tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87095428400177628602024-03-13T10:50:09.813-04:00GREG KLYMKIW'S CFC CANADIAN FILM CORNERUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-48911320531316205552012-07-27T23:46:00.000-04:002012-07-29T10:54:27.982-04:00HIP HOP, EH - Review by Greg Klymkiw - This raw, ragged and breezy indie documentary on the identity of Canadian Hip Hop was five years in the making. It's directed by my cousin Joe so I confess I might not be 100% objective here, but if for any reason whatsoever you find this even remotely problematic, I respectfully ask you to please JUST FUCKING SUE ME, OKAY?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tdd1ky-VaQI/UBSwHILbzMI/AAAAAAAACH8/dX3cTp_NocM/s1600/1acfchipHopEhLOGO.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="313" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tdd1ky-VaQI/UBSwHILbzMI/AAAAAAAACH8/dX3cTp_NocM/s400/1acfchipHopEhLOGO.png" /></a></div><b><i>Join Canuck filmmaker<br />
Joe Klymkiw and some<br />
very special guests for<br />
the premiere of<br />
"Hip Hop Eh"<br />
Sunday, July 29th<br />
9:00pm<br />
at the<br />
Projection Booth<br />
1035 Gerrard St. East<br />
Toronto<br />
Be there<br />
Or Liam Neeson<br />
will FIND YOU<br />
and he will fucking<br />
KILL YOU</i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mzIVPS0wW78/UBSLzDAn1kI/AAAAAAAACHo/Qwdugphiw9A/s1600/1acfchiphopehJOE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:left; float:left;margin-right:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="374" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mzIVPS0wW78/UBSLzDAn1kI/AAAAAAAACHo/Qwdugphiw9A/s400/1acfchiphopehJOE.jpg" /></a></div><b>Hip Hop, Eh</b> <br />
(2012) <b>***</b><br />
dir. Joe Klymkiw<br />
<br />
Starring: Maestro Fresh Wes, Tom Green, Buck 65, Kardinal Offishall, Dj Kemo, Dream Warriors, Michie Mee, Cadence Weapon, Classified, Swollen Members<br />
<br />
<b><i>Review By<br />
Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>Once upon a time, a nice Ukrainian boy,<br />
Directed a doc, about his greatest joy.<br />
You'd think this little Hunky from Winter-peg,<br />
Would invite Heavy Metal to swell his mighty third leg.<br />
<br />
The thing to remember as you, lock up your daughters,<br />
Izz'zat da 'Peg's got asbestos in its muddy, muddy waters.<br />
Little Joe quenched his thirst from those gnarly rusty pipes,<br />
And before he damn well knew it,<br />
He formed super-different likes.<br />
<br />
So off to Vancouver did our little Joe go,<br />
Cuz he needed to groove, without all the fucking snow.<br />
His love for Hip Hop, led to lots of cool shit<br />
And he started spinning tunes, with some mighty true grit.<br />
<br />
For many long years, he was on the radio,<br />
Playing Hip Hop a-plenty in that lonely studio.<br />
And when he met dat Nardwuar, the human serviette,<br />
He made kick-ass music vids, smooth as anisette.<br />
<br />
Joe did wonder, long and hard, 'bout the true identity<br />
Of dat Maple-syrup-hip-hop and its supreme-o destiny.<br />
So he saddled up his camera, to travel far and wide,<br />
Shooting dope Hip Hop artists, who'd not motherfucking hide.<br />
<br />
K'naan wiped his ass, with dat bullshit waving flag.<br />
Even Drake took a powder, what a motherfucking drag.<br />
It mattered not to Joe, Canuck Hip Hop's loyal Ukie Son,<br />
So good riddance to bad rubbish, cuz he interviewed a ton.<br />
<br />
That's exactly what he did,<br />
in his noble Hip Hop quest.<br />
He got a mess, of super mensches,<br />
who fuckin' proved to be the best.<br />
And he shot 'em and he cut 'em,<br />
till their mighty souls did bleed,<br />
Now you got this Hip Hop movie,<br />
So let's all watch and smoke some weed.<br />
<br />
Kubassa and Oxtail,<br />
kishka flavoured with dat jerk,<br />
Jugs of tasty maple syrup,<br />
and a hoser's best plaid shirt.<br />
We gotsa film that answers questions,<br />
Bout our very own Hip Hop<br />
Lez go tuh Stevie Harper's rec-room,<br />
Where he grow dat mighty crop.<br />
And believe me when I say,<br />
We not be smoking prairie wheat.<br />
We be partyin' with our P.M.<br />
to that Canadian Hip Hop beat.</i><br />
<br />
- Greg Klymkiw,<br />
. <i>The Ballad of Hip Hop Joe<br />
. (with apologies to Hip Hop lyricists the world over)</i></blockquote><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ruRXim2aOtc/UBS4Jja33kI/AAAAAAAACIU/uuCaAKLTPZU/s1600/1acfchiphopehCADENCE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="272" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ruRXim2aOtc/UBS4Jja33kI/AAAAAAAACIU/uuCaAKLTPZU/s400/1acfchiphopehCADENCE.jpg" /></a></div><br />
What IS the identity of Canadian Hip Hop? The fuck if I know. In fact, other than Drake (who mega-kicks) and K'naan (whom I never hope to hear again after that fucking <i>Waving Flag</i> shit), I know diddly about the Dominion of Canada's Hip Hop scene.<br />
<br />
After seeing my cousin Joe Klymkiw's movie, <i>Hip Hop, Eh</i>, I now know more than I knew before. And screw it - so Joe's my cousin. The fuck am I supposed to do that half my family is in the entertainment business? If I didn't enjoy the movie, I'd be a man, tell him it sucked shit and then not bother writing about it. So, I'm writing about it. FUCKING SUE ME! Go ahead, motherfucker! I'll whup your ass with a glorious chub of Ukrainian garlic sausage.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-azWVldp53bk/UBTAmKMtd_I/AAAAAAAACIs/yTGij7_fJvM/s1600/1acfchiphopehSAUSAGE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="266" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-azWVldp53bk/UBTAmKMtd_I/AAAAAAAACIs/yTGij7_fJvM/s400/1acfchiphopehSAUSAGE.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The bottom line is - cousin or no cousin - I had a rip-snorting good time watching this mega-ragged indie nose dive into a uniquely Canadian world of contemporary culture I know <i>nada</i> about. The style, kind of like the grassroots Canadian Hip Hop scene, is raw, loose, a bit messy and jumpy, dirty, grainy, blasted-the-fuck-right-out with wall-to-wall music and the most incessantly insane parade of talking heads I've seen in some time.<br />
<br />
But fuck me and a month of Sundays, this movie's got one mega cool talking head after another. In fact, I have never seen so many cool people wearing baseball caps assembled in one movie.<br />
<br />
<i>Hip Hop, Eh</i> is short, breezy, fun, infused with genuine passion for its subject and as one of my esteemed colleagues noted in his review, the movie does at times feel like an extended music industry panel discussion on the subject.<br />
<br />
For me, I didn't mind. I've personally never attended any music industry panels and most certainly none that smacked me in the face with the subject of Canadian identity in our country's Hip Hop scene.<br />
<br />
<i>If you're in Toronto on Sunday, July 29, slip that ball cap on your noggin and head down to the Projection Booth, Hogtown's super cool venue on Gerrard Street East just on the western tip of India Town.<br />
<br />
Here's some info on the Toronto showing <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/467248743301562/">HERE</a>. And the film's website <a href="http://www.hiphopeh.ca/">HERE</a> and here's a link to the Projection Booth's site <a href="http://www.projectionbooth.ca/#!home/mainPage">HERE</a>.</i><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-13665942892041540702012-06-08T12:00:00.000-04:002012-06-11T07:31:22.877-04:00BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW - Review By Greg Klymkiw - WOW! Need a cool movie? Here it is!!! Need a fix of a truly creepy science fiction cult film? Got a few fat doobies to suck back? Forget Ridley Scott's Lugubriously Dull, Bloated, Pretentious PROMETHEUS and just see this movie instead!!!<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qBRONlhJ7HU/T9TwGwBGU-I/AAAAAAAAB3E/RXyvxHb7OQE/s1600/1akfcbeyondtheblackrainbow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear:right; float:right; margin-left:1em; margin-bottom:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="283" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qBRONlhJ7HU/T9TwGwBGU-I/AAAAAAAAB3E/RXyvxHb7OQE/s400/1akfcbeyondtheblackrainbow.jpg" /></a><br />
<b>Beyond The Black Rainbow</b><br />
<br />
(2012) dir. Panos Cosmatos<br />
<br />
Starring:<br />
Michael Rogers, <br />
Eva Allan,<br />
Scott Hylands,<br />
Rondelle Reynoldson,<br />
Marilyn Norry<br />
<br />
<b>***1/2</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>Review By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"Ah! Cornelius Agrippa! My dear Victor, do not waste your time upon this; it is sad trash." If, instead of this remark, my father had taken the pains to explain to me that the principles of Agrippa had been entirely exploded, and that a modern system of science had been introduced, which possessed much greater powers than the ancient, because the powers of the latter were chimerical, while those of the former were real and practical; under such circumstances, I should certainly have thrown Agrippa aside, and have contented my imagination, warmed as it was, by returning with greater ardour to my former studies. It is even possible that the train of my ideas would never have received the fatal impulse that led to my ruin.</i> -- "<b><i>Frankenstein</i></b>" by Mary Shelley</blockquote>In 1983 the world's foremost scientists tirelessly collaborated with naturopathic healers, forging new and exciting psychiatric pathways. These iconoclasts of mind expansion, secured under a massive glass dome within a secluded arboretum just outside Vancouver, aimed their sights upon, in a word: "happiness".<br />
<br />
A short corporate film that opens <i>Beyond The Black Rainbow</i>, was commissioned during this era by the Arboria Institute. Like any good piece of hucksterism, it teases and pleases with the goals and discoveries of its sponsor. <br />
<br />
Between images of bucolic splendour, positive on-screen intonations from the corporation's chief scientist and select glimpses of behind-the-scenes activities, a series of tantalizing taglines flash by and include such come-hither gems as:<br />
<br />
"A state of mind, a way of being."<br />
<br />
"A practical application of an abstract idea."<br />
<br />
"Born in a dream to create reality."<br />
<br />
"A different way to think. A new way to live. A perfect way to believe."<br />
<br />
"A new, better, happier YOU!"<br />
<br />
Alas, for young Dr. Barry Nyle (Michael Rogers), a steadfast belief in his mentor Dr. Mercurio Arboria (Scott Hylands) is not unlike that of young Victor Frankenstein's belief in the dangerous alchemical theories of Cornelius Agrippa.<br />
<br />
Playing God is not without intermittent highs, but like crack cocaine, the heights of ecstasy lead to dangerous lows. Such dabblings often lead to the loss of all that is dear. Barry learns the hard way when he implements his soul-damning dabbling upon his beautiful daughter Elena (Eva Allan).<br />
<br />
<i>Beyond The Black Rainbow</i> features one of the most thrilling debuts in years. Panos Cosmatos, who both wrote and directed this supremely enjoyable first-feature (including the brilliant aforementioned film within the film), is the son of the late and grossly underrated director of <i>Massacre in Rome</i> (a heartbreaking tragedy of WWII with Richard Burton and Marcello Mastroianni), <i>Tombstone</i> (featuring one of the best Doc Hollidays in moviedom, played by Val Kilmer) and <i>Cobra</i> (with Sylvester Stallone's best line of dialogue ever - "Crime is the disease. I'm the cure.").<br />
<br />
Though perhaps unfair to the younger Cosmatos, one can't help but think a chip or two of flair and proficiency off the old block managed to find its way into his DNA. That said, the elder Cosmatos, a slam-bang commercially-minded director with considerable panache would <i>never</i> have made a movie as utterly insane as his son has. (Though, in its own perverse fashion, <i>Rambo: First Blood II</i>, occasionally verges on Ecstasy-infused Buñuelian surrealism.)<br />
<br />
There's no two ways about it: <i>Beyond The Black Rainbow</i> is a 70s/80s-style "head" film that has "cult" emblazoned upon its celluloid forehead. In fact when I ran a repertory cinema during the same time period the movie harkens back to, it's EXACTLY the sort of picture I'd have been thrilled to get behind and try to generate a cult-friendly theatrical exhibition atmosphere to shoot it up into the midnight movie stratosphere of such "wacky-tobacky" hits as <i>Eraserhead</i>, <i>Pink Flamingos</i> and <i>El Topo</i>. (Sadly, in these days of theatrical, there are fewer venues for a picture like this to succeed and it will likely find its most appreciative audience in the home entertainment arena.)<br />
<br />
Gorgeously shot by Norm Li, vigorously edited by Nicholas T. Shepard and blessed with a cool score/soundscape as well as an imaginative production design, the movie is replete with a delicious combination of creepy psychiatric experimentation sequences, dollops of shockingly grotesque bloodletting and several dreamscape montages that are pretty trippy all by their lonesome. If truth be told, the movie can work quite nicely without added stimulants, but far be it from me to deter anyone from enjoying the movie with a massive ingestion of some fine west coast weed.<br />
<br />
The pace of the film is slow, but seldom sluggish. Its creepy-crawly tempo alternates between ominous and repellent, yet it's almost always compelling. That said, the movie really does feel about 10-15 minutes too long. Cosmatos and his team have an abundance of cool shit in the movie and I can only imagine how hard it must have been to let any of it go.<br />
<br />
From a plot standpoint, things are relatively slender save for the vaguely <i>Frankenstein</i>-ian elements, but one slightly confusing shred of story that could have used some pruning involves Rosemary (Marilyn Norry) an odd-duck second (I think) wife to Barry (or perhaps she's his first and only wife and the gorgeous woman who resembles his daughter in the dream/flashbacks is a result of the Arborian mind control methods gone wrong). However, pruning this character would have resulted in losing an absolutely hilarious (and creepy) deadpan exchange between the clearly disconnected husband and wife.<br />
<br />
Besides, confusion is okay. It's a bloody head film with cult appeal, for Christ's sake. If someone is into the picture, they might, if they're even so inclined, figure it out on repeated viewings.<br />
<br />
So, what else could have been cut?<br />
<br />
There's one elongated trip sequence - mostly in black and white - that probably could have been sliced and diced, but then the movie would be bereft of one of the most insanely overlong trip sequences in recent memory.<br />
<br />
Damn! Even I don't want to lose anything.<br />
<br />
The movie also has a few elements that resemble, uh, ideas. Thankfully, they're not too offensively obvious and/or obtuse and/or "film-school-ish". In fact, they're frankly, way less ludicrous than Ridley Scott's half-baked philosophical meanderings in <i>Prometheus</i> and one of them is actually kind of cool. Given the early 80s setting, we're blessed with some brief nods to the Panamanian military leader Noriega and Rompin' Ronnie Reagan. This ties in with the 80s Cold War insanity quite nicely. It's also a cool nod to the work of Cosmatos's Dad during this period.<br />
<br />
Most engagingly, these touches of Reagan-era nuttiness play perfectly with the whole survivalist mentality prevalent back then (and creeping back even now). At one point, Barry refuses to let Elena see her father. "The world is in chaos and we live in times of great uncertainty and danger," Barry warns in a ruthlessly icy monotone.<br />
<br />
Speaking of monotones, I loved all the straight-up performances in the film. Nothing is played for cheesy tongue-in-cheek effect and even the magnificent Scott Hylands, in the role of the Cornelius Agrippa-like founder-mentor, could have easily torn the scenery to shreds, but instead offers up something quite chilling and understated. And I loved Rondelle Reynoldson as a perfectly foul nurse. Conjuring up bad memories of Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched in <i>One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest</i>, Cosmatos also gives the character a well-earned and deliciously disgusting demise.<br />
<br />
For me, I got way more bang for my buck out of this modestly budgeted SF whacko-fest than Sir Ridley's plodding mess. I suspect, I might not be alone in this, but like most cult items, it might take some shelf life for the devotion it deserves to discover it.<br />
<br />
So settle back, folks.<br />
<br />
Fire up a fat doobie and enjoy!<br />
<br />
