David Cronenberg has shown eight films at TIFF, starting with “Dead Ringers,” his cult 1988 hit about twin brother gynecologists (hint: it doesn’t end well). Last year, the acclaimed filmmaker’s surreal grief drama “The Shrouds” made its North American premiere there. Here, a legend sets the scene for the singular magic of our hometown festival.
“I had my first couple of films, ‘Stereo’ (1969) and ‘Crimes of the Future’ (1970), screen at festivals in Edinburgh, Adelaide and Auckland, I think. But, of course, I didn’t go with them.
It was nothing remotely like the premiere of ‘Dead Ringers’ at TIFF’s opening night in 1988. I really was somehow insulated from the (controversy) of it. I was only thinking of how great it was that something I really loved and that had taken me 10 years to get made would suddenly open TIFF, which by that time had become a substantial entity in the world of festivals.
It was prestigious for me … and also intense. It’s not really different between then and now. Showing a film at TIFF is all-consuming at the moment it happens. It’s exciting even if the film has shown at other festivals.
Showing it in your hometown is special. And, of course, ‘Dead Ringers’ is very much a Toronto movie and ‘The Shrouds’ even more so. This is the real test: is the Toronto audience going to really appreciate that it’s Toronto or not? The TIFF screening of ‘The Shrouds’ was, for me, a better screening (than at Cannes) in terms of actual audience response because they not only got all the obvious jokes, but they got the Toronto jokes as well. That was really satisfying.”
