes some very emotional reactions. One of the major narrators is Amy Green who was her contemporary and closest friend. Amy and her husband Milton often had Marilyn stay with them and they became confessors of a sort for her. We were lucky enough to have Amy Green at the showing to do a Q and A after the film and although she is now elderly and quite frail, she was funny and insightful about Marilyn making it a real treat for us in the audience. For those who may not see what so many others do in Marilyn a few facts. She was born to a single mother, her father leaving as soon as he found out about the pregnancy. Her mother suffered a mental breakdown and Marilyn (then named Norma Jeane Mortenson) was raised in a series of foster homes and orphanages. She survived all that to emerge with a goal of being an actress and she worked tremendously hard at it to great success. Throughout, however, she suffered from insecurity, loneliness and a feeling that she was not worthy of being loved or of loving. This comes out in the journals and letters very movingly. The persona she built and presented to the world was very much a mask but one that she built very carefully and deliberately and put on with purpose. Lee Strasberg recalled a time when he was working with her and she asked to go the powder room. He commented that he should have had a good book with him because her trips to the powder room could take “as long as an elephant’s pregnancy”. Nonetheless about 20 minutes later, when she had not returned, he went and knocked on the ladies room door and she told him to come in. He found her staring at her image in the mirror and when he asked her what she was looking at, she pointed at the mirror and responded, “I’m looking at her.”

The film is full of anecdotes like this that provide insight into an amazing woman who because of her early and tragic death has become an icon that many of her contemporaries like Liz Taylor never achieved. I highly recommend this movie to all.

Love, Marilyn

This film is a documentary that begins with the attempt by four men to confront the sexual abuse they suffered at the hands of a Catholic priest while children at a School for the Deaf in Wisconsin in the 1970’s. It goes far beyond that however as the director suggests this is the incident that opened the door on sexual abuse within the Church and the efforts of the Vatican to hide or deny it. The interviews with the four victims are very moving and this is interspersed with interviews with priests and clergy who either were instrumental in exposing the problem and those who worked to hide it and all those in between. It is a complex and difficult issue to pick apart but the director does a superb job. Chilling and yet intriguing we hear from a Canon law prosecutor/priest who to this day continues to bring charges against the guilty clergy, a Benedictine monk who treats the perpetrators and the victims, a retired priest who once covered up for the guilty, a gay archbishop who tried to intervene but backed away when his own misdemeanours were exposed and on and on. But ultimately this film is about the victims and the courageous fight they still wage to bring the Church to acknowledge its crimes and act with dignity to the victims rather than the priests who committed these crimes against those entrusted to them.

Mea Maxima Culpa

A documentary by a BBC director Nick Broomfield. A UK film about America’s scariest politician. He states in the film that he wants to do an objective 360 story about Sarah Palin’s startling ride to prominence. He traces her career from her high school career to her current plans to challenge for the presidency. While he does get to interview her parents he really can’t find anyone else who knew her to talk to, including Palin herself, who was willing to say anything positive about her. There is some amazing archival footage including her playing high school basketball, placing third in the Miss Alaska competition (apparently she won Miss Congeniality). The stories are very scary. She talked the mayor of Wasilla (her home town) to help her run for her first political office as councillor and at the next election she ran a nasty attack campaign against her mentor and took his job as mayor. This backstabbing, throw them under the bus approach to climbing to the top is clearly her style. One of the pastors in the town told the camera that Sarah is a born again Christian who believes we are living in the end times. She has no conscience about doing harm to those who might oppose her. He said that if she could kill her opponents she would with no regret and if she had access to nuclear arms she would not hesitate to use it to achieve her goals. It was very scary to hear as he painted a picture of a sociopath. The “thrown them under the bus” theme came up time and again with different people. One woman was going to write a book about her called “Under the bus”. As they run the credits they also play the phony call when a local radio station in Quebec called her purporting to be President Sarcozy. Very funny.

A really good, witty, scary documentary – Sarah does not smoke by the way.

The first movie of the day and likely the best I would see. This film is about the hockey enforcers of the 80’s NHL and in particular about Chris Nilan who played this role for the Montreal Canadiens. This is a great movie and you don’t need to be a hockey fan to enjoy it although if you of my generation and remember the Bruins and the Broad Street Bullies you will get a lot out of it. Although the film centres on the career of Chris Nilan and long interviews with him and images of his career, it also looks at and interviews many of his fellow goons and enforcers. Marty McSorley, Bob Probert, and Donald Brashear feature prominently. One is retired, one is dead and one is playing out his career in the minor leagues and is dabbling in mixed martial arts. If you have seen the movie The Wrestler you will understand the depressing truth. Nilan himself who is the centre of the story is in his 50’s now and still battles addiction and injury. The sad thing is that they were required to fight, to defend the skill players on their teams but themselves often had nothing in the way of education or skill themselves to fall back on once they retired or were too injured to continue to play. The movie pulls no punches so to speak. I highly recommend it. The nice thing was that Chris Nilan was there for the Q and A and received a standing ovation for his simply eloquence and his dedication to the game and his loyalty to the Habs and his team mates. His description of his struggles after retirement is powerful and deeply emotional. For his openness he deserved the applause he got.

Puff Puff – just got to my seat as they were introducing the director Gary Hustwit of this great documentary. This was the third film in a series of movies about design. I had seen one before – Helvetica. Yes a whole movie about a font. It was brilliant and this one was even more brilliant and about urban design. It hit on every element of city living and design that Toronto is currently looking at and that Rob Ford is trying to corrupt. The movie had us all cheering as he visited designers and planners in cities around the world, Cape Town, Brighton, Rio, New York, and Bogota. It spoke to the increasing populations of cities the need to address the infrastructure needs, the need to get away from a dependence on cars and build the kinds of neighbourhoods and human size living spaces. The film spent a while with the current mayor of Bogota, one of the most enlightened, funny, intelligent people I have ever seen interviewed. The city of Bogota has been changed, revitalized and has done all the things and protected all the things that Toronto is about to lose or mess up. The audience cheered and applauded throughout this part of the movie. At the end there was a standing ovation and during the Q and A, the first questioner asked Mayor Ford to please stand up and be recognized. Funny thing was – he wasn’t there. The director knew about Rob and Doug which surprised and delighted the crowd especially when he pointed out that what this city really needs is a giant Ferris wheel.