<i>"Beyond The Black Rainbow" is currently in limited theatrical release via Mongrel Media.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nKdWj9-VMzs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-69560620385291555452012-06-07T00:00:00.000-04:002012-06-10T00:54:16.206-04:00FORTUNATE SON - HELD OVER FOR SECOND BLISTERING WEEK IN MONTREAL AT EXCENTRIS! Reviewed By Greg Klymkiw - This important new personal documentary by Tony Asimakopoulos is a journey into the lives of a Greek-Canadian family that makes for a compulsive, sad, funny and profoundly moving experience. It is NOT to be missed!!!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jk1mof0o8fQ/T8QFwouQb7I/AAAAAAAABwg/8vvWH2LTrS0/s1600/1akfcfortunateson1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="277" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jk1mof0o8fQ/T8QFwouQb7I/AAAAAAAABwg/8vvWH2LTrS0/s400/1akfcfortunateson1.jpg" /></a></div><b>Fortunate Son</b> (2011) dir. Tony Asimakopoulos<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>Review By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<blockquote><i>“You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.”</i> ― Saul Bellow, <i>Seize the Day</i></blockquote>I'm truly blessed to have seen an exciting new film that not only moved me - at first, beyond words - but also inspired a flood of thoughts and memories, which all in some fashion are related to the picture itself, but like any great movie, reached out and touched me in ways that forced me to examine so many elements of my own life. I suspect it will do the same for many, many others who are lucky enough to see it.<br />
<br />
When an artist delivers nuggets from their own experience, chances are good they will resonate with most of us. When the work is thematically tied to that of family, it's especially hard-hitting. The best of these works will hit us with a roundhouse blow to the gut.<br />
<br />
In recent years, the one genre in film that has the power to do this in ways that most other films can only dream about is the personal documentary, but getting the films made and then, once they're made, getting them to an end-user is the real trick.<br />
<br />
When it comes to trends, styles and types of stories told, the movie business can be very fickle. It's not the audiences that are mutable - it's the industry itself - and nowhere does this rear its ugly head more than in the world of documentary. Those who hold the purse strings, those who deliver the product to those who deliver the product to the masses crow on, from season to season about what kind of movie is hot and what's not.<br />
<br />
What this really means is that many of these entities are unimaginative, lacking vision and/or just plain lazy.<br />
<br />
If a movie is great, people will want to see it. That said, some movies need a bit more elbow grease than others. When I started in the business - particularly in the areas of exhibition, marketing and distribution - elbow grease was, more often than not, the norm. Even schmatta-salesman-styled broadcasters, distributors and exhibitors did what I, and others refer to as, uh, work. In fact, the more challenging a great film was, the more these same individuals attacked their calling with relish.<br />
<br />
This past year during the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, I spoke with so many filmmakers who talked about the difficulties of getting personal documentaries made. And yes, getting <i>any</i> movie made is difficult, but the general air wafting from the posterior-scented jaw flaps of the powers-that-be to filmmakers with great stories to tell, was that the personal documentary was OUT - unless, of course it had some sort of easily identifiable hook of controversy. Even then, filmmakers who <i>did</i> have this sort of easily-exploitable approach found the financing road difficult due to the collective knee-jerk proclamations of entities bereft of vision.<br />
<br />
For me, a documentary with a personal approach - where a filmmaker presents a story close to them, perhaps even about <i>themselves</i>, is filmmaking of both a brave and extremely identifiable order. Their stories often mirror our own - the details might be different, but below the surface, they hit us on emotional and intellectual levels.<br />
<br />
The bottom line is that the filmmakers, and most importantly, the end-users, the audience, are the ones who get short shrift when those responsible at decision-making levels are purporting to know what people want. Half the time, they're ill-equipped to know what people want and are looking for easy ways to cover their smelly butts.<br />
<br />
A good or great picture will find its audience.<br />
<br />
One recent film that demands an audience is a personal documentary by Montreal filmmaker Tony Asimakopoulos. Along with another recent film I've seen (which I'm unable to discuss at this juncture), <i>Fortunate Son</i> is a movie that, for me, resonated on so many levels that I suspect I won't be the only one who is deeply moved by it. While watching, re-watching and thinking about it, I was reminded of so much that was close to me when I saw Asimakopoulos's film.<br />
<br />
One thing his movie inspired, not just because of the backdrop of Greek culture, but because of the movie's focus upon the theme of family, is something I hadn't though about for a decade or two.<br />
<br />
Specifically, it was this:<br />
<br />
I wish I could remember the precise date I saw Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis in concert when he visited Winnipeg in the 1970s, but I think it was sometime between 1972 and 1973 because I went to see him conduct and perform live soon after seeing the 1972 Constantin Costa-Gavras film <i>State of Siege</i> (a movie I loved, with a score by Theodorakis that I loved even more). I also know it was before seeing Sidney Lumet's 1973 <i>Serpico</i> (a movie I loved that hasn't quite stood the test of time, though the Theodorakis score most certainly has).<br />
<br />
I remember asking my parents to buy me a ticket to see Theodorakis at the Centennial Concert Hall - mostly because I owned the original vinyl soundtrack recordings to <i>Zorba the Greek</i>, <i>Z</i> and <i>State of Siege</i>. After all, what self-respecting 13-year-old movie geek living in the provincial backwater of Winnipeg would <i>not</i> want to see someone he considered a star. Yes, I had the movie bug so bad, that even as a kid, "stars" to me were not just those in front of the camera, but those behind it.<br />
<br />
For some reason I clearly remember it being a Sunday afternoon when I saw Mikis Theodorakis. Live. In-the-flesh. The concert hall was packed to the rafters with Greek-Canadians. There were, however, two Ukrainians in the audience - me and, as I eventually noticed sitting a few rows down, my late Uncle Walter Klymkiw - a great choir master and scholar of Ukrainian Folk Music.<br />
<br />
Uncle Walter was kind of a cultural touchstone for me within my ridiculously large extended family of Ukrainians. As a kid, I was always enamoured with his great love and knowledge of literature, theatre and yes, music. Whenever he took the time to engage me in some conversation about something <i>I</i> loved (usually Chekhov, Dickens and Mahler), I'd feel a strange warmth, probably because he was someone who didn't - at least during my childhood - think I was out of my mind for being passionate about something other than the commonplace. (In fairness, my Mom was especially accepting of my obsessions with all things artistic, even if she herself didn't quite get all the obsessions herself and Dad took me to every Peckinpah, Clint Eastwood and John Wayne picture.)<br />
<br />
Uncle Walter was family - but not immediate.<br />
<br />
This is, perhaps why I get so sentimental when I think about him.<br />
<br />
That afternoon at the Centennial Concert Hall was gob-smackingly exhilarating. Theodorakis was not presenting his film scores, but music I'd never heard before - music that chilled me to the bone and perhaps even more so because the audience leapt to their feet after every piece. Electric. That's the only way I can describe it.<br />
<br />
I flagged my Uncle down during the intermission. He asked me why I was there. I told him about my love of the Theodorakis movie music and then I asked why <i>he</i> was there. He explained that Theodorakis was a refugee, living in exile away from his beloved Greece where he fought strenuously against a repressive regime. He explained that, like our family - Ukrainians - Theodorakis was fighting for the freedom and culture of his people <i>outside</i> of his own country - Greece.<br />
<br />
This definitely struck a chord with me. My own family had numerous founding members of a federation in Canada that was devoted to preserving Ukrainian culture outside of Ukraine as it was being repressed by the Russians after the revolution until the early 90s. (One might say, the repression from Russia is continuing in Ukraine due to the gangsterism of Putin, but that's another story.) In any event, Uncle Walter's revelation to me cast a new light on my appreciation of the second half of the concert and explained the audience reaction in the first half of the concert.<br />
<br />
Beyond a new aesthetic appreciation for Theodorakis, I was, even at the time, reminded of the importance of family. A common bond of blood opened my eyes to something new.<br />
<br />
Love is a powerful eye-opener and this is what's at the root of <i>Fortunate Son</i>. The above personal memory - a mere shard of my life - came flooding back to me after seeing Asimakopoulos's film, but most importantly, the notion that love and family are why we're all here on this Earth.<br />
<br />
Another great thing <i>Fortunate Son</i> reminded me of was Elia Kazan's <i>America America</i>, his great dramatic rendering of his own Greek family's escape from repression in Turkey. This was a movie I'd seen on TV as a kid and I remember what a huge impression it made on me - so much so, that even when I see it now I'm easily able to repress the picture's occasional flaws.<br />
<br />
The opening shot of Mount Ararat in Kazan's film seems almost identical to the opening shot in <i>Fortunate Son</i> of a mountain overlooking Azimakopoulos's own parents' Greek village.<br />
<br />
In both films, this is an extremely powerful image. It represents an almost pastoral beauty - one that seems to exist in another time and place, but also conjures up thoughts about how far away and seemingly unattainable it is - unless, of course, one chooses the arduous task of climbing it.<br />
<br />
For Asimakopoulos and Kazan, their films and the personal tales they tell are not unlike a mountain that must be climbed - to conquer that which seems too formidable, a dragon that must be slain, but requiring obsessive bravery and fortitude to deliver the ultimate blow.<br />
<br />
From this opening shot, Asimakopoulos provides a haunting montage of immigrants on a boat, long-ago memories of happy couples celebrating life and love and then juxtaposed with a series of odd, evocative black and white images of a swarthy young goodfella - adorned in a sport coat and staring at himself in the mirror (not unlike that of Jake LaMotta near the end of <i>Raging Bull</i>). The soundtrack to this point has been dappled with its own montage of hollow, barley audible sounds of boats, water, clinking glasses, Greek folk music, laughter and then we get the first words of narration that spell out the journey we're about to take with Asimakopoulos in <i>Fortunate Son</i>.<br />
<br />
"Am I a good son?" asks the haunted voice. "Am I a bad son?" And then, in an almost stylized goodfella-from-the-hood fashion: "I dunno."<br />
<br />
This is the peak the filmmaker must ascend. We want to immediately to climb it with him. We want to know if he is a good or bad son. We want <i>him</i> to know if he is a good or bad son. And perhaps most indelibly, we're reminded of how all of us wonder the same thing. Are we good kids or bad kids? Are we good parents or bad parents? Are we good husbands and wives or bad husbands and wives? <br />
<br />
Or is there no such thing?<br />
<br />
Or more truthfully, is goodness found somewhere in the middle - in shades of grey?<br />
<br />
The journey Asimakopoulos takes us on makes for a compulsive, sad, funny and profoundly moving experience. We hear about his parents' life in Greece, their immigration to Canada, their life in the New World. We become privy to the story of their roller coaster ride marriage, Tony's childhood, his troubled adolescence and eventual struggle with heroin addiction. We experience his current relationship with his Mom and Dad while also exploring life with his beloved fiance Natalie. We hear and see his parents' patterns of behaviour, both past and present - the laughter, love, tears and conflict. So too do we experience Tony's own love story - fraught with the same emotional challenges that his parents faced and his fear that he is merely repeating the patterns of his life before heroin addiction or worse, the sins (as it were) of his Mother and Father.<br />
<br />
Asimakopoulos renders this tale with a skilfully edited blend of archival footage, old home movies, scenes from his student films, experimental work and his first feature film. We get up close and personal shots of his life and that of his parents - deftly interwoven with head-on interviews.<br />
<br />
We see the hopes, dreams and lives of a family which, finally, remind us of our own experiences.<br />
<br />
At one point Natalie talks about her own parents splitting up and asks Tony about his Mom and Dad. "Do you ever wonder why they stayed together?" she asks.<br />
<br />
Without hesitation, Tony responds: "No. Not really."<br />
<br />
And for some of us, his response makes perfect sense. Old World families and, to a large extent, previous generations with Old World values might have <i>considered</i> splitting up, but they almost never did. In a sense they're imbued with what I like to think of as the maturity of fortitude.<br />
<br />
Yeah, yeah - so life doesn't always deal you the cards you want, but you keep playing the game because whatever losses you might suffer, the elation of the occasional win is too great to give up based upon the whims that so many with New World values and recent generations have inspired.<br />
<br />
It's easy to give up, but as Asimakopoulos's film demonstrates, it takes courage, REAL courage to keep going, to keep fighting the good fight, to never say never. (Kind of like the aforementioned film industry decision makers - it's easier to say "No" than have the courage to say "Yes" when something seems difficult.)<br />
<br />
This might be the genuine importance of <i>Fortunate Son</i> - it demonstrates the inescapable truth that love is not easy. For love to BE love, for love to really count, it takes work, courage and fortitude. It means giving up ephemeral happiness for that which really counts - the happiness of endurance, of perseverance, of never giving up.<br />
<br />
This is ultimately, the importance of family. (Or, in the words of a character in Peckinpah's <i>Ride The High Country</i>: "I want to enter my house justified.")<br />
<br />
And sure, Asimakopoulos details what many of us, and even in his own words, describe as "dysfunctional" families. Yeah? So what? All families are dysfunctional to one degree or another. <br />
<br />
Again, all that matters is love and family.<br />
<br />
Is Tony's Mom seen as over-protective, over-bearing and even judgemental?<br />
<br />
Hell, yes.<br />
<br />
Who isn't?<br />
<br />
At one point, his Mom talks about Tony's fiance and declares: "I prayed you would find a nice girl and we found her, didn't we?"<br />
<br />
Some might see the use of "we" as taking a degree of empowerment away from her own son, but does, in fact, present the fact that "we" are all in this together and that for all the trials and tribulations, family reigns supreme.<br />
<br />
When Tony talks about kicking his heroin habit, we hear his addiction counsellor well-meaningly talk about Tony's need to get away from the shackles of the family unit. "You needed to get unhooked," he says of Tony leaving his family and while this was a good band-aid solution, we see repeatedly how it's love and family that truly saves the day.<br />
<br />
When Tony accompanies his parents to their hometown in Greece, we get glimpses of what life and family was like back in their early years. Family and just how needy family can be is a truth that's both funny and moving.<br />
<br />
Tony's Dad (who left Greece in 1967 during the beginning of the junta that Theodorakis fought against) jokes about how every time he went back to Greece to visit his mother, she'd cry and declare how old she was getting and how this would be the "last time" he'd ever see her again. He and Tony laugh good-naturedly when he reveals she said the same thing repeatedly over numerous trips back to see her.<br />
<br />
