Toronto 2019: Once Were Brothers Film Festival Opens

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The Toronto International Film Festival officially started and the documentary film Once Were Brothers was inaugurated.

The Canadian film follows the career of Robbie Robertson and the creation of the rock-rock band The Band.

At 26, its director, Daniel Roher, is one of the youngest to have been selected to open the TIFF.

Robertson told reporters Thursday that he had a "hunch" that Roher was the right person to lead, despite his age.

"In so many creative efforts, you think that" it is taking a picture, taking a risk, "but something says to you:" go ahead "… C & # 39; is quite mysterious, what confidence you can have, "he said.

"And I told him, by the way, how old are you? [Roher’s age when production began]and I was 24 years old when I made Music From Big Pink with the band, and it sounded, and I thought, let's try it. "

Robertson was both lead guitarist and lead composer of the band The Band, which had many successes in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in Toronto, making it an appropriate film to open the festival.

At Thursday's press conference, Mayor John Tory presented Robertson with a key to the city, a prestigious award recognizing the outstanding civic contributions of his Toronto laureates.

How Open is Toronto?

It's certainly an honor to open the TIFF, but the opening film is generally less important than the winner of the People's Choice Award, awarded at the end of the festival .

Although the winner of the Audience Award is a better indicator of success later in the awards season (Green Book then won the Oscar for Best Picture after its triumph at TIFF last year), the opening film can often be a little more obscure.

"In a sense, Once Were Brothers is a strange choice to serve as an opening film at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival," wrote Steve Pond in The Wrap. in one of the first reviews of the film.

"In a festival filled with great contenders for big movie stars, it's a documentary about a musician whose music is mostly heard on occasional oldies channels or on Americana's Spotify channel, by a director still having only one story in his resume. "

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TIFF

So, once upon a time, were the Brothers good? Well, if you're a fan of the band and have followed Robbie Robertson's career, the answer is absolutely yes.

But, unless you particularly like beards and black-and-white photos, there's probably less to offer here to the casual viewer.

"Beyond TIFF, where the audience of a certain age who will open for the opening night will absorb enthusiastically all the vibrations of the late 60s and early 70s, the market seems less assured" , suggested Michael Rechtshaffen in The Hollywood Reporter.

At the press conference, it was announced that the film had already obtained an international release thanks to the distributor Magnolia Pictures.

& # 39; Self-mythology & # 39;

Searching For Sugar Man, a documentary on how the American musician Sixto Rodriguez has become extremely famous in South Africa without his knowledge, and 20 Feet From Stardom, which tells the story of singers who are followers of the music industry.

But unlike those films, which had a more mainstream appeal, Once Were Brothers ideally requires a basic knowledge of the group's work to be fully appreciated.

The first reviews of the film were generally positive – but many critics have emphasized the complacency of the film and its lack of journalistic rigor, the result of selected contributors.

Kate Erbland wrote in IndieWire: "Without a more complete voice choice (everyone on the screen agrees, Robertson is a genius, a visionary, the undisputed leader of the group even decades later) or a more critical director to In the perspective of the film, Robertson is free to observe larger questions and deeper meanings, opting for self-mythology rather than personal reflection.

This is partly because Robertson is one of the two surviving members of the five members. The other, Garth Hudson, appears much less in the documentary than Robertson.

"Director Daniel Rohar's job is to faithfully represent his subject and bring together the voices that confirm his memories – and to put on-screen beautiful black-and-white photographs," said Chris Willman. of Variety.

At the press conference, director Roher congratulated the executive producers of the film, including veteran directors Martin Scorcese and Ron Howard, for their support.

"What was unique in this project is that it was an extremely rich documentary in archives," said director Roher. "I have this legendary team around me and I really felt empowered.

"I had a pretty clear idea of ​​what I wanted this movie to look like writing. [Robertson’s] memory reads like a piece of cinema and I wanted to tap into that. "

Speaking about the opening of the festival, he added, "The TIFF is the biggest event in Canadian cinema … I never dreamed that it was possible." A Canadian documentary never had opened the TIFF before. "

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