The fact Lovely, Still is written and directed by first-timer Nik Fackler, 24, makes the project all the more remarkable.
But the story takes a dramatic twist that takes the movie to an extraordinary place. They play Mary and Robert, two lonely people in their seventies who find love, romance and, yes, intimacy during the Christmas holidays. It's what they call a "small movie" and has yet to pick up a distributor, but it's a worthy effort thanks to outstanding work by Burstyn and fellow screen vet, Martin Landau, 77. Looking at least a decade younger than her 75 years, her skin glowing against a hot pink silk scarf, the star of The Exorcist, Same Time Next Year and last year's fest film The Stone Angel brought her new movie Lovely, Still to TIFF. People continue having sex and I don't think young people know that." "He made a joke with a punch line, but it's true. "I heard Jay Leno make a joke that latest studies show that people are having sex into their seventies, eighties," she said with a wry smile.
Maybe it's because thinking about our parents having sex still creeps us out no matter how old we are, actor Ellen Burstyn mused over a cup of tea in Yorkville last week.