Tony's Mom, on the other hand, paints an entirely different portrait of her connection to Greece and family. At one point, she finds a stone on the ground and thinks it might be nice to take this piece of Greece back with her to Canada. She thinks on it, then places the stone back, saying: "The rock will cry if I take it away from its home."<br />
<br />
She sounds like my grandmother.<br />
<br />
When she visits her Mother's spartan bedroom - preserved almost like a shrine, she finds some sacred religious artifacts that belonged to her Mother. She firmly declares that she will not leave them behind. "It would be a sin to do so," she says.<br />
<br />
Later on, Tony's Mom reveals that she wanted to go back home, but that it was marriage to Tony's Dad in Canada that dashed those dreams. She does not say this with bitterness or regret, but with the aforementioned maturity of fortitude. When she discusses her Mother in Saint-like terms - a single mother who worked herself to the bone to feed her family - she begins to tear-up. Thinking about how much her mother sacrificed for her and how she eventually got sick and died alone is almost too much for her to bear.<br />
<br />
As it would be for anyone.<br />
<br />
And often, as personal films can do, <i>Fortunate Son</i> takes a turn in the story of this family when his Dad is diagnosed with stomach cancer and we witness the family's terrible and brave struggle to deal with this. Even here, however, there's a mixture of sadness and humour (as typified by the title of Armenian-American William Saroyan's great book and film, "<i>The Human Comedy</i>"). Here's Dad - seriously ill with stomach cancer - and Mom is piling heaps of artery-clogging food on his plate (something Ukrainians understand all too well). Mom even complains she's screwed the food up and heaps salty slabs of cheese on it.<br />
<br />
"Put on some Feta to make it taste better," she offers.<br />
<br />
And yes, food is very important to this family. We see one scene after another round dinner tables - piled high with culinary delights that watered this Ukrainian's mouth like a geyser. Early in the movie, Tony's Dad is leaving to play cards at the local Greek community bar. Tony's Mom gives him the most delectable list of food to bring home from the grocery store. Towards the end of the film, fearing her husband might die, she reveals to Tony that "I want to die before your Father does. It's better that way." Then she adds: "Because he can take care of himself."<br />
<br />
At this point (along with many others in the movie), tears erupted from my eyes.<br />
<br />
All I could think about was this: "Who <i>would</i> bring groceries home for her if her husband died first?"<br />
<br />
It's a question all of us would ask in similar situations. The details might be different, but the sentiment is the same.<br />
<br />
Tony Asimakopoulos is one of Canadian cinema's great unsung talents. His early student films and experimental works and first feature are brimming with a voice that needs to be heard. His work has been charged with a unique underground flavour - a kind of Greek Scorsese boys in the hood quality of obsession with dapplings of George Kuchar melodrama and lurid high contrast visuals. He's taken this style and while not completely abandoning it, he has developed and matured into a fine cinematic storyteller.<br />
<br />
<i>Fortunate Son</i> is, quite simply, a genuinely great film.<br />
<br />
It's a movie that everyone must see.<br />
<br />
And yeah, I can think of a few Greeks who might love it too.<br />
<br />
<i>"Fortunate Son" has been held over for second big week at Montreal’s Cinema ExCentris (3536 Blvd,St.Laurent) on Friday june 8 : 12:30pm ; 9pm, Saturday june 9 : 12:30pm ; 9pm, Sunday june 10 : 12:30pm ; 9pm, Monday june 11 : 9pm, Tuesday june 12 : 9pm, Wednesday june 13 : 9pm, Thursday june 14 : 9pm. TONY ASIMAKOPOULOS will be at every screening for a Q and A. The film is in English & Greek, with English & French subtitles. For showtimes check the Excentris website for screening times <a href="http://cinemaexcentris.com">HERE</a>. Additional playdates in Canada throughout the next few months can be accessed by visiting the EYESTEELFILM website <a href="http://www.eyesteelfilm.com/fortunate-son">HERE</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rARRKqa5AGk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-810987556736123592012-04-16T12:00:00.000-04:002012-04-16T21:42:59.114-04:00HARD CORE LOGO II - Review By Greg Klymkiw - This offbeat and deeply personal sequel to Bruce McDonald's legendary 1996 punk extravaganza is a surprisingly truthful and elegiac tribute to a lost generation.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HrQ5CdiYmoM/T4zCM1oCfqI/AAAAAAAABYY/OaO4w7M_C9k/s1600/1acfcHCII.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HrQ5CdiYmoM/T4zCM1oCfqI/AAAAAAAABYY/OaO4w7M_C9k/s400/1acfcHCII.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>Hard Core Logo II</b> (2011) dir. Bruce McDonald<br />
Starring: Bruce McDonald, Care Failure, Julian Richings, Shannon Jardine, Peter Moore<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
I have to admit that part of my favourable response to <i>Hard Core Logo II</i> is strictly on a personal level. Firstly, my inauguration into the canon of director Bruce McDonald was <i>Roadkill</i>, his crazed rock and road odyssey through Northwestern Ontario. It was the fall of 1989 and during the last year in which I was writing <i>about</i> films. And I really did love writing about movies. I'd been doing so since the late 70s, but I was about to turn a corner in my life and this part of it would be ending a few months or so later.<br />
<br />
At the time I was attending the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and in addition to doing some marketing work on behalf of the film co-operative The Winnipeg Film Group, I was moonlighting as a writer for the now-defunct "<i>Cinema Canada</i>" magazine and was presented with the task of reviewing McDonald's movie. It wasn't hard work at all. It was a terrific picture and my delight with it poured from my soul and through my fingertips and into my word processor like shit through the proverbial Canadian Goose.<br />
<br />
At the time it reminded me of both David Lynch's <i>Eraserhead</i> and Allan Arkush's <i>Rock n' Roll High School</i> - hypnotic, dream-like, gloriously black and white, energetic, madly nutty,laugh-out-loud funny and pure rock and roll joy.<br />
<br />
I've seen it a few times since and I stand by this assessment.<br />
<br />
And goddamn! <i>Roadkill</i> was as Canadian as a fucking beaver pelt adorning Norman Jewison's pate. Every surreal moment from my punk years in Winnipeg seemed to spring miraculously to life. Endless nights in dark, now-defunct watering-holes like the "Native Club", "The Royal Albert Arms" and the basement of the "St. Charles Hotel" (AKA "The Chuckles") - seeing everyone who passed through (early XTC, the Popular Mechanix, the notorious rape-rockers The Mentors) to insane seven-hour drives to Thunder Bay to listen to heavy metal bands (often of the local variety) at the Inn-Towner - that miraculous dive where every chick had hair permed-out like Medusa which, under black light it glowed with an almost radioactive "buy-me-some-fuckin-beer-and-maybe-we-can-fuck-eh" come-hither-with-a-stubby quality.<br />
<br />
I felt as if I had died and gone to Heaven.<br />
<br />
From here I followed Bruce's films passionately. Most of them I loved, some of them I liked and a number of them had me scratching my head with a kind of what-in-the-fuck-are-you-doing-you-psycho response. In 1996, when I saw his <i>Hard Core Logo</i>, which I loved, I remember being swept away by this road movie involving the crazy punker Joe Dick and his band on a comeback tour through the western prairies of Canada and was convinced McDonald would never top the film.<br />
<br />
I was wrong, of course. Throughout the years he delivered one terrific picture after another - most notably his brilliant zombie picture set entirely in a rural radio station <i>Pontypool</i> and his truly whacked adaptation of Maureen Medved's novel <i>The Tracy Fragments</i>. The only film of his I didn't see was the notorious <i>Picture Claire</i>. At TIFF it was screening while 9/11 was happening. The night he was showing his "director commentary" cut at the Bloor Cinema, I was in Winnipeg. I'm cool with that. Every director I love has one or two "Holy Grail" pictures that I hope to partake in someday.<br />
<br />
So let's fast forward to the present and how seeing <i>Hard Core Logo II</i> hit me where all the best movies should - on a personal level. Firstly, I bring you back to my own personal full-circle coincidence of <i>HCL II</i> being the first McDonald movie I've seen to write <i>about</i> since I <i>stopped</i> writing about movies. And yeah, here I am, 23 years later, back to the future, so to speak - <i>again</i> writing about movies (amongst other writing chores like screenplays and a text book). I have to admit to a certain sentimental attachment going in to seeing <i>HCL II</i> on this level.<br />
<br />
Beyond that though, is the personal relationship one forges with certain artists and their art. Bruce was born about a month after me in the same year. He was born in Kingston and grew up in Scarborough. I was conceived in Detroit and born/raised in Winnipeg. Same difference, really. For many years, without knowing each other in any way, shape or form, we grew up with similar interests and experiences. On that level alone, he's a filmmaker who spoke to me as a contemporary and I've lived through 23 years of his work - connecting aesthetically, but also personally - his work seeming to almost umbilically connect to my very being.<br />
<br />
This, I'd say, IS extremely important. When a filmmaker connects with audiences on this level, then truly this is an artist worth studying and revering. However, it's especially noteworthy that his work connects with me as a Canadian with shared experiences.<br />
<br />
<i>Hard Core Logo II</i> is NOT a retread or reboot. It IS, a sequel. <i>HCL I</i>, a clever mock-doc wherein the lead character blew his brains out on-camera at the end seemed pretty much sequel-proof. What McDonald does, however, is turn the next phase of the tale into a semi-personal and quasi-fictional mock-doc - focusing on the character he himself played, "Bruce" the filmmaker.<br />
<br />
And here, 23-years later, "Bruce" is working successfully in American television. He's the creator and director of "<i>The Pilgrim</i>", a ridiculously popular Christian western aimed squarely (and somewhat cynically on the part of the fictional/actual filmmaker) at the moronic religious right. When the star of the series Rufus Melon (a brilliantly scuzzy and hilarious Adrien Dorval) is caught in a horrendous sexual scandal, the show is immediately cancelled and Bruce is without a job.<br />
<br />
Where he'd previously been ignoring reports that rock singer Care Failure (played, no less, by Care Failure of "Die Mannequin" fame) has psychically channeled the spirit of the late Hard Core Logo frontman Joe Dick, "Bruce" now drops everything to make a new documentary to reclaim his former glory as an independent filmmaker.<br />
<br />
Going the super-kamikaze filmmaking route, he leaves his wife and child home alone and brings along only one crew member - his next door neighbour, the completely bonkers New Age Wiccan video/performance artiste Liz (Shannon Jardine). She mans, as it were, the camera, while he records sound, directs and interviews. He's promised Liz a co-directing credit, but as his personal notes reveal later on, he just needs (and treats her) as a glorified schlepper.<br />
<br />
The two of them follow Care to Saskatchewan where she will record a solo album under the guidance of Joe Dick's former mentor Bucky Haight (Julian Richings, repeating his original <i>HCL</i> role and astoundingly proving again why he's one of Canada's greatest character actors).<br />
<br />
McDonald and his co-writer Dave Griffith put together a number of scenes which give a strong sense of the drudgery and boredom involved in producing an album but when things threaten to get a bit too languid, we're tossed a few phantasmagorical montage sequences (something McDonald has been obsessed with in his latter output and which are handled with aplomb by editor Duff Smith). These insane patchwork quilts of exorcism, talking animals, flashbacks to Joe Dick blowing his brains out, etc. are worthy of such 70s and 80s head films like Alejandro Jodorowsky's <i>The Holy Mountain</i> and Slava Tsukerman's <i>Liquid Sky</i>.<br />
<br />
The dreary Saskatchewan locations also add considerable Canadian <i>chic</i> to the whole affair. I used to think, for example, that looking at the topography surrounding my old hometown whenever I landed in a plane at the Winnipeg International Airport was the most depressing thing in the world. <i>Hard Core Logo II</i> reminded me that NO - landing at the Regina Airport is far more soul-sucking.<br />
<br />
We're guided through this oddball low-key tale, contrasting nicely and unexpectedly with <i>HCL</i>'s raging drive, through the laid-back journal entries of filmmaker "Bruce". If anything drives the engine of this happily sputtering engine it's exploitation.<br />
<br />
Because this is a Canadian film in a Canadian setting with Canadian characters - the exploitation is, not surprisingly, Canadian. That is, characters gently, subtly remind each other how much they're exploiting each other. McDonald's film captures this exploitation ever-so subtly.<br />
<br />
There are the newspaper clippings accusing "Bruce" of exploiting Joe Dick from the original film. There's the implication that Care is exploiting the memory of Joe and furthermore, by possibly pretending to be possessed to get "Bruce" to make a film about her. Bucky accuses "Bruce" of exploiting Care. "Bruce" accuses Bucky of exploiting her. Care accuses both of them of exploiting her. "Bruce" and Bucky gently suggest mutual exploitation of the dead Joe Dick. "Bruce" is clearly exploiting the mad schlepper Wiccan and even the disgraced actor Rufus Melon shows up to exploit "Bruce", in order to party with Care and to get a guest spot with CBC's "Strombo" to declare his "healing".<br />
<br />
Gentle, subtle exploitation is always the Canadian way. Canadians prefer smiling and alternately stabbing in the back - gently. They almost never look someone squarely in the eyes to gut them.<br />
<br />
And within the context of the world McDonald creates - nobody (much like Canadians in reality) seems to want anything of any real import.<br />
<br />
Except for one thing.<br />
<br />
And this is the surprising, profoundly and deeply moving aspect of <i>Hard Core Logo II</i>. When it is determined what is truly important, a sacrifice is made - one which takes us into an afterlife and where the spirit of love and of family overtakes and overwhelms us. <br />
<br />
I must admit to being taken completely off guard here. I should have seen it coming, since the film is strangely bookended with something so uniquely personal that it's often the element that - subtly - sneaks its way through the entire film. And when this sequence occurs, I must admit that I was touched emotionally in ways I never expected. It's both a heartbreaker <i>and</i> a spirit-lifter.<br />
<br />
The movie begins, builds and ends with a humanity that's been hinted at in some of McDonald's earlier work, but explodes in ways that will, I think, especially touch a particular generation of Canadian with an equally particular series of experiences.<br />
<br />
The movie is probably not for everyone. Those expecting a replay of McDonald's earlier successes will be denied an easy road. He delivers an offbeat journey and one that perfectly exemplifies a segment of the punk generation - that generation (especially, I think, in Canada) that sprouted at the tail-end of the baby boom and created a whole group of rebels who existed between the hippie sellouts and the Gen-X McJobbers.<br />
<br />
The real rebels. Those who truly had to pay a price for their ideals and in so doing, continue to clutch desperately and/or longingly at those things everyone <i>thinks</i> they want, but for this generation, when they discover that wondrous thing, they know it's exactly what makes life worth living.<br />
<br />
