Whether you are in Vancouver or following along at home, here is a menu of resources to peruse and enjoy (unless of course you are instead watching the Canucks hockey season kick-off tonight instead with the rest of Vancouver except for the people at the Whitecaps vs. Timbers soccer playoffs).

Westender’s Precious Spector

Vancouver’s WestEnder arts and culture magazine provides MOVIES: Top picks for this year’s VIFF.

WE tag ‘The Agony and The Ecstasy of Phil Spector‘ saying, “He is, of course, a convicted murderer and the proud owner of many ridiculous wigs. But Phil Spector is also one of the most visionary musical minds of the 20th century — the sonic architect whose “Wall of Sound” production style gave pop music in the 1960s the scale and sophistication of high art.”

Plus the celeb-buzz-laden ‘Precious‘ complete with extended title and Oprah’s blessing. Missed the gist, here it is: “It’s Harlem in 1987, and Claireece ‘Precious’ Jones is pregnant for the second time by her father, treated like a slave by her mother, and on the verge of getting kicked out of high school.” MovieSet caught some of the early attention lavished on this Precious (AK A Push) film at Cannes.

‘Precious’ Press Conference in Cannes featuring Mariah Carey and Lenny Kravitz

How many will Row 3 see?

Our pal (and uber-Twi-Hard) Marina Antunes is plenty prepared – well maybe too prepared with a huge list of wanna-sees. Catch her kickoff in After the Credits podcast Episode 70 – VIFF Preview 2009 follow her Twittage @themarina. Her VIFF reviews are already piling up along with her Row Three cohorts.

Brews and Movies

Like they did at TIFF, the beer-maker Stella Artois is flowing the VIFF payola to some savvy bloggers providing streetlevel discourse including contest winner Gavin Thompson who recommends Ninja Assassin and Horse Boy plus esteemed director/education Peter D. Marshall and the aforementioned Marina and noted Miss604 as well as some local film pundits and schools.

You Go Girl on the Go

Miss 604 preps for the VIFF Gala 2008

Gal about town Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss604 likewise on Twitter @miss604) is covering VIFF cause she covers *everything* in Vangroovy from Peace confabs to hockey games. Oh yeah, she writes for EOnline too.

Expect her to chime in as our embedded reporter and check Miss 604’s VIFF blog tag for continuing coverage – coz she never sleeps! She even awarded passes as prizes but you are too late for that sucka!

Her preview gives as good of an overview as you need so I’ve repurposed it for your benefit:

“The Vancouver International Film Festival returns October 1 and for 15 days it will entertain the city with over 375 films showing on 640 screens.

This year’s line up is thoroughly impressive as 70 countries will be represented. VIFF got me hooked on documentaries last year and also re-kindled my love of Canadian film.”

Straight Talk for Rock

Georgia Straight – the venerable arts and entertainment weekly has their usual VIFF preview and punditry + they got their Tweet on @georgiastraight. One of their picks is ‘Ashes of American Flags: Wilco Live’ this seminal American roots rock band is a staple with hipper-then-a-hipster music geeks who even recorded the missing Woody Guthrie songs with Billy Bragg.

Glenn Gould, classically Canadian

Excerpt says: ”One of the best concert films ever, this beautifully shot doc offers a few tunes each from different venues on last year’s cross–U.S. tour, interrupted by unusually salient observations from Jeff Tweedy and the gang …” Alas Wilco’s estranged multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett died a few months back leaving unclaimed emotional baggage (& lawsuit) with the band.

Nods also go to the other film called ‘Eclipse’ (not to be confused with Twilight phenom sequel Eclipse filming in Vancouver) – this one is about Irish ghosts, not vampires in Forks – and ‘Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould’ – a staple of CBC Radio, Gould an eccentric piano prodigy. The Straight don’t skimp and give you the low-down on dozens more.

Sun for Stalkers

The local big newspaper Vancouver Sun gives the celeb-spotters something to chew on: Festival putting on the glitz with a raft of parties – Okay, all you party crashers and star gazers, here is your chance.

