The 32nd Toronto International Film Festival is officially over. Every year, right around this time, my life feels a little emptier. This has been my busiest festival yet -- working the day job, volunteering at RTH and entertaining a visitor from NYC -- yet I still managed to fit in ten screenings ^_^

Films seen in order of awesomeness:

The Edge of Heaven (Fatih Akin - Germany/Turkey) *Baki Davrak, I want to bear your children.

The Band's Visit (Eran Kolirin - Israel)

Persepolis (Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi - France)

Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike - Japan)

Lust, Caution (Ang Lee - Taiwan)

Chacun son cinéma (An omnibus film celebrating Cannes' 60th anniversary, featuring three-minute shorts from a slew of international filmmakers. Wong Kar-wai's was rather disappointing. Favourites: Theo Angelopoulos' Trois Minutes, Bille August's The Last Dating Show, Alejandro González Iñárritu's Anna, Zhang Yimou's En regardant le film, Walter Salles' A 8,944km de Cannes, Wim Wenders' War in Peace, Lars von Trier's Occupations, Nanni Moretti's Diaro di uno Spettatore, Takeshi Kitano's One Fine Day, Ken Loach's Happy Ending, Tsai Ming-Liang's It's a Dream, Ethan & Joel Coen's World Cinema, Abbas Kiarostami's Where is my Romeo?, Claude Lelouch's Cinéma de Boulevard - France)

Sleuth (Kenneth Branagh - UK)

Across the Universe (Julie Taymor - USA)

Glory to the Filmmaker! (Takeshi Kitano - Japan)

I'm Not There (Todd Haynes - USA)

Cinematheque Ontario starts up again in less than a month. Yay.

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After all those late nights, and countless hours spent in dark movie theatres, my body knew it was time to get caught up on sleep. I slept in this morning, and almost missed out on the Picnic at the Brick Works fundraiser for Evergreen and Slow Food Toronto. You know you're completely zonked when you would rather sleep than sample treats from the city's top chefs and wines from around Ontario.

But D, with her charm, managed to convince me to get off my ass and catch the shuttle to Brick Works. I got there an hour and a half before closing, with just enough time to try a decent amount of food without stuffing myself silly. But with the back-to-back screenings the night before, I didn't get a chance to eat dinner (unless a small pack of Nibs counts as a full meal) and when I arrived at Brick Works, all I had in my belly was a latte from the morning. The food samples (Elk Tartar, Chicken Liver Mousse, Blackberry Sorbet, Sheep's Cheese tarts, Wine-marinated sausage, New Potatoes encased in pastry, oysters, Cured Duck, Rainbow Trout, Beef Cheeks, Grilled Goat, etc.), yummy as they were, just weren't enough to keep the wine from rushing to my head almost immediately.

I could barely keep my eyes open while shopping for dinner in Kensington -- yes, despite all those goodies at Brick Works, I knew I'd be hungry for dinner eventually. Managed to pass out for a few hours as soon as I got home -- which meant a very late dinner AND that the things I'd hoped to accomplish this evening would have to be postponed for another night.

There's a pile of clothes on my bed. The various pieces I'd contemplated wearing this weekend, and tried on, tossed off, replaced with another outfit. It's a huge pile. Putting them away was also one of my planned activities for this evening. Guess I'll just burrow my way under the pile again tonight. It's cold in this house anyway.