<i>"Hard Core Logo II" is playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox and other select cinemas across Canada. It is being released by Alliance Films. For information of tickets, playdates and showtimes at TIFF, click <a href="http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffbelllightbox/2012/3700000401">HERE</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QwCIgFmAfAU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-11981033771426285712012-04-05T00:30:00.000-04:002012-04-07T10:44:15.592-04:00THE VANISHING SPRING LIGHT: TALES OF WEST STREET - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Xan Yu's extraordinary film is a document in its purest and most poetic form.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Kp28TKytQA/T3iE6sB4aXI/AAAAAAAABVY/hWsYki559K0/s1600/1acfcVanishingSpringLight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="224" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Kp28TKytQA/T3iE6sB4aXI/AAAAAAAABVY/hWsYki559K0/s400/1acfcVanishingSpringLight.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>The Vanishing Spring Light: Tales of West Street</b> (2011) dir. Xun Yu "Fish" Starring: "Grandma" Jiang Su-Ha, Xiao Da Wan-Bi, Xiang Qian-Hong<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<blockquote>“<i>How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. So far, so much between, you can never go home again . . . it's good to go home, but you never really get all the way home again in your life . . . and once in a while, once in a long time, you remembered, and knew how far you were away, and it hit you hard enough, that little while it lasted, to break your heart.</i>” - James Agee, <i>A Death in the Family</i></blockquote><br />
<br />Grandma Jiang is dying.<br />
<br />
Wracked with pain after suffering a massive stroke, she lies in her bed, physically unable to assume her usual perch in front of the family home on her beloved West Street. This World Cultural Heritage Site in Dujiangyan (Southwest China) in the Sichuan Province near the site of an irrigation system that was a massive feat of ancient engineering, has housed generations upon generations of families who lived a simple, traditional life. <br />
<br />This is where Grandma Jiang lived for 50 of her 75 years.<br />
<br />
In the time of her life, Grandma Jiang loved nothing more than passing endless days on the porch - smoking cigarettes, taking in the sights and sounds passing by this historic street that once served as the gateway to the Silk Road and sharing conversations with friends, neighbours and occasional visiting relatives. Her loyal daughter-in-law Xiao Da manages the mahjong parlour in the living room while her bumblingly good-natured son Xiang Qian drives cab, when not blind drunk, but often hung-over.<br />
<br />Though petty squabbles erupt amongst her daughters who live their own lives and almost grudgingly make efforts to visit and care for her, Grandma Jiang has, in the words of the Armenian-American writer William Saroyan, striven to "discover in all things, that which shines and is beyond corruption and encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world".<br />
<br />
But now, wrapped in blankets, looking like a living mummy (and still puffing on cigarettes), she is alone save for Xun Yu, the filmmaker who spent two years living with this family before taking an additional two years shooting the first of four documentaries about West Street and its gentrification (and by extension, the modernization of China).<br />
<br />
"All I can hope for is a quick death," Grandma Joang tells Yu. "And after death? I guess I'm headed for the Afterlife. Where else can I go?"<br />
<br />
In spite of the fact that it's about death, <i>The Vanishing Spring Light: Tales of West Street</i> is a celebration of life. Through the changing of the seasons, the increasing metamorphoses of West Street and the diminishing health of Grandma Jiang, Yu trains his eye upon the passage of existence. Simple, often beautifully composed shots in very long takes create a rhythm that is hypnotic and compelling.<br />
<br />
This is a document in its purest and most poetic form. Yes, it is slow, but it is never boring. Yu allows his camera to capture all the pleasures, sorrows and intricacies of lives that are well, and in some cases, not-so-well lived. Through his caring and carefully placed lens we come to know and care for Grandma Jiang and those around her as if we were there ourselves.<br />
<br />
This is one of the most staggering and profoundly moving documentaries I have seen in many years. In its own way, the film is as challenging as Pirjo Honkasalo's stunning exploration of the effects of the Chechen War <i>The Three Rooms of Melancholia</i> or Ulrich Seidl's almost unclassifiable, yet forceful <i>Jesus, You Know</i> or most profoundly, the late Frank Cole's masterwork of artful observation, <i>A Life</i>. Like those films, and even to an extent the works of Frederick Wiseman (though without his traditional lack or preparation), Yu lets life unfold as it most naturally does.<br />
<br />
And just prior to her final death rattles, Grandma Jiang's eyes - forced by her position on the bed to look upwards, her gaze seeming to hug the infinite - she openly and alternately fears and welcomes death. She laments that she "didn't follow the teachings well", feeling now, more than ever. like "a would-be Buddhist". Though even as we hear her say this, we have clearly witnessed an individual who has lived life to its fullest and Yu's film shares this extraordinarily humanist event with us, as its subjects have shared their lives with him.<br />
<br />
"I can only die the way I have lived," Grandma Jiang says before death.<br />
<br />
And so it is, so it has been and so it will be for all of us.<br />
<br />
Xan Yu's beautiful, elegiac and sometimes heart-breaking film is a testament to Grandma Jiang and all those who lived their lives as she did. As William Saroyan wrote: "In the time of your life, live — so that in that wondrous time, you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it.”<br />
<br />
<i>"The Vanishing Spring Light: Tales of West Street" is currently in release via Kinosmith and in Toronto is playing at the Bloor Hot Docs Conema where the film's visionary Canadian producer and filmmaker Daniel Cross will be present for the screenings to discuss the making of the film. For showtimes and tickets, visit the website <a href="http://bloorcinema.com/">HERE</a>.</i><br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/anI42jvtIpk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-47349345473190653892012-03-30T23:05:00.059-04:002012-04-05T09:38:20.103-04:00A LITTLE BIT ZOMBIE - Review By Greg Klymkiw - A terrific script is almost undone by wildly erratic direction that veers from overwrought comic styling to TV-styled camera jockeying.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4uusNaMxjWk/T3d1qAHPUCI/AAAAAAAABVA/okuMECYRZjI/s1600/1acfcALittleBitZombie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="258" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4uusNaMxjWk/T3d1qAHPUCI/AAAAAAAABVA/okuMECYRZjI/s400/1acfcALittleBitZombie.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-smtMsVk5esQ/T3d1qskuinI/AAAAAAAABVI/F5AFE329NVA/s1600/1acfcALittleBitZombie2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="270" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-smtMsVk5esQ/T3d1qskuinI/AAAAAAAABVI/F5AFE329NVA/s400/1acfcALittleBitZombie2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>A Little Bit Zombie</b> (2012) dir. Casey Walker<br />
Starring: Kristopher Turner, Crystal Lowe, Shawn Roberts, Kristen Hager, Emilie Ullerup and Stephen McHattie, George Buza, Robert Maillet<br />
<br />
<b>**1/2</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
Mixing horror with comedy is a noble enough tradition. <i>An American Werewolf in London, Shaun of the Dead</i> and <i>Evil Dead II: Dead By Dawn</i> have become modern classics of this winning hybrid, but what makes them great is that the emphasis is always on horror and the comedy elements stem naturally from the drama. Even Sam Raimi's sequel/remake to his decidedly serious <i>The Evil Dead</i> manages to adhere to this with several clever <i>Looney Tunes</i> homages doubling as whacko POVs whilst Bruce Campbell's Ash is increasingly infused with terror and paranoia.<br />
<br />
<i>A Little Bit Zombie</i> breaks this rule, but not too successfully. It's first and foremost a comedy, but as such, seems to just miss the boat on the laughs. I think the problem is that for much of the film, director Casey Walker tries too hard to make it funny. A lot of the performances and comic set-pieces are played broadly to the point of annoyance and seem just plain juvenile. That said, I watched it with my 11-year-old daughter and she laughed all the way through it. Best of all, for her, she was never scared and enjoyed all the jokey violence.<br />
<br />
She is, however, 11-years-old.<br />
<br />
I ultimately think the movie would have genuinely been so much funnier and possibly even deliciously creepy if Walker had pitched things much straighter. There's frankly an overabundance of "Hey Ma, look at me, I'm funny" mugging amongst a few of the actors.<br />
<br />
The movie, however, is paced like shit through a goose and the screenplay is full of so many clever ideas that it still manages to be entertaining enough for a die-hard horror and dark comedy fan like myself. I just wish I didn't have to groan all through the picture - lamenting how one great idea after another kept hitting the floor like lead balloons due to the overwrought pitch of the direction.<br />
<br />
It's a great story, though.<br />
<br />
Two couples drive to a remote cabin in cottage country to plan the upcoming nuptials of Steve (Kristopher Turner) and Tina (Crystal Lowe). Steve's sister Sarah (Kristin Hager) is a smart, unpretentious lassie and detests her soon-to-be-sister-in-law's prissy consumerist girlie-girl nattering and attitudes. Craig (Shawn Roberts) is both Steve's best friend and Sarah's husband. He's an amiable, dimwitted beefcake with a heart of gold.<br />
<br />
When Steve is bitten by an especially aggressive mosquito, his body temperature starts to plummet and no matter what he eats, he immediately barfs it up. Once he starts getting an overwhelming craving for brains, we know trouble is just around the corner.<br />
<br />
And yes, just around the corner in the same cottage country region, the grizzled, trigger-happy Max (Stephen McHattie) and the young, brilliant, babe-o-licious scientist Penelope (Emile Ullerup) are deep in the woods, tracking down zombies via some mysterious orb that detects the undead. Max just wants to splatter zombie brain with his shotgun. Penelope is searching for a cure to the zombie disease.<br />
<br />
We follow the adventures of both parties until the inevitable showdown.<br />
<br />
What's especially cool about the script by Trevor Martin and Christopher Bond is the unique take on Steve's turn to zombie-dom. Steve is still Steve. He just wants to eat brains. That's all. Oh, and he has no pulse. Some of the funniest ideas involve the trio of non-zombies trying to find ways of dealing with Steve's affliction. Even potentially funnier is how the prissy Tina is adamant that the wedding will go as planned.<br />
<br />
I say "potentially" because everything that should elicit laughs pretty much doesn't. One is constantly amused with all the cleverly funny ideas, but most of the gags miss their mark.<br />
<br />
McHattie is suitably over-the-top, overplaying within the context of the character he's rendering. Max is supposed to be bigger-than-life. Many of the other characters shouldn't be. I just wish someone had told this to Crystal Lowe, for example, who amongst the two beleaguered couples is so broad, that her shrill, nasty harping out-harridans even the most vile harridans we've come to know and love in the movies (notably many of the villainous harpies in the <i>Whatever Happened to Baby Jane</i>-styled thrillers of the early-to-mid-60s).<br />
<br />
Even the likeable presence of Kristopher Turner as Steve gets sucked into the realm of the overwrought. When he underplays, he's terrific, but when he pushes the envelope, someone needed to keep him reined in. Shawn Roberts's bigger qualities suit his character and he's genuinely funny. Finally, it is up to Kristen Hagerman and Emile Ullerup to maintain the best balance and deliver consistently enjoyable performances by playing the crazy material straight and subsequently eliciting considerable laughs.<br />
<br />
While there are numerous exigencies of production that can contribute to elements being less than perfect, there are so many elements that are <i>right</i> with the picture that I made a point of seeing it twice to pinpoint why it is that it falls short.<br />
<br />
It has a clever script (that could have easily been interpreted closer in tone to the aforementioned classic horror pictures with comic elements), there are some genuinely on-the-money performances (and even those that fall short are not without some sporadic merit), the production value is genuinely high and we seldom see the seams of the picture's obvious low budget, the effects are skillfully and imaginatively cheesy in all the right ways, the film is well photographed and finally, the superb editing by Michael Mason addresses the elements of both pace and narrative thrust with occasional cuts of considerable aplomb.<br />
<br />
At the end of the day, much of the success or lack thereof, finally must be attributed to the direction. Even on a first viewing, one of the things that bothered me was how so many of the dialogue scenes were shot with endless one-ers and most annoyingly the constant reliance on dirty-over shots. I longed for good master shots and solid two-shots.<br />
<br />
There's an early scene where the couples are driving at night in their car. Much of the dialogue is between Steve and Tina in the front seat while Craig and Sarah sleep in the back. Given that this is a long dialogue scene, and especially given that much, if not all of it is rendered in the old reliable poor man's process to makes it seem like the car is actually moving, I simply had no idea why much of the conversation was not composed with a nice two shot of the couple so that their dialogue could play out in a series of longer takes and only when necessary would there be a punch-in on a oner, closeup or dirty-over.<br />
<br />
Instead, we seemed to be cutting on virtually every line of dialogue and no nice master two-shot carrying the bulk of the scene. On a first viewing, I chose to be charitable and think that maybe the masters existed, but that the performances could not sustain that approach and it was up to the editor to save the scene and performances by using the remaining camera-jockeyed coverage.<br />
<br />
But then, there occurred a lengthy dialogue scene on the shore of the lake and the entire conversation seemed comprised of an identical approach when clearly a much more interesting and effective way to shoot it would have been a complete reverse angle to allow for longer takes in two-shot and only occasional dirty overs, but from the front, which still could have include the lake and surrounding wilderness.<br />
<br />
To keep the camera always behind the actors might have worked if there had been a simple wide master, followed by a few dirty overs from behind and then gradually working into the reverse angle so we could actually see the actors dead-on and let good chunks of the scene play in much longer takes.<br />
<br />
This kind of dull, though vaguely competent TV-like approach to covering the dialogue, coupled with so much of the great script being pitched far too high suggested that direction was indeed the one primary aspect of what kept <i>A Little Bit Zombie</i> from being more than mildly engaging.<br />
<br />
All this said, when I do the math on the picture, it still managed to provide enough entertainment value - even for jaded genre geeks.<br />
<br />
So, without further delay, let's do the math:<br />
<br />
A Zombie mosquito.<br />
<br />
First-rate zombie head explosions and general zombie carnage.<br />
<br />
Stephen (God) McHattie.<br />
<br />
Some farting.<br />
<br />
More vomiting and regurgitation than I've ever seen in one movie.<br />
<br />
3 Babes (1 ultra babe, 1 mega babe, 1 nasty babe).<br />
<br />
1 manly, good-humoured hunk.<br />
<br />
1 fey, sensitive lad for those so inclined.<br />
<br />
Good natured, though mild homophobic homo humour.<br />
<br />
Biting into a bunny rabbit's head.<br />
<br />
Bunny rabbit brain eating.<br />
<br />
White Trash Butcher who is a brain gourmand (courtesy of George Buza).<br />
<br />
"Clinking" squirrel brains together as "bottoms up" toast.<br />
<br />
WWF wrestling maestro Robert Maillet.<br />
<br />
A slam-bang CAT-FIGHT twixt Ultra Babe and Nasty Babe.<br />
<br />
Ultra Babe and Nasty Babe dolling up like hookers to seduce Robert Maillet.<br />
<br />
Slurping brains out of someone's head with a straw.<br />
<br />
A final 10 minutes that's so good, it makes up for all the movie's flaws.<br />
<br />
And yes, allow me to reiterate - babes.<br />
<br />
The sum total: If the above appeals to you - GO FOR IT!<br />
<br />
You can, ultimately, do a lot worse than a zombie comedy that's not as funny as it really should be.<br />
<br />