Excerpt: Invited international stars, currently filming in Vancouver, include John Cusack, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson, Danny Glover and Ashley Judd. Lead casts from local productions, including the L Word and Stargate Atlantis, are also among the evening’s selected guests.

Confirmed guests to date include the entire cast of the The Guard — Steve Bacic, Sonya Salomaa, Jeremy Guilbaut, Teryl Rothery, Gordon Woolvett — and Eve Harlow and Aaron Ashmore of Smallville. Hot young tenors Paul Ouellette and Joey Niceforo from Destino will also be attending.

Comment: Party crashing and celeb stalking is *so* not Vancouver – we’re way to cool for that.

Vancouver Sun manages to offer some info about a controversial film:

Brightlight’s co-production Fifty Dead Men Walking, starring Ben Kingsley, Jim Sturgess and Rose McGowan, will be shown at VIFF. It got great reviews and stirred up some controversy at the Toronto International Film Festival when Martin McGartland, the key subject of the movie that focuses on “the troubles” in Northern Ireland, objected to some of the scenes.

He is the former British security agent from Belfast who threatened to capsize the film until a last-minute legal deal was reached. Further fanning the flames, McGowan said she would have joined the Irish Republican Army had she lived in Belfast during the tumultuous times of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Mock-u-mentary Mania

For our part, ace correspondent Quinn Bender will be meeting up with Warren Sonoda who is jetting in from the set of ‘Unrivaled‘ in Toronto. We feel like we know this affable filmmaker from the engaging clips from the set he publishes to MovieSet so we expect a rollicking interview.

He’ll be showing Cooper’s Camera [The people who brought you the very sharp (if little-seen) mockumentary Ham & Cheese return with a painfully accurate study of a dysfunctional family's meltdown on Christmas Day, 1985.] and Puck Hogs [The Canadian obsession with hockey is farcically explored in this mockumentary, following the lives of a group of aging everyday Joes whose passion for the game hilariously transcends their talents.] which seems custom made for me (a huge fan of both hockey and pigs).

Eyes on the Goods

Besides Sonoda’s flicks, this blogger is personally and professionally keeping an eye on:

At the Edge of the World

In late November 2006, a documentary crew accompanied 46 international volunteers from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as they embarked on their third Antarctic campaign to stop Japanese whaling. What emerged was At the Edge of the World, an intrepid record of modern-day piracy and the high-stakes battle between commerce and ecological survival.

Whaling and a boat named for Farley registered in Belize - I'm there!

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

MovieSet has followed this film since the untimely demise of Heath Ledger and subsequent platoon replacement. Vancouver gets its first look at visionary Terry Gilliam’s new mind-bender with an ensemble cast including mini Vern Troyer in a film partially made in YVR.

AntiChrist

This doesn’t really need any more buzz cause of course AntiChrist is bound to cause some commotion and demand attention after winning the big Palm at Cannes - Lars von Trier is not for the squeamish but bound to stretch some minds with this incursion into the recesses of his warped psychology with Willem Dafoe (who is notably odd).

HomeGrown

Though this is Vancouver … this isn’t about skunky grow-ops. The fest blurb says: Is this the future? A father and his three children, living next to an enormous Los Angeles interchange, cultivate their small plot of land to the tune of 6,000 pounds of food per year… Robert McFalls’ remarkable documentary is a testimony to the skills, patience and ingenuity of this remarkable family.

ZMD: Zombies of Mass Destruction

Zombies – nuff said. Always. Better. Than. Vampires.

Why are Zombies so misunderstood?

Taqwacore – The Birth of Punk Islam

Another film which sounds made for Vancouver where multi-culturalism, DIY ethic and punk rock are the well … normal. ‘ I can’t help but to recall a band called Shelter – no one rocked harder than these Hare Krishna punks ~ really.

