An invitation to Madness - TIFF 2010 Street Level - Action News
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An invitation to Madness - TIFF 2010 Street Level

An invitation to Madness

By Roger Rousseau, citizen contributor

roger-bio-52.jpgThis weekend the two best parties in town won't be at any of Toronto's trendy nightclubs or TIFF after-parties -- they're going to be at the two final Midnight Madness screenings of TIFF '10. That's the kind of atmosphere that programmer Colin Geddes and all of the Midnight Madness fans bring to each and every screening.

Want to see for yourself? Here's a video that I cut together from footage I shot at the premieres of Super and Bunraku last weekend.

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The first couple of years I attended TIFF, I had no idea that this program existed. I'm not entirely sure how it went under my radar, but it did. The first Midnight Madness film I ever saw was a daytime screening -- meaning the second screening -- of a film called Versus in 2001. Described to me by a friend as a Yakuza zombie movie, it seemed too weird to be a part of TIFF, but the premise was appealing. And even though I wasn't actually at a midnight screening, that's when I fell in love with Midnight Madness.

I've seen a lot of great films at Midnight Madness, but even better than that, I've seen a lot of average movies that were made better just by seeing them there. Sometimes, all it takes to enjoy a movie is a really enthusiastic crowd to see it with. District 13, the John Carpenter inspired ode to parkour, is by no means a great film, but when you're in a room filled with hundreds of cheering action fans, you can't help but join them. And, although it doesn't happen often, you don't have to restrain yourself from booing either, because you'll probably find yourself in a chorus of jeering filmgoers anyway.

There are of course limits to how raucous you can get. If you plan on providing your own Mystery Science Theatre 3000 type of commentary throughout the film, you'll find that Midnight Madness fans aren't afraid to put you in your place. The best thing to do is to just follow along with the crowd. Within no time, you'll get into the rhythm of it and will be having the best time you've ever had at TIFF.

You can follow Roger throughout #TIFF10 on Twitter at @roger_writes


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