<i>"A Little Bit Zombie" is the Closing Night Gala of the Canadian Film Fest at the Royal Theatre in Toronto. For more information, visit the Festival website <a href="http://canfilmfest.ca/">HERE</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8-VK2EFTdGM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-1162680167955767032012-03-30T00:01:00.035-04:002012-03-31T00:09:55.248-04:00CANADIAN SHORT FILMS at CANADIAN FILM FEST 2012 - Review By Greg Klymkiw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wu6Xv9AoDkE/T3Z_8kI0o5I/AAAAAAAABUc/bJyACc14YN0/s1600/1acfccdnshorts1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="311" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wu6Xv9AoDkE/T3Z_8kI0o5I/AAAAAAAABUc/bJyACc14YN0/s400/1acfccdnshorts1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oC1F8xmQwbo/T3Z_85FFVXI/AAAAAAAABUk/uBIr2mJYDnw/s1600/1acfccdnshorts2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="281" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oC1F8xmQwbo/T3Z_85FFVXI/AAAAAAAABUk/uBIr2mJYDnw/s400/1acfccdnshorts2.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MYIFlOXCqhA/T3Z_9Oppq_I/AAAAAAAABUw/mj00ftbqpOg/s1600/1acfccdnshorts3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="269" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MYIFlOXCqhA/T3Z_9Oppq_I/AAAAAAAABUw/mj00ftbqpOg/s400/1acfccdnshorts3.jpg" /></a></div><b>CANADIAN SHORT FILMS at CANADIAN FILM FEST 2012</b><br />
<b><i>Reviewed By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<i>The Canadian Film Fest 2012 at the Royal Theatre in Toronto is feature-heavy, but luckily, there are a number of shorts that will provide a nice glimpse into what several Canadian filmmakers can achieve with few dollars, tiny running times and scads of talent. Below are reviews of a few short films I had the opportunity to screen prior to the festival. Most of these will be screened in a short film program on Saturday, March 31 at 12:00pm. The following reviews are presented in alphabetical order. For tickets and further information visit the Festival website <a href="http://canfilmfest.ca/">HERE</a>.<blockquote></blockquote></i><br />
<b>Everybody Wing Chun Tonight</b> (2011) dir. Karen Suzuki<br />
Starring: Karen Suzuki, Mike Dufays, Kevin Robinson, Christopher Mott<br />
<b>**</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
A group of sexist, misogynistic boneheads harass a woman verbally as she walks through the park. Little do they know she possesses the prowess of a highly skilled martial artist. It's one thing to fantasize about what she'd like to do to them, but is her true power in the knowledge that she could decimate them? Slight and didactic martial arts lesson makes its point - perhaps a bit too clearly.<br />
<br />
<b>Hangnail</b> (2011) dir. Cavan Campbell<br />
Starring: Tasha Lawrence, Dylan Scott Smith<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
Shot completely in one take, this exquisitely written, acted and directed kitchen sink domestic drama examines a great divide between a couple in their bathroom. He's an immature video-game-and-porn-obsessed mall employee. She's a "dancer" in a "gentleman's club". He's taking a dump. She's taking a shower. Both of them are smoking cigarettes. The sniping is vicious, the pain is palpable. Love, however, finds itself in the strangest of places and in the most unusual circumstances. It's rare to find this level of maturity and dramatic resonance in short films these days when the emphasis in this medium is usually on one-note jokes and empty "calling card" endeavours. <i>Hangnail</i> takes us into the territory of despair among the disenfranchised. Though these characters live on the fringe and are often the types whose existence we'd prefer to repress, this evocative slice of their life is more universal than most will care to admit. Out of anguish can come incredible tenderness and compassion. This is a powerful work. It creates levels of complexity within a simple framework and I have to admit the film has continued to haunt me since first seeing it. I am especially eager to see more films from this clearly gifted filmmaker. He's the real thing.<br />
<br />
<b>Long Branch</b> (2011) dir. Dane Clark, Linsey Stewart<br />
Starring: Alex House, Jenny Raven, Al Maini<br />
<b>***1/2</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
She wants a one-night stand. He's into it - bigtime. Her place is not an option. Luckily, his is. The problem, as it turns out, is that he lives two hours away via public transit. Subway. Bus. Bike. All in the frigid, snowy climes of a Canadian winter. She wants simple, fun, no-strings-attached sex. Two hours, however, leaves many opportunities for conversation. The last thing she wants is to get to know him. He's too nice. Like Willard's journey into the heart of darkness neither is quite sure what will be waiting for them in deepest, darkest suburbia. Hopefully, it won't be Col. Kurtz. <i>Long Branch</i> is a bright, breezy and thoroughly delightful romantic comedy. The dialogue is crisp, gorgeously performed by the two attractive leads, shot with clear, simple and direct compositions to let the magic and movement work within the frame so that every cut counts as a truly resonant dramatic beat. Though the soundtrack is peppered with far too many whiny, upbeat indie-styled songs for this curmudgeon's liking, most normal people - especially those who are not curmudgeons - will love it as much as everything else in the picture that truly deserves - uh, love.<br />
<br />
<b>My Loss Your Gain</b> (2011) dir. Elli Raynai<br />
Starring Chris Handfield<br />
<b>**1/2</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
This Sci-fi-tinged one-hander is replete with cool retro-styled effects and an effectively odd obsessive quality. Take a lone scientist, a fly in a jar and imagination - the results can prove to be quite revelatory.<br />
<br />
<b>Onion Skin</b> (2011) dir. Joseph Procopio<br />
Starring: Zachary Peladeau, Vanessa Qualiara<br />
<b>***1/2</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
Gorgeously photographed, well written tale of a young man who has a major crush on a beautiful young lady who is new to his high school. Instead of utilizing the contemporary communication techniques of text messaging and cel phones, he takes the time to craft a series of hand-written love letters. In our age of technologically convenient approaches to getting a message across, the young lady is initially flummoxed by this "odd" approach. Infused with heartfelt sentiment and romance, Procopio demonstrates a natural gift for creating images that are as beautiful as they are dramatically resonant. There isn't a single performance in the film that rings any less than true. All this said, there is a gorgeously acted and directed scene in the middle of the film that, from a writing standpoint provides a too convenient impetus for the young lady to discover and accept the approach of this wildly romantic suitor. It's a minor quibble, but given how terrific the film is, it's one of those elements that sticks out prominently. In time, however, I have no doubt Procopio will discover any number of narrative shorthands that will allow him to craft many more fine films that avoid the sorts of pitfalls that are ascribed in a knee-jerk fashion to young filmmakers, but are, in fact, quite prominent in any number of mainstream works made by people with far more experience and who should ultimately know better.<br />
<br />
<b>The Perfect Vacuum</b> (2011) dir. Alana Cymerman<br />
Starring: Natalie Choquette, Carl Alacchi, Pierre Lenoir, Géraldine Doucet<br />
<b>**</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
Mona lives for her vacuum cleaner. She's lost her true passion and this normally inanimate object takes on a life of its own. At first she shares her perverse love with neighbours and suitors. However, in order to regain her lost passion, she abandons human contact to keep the dirt-sucking phallic symbol all to herself. Will this achieve the desired result or will tragedy strike? This slender, mildly amusing comedic musical vignette is clearly rooted in operatic and melodramatic tradition. Its visual compositions and art direction are both lovingly rendered with aplomb - resembling a curious amalgam of Frank Tashlin, Douglas Sirk and Arthur Freed. One, however, wishes the approach to the material had been less over-the-top. The material itself is already imbued with a bigger-than-life quality. Straighter playing of it might have brought out its richly and potentially hilarious perversities much more pointedly.<br />
<br />
<b>Sonata For Christian</b> (2010) Dir. Stéphane Oystryk<br />
Starring: Benjamin Beauchemain, Onalee Ames, Claire Thomas<br />
<b>**1/2</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
A young lad in the leafy burbs of Winnipeg has the hots for his piano teacher. His Mom assumes he is lazily wanting to avoid going to his lessons. Nothing could be further from the truth. He fantasizes about a romantic tryst with the sexy neighbourhood keyboard instructor. This manifests itself in obsessive masturbatory shenanigans in his bedroom. If anything, he's terrified of acting on his amorous impulses. And what might be the result if she should respond? In spite of tentative performances and a script that doesn't quite deliver on its potential, there is clearly a strong talent here for visually rendering a narrative.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-44687108816798132432012-03-29T00:01:00.028-04:002012-03-30T19:34:16.347-04:00THE UNLEASHED - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Mediocre Canadian paranormal thriller replete with good intentions, but predictable and overlong.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvrTsLnAkYs/T3Y_AeNzHhI/AAAAAAAABUQ/gTlOt7b30rI/s1600/1acfcunleashed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="259" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xvrTsLnAkYs/T3Y_AeNzHhI/AAAAAAAABUQ/gTlOt7b30rI/s400/1acfcunleashed.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>The Unleashed</b> (2011) dir. Manuel H. Da Silva<br />
Starring: Trisha Echeverria, Jessica Salgueiro, Caroline Williams, Malcolm McDowell<br />
<br />
<b>*1/2</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
God knows, and those who know me as intimately as Our Lord, are well aware of the fact that I worship the horror genre with a fervour not unlike that of a fundamentalist Bible Thumper and/or dyed-in-the-wool Satanists. I especially enjoy tales of the paranormal and have been waiting patiently for a good movie that uses a Ouija board as more than a simple prop in a scene or two, but in fact, uses the board front and centre.<br />
<br />
<i>The Unleashed</i> partially answered my prayers - the movie has mega-Ouija Board action. Alas, the picture is barely watchable. It's too bad. Buried deep within the endless 108-minute running time is the framework for a decent genre effort within the script itself. Unfortunately, someone needed to take an axe to much of the screenplay before the film was shot and most importantly, a decent script editor, or even someone with something resembling taste, might have been able to excise a lot of the dumb dialogue and the endless yapping that doesn't really serve the plot and feels like filler. Even if the script had been shot as written, a good producer and editor might have been able to rescue this plodding would-be thriller in post-production.<br />
<br />
The movie begins in a so-far-so-good manner. With a tone of creepy portent over the opening titles, we hear the familiar voice of Malcolm McDowell (<i>A Clockwork Orange, O Lucky Man, Time After Time</i>) as he narrates the following:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>Along with the modern spiritual movement, there came a widespread interest in communications with the dead. The talking board is yet another tool to inspire hope that a world beyond our own can be reached. The question is this: Are the dead taunting the living or is the living taunting the dead?</i></blockquote><br />
Well, Malcolm, I've gotta say (after seeing the whole movie), the REAL question is this: Given that the above is the sum total of your involvement in this picture, were you paid by the hour, the day or the word? There are 52 words. If I had been your agent, I'd have negotiated the rate based on that, but I'm not, so it's a moot point.<br />
<br />
In fairness to the producers of the film, McDowell's name does not appear on the film's poster, but much of the hype surrounding the premiere of <i>The Unleashed</i> at the Canadian Film Fest in Toronto was the appearance of everyone's favourite Droog at the red carpet screening.<br />
<br />
Given that I personally try to know as little about a movie as possible before I see it, I was super-pumped. All I knew was that I'd be seeing a new low budget Canuck horror feature with a great poster AND the participation of Malcolm McDowell. What kept drifting through my mind as I watched the movie was this? When's Malcolm McDowell showing up? He doesn't. Now you know, so if you see the movie when it opens theatrically, don't bother giving his involvement a moment's thought - just let the picture work its magic.<br />
<br />
That said, the movie has virtually no magic - certainly none of the cinematic kind. After Malcolm's narration, we get a decent seance scene set in the late 1800s involving an old crone using a Ouija Board. Decent carnage occurs and we flash forward to the present. We're clumsily introduced to the lead characters - a babe-o-licious woman who's been away from home for eight years and has returned after her Mother dies to deal with the estate, her babe-o-licious best friend from days gone by and a babe-o-licious professor of paranormal studies who is holding a series of lectures at the local secondary school. (Gee, I sure wish I had gone to a secondary school like that!)<br />
<br />
So far, so good.<br />
<br />
When the returning daughter's friend offers to stay with her in the family house (which, by the way, is haunted), I'm at this point thinking - "Good deal!" I did some quick math: Ouija Boards, carnage, ghosts, haunted house, babes and Sappho-action. Yee-haa! The latter, alas, does not occur (though there is one scene with the two babes in bed, but they're fully clothed and clearly have not been indulging in any forbidden nectar.)<br />
<br />
Even worse is the fact that it took the picture 35 or so minutes to give me a tiny shiver of fright. As the film proceeds there were three or four minor jolts, many half-hearted (though nobly-intended) attempts at atmospheric horror, a few decent special effects, unexciting but certainly competent cinematography and a handful of good performances - all of which were elicited by the female actors. (The male actors in the movie are either dull and competent or just plain godawful.)<br />
<br />
The movie throws out a couple of plot twists and surprises, but they're the sort that had me thinking early in the movie: "Oh God, I hope they're not going to , , ," And Yup, they do. I saw the ending coming far too early in the proceedings. (Even my 11-year-old daughter, who, by the way, really loved the movie, was bummed out by the ending.) Knowing where a picture will end up doesn't have to ruin it if the ride is worthwhile, but <i>The Unleashed</i> is not The Zipper, but rather, a merry-go-round that keeps stopping and starting.<br />
<br />
<i>"The Unleashed" is the Friday night red-carpet gala at this year's Canadian Film Fest running March 28-31 at the Royal Theatre in Toronto. For more information, visit the festival's website <a href="http://canfilmfest.ca/">HERE</a>.</i><br />
<br />
This is a terrific trailer. Don't let it fool you though. All the best stuff is right here:<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Oh5x0pbJtg4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-62303655142254463422012-03-28T23:00:00.370-04:002012-03-31T10:08:53.956-04:00THE GUANTANAMO TRAP - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Director Thomas Sellim Wallner has crafted an eminently fascinating and moving film. He delivers a picture that stands as one of the great humanist documentaries of the new millennium.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3lVG1XaPABw/T3PHt2pi1YI/AAAAAAAABUE/9mCyBdPmvIg/s1600/1acfcguantanamotrap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="225" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3lVG1XaPABw/T3PHt2pi1YI/AAAAAAAABUE/9mCyBdPmvIg/s400/1acfcguantanamotrap.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>The Guantanamo Trap</b> (2011) dir. Thomas Sellim Wallner<br />
Starring: Murat Kurnaz, Diane Beaver, Matthew Diaz, Gonzalo Boye<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>“Inverted totalitarianism, unlike classical totalitarianism, does not revolve around a demagogue or charismatic leader. It finds expression in the anonymity of the Corporate State. It purports to cherish democracy, patriotism, and the Constitution while manipulating internal levers.”</i> - Chris Hedges, <b><i>Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle</i></b></blockquote><br />
