Words and Pictures premieres tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival with a gala presentation in Roy Thompson Hall. Stars Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche and director Fred Schepisi told ET Canada on the red carpet that they loved shooting the movie in Vancouver.
Words and Pictures is about a private school English teacher and art teacher who complicate their lives with a rivalry that blossoms into romance.
Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) is a writer past his prime. A former literary star, he drinks too much, is estranged from his son and hasn’t published in years.
Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche) is an abstract painter past her prime too. Once an art world luminary, her arthritis makes painting too difficult now.
Fed up with student apathy, Jack proposes a battle between words and pictures, confident that words convey more meaning than pictures. Dina rises to the challenge and their war (and love story) begins.
Director Fred Schepisi shot most of the prep school scenes in Vancouver during the March break in the temporarily-empty St. George’s private school and then on weekends for several weeks. A local student got the chance to playan extra in one of Jack’s classes, where she was scolded for texting. Words and Pictures was spotted on location in Fort Langley, Stanley Park and Gastown as well.
Related: Clive Owen Films Words and Pictures in Gastown
BC Flm talent in Words and Pictures includes Keegan Connor Tracy (Once Upon a Time’s Blue Fairy and Bates Motel’s Miss Watson) as Ellen.
Adam DiMarco (Arctic Air’s Kirby, Rogers spokesguy) as Swint.
Janet Kidder (Continuum) as Sabine as well as Patrick Gilmore and Jennifer Copping.