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I was exhilarated coming out of Salmon Fishing at the Yemen premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre. Ewan McGregor, Emily Blunt and Amr Waked, plus director Lasse Hallstrom and producer Paul Webster all contributed to a lovely Q&A. Waked — the Egyptian who captivates audiences by playing the Yemeni sheikh in the story — generated enormous applause for his performance and then for his simple, elegant statement at the Q&A:

“We need a good story about the Middle East that doesn’t have explosions. I know it is difficult to imagine but it will happen (in real life, too).”

But the energy of the moment passed for me when — a little later — I found out about the death of Hollywood veteran Cliff Robertson. Lovely man. Fine actor. Not involved in TIFF but you think of the people who built the legacy of cinema when you’re at a festival. Robertson was proud of playing JFK in the true-life tale PT-109. He did many other significant performances.

But I also remember sitting with him on the Floating Film Festival while he spun his extraordinary tale of how — on 9/11, exactly a decade ago — he was piloting his own small plane over lower Manhattan at precisely the time of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre. Before being ordered out of the New York airspace by the U.S. military, Robertson witnessed one of the planes flying into a tower.

When he later uttered his now famous “great responsibility” lines in Spider-man, he felt the resonance of that tragic day.

The Toronto International Film Festival is a love-hate, bittersweet, crazy kind of jump into the abyss.

Love stuff includes meeting classy and talented young filmmakers such as Quebec’s Guy Edoin, at TIFF with his harrowing farm drama Wetlands (Marecages), or chatting in depth with the engaging and articulate Paul Giamatti, part of George Clooney’s ensemble cast in The Ides of March.

Hate stuff includes hassling with the insane set-up for festival press conferences on the 6th floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox: Being herded like the cattle from Wetlands, and then being trapped in the venue at the end of the session because organizers have to get “the talent” out of the building first, just emphasizes why another arrangement is so essential. No one seems happy with the status quo.

Love stuff includes seeing how well Clooney handled his press conference for his own directorial effort, the political thriller-drama The Ides of March. He is mischievous, a real prankster. But he easily gets serious when the question warrants it. Then, with witty words, he caustically smacked down a misguided journalist from People Magazine who asked an inappropriate question about Clooney’s dating habits. Clooney proved clever enough to make his point (his private life is private), generate laughs and make the journo squirm in his seat. Just great.

Hate stuff includes sitting in on the Bona/The Edge press conference for David Guggenheim’s rock doc, Down From the Sky. Sorry, but a session devoted to only answering Tweeted questions strikes me as a staged and over-managed performance. It certainly was not a press conference. But, then again, the entire tiresome film itself is over-managed and under-whelming. The only burst of real energy amid all the Bone-generated angst today was having The Edge react to a question about the scene in which each member of U2 appears in drag. “I freaked myself out because I look so much like my sister!”

Hurrah, set for Day One of my 35th Toronto International Film Festival. Missed only the first one. Rachel Sa and I are heading to the pre-gala cocktail, the gala at Roy Thomson Hall and the after-party at the Liberty Grand. So now it feels like a festival, not an assignment for The Toronto Sun and Sun Media. I don’t much care if we see Bono and The Edge up close and personal, but they will be at the gala and are obviously invited to the party before and after.

It feels weird, yet energizing, to launch TIFF 2011 with an international rock doc. But, given director Davis Guggenheim’s pedigree (his Oscar-winning if controversial An Inconvenient Truth and last year’s TIFF entry, Waiting for Superman), you expect something other than a homage or some Big Band suckage.

Meanwhile, my excitement for TIFF extends beyond the obvious. Check out Short Cuts Canada for some astonishing treasures, including ORA and Throat Song.