America - the real America as promised in its constitution, as exemplified in its (mostly) great people and in the vision of Abraham Lincoln to build an economically powerful empire within its borders (thus rejecting the insane expansionism of Manifest Destiny) and to tirelessly serve the world as a <i>genuine</i> defender of the tenets of democratic human rights - <i>that</i> America is dead.<br />
<br />
Currently operating as one of the most corrupt oligarchies in the world, insanely going to war under the guise of Lincoln's great dream but in reality enhancing the economic power of the rich, America has duped millions of its own citizens <i>and</i> both foreign and domestic lenders out of billions of dollars - sending the world into a major economic crisis. The America that now exists has reduced the majority of its populace to an existence of poverty and near-Third World conditions while spending billions on a false war on terrorism.<br />
<br />
The cherry on the American Empire's ice cream sundae of Decline is the illegal kidnapping of (mostly) innocent people all over the world. Their subsequent incarceration on Guantanamo includes being held without formal charges, hearings or trials for years and being tortured in order to spill their guts about spurious accusations of terrorist activities.<br />
<br />
Yes, tortured.<br />
<br />
We all know it. The powers-that-be know it. The victims certainly know it. Alas, the paid pawns of the mainstream media, who also know it, continue to go out of their way to defend the actions of this democratic dictatorship which is ruled by the Christian Right Wing in tandem with the corporate powers who really run America.<br />
<br />
Even those on the left betrayed their ideals, reverting, when the going got too tough to the self-preservation and/or nest-feathering their right-wing foes engaged in. A perfect example of this is noted human rights lawyer Barbara Olshansky. She was working for the nonprofit Centre For Constitutional Rights (CFCR) who were suing the government of the United States to acquire the list of all the prisoners (America calls them "detainees") at Guantanamo. Though the U.S. Supreme Court officially ruled that Guantanamo's prisoners were legally allowed to challenge their imprisonment, their potential chief advocates needed to know who they actually were. The military refused to divulge this information; hence, the lawsuit.<br />
<br />
At one point, Olshansky met one Lt. Cmdr. Matthew Diaz, a Navy lawyer at Guantanamo. He was quite moved by her pleas for the list of prisoners. He finally made the personal decision to furnish these names. He sent them to her in an envelope, the list tucked inside a Valentine card to avoid detection. Receiving this package, she immediately suspected it was a hoax at best, and at worst, a classified document that might potentially compromise American security and safety.<br />
<br />
Hello, babe! This is what you were whining for.<br />
<br />
Even more horrendous is that Diaz extracted the information from his Guantanamo computer and was himself shocked to find that the documents were not marked classified. Olshansky herself testified that these documents were not marked as classified, so to this day it makes no sense why she suspected they might be.<br />
<br />
Instead of using the lists to further her worthy cause, she decided to inform the trial judge that she had them in her possession and then boneheaded-ly allowed a minion from Homeland Security to pick them up. It didn't take long for the FBI and the Justice Department to track the list back to Diaz. Olshansky betrayed her ally - she refused to acknowledge she had ever met or spoken with Diaz and other than her relatively inconsequential testimony at Diaz's trial, she has avoided addressing the matter publicly.<br />
<br />
Diaz, of course, was branded a traitor, stripped of his military credentials, his law credentials and served a surprisingly lenient 6-months in prison.<br />
<br />
Matthew Diaz is one of four subjects examined in <i>The Guantanamo Trap</i>. Thomas Sellim Wallner's feature length documentary presents a tragic portrait of people caught in the web of Guantanamo's literal and symbolic evil. Diaz's story is especially affecting. This is a young man who lived for the military. It was his way out of a world of uncertainty and where he used his time there to make a living, gain an education and eventually a law degree.<br />
<br />
We follow his story, including the aforementioned Olshansky Valentine betrayal, right up to the present where he has no qualifications to do any other work than which he's no longer allowed to pursue. He has no benefits, no pension, a criminal record and a military dismissal which, in spite of his intelligence and experience, presents a formidable hurdle in acquiring the most basic employment. Adding insult to injury, his family home in which his daughter lives has a foreclosure order against it.<br />
<br />
Olshansky, on the other hand, continues quite comfortably with her life - writing books, accepting speaking engagements wherein she crows on about human rights abuses and, of course, holds numerous prestigious academic positions.<br />
<br />
Diaz tried to do the right thing. He lost his whole life. Olshansky, on the other hand, maintained her nicely feathered nest. She also repeatedly ignored requests from the filmmakers of <i>The Guantanamo Trap</i> to present her side of the story in the film.<br />
<br />
No need, one supposes, to tarnish one's comfy position as an - ahem - well-heeled lefty.<br />
<br />
What finally makes <i>The Guantanamo Trap</i> both infuriating and almost unbearably sad is that it's ultimately a story of betrayal. The other individuals whose stories we follow were as screwed over by getting caught in Guantanamo's net as poor Diaz.<br />
<br />
Murat Kurnaz, a German of Turkish descent was arrested by police in Pakistan and sold to the Americans for a healthy bounty.<br />
<br />
A bounty!!!<br />
<br />
He was imprisoned in both Afghanistan and eventually in an outdoor cage in Guantanamo - where he was physically and psychologically tortured for five years.<br />
<br />
Diane Beaver served as a military lawyer at Guantanamo and wrote a legal memo which supported the use of "enhanced" interrogation techniques. When you see the film, you can be your own judge, but they sure sound like torture to me - in spite of her protestations to the contrary. Though there's no question that she was an integral part of Guantanamo's evil, her orders were to generate a legal opinion on what forms of interrogation could be used. <br />
<br />
Beaver, of course, was betrayed by her own government. Not a single entity in authority - all of whom had to provide approvals - did not actually have their names linked to said approvals. Beaver's name is the only official name attached to any document advocating physical and psychological torture. Beaver was hung out to dry as a patsy by the government she continues to declare her loyalty to.<br />
<br />
Now a civilian, Beaver is haunted by her legacy and tries to carve out a new life.<br />
<br />
Gonzalo Boye is a criminal prosecution lawyer in Spain who is spearheading charges against the Bush administration for illegal incarceration and various war crimes (that include torture). Boye himself was a victim of wrongful incarceration and torture in his home country. During his harrowing fourteen years in prison, he studied to become a lawyer. And now, one of his chief targets is Diane Beaver and his star witness is Murat Kurnaz.<br />
<br />
Director Wallner presents these stories with a considerable degree of detachment - he lets the individuals guide their own narratives, and in so doing, the dramatic thrust of the film. As such, the most fascinating revelation - at least for me - is how organized, man-made religion is a driving force for both Kurnaz and Beaver. Kurnaz continually displays his devout Muslim beliefs by refusing to shake hands with women or making a point of avoiding certain foods and/or libations. Beaver mentions, not just once, but twice (and emphatically to boot) that everything happening to her is part of "God's plan".<br />
<br />
In "<i>War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning</i>", Chris Hedges notes that the “moral certitude of the state in wartime is a kind of fundamentalism. And this dangerous messianic brand of religion, one where self-doubt is minimal, has come increasingly to color the modern world of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.” Beaver has no self doubt at all with respect to her place in America's "War on Terror" and her own "fundamentalism" is rooted in "God's Plan" - not her own self-will, nor that employed by those who betrayed her. Kurnaz, too, uses <i>his</i> religion to justify his own sexism, potential misogyny and veiled racism. <br />
<br />
It's like we're amidst the Crusades - Christians fighting the infidel (and vice-versa) for goals that are lofty and inextricably linked to God or as Hedges notes in "<i>American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America</i>" that those who are "numbed by isolation and despair, now seek meaning in a mythical world of intuition, a world that is no longer reality-based, a world of magic.”<br />
<br />
Fairy tales, it seems, are at the root of this insanity.<br />
<br />
And much as Beaver and others justify what they must do to protect America, Hedges simply and astutely points out that war makes no sense - certainly not in a Christian context since "Jesus was a pacifist."<br />
<br />
Wallner has crafted an eminently fascinating and moving film. He was inspired to make it when he was placed on America's terror watch list for five years when he refused to take part in a retinal scan. His shock and anger was so considerable that the impetus was initially vengeance. As he proceeded, he realized he needed to strip away his voice as much as he could in order to present the effects of war upon humanity.<br />
<br />
Much as I respect and admire this decision and as terrific as his film is because of it, there is a part of me that wonders about the same film within the context of its maker's art becoming an act of revenge. I try to imagine that film and when I do, I think it might have been equally worthy and certainly just as powerful.<br />
<br />
That said, Wallner delivers a picture that stands powerfully on its own two feet as one of the great humanist documentaries of the new millennium.<br />
<br />
<i>"The Guantanamo Trap" is now playing in Toronto at the Hot Docs Bloor Cinema via Kinomith. For tickets and showtimes, visit <a href="http://bloorcinema.com/">HERE</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/G16V65pppeA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-72744560337232321402012-03-28T00:00:00.103-04:002012-03-28T02:12:29.290-04:00SERVITUDE - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Low-brow Canuck comedy replete with laughs and sits nicely in the same territory as Adam Sandler movies, Harold and Kumar and, of course, Freddy Got Fingered!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IoTdm9tUhFk/T3IDQkYe8NI/AAAAAAAABT4/tjUc2uwT0wU/s1600/1acfcservitudeMONTAGE2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="306" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IoTdm9tUhFk/T3IDQkYe8NI/AAAAAAAABT4/tjUc2uwT0wU/s400/1acfcservitudeMONTAGE2.png" /></a></div><br />
<b>Servitude</b> (2012) dir. Warren P. Sonoda<br />
Starring: Joe Dinicol, Dave Foley, Margot Kidder, Jayne Eastwood, Wayne Robson, John Bregar, Rachel Skarsten, Kristin Hager, Linda Kash, Enrico Colantoni, Aaron Ashmore<br />
<br />
<b>***</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
I am the world's biggest apologist for Adam Sandler and Tom Greene. While I won't dare declare that <i>Jack and Jill</i> or <i>Road Trip</i> were even remotely good, I will admit they both made me laugh several times. That said, I will proudly proclaim that <i>You Don't Mess With The Zohan</i> is genuinely terrific and that <i>Freddy Got Fingered</i> is a bonafide, utterly brilliant masterpiece.<br />
<br />
Though perhaps questionable to a few pole-up-the-ass types, my taste in such matters is lofty enough that I believe it deserves a pedestal-like status. For example, while there is not a single <i>Harold and Kumar</i> movie I didn't like, I had the necessary acumen to declare <i>The Hangover Part II</i> as one of the most embarrassing, disgraceful, unfunny comedies I've ever seen.<br />
<br />
If you go to see <i>Servitude</i>, you will be the judge of my critical reason.<br />
<br />
You'll probably also have a good time.<br />
<br />
So, let's do the math on <i>Servitude</i>.<br />
<br />
Vomit jokes.<br />
<br />
Fart jokes.<br />
<br />
Homo jokes.<br />
<br />
White Trash jokes.<br />
<br />
Nazi jokes.<br />
<br />
Babes (multiplied by three, though one of them is a mega-babe).<br />
<br />
A goodly number of cute and/or hunky (and funny) stud-muffins.<br />
<br />
A grotesquely hilarious Margot Kidder with (I hope) mega-Botox makeup.<br />
<br />
<i>Kids in the Hall</i>'s Dave (Always Funny) Foley.<br />
<br />
Jeigh Madjus as the funniest mincingly delicious faggot in Canadian Cinema.<br />
<br />
Jayne Eastwood (Canada's Phyllis Diller, but way better looking and funnier).<br />
<br />
Wayne Robson (Canada's estimable answer to Wally Cox).<br />
<br />
A fetish I've not seen extolled in a comedy of recent vintage - one that makes the attributes of Stifler's Mom in the <i>American Pie</i> franchise utterly old hat.<br />
<br />
A variety of amusing non-vomit-fart-homo-WhiteTrash-Nazi-fetish jokes.<br />
<br />
Oh, and babes.<br />
<br />
Have I mentioned them yet?<br />
<br />
The babes?<br />
<br />
So, what do these figures all add up to?<br />
<br />
Well okay, so we're not talking the most sophisticated comedy of the year, here, but we are talking about a decent low-brow, low-budget Canadian-made knee-slapper involving a rag-tag band of restaurant workers who find out that a Nazi - oops, I mean, German - corporation is taking over their place of employment and will probably fire the lot of them.<br />
<br />
In retaliation they spend the rest of the night turning the tables on all their rude, obnoxious customers - the annoying old couple, the family of inbreds, the table of vile preppies - a veritable cornucopia of every jerk that every server has ever wanted to decimate.<br />
<br />
Even when revenge does <i>not</i> involve a hobo with a shotgun, it proves to be decidedly sweet.<br />
<br />
The leader of this revolt is Josh Stein (Joe Dinicol), a sweet, young lad who has been toiling for three years at The Ranch Steakhouse, part of a chain of family bistros where all the servers are referred to as "Ranchers" and the cowboy-hat-adorned manager Godfrey (Dave Foley) is as genial as he is perpetually harried. Josh has agreed to this life of servitude in deference to his Dad who wants sonny-boy to get some real-world experience before he pulls out the chequebook to put Josh through Law School.<br />
<br />
Funny thing is, though - Josh kind of likes his job. His social climbing girlfriend (Kristin Hager), however, can hardly wait until he turns in his order pad to dive into the soul-sucking world of law. God knows, it's humiliating enough to have to explain to her equally success-oriented friends that her boyfriend is a waiter, but the thought that he actually enjoys what he does simply mortifies her.<br />
<br />
On this good night, two people enter Josh's life that will change it forever.<br />
<br />
The first is the Nazi - oops, I mean, German - auditor from the corporation. During his inspection, Franz (Enrico Colantoni) declares that changes will be in order. Passing around the corporation handbook (emblazoned with a prominent Swastika-like logo), Franz is especially eager to examine the ovens.<br />
<br />
The second potential life-changing personage who waltzes into Josh's sphere is a new waitress trainee whom he is asked to coach. Alex (Rachel Skarsten) is a babe. No, let me re-phrase that - she is a MEGA-BABE. She's also funny, friendly, charming, smart and unpretentious - everything his emasculating girlfriend isn't.<br />
<br />
Hell is just around the corner from breaking loose.<br />
<br />
<i>Servitude</i> is just plain fun. Granted, it occasionally feels like a glorified feature length pilot for a sitcom (albeit a naughty one), but in spite of this, the proceedings are deftly directed by Warren P. Sonoda who wisely understands that the best comedy is played, Howard Hawks-like, in simple two-shots and mediums with a minimum of unnecessary cutting. He also understands when and how to move the camera and when he does, he dazzles us with a few Scorsese-inspired dipsy-doodle steadicam and dolly zingers (courtesy, no doubt, to cinematographer Samy Inayeh).<br />
