The Toronto Film Festival is going on right now (duh) and A.O. Scott just published an article in The New York Times attempting to answer the myriad of “What’s it all about?” questions that non-cinephiles always seem to ask. The article is moderately good, but his definition of a film festival is superb and completely nails the atmosphere of any festival I’ve been to:
The purpose of film festivals is to create the temporary and seductive illusion that movies are everything, a notion that the best films in any given festival will at once affirm and disprove.
Scott is going to be lecturing at Emory University in Atlanta next Thursday as part of the Artists and Critics Lecture Series. I’m thinking about going, but time and access to a car may get in the way…
