The Grand Illusion presents their final week of their Pier Paolo Pasolini series with the notorious director’s version of The Canterbury Tales. The second film in Pasolini’s “Trilogy of Life” sees the director himself on screen as Geoffrey Chaucer scribing eight stories “told for the mere pleasure of the telling”, stories enacted with Pasolini’s luminous cinematography and explicit sex and violence. Originally released in the US with an “X” rating, the film is off limits to anyone under age 17.

Midnight at the Egyptian: Christmas on Mars, a goofy, high-spirited sci fi film starring the members of rock band the Flaming Lips, Fred Armisen of Saturday Night Live fame, actor Adam Goldberg, Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse, and musician Steve Burns. Directed by Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the story of delirious Mars colonists and an alien superbeing is soundtracked with original music by the band.

One of my favorite films at SIFF last year, quite possibly my favorite of all the documentaries, was Anvil: the story of Anvil. Back in the 70s two Toronto schoolboys, Steve “Lips” Kudrow and Robb Reiner decided to form a band. This band, Anvil, would flirt with superstardom but never quite make it there, despite being a serious influence on many bands who did, including Metallica and Guns N Roses. Decades later, Kudrow and Reiner continue to slog on towards their goal of making it to the top, struggling to balance their musical ambitions with the day to day realities of having to earn a living with day jobs and family support. Director Sacha Gervasi follows the pair as they play Canadian club gigs, woo a mostly disinterest record industry and undertake a real-life Spinal Tap style tour of Europe in a film that is as much about the unbreakable bonds of friendship between the musicians as it is about their resolute never-say-die attitude behind the drive to make their dreams come true. At the Varsity.

James Ellroy’s modern noir take on 1950s Los Angeles is expertly translated from novel to film by director Curtis Hanson in L.A. Confidential at Central Cinema. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe and Guy Pearce play three very different Los Angeles police officers who become uneasy allies in a battle to solve a complicated conspiracy involving the LAPD, city officials, mobsters and Hollywood sleaze peddlers.

The final days of the 17th annual Polish Film Festival conclude at SIFF Cinema with A Warm Heart in which a wealthy businessman tries to convince a suicidal man to give him his heart–literally; and a series of features, documentaries and shorts.