<br />
At times, some of the movie feels a trifle shrill in terms of performance and a handful of scenes tend to drag on a bit long, but for the most part, the picture delivers the goods required of its entertaining lowly station.<br />
<br />
Another fun element of the film is its production design. Given that most of the picture is set in the steakhouse, there's always something cool to look at during the film's occasional <i>longueurs</i>. Art Director Diana Abbatangelo delivers a restaurant that looks real and lived-in; from the tacky dining room - blending every western-themed cliche known to the human race - the grotesque kitchen (with its filthy, blackened oven that the Nazi - oops, I mean, German - is obsessed with), the packed-to-the-rafters storage rooms and Godfrey's grungy office - all have the whiff of reality and imaginative touches of humour.<br />
<br />
An element in the film that is of supreme importance to the art of cinema is its emphasis upon several actions involving Josh's best buddy, fellow server Tommy (John Bregar). Few low-brow comedies would take the opportunity to examine elements of contemporary anthropological significance as is done here. The filmmakers have truly put themselves on the line to go the extra distance required to not simply deliver laughs, but plunge us, almost Robert Bresson-like into a semi-neo-realist exploration of the human condition.<br />
<br />
Tommy is, first of all, a master of the "cuppie" - a unique physical action involving the cupping of one's hand over one's anus, releasing a rank fart and immediately cupping said cupped hand over the nostrils of an unsuspecting recipient of the delectable aroma. Secondly, we are witness (<i>a la</i> Bresson) to Tommy's obsessive fetish involving MILFS with rounded, squeezable bellies that have <i>not</i> been liposuction-ed of all their glorious fat content.<br />
<br />
This, of course is where Margot Kidder comes in. Hubba-Hubba!!!<br />
<br />
Fetishists take note!!!<br />
<br />
<i>Servitude</i> is a fun, good-natured youth comedy. It doesn't quite ascend (or descend, depending upon how you look at these things) to the heights/depths of <i>American</i> gross-out comedies - it's a wee bit too Canadian to go there - but when the completely nutzoid gags come, the movie inspires more than its fair share of belly laughs.<br />
<br />
God knows, Margot Kidder's belly inspires some of the film's most aggressive yuk-yuk-grabbers. (Damn, she's a good sport in this one! Hats off to her!) Lois Lane with Botox and a Belly is a sight to behold.<br />
<br />
Speaking of sights to behold, <i>Servitude</i> might also be of considerable interest to Canadian filmmakers. The first credit that blasts upon the silver screen when the movie ends is that it was developed with the assistance of the esteemed <a href="http://www.telefilm.ca/en/funds-and-programs/telefilm-canada-features-comedy-lab">Telefilm Canada Features Comedy Lab</a>. An official <a href="http://www.telefilm.ca/en/news/whats-new/2010/11/03/telefilm-canada-features-comedy-lab-makes-its-selections">Telefilm Canada release on their website dated 2010/11/03</a> tub-thumps this program from the esteemed <a href="http://cfccreates.com/what_we_do/cfc_film/telefilm_canada_features_comedy_lab/index.php">Canadian Film Centre</a> (founded by Norman Jewison) in collaboration with the Just For Laughs Festival in Montreal. Projects accepted to the program become eligible for up to $75,000 in development funding through the Canada Feature Film Fund. According to Telefilm's "what's new" bumph:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i><b>Successful inaugural year</b><br />
<br />
As a result of last year’s program, Servitude will go into production later this month.<br />
<br />
Through last year’s program, the workplace-revenge comedy from Buck Productions and Victory Man Productions (participants in 2009) received assistance by such Hollywood heavyweights as producer Ivan Reitman, director Donald Petrie, screenwriter Etan Cohen and Gloria Fan of Mosaic Media.</i></blockquote><br />
It appears that the applications are closed for the program, but keep your eyes and ears peeled. If and when the next application deadline rolls around, anyone who has a feature screenplay with vomit-fart-homo-WhiteTrash-Nazi-fetish jokes and/or non-vomit-fart-homo-WhiteTrash-Nazi-fetish jokes, the <a href="http://www.canada.gc.ca/">Gouvernement du Canada</a> via <a href="http://www.telefilm.ca/en/?q=en">Telefilm Canada</a> and the <a href="http://cfccreates.com">Canadian Film Centre</a> are clearly your go-to guys.<br />
<br />
Comedian Yakov Smirnoff was often astounded with the freedoms in America with his oft-repeated line, "What a country!" Perhaps the <a href="http://www.canada.gc.ca/">Gouvernement du Canada</a> needs to enlist Smirnoff's services to promote its liberal support of films featuring vomit-fart-homo-WhiteTrash-Nazi-fetish jokes and/or non-vomit-fart-homo-WhiteTrash-Nazi-fetish jokes.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, anyone in Canada who enjoys solid laughs should probably hightail it down to their multiplex and see <i>Servitude</i>.<br />
<br />
Oh, and full disclosure is necessary: I was kicking around the Canadian Film Centre for 13 years in a number of capacities (as you can plainly read on my biography pasted onto this site), but I had had absolutely nothing to do with the aforementioned Comedy program. Though a blood relative at the Canadian Film Centre had quite a bit to do with the program, he started at that esteemed joint long after I was there and never talked to me about what he was doing behind the scenes.<br />
<br />
All we ever really discussed were the best places to get kishka and garlic sausage.<br />
<br />
<i>"Servitude" opens March 30 in Toronto and Vancouver via Alliance Films.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/2lB1-fy84xY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-32202994397658911552012-03-26T00:01:00.022-04:002012-03-26T02:10:40.139-04:00CLOUDBURST - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Thom Fitzgerald, the director of "The Hanging Garden" delivers a beautifully written ode to love on the run - replete with k.d. lang music, pickup trucks, roadside cafes, Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker and a Nova Scotia that's never looked more heart-achingly beautiful.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kgML1w6AgI4/T2_y9AUAjKI/AAAAAAAABTs/zM4z59kiQL0/s1600/1acfcCloudburst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="267" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kgML1w6AgI4/T2_y9AUAjKI/AAAAAAAABTs/zM4z59kiQL0/s400/1acfcCloudburst.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>Cloudburst</b> (2011) dir. Thom Fitzgerald<br />
Starring: Olympia Dukakis, Brenda Fricker, Ryan Doucette, Kristin Booth<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"They danced down the streets like dingledodies, and I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones that never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'"</i> - Jack Kerouac, <i>On The Road</i></blockquote><br />
The open road is freedom, but in reality and in the best popular culture, there is always a point where one must reach the end of the road. Sometimes it's sad and empty, sometimes it's not what you expected, often it's bittersweet. Whatever lies at the end of the journey, it's the ride that should always be the thing. It's what you discover and celebrate on the road that is often far more important than what's waiting there (if anything) when it ends.<br />
<br />
Stella (Olympia Dukakis) and Dot (Brenda Fricker) have lived an incredible journey of love and mutual respect as a couple for over 30 years, but when circumstances seemingly beyond their control threaten the joy and happiness they've had, the open road becomes the only real way to obtain a pot of proverbial gold at the end of a new journey. <br />
<br />
Family, it seems, is not always defined by blood - it takes love - and for this couple, family comes in the unlikeliest of places and circumstances. Love is what defines lives well lived and this couple have had love in spades, but in order to keep it unfettered from the unwelcome intrusion of a well meaning, but completely out-to-lunch blood relative - public affirmation becomes the ultimate goal. They must marry.<br />
<br />
The problem is that they live in the United States and can only gain the legal status as a married couple in Canada. What's a foul-mouthed, cowboy-hat-adorned, k.d. lang-obsessed, self-described old dyke and her jolly, sweet, visually-impaired longtime companion to do? What would you do? Me, I'd hop in my half-ton pickup truck, stock it with k.d. lang CDs, pick up a hunky male hitchhiker headed to visit his ailing Mom in Nova Scotia and cross the 49th parallel to get myself good and hitched - kind of like Stella and Dot do in the lovely, funny and touching new film written and directed by Thom Fitzgerald.<br />
<br />
<i>Cloudburst</i> is a movie that needed a deft directorial touch and a script that could take the cliches normally associated with road movies and generate truth, humanity and humour and thankfully, for the most part it succeeds in this regard.<br />
<br />
For years I kept wondering when director Thom Fitzgerald, who made one of the most thrilling feature debuts of the 90s, <i>The Hanging Garden</i>, was going to generate a picture that fulfilled the considerable promise displayed in that exquisite heartbreaker of a movie. This is not to discount the intervening years of work, but <i>Cloudburst</i> feels like a return to form and, on occasion, a step or two forward.<br />
<br />
Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker are tremendous actresses, but given the emphasis these days upon demographics and the usual requirements from studios and other financiers to cater exclusively to younger audiences, the number of great roles for talents in this august age group are getting fewer-and-far-between-er. Fitzgerald crafted two roles that any great actress would love to sink her teeth into and frankly, Dukakis and Fricker are so captivating, moving and funny, I have to admit it feels like they were born to eventually step into these parts.<br />
<br />
Set against the lush, superbly photographed backdrop of Nova Scotia, Fitzgerald took this story, a sort of gentle retirement-age <i>Thelma and Louise</i>, and both wisely and bravely delivered a tale that's as mature as it's downright universal. Love should have no boundaries and his direction indelibly captures a love story that's familiar, but bolstered by such genuine compassion, that I frankly can't imagine any audience not succumbing to it's considerable charms.<br />
<br />
There are a few overwrought moments of humour that try a bit too hard, but for the most part, I found myself laughing heartily and genuinely and damn it all, I shed more than a few tears.<br />
<br />
It's one of the few unabashedly sentimental celebrations of love I've seen in quite some time. The picture wears its heart proudly on its sleeve and while there's something just a little bit old-fashioned about that, Fitzgerald handles the proceedings with such grace, that everything old becomes happily new again. Some might choose to deny the power of sentiment, but they'd be lying (or just plain foolish). We all need sentiment from time to time and <i>Cloudburst</i> is the right time, the right place and just the right film to make us all feel grateful for the joy that life, with all its ups and downs, bestows upon us and hopefully prepares us for whatever journey we take beyond the end of the road.<br />
<br />
<i>"Cloudburst" is the opening night gala presentation at this year's Canadian Film Fest running March 28-31 at the Royal Theatre in Toronto. For more information, visit the festival's website <a href="http://www.canfilmfest.ca/">HERE</a>.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oATCC6QrTKo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-4342941241622286562012-03-08T18:27:00.016-05:002012-03-09T10:09:28.915-05:00GENIE AWARDS 32 - By Greg Klymkiw - Live Coverage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eT89zX10uNo/T1odHApUmMI/AAAAAAAABPw/8vl73-LzplQ/s1600/1acfcgeniesHABS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eT89zX10uNo/T1odHApUmMI/AAAAAAAABPw/8vl73-LzplQ/s400/1acfcgeniesHABS.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>Here are some of my musings during the 32nd Annual Genie Awards as they sprouted from my mind, shot through my fingers and spewed into cyberspace.</b><br />
<br />
<i><b>By Greg Klymkiw</b></i><br />
<br />
The pre-show show is now going on for the "less important" awards. They gave the Golden Reel Award to <i>Starbuck</i>. This is still the weirdest award ever - given to the highest grossing Canadian movie of the year. Do the Oscars acknowledge the highest grossing film of the year with an award? No, because supposedly such awards ultimately (or supposedly) have to do with artistic achievement.<br />
<br />
<i>A Dangerous Method</i> won Best Art Direction and Production Design. Here in the press room, Richard Crouse is up on a mini-stage interviewing him (and other winners) for our benefit while the pre-show is broadcast without sound. Richard graciously takes a lot of time with the winners and allows ample opportunity for questions from the assembled press corps. Still, there are murmurings from a few that they'd rather be watching the pre-broadcast show onstage.<br />
<br />
Crouse is now interviewing the winners of the various short film prizes. I think I will eat my hot buffet while this is going on.<br />
<br />
Great, the Jutra prize for first feature films is also deemed unworthy of the live broadcast. Way to support emerging talent, CBC!!!! Winner Anne Emond, director of <i>Nuit #1</i> is gracious in the press room and Crouse does a lovely job interviewing this clearly intelligent, talented young filmmaker. Too bad the CBC didn't think it was worth broadcasting her win to the rest of Canada. <br />
<br />
<i>La Nuit, Elles Dansent / At Night, They Dance</i> is the winner of Best Feature Documentary Award. It's about a family of Belly Dancers. Something tells me Julia Ivanova's movie <i>Family Portrait in Black and White</i> about a woman who cares for unwanted mixed-race orphans in Ukraine got hosed.<br />
<br />
Fantastic, they're doing the tribute to great Canadians in the movie business who died during the pre-show. Way to go, CBC. Way to support our cultural heritage and the passing of those who contributed to it, by NOT sharing it with the rest of the country.<br />
<br />
I'll grant that <i>Starbuck</i> is not much good, but again it sucks that the Best Original Screenplay Award is presented in the pre-show. Way to go CBC! Way to support screenwriting!<br />
<br />
HERE IS MY DELICIOUS MEAL:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A8csyVaM0gw/T1obYpBi30I/AAAAAAAABPk/REP9qyQGPZk/s1600/1acfcGenieFOOD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="299" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-A8csyVaM0gw/T1obYpBi30I/AAAAAAAABPk/REP9qyQGPZk/s400/1acfcGenieFOOD.jpg" /></a></div><br />
The live broadcast has begun. Some guy I've never heard of is singing a lame song.<br />
<br />
Viggo - not surprisingly - wins Best Supporting Actor. His speech is going on a bit. Big deal. It's Viggo. The orchestra is playing - signalling to Viggo to get off the stage. Viggo is making a funny <i>Canadiens</i> joke. CBC wants Viggo offstage. Now Viggo is unfurling a <i>Habs</i> flag. They still are trying to urge him to leave. What to go CBC! Real classy! I guess they have something better to air after the Genies. God knows, the CBC would not want to go overtime.<br />
<br />
Oh Jesus, they have figure skaters skating during the Best Song nominees. Way to go CBC! Kitsch Galore!<br />
<br />
Backstage, Viggo admits to wearing a pair of Ken Dryden's old gitch and that in spite of a few holes in them, they're very clean.<br />
<br />
Ingrid Veninger has just asked if she should have some lasagna now. I choose not to stop her.<br />
<br />
That cute little girl from <i>Monsieur Lazhar</i> just won. In my heart I knew this was the no-brainer decision, but part of me thought that the Academy would toss a nod to <i>The Whistleblower</i> here. I was wrong. Happily wrong.<br />
<br />
Oh Jesus, more figure skating!<br />
<br />
This show is moving so fast it's kind of oppressively dull because of it. Sort of like how Michael Bay cuts his movies.<br />
<br />
Strombo: Wondering how people are doing in their Genie Pools? Genie Pools? Is this some kind of hot tub?<br />
<br />
Had myself a nice cigarette outside while Falardeau picked up his Best Director Genie.<br />
<br />