And finally …

We Live in Public

About a “dotcom mogul’s sometimes sadistic “social experiments” evidence that he was well ahead of the curve in recognizing and exploiting the fact that a) we love to watch and b) we love to be watched.” The filmmakers recently hosted a live streaming event for bloggers (yeah!) – ergo: live stream showing of the film specifically for bloggers. They have gotten special dispensation from The Academy to do this, so as not to disqualify the film from doc consideration. Check the We Live in Public site after checking this trailer:

More VIFF

Of course on Twitter, follow the #VIFF tag and VIFF Facebook & VIFF Twitter.

Now go see a movie.

Souvenirs de Cannes are heading to these movie fans (check out some of the topics they covered in the included comments). We are especially pleased to see all the countries who chimed in including a Jim carrey fansite from Denmark – crazy!

• Miss 604

“Attention movie buffs: Movieset.com, a local site that covers all things film, covering all aspects of the Cannes Film Festival and will be running a contest to give away official merchandise. Stay tuned to their official Cannes portal, their Twitter @movieset, or search Twitter using the tag Cannes09.”

• Geek Tyrant

“The Cannes Film Festival recently ended and there were a ton of movies screened. I wish I could have seen them, but I will have to wait. Movieset was able to get some great movie panel videos from the festival and I thought it would be cool to share a couple of them with you because they are actually pretty cool to watch.”

• Killer Film

“Whether Academy Award winning director Robert Zemeckis will do films outside of the 3D motion capture in the future is debatable but regardless, what we have seen of his Christmas Carol retelling does look rather stunning.  Below MovieSet shows Jim Carrey and Robert Zemeckis talking on their work on the film and what to expect.”

Plus:

• Ariane C
• D*hOLLYWOOD
• Becky Santoyo
• OUTtv
• JimCarreyOnline
• Russell Warner
• GuyFix
  

We’ll send their memorabilia pronto-  or rather, “bientôt”. We *might* have a few more goodies so keep the bloggage coming about any of the films we covered at Cannes, including:

• Drag Me to Hell
• Hump Day
• Taking Woodstock,
• A Christmas Carol
• Agora
• I Love You Philip Morris
• Inglourious Basterds
• UP
• Bright Star
• Collections of Cannes still photos
• and Cannes Film Festival News
• Plus: Thanks to Monica Hamburg for campaign assistance

Congratulations and thanks for your support of MovieSet’s Cannes 2009 campaign

“Au reviour from the Cannes seashore”

Miss604 (Rebecca Bollwitt) was born and raised in Vancouver. She has been blogging about Vancouver since 2004 and podcasting with her husband since 2005.

She brings us great content like an interview with Todd Hallowell, the Executive Producer and Second-Unit Director of recent films like Frost/Nixon and the upcoming Angels & Demons. Since Frost/Nixon has now been released on DVD that was the focus of the interview.  Various other projects and the fact that Hallowell would love to come to town were also discussed.

“I’ve been working with Ron Howard for quite some time and he was in London seeing the play and called me,” said Todd about how the theatrical Frost/Nixon was brought to the big screen. “He was really excited about this thing and really wanted to push to get the motion picture going.” Immediately on board with Howard who would direct the film, he called the project a true “labour of love”.

“You can’t do any better, they were just amazing,” noted Todd about the decision to bring the stage actors to the film. Both have plenty previous movie experience and Sheen, who played Tony Blair in The Queen, is currently in Vancouver shooting The Twilight Saga: New Moon. “The process of taking a stage actor and getting them familiar with the working realities of film was nothing Ron had to even think about. So in terms of them adapting their performance to film, there wasn’t any uncertainty on his part.”

With this past weekend’s global premiere of Angels & Demons Hallowell will be one busy man however he does hope to make it up our way sometime soon. During our conversation he said, “I really like Vancouver, I’m always trying to angle for a reason to make a movie there.” He has made it here to shoot commercials but truly envies those who get to come here and work much longer on feature projects.

Check out the Whole Article at Miss 604’s Site