Sarah Polley

Women Talking (Sarah Polley, US)

Women Talking (Sarah Polley, US)

Sarah Polley’s adaptation of Miriam Toews’ 2018 novel Women Talking is set in a remote Mennonite community that exists out of time and under its own jurisdiction, with its own rules and superstitions. For years, the nocturnal disturbances that left local girls and women bruised and bleeding were thought to be a result of divine retribution, demons, or “female imagination”; it was later discovered that their collective nightmare was, in fact, repeated sexual assaults carried out by men armed with animal tranquillizers, many of whom were brothers, cousins, or uncles of the victims.
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Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, Canada)

By Adam Nayman Even if they didn’t say it in print, there were plenty of Toronto critics who suspected that Sarah Polley was being disingenuous when she claimed her sophomore feature Take This Waltz (2011) contained little to nothing in the way of autobiography. That Polley crafted her Parkdale-set Scenes From a Marriage after the…
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TIFF Day 2: Short Cuts Canada | The Crimes of Mike Recket | Dangerous Liaisons | Dredd 3D | Eat Sleep Die | End of Watch | Frances Ha | The Hunt | Krivina | Road North | Spring Breakers | Stories We Tell

Short Cuts Canada By Hugh Gibson This year’s Short Cuts Canada section is cast into new light due to two recent developments.  First, with the elimination of Canada First (and before it, Perspectives Canada, the so-called “ghettos” for national cinema), it becomes the festival’s sole Canadian-specific program.  Second, with the sudden announcement that the Worldwide…
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Split Decision: Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz

By Adam Nayman The first sign that Take This Waltz is going to be too writerly comes in the very first scene, when Toronto parks worker Margot (Michelle Williams) is coerced by a group of Nova Scotian historical re-enactors into pantomiming flogging an adulterer. As a self-contained scene, it’s pretty funny: the Canadian Heritage Site…
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TIFF Countdown -1: Low Life / 388 Arletta Avenue / Back to Stay / Elena / The Forgiveness of Blood / Good Bye / Gypsy / Leave It On the Floor / Mr. Tree / The Patron Saints / Sleeping Beauty / Smuggler / Take This Waltz / Volcano / Whores’ Glory

Cinema Scope 48 Preview: Low Life (Nicolas Klotz & Elisabeth Perceval, France)—Special Presentations By Andréa Picard “Two types of film: those that employ the resources of the theatre (actors, directors, etc…) and use the camera in order to reproduce; those that employ the resources of cinematography and use the camera to create.” —Robert Bresson, Notes…
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