Conference bookie::movies

644.0. "A Man of No Importance" by 58633::TRP109::Chris (prognosis negative) Mon Sep 12 1994 12:31

The Toronto International Film Festival is on from September 8-17 and, lucky 
me, I can get free tickets to most of the movies because my brother is the 
box office manager.  I thought I'd post notes on some of the movies I've 
seen because I noticed a few of them are also appearing at the Boston Film 
Festival soon.  This is the 19th annual festival in Toronto and I believe it 
is the 4th largest in the world - this year over 300 Canadian and 
International films will be shown, including many world premiers.

So far, I have seen the following (out of 5 *****'s)

A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE (****)

The director, Suri Krishnamma, introduced himself before the movie started. 
He said he was very nervous because this movie was literally only finished 
about two weeks ago and we would be the first audience to see it - he said 
he was anxious to see our reactions and hoped we enjoyed it.  I did.  The 
movie starred Albert Finney, Brenda Fricker, Tara Fitzgerald and Rufus 
Sewell and was set in Dublin in the '60s.  Finney portrayed a bus conductor 
in love with the works of Oscar Wilde.  He entertains his "regulars" on the 
bus with dramatic excerpts of Wilde and as the movie progresses, we see that 
his life parallels with that of Wilde.  He lives above a butcher shop with 
his sister (Fricker - she was in "My Left Foot") and dreams of mounting a 
local production of "Salome", using all the bus regulars as his cast.  A 
beautiful country girl (Fitzgerald, who I have seen before, but can't 
remember where) is a new arrival on the bus and Finney feels she would be 
perfect as his "Princess Salome", even though his friends don't agree.  
There are some plot surprises and Finney and the rest of the cast give 
strong performances.  After the film there was a Q&A session with Krishnamma 
and Tara Fitzgerald.  This isn't always done, but I especially enjoy this 
part of the festival.  I find it very interesting to get the personal 
insights of the people who were involved in the production.  Tara indicated 
that she was fairly new to the acting profession, and the chance to work 
with Finney was like a dream to her.  One of the plot surprises was obvious 
to some, and the director wanted a show of hands to see who had realized it 
- about half and half

She plays the young clergyman's wife in "Sirens".