Festival - Day 8 - 2009

Posted on: 19 September 2009 by Thom Ernst

Elvis Mitchell with Cannes and TIFF moderator Henri Behar

Elvis Mitchell, whose critical muscle was nurtured by none other than the grand dame of criticism, Pauline Kael, has long been one of my favourite writers on film. I catch up with him at the morning screening of SOLOMON KANE, the latest tale of a dark warrior venturing through dystopic old world mythology. KANE offers a lot of sword handling, monsters and demons, but it's so married to its black and white idea of good and evil, it ends up being as tame as a Sunday sermon.

Elvis Mitchell

The second film, the highly regarded and award winning Michael Haneke offering, THE WHITE RIBBON is perhaps his most accessible film to date, and, Alex Huls points out, still challenging and smart. Still, it's an art house film foreign film with no North American stars which means most people on this side of the ocean won't bother to see it no matter how high the praise.

I ended the day and essentially the festival meeting with Elvis Mitchell at the Sutton Place for an extended conversation. It turns out that growing up in Detroit he became a "Magic Shadows" and "Saturday Night at the Movies" fan. Between us and Pauline Kael, he had his film education down pat.