Sorry folks, I'm going to switch to Facebook and Twitter for awhile. See you there.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-29839684097021011792012-03-08T14:20:00.007-05:002012-03-08T15:41:38.953-05:00On the eve of the Genie Awards, Canada's newspaper of record in that dying medium has asked several experts to weigh in on their thoughts regarding the current state of Canadian Cinema. Here are my thoughts in response.<blockquote><i>A collection of experts weighed in on "What the Canadian Film Industry Needs Most" via Gayle MacDonald in the March 7, 2012 Edition of the Globe and Mail. On the eve of the 32nd Annual Genie Awards, only one of them directly addressed what I suspect is the real problem. Here then are my responses to some of the comments and my own thoughts on the matter.</i></blockquote><b>What the Canadian Film Industry Needs Most Is Less Punditry. That Said, Here's More Pundrity. It's the Canadian Way!</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<b>CAMERON BAILEY</b><br />
<br />
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Cameron is one of Canada's most astute film critics and since he took over as co-director of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), we're alternately all the better for it (as he seeks out great cinema for us to watch) and all the worse for it (since we don't get to read his punchy, musically-styled prose on cinema on a regular basis). Cameron suggests that English Canadian Cinema needs to snuffle back a bit o' that magical Quebec oxygen. He opines:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"Quebec is turning out films of ambition and depth that look outward rather than just in. I think there's talent equal to Quebec in the rest of Canada, but maybe somebody needs to throw open a window and let some of that air in."</i></blockquote><br />
I suspect Cameron would, if given a few more column inches, have admitted the whopping number of Quebec films that do NOT look outward. While many of these indigenously delightful <i>Joual</i>-tinged knee-slappers go through the roof in their home province, they certainly do zero business outside of French Canada (and not just in English Canada, but worldwide and EVEN in French-speaking territories outside of Canada).<br />
<br />
Frankly, English Canadian Cinema has, especially since the late 80s and early 90s, often looked outward, and in fact, has performed extremely well in foreign markets. The list includes David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, Patricia Rozema, Vincenzo Natali, Brad Peyton and a whole whack of others. On the homefront, though, things are more dire. I shall opine on this later.<br />
<br />
<b>RUBBA NADDA</b><br />
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Rubba Nadda is the director of <i>Sabah, Cairo Time</i> and the upcoming thriller <i>Inescapable</i>. Here are her thoughts:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"Sometimes I just think it needs more balls, more courage. The Canadian industry is so afraid of taking risks. When I took the script for "Inescapable" to the United States, everyone wanted to do it. I got the first support from the States, not from Canada. It’s the Canadian way to hesitate."</i></blockquote><br />
I have no quarrels with this. Canada (particularly on the English side) is a country that is far too mired in the sort of bureaucracy that places emphasis on "fairness", "committee" decision-making, political correctness bordering on fascism and pathetically obvious self-serving nest-feathering which results in a seemingly conservative approach to all matters cultural. It's the Canadian way to smile whilst stabbing in the back instead of looking directly into one's eye as they gut you. This dweeb-ish cowardice is abominable. The worst thing is when purse-string holders - even within private business - are more apt to hide behind the proverbial "we". "The committee" is the oft-used term as opposed to "I". We need more people within the system to take personal responsibility for their often wrong-headed decisions - rooted in the kind of "well-meaning" approaches that are hardly a conducive approach to the "balls" and "courage" Ms. Nadda refers to above.<br />
<br />
<b>KEVIN DEWALT</b><br />
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Kevin Dewalt is one of Canada's most successful producers from Regina. He hits a nail on the head here that's been bugging me since I started in this industry.<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"Canadian films need larger budgets to attract bigger international stars to compete in the international market place. There are tax schemes in Britain for private investors to invest in British films. The King’s Speech is a prime example. Without private-equity funding out of the U.K., this movie would never have been made. By creating similar private-investor programs in Canada, we would be able to increase our budgets and compete more effectively in the global marketplace."</i></blockquote><br />
Though I'm not sure larger budgets are ALWAYS going to be the answer, this country desperately needs an aggressive and progressive tax shelter. End of story. Everyone focuses upon the negative aspects of the Canadian tax shelter days, but for all the bad movies generated during that period, the number of artistically and/or commercially significant works produced then equals if not betters what's been generated without it. Filmmakers need the freedom to generate truly private investment. My oft-repeated no-brainer formula of aggressive tax shelters, larger tax credits and substantial tax incentives for marketing, exhibition and distribution may seem simplistic, but there's the old screenwriting adage, KISS ("Keep it simple, stupid") which is best applied to most things in life.<br />
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<b>ROBERT LANTOS</b><br />
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Robert Lantos is the closest thing Canada has to a bonafide mogul. He began his illustrious career hawking the New York Erotic Film Festival and steadily built more than enough empires in this business based on his vision and astute dipping into every public trough imaginable. Here is the sum total of his thoughts on this:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"Prime-time access to and meaningful investment from broadcasters, as is the case in France, Germany, Italy, the U.K. and most other countries where films are made."</i></blockquote><br />
Thank you, Robert, for your detailed response. <br />
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<b>NIV FICHMAN</b><br />
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Niv Fichman is not only a mensch and a half, he's produced one great Canadian film after another. Beginning his career overseeing some of the most world-class arts and culture productions ever made and then delivering gems like <i>Last Night, The Saddest Music in the World</i> and <i>Hobo With a Shotgun</i>, he can certainly be forgiven for his part in the recent career of Paul Gross (most notably <i>Passchendaele</i> and GOD HELP US ALL - <i>Gunless</i>).<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"What Canadian film most needs right now is a new voice. The voice of a young generation that grew up with the Internet and YouTube and digital cameras and [video editing software] Final Cut Pro. A generation that has been making films since they were children and self-distributing their work on YouTube."</i></blockquote><br />
In theory, I agree. In practise, I think it's unhealthy to encourage the "anyone can make a film" tradition that's sprouted from the digital revolution. I do agree that genuinely talented young voices need to be supported. Interestingly, I think there already exists a new hope in English Canadian Cinema. They call themselves "Astron-6", a filmmaking collective from Winnipeg that's been generating a series of mind-blowing short films and two features for absolutely no money. Their influences have been 80s direct-to-video genre pictures as well as the post-modern flights of fancy already pioneered by their 'Peg confreres John Paizs and Guy Maddin. In 2011 these psycho kids - who are REAL filmmakers with a distinctive voice - delivered one of the most insane sci-fi love letters to the 80s I've ever seen. Imaginative, naughty and knee-splappingly hilarious, <i>MANBORG</i>, replete with <i>tres</i>-cool visuals, was made for just over $1000. Their other triumph is <i>FATHER'S DAY</i>, a truly brilliant splatter-fest that was made for a mere $10,000 (courtesy of Troma's Lloyd Kaufman) and has played theatrically all over the United States. This particular item focuses upon a serial killer from hell who specializes in raping and butchering fathers and is hunted down by a rag-tag group of brave avengers (led by a one-eyed Jason Statham-lookalike). This a truly warped, sick, funny, disgusting and deliciously bum-blasting masterpiece. Niv! These guys need someone just like YOU! Ditch this Paul Gross fellow and embrace the utter madness that is Astron-6.<br />
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<b>INGRID VENINGER</b><br />
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Ingrid Veninger might well be cinema’s only living equivalent to a whirling dervish. Like a dervish, she honours her Creator (cinema), her prophets (Cassavetes, Leigh and others), then whips her creative concoction into a frenzy – literally living and breathing cinema – producing film from within herself, her devotion and life itself. Ingrid has produced a whack of features including the mega-Genie-nominated <i>Nurse Fighter Boy</i> and has directed three terrific features including <i>i am a good person/i am a bad person</i>. Here's what she had to offer:<br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"Exhibition quotas. Our cinemas should be mandated to screen a percentage of Canadian content, just like our television broadcasters and radio. People say, “Theatrical quotas will never happen. It's impossible,” but I say, “People make the impossible happen every day.” Claude Jutra (Mon oncle Antoine) once said, “Not making the films you want to make is awful, but making them and not having them seen is worse.”</i></blockquote><br />
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (as I've said this many times before and will keep saying it), English Canada needs an exhibition quota.<br />
<br />
In English Canada, there is one primary target: Cineplex Entertainment. The "Canadian" exhibition chain owns and/or controls more screens than anyone in the country. They'll always argue that their only concern is their stockholders and that they'll play any Canadian movie as long as it makes money. That's all well and good when it comes to no-brainer programming choices like the start-studded Cronenberg spanking-fest <i>A Dangerous Method</i> or Michael Dowse's brilliant hockey splatter fest <i>GOON</i>, but what about the rest of the product?<br />
<br />
A secondary target for scrutinous ire-infused debate on the state of Canada's domestic motion picture product is the gaggle of domestic film distributors that adhere to the status quo, but in all fairness to them, they're only going to spend money on the marketing necessary to keep the product on screens if they actually GET screens. Cineplex Entertainment is stingy with those. They have far too many Hollywood movies to play (often to empty or near-empty houses given the ridiculous number of screens said product hogs).<br />
<br />
There's no two ways about it. English Canadian cinema lags far behind other indigenous industries outside of North America in terms of audience support for its own work. Canadian audiences are not quick to embrace their own cinema, but in order to embrace it at all, the work needs venues. This, of course, is not (and has never been) a problem in Quebec as the province has had very stringent guidelines regarding Quebec-based distributors and a more-than-level playing field for the exhibition of French-language product - thus allowing for the development of audiences ravenous for homegrown movies.<br />
<br />
I'd also argue it's not necessarily always the fault of the product, either. Many decent, perfectly entertaining and/or artistically challenging movies get little chance to be seen.<br />
<br />
If screens cannot be secured and held onto, there is no real way to adequately develop an interest in domestic product. Until Cineplex Entertainment does the right thing and gets off its lazy corporate duff and waggles its piggy tail in the direction of Canadian cinema and - even at a loss - does its corporate duty with respect to AGGRESSIVELY making DECENT screens available to said product, thus fulfilling their responsibility in supporting cultural initiatives in this country, then things are going to continue their snail-paced incremental changes.<br />
<br />
Here are some thoughts I shared at a previous juncture on this site:<br />
<br />
I saw Don Shebib's classic Canadian feature <i>Goin' Down the Road</i> when I was a kid at a huge first-run theatre in Winnipeg. I loved it then and loved it more every time I saw it. When I heard Shebib had crafted a sequel, <i>Down the Road Again</i>, I was imbued with a bit of healthy skepticism. That said, I was still excited to see it.<br />
<br />
I was out of town for the first two weeks of the film's theatrical run at Cineplex's flagship Toronto venue, the Varsity Cinema. When I returned during the film's third week of release, I hightailed it down to the Varsity (not bothering to check the showtimes as is my wont) and was shocked (genuinely) that it wasn't playing. I quickly accessed my iPhone movie listings and was even more distressed that the movie, at least for that evening, was playing absolutely nowhere in Toronto.<br />
<br />
There was, however, one lone screening the following evening at the Royal cinema, everyone's favourite indie venue in Little Italy. What shocked me even more was that Barbara Willis Sweete's film adaptation of <i>Billy Bishop Goes To War</i> was the other film playing at the Royal the same evening - first run and ENDING!!! Okay, my fault for being out of town, I guess. Excuse me all to hell for expecting movies with a reasonable pedigree by Canadian standards were (a) not available on any Cineplex screen in the country's largest city and that (b) they were both ending.<br />
<br />
No matter, I sashayed on down the next night to The Royal. I really enjoyed <i>Billy Bishop</i>. I first experienced it as a kid in Winnipeg when John Gray and Eric Peterson presented the play at the Manitoba Theatre Centre's Warehouse venue. I loved it then and was delighted to see a film that preserved its theatrical roots. (I won't rant about one of my many pet-peeves involving the idiotic, myopic assumption on the part of critics and film types who should know better that anything and everything based upon a theatrical piece MUST be opened up for the cinema. Just don't get me started and I promise to stop now.)<br />
<br />
My first thought was, "Hmmm, there are wads upon wads of people my age and older who love this play ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. This would have been a perfect film to platform wide in the Front Row Centre-styled exhibition format that Cineplex has been exploiting in big cities and beyond." I played out a release pattern for the film in my mind whilst waiting for the Shebib to begin: Coast-to-coast, hugely hyped one-shot screenings of the film at the premium <i>Front Row Centre</i> prices. You'd have to blow a decent whack o' dough on advertising, BUT, with the same kind of thought and elbow grease that USED to go into marketing ANY movies (never mind Canadian films), there would be all sorts of alternate advertising venues with far more reasonable ad rates than traditional outlets anyway. As well, there would be an inordinate number of cross-promotions and tie-ins with theatre companies and arts groups across the country. Hell, target theatre schools also - not just including private companies, or even secondary schools, but given that virtually every post-secondary institution has a theatre program, promote the picture there. In any event, my fantasy release of Billy Bishop then included regular screenings one week later in many of the same venues it played at in the <i>Front Row Centre</i> release. Those post-<i>Front-Row</i> screenings may or may not have had numbers to sustain the secondary runs that long, BUT, the important thing is that Canadians would have been able to see the movie on a BIG SCREEN in a COMMUNAL ENVIRONMENT. This, in turn, would have created a far more advantageous bed of hype and anticipation for any number of home entertainment venues.<br />
<br />
Alas, the way the movie was released feels like home penetration was the only real goal.<br />
<br />
Whose fault was it?<br />
<br />
Well, I can't be sure if the film's distributor considered my aforementioned form of theatrical penetration, nor do I know if the movie was even offered Cineplex. What I can say is this. SOMEONE should have thought about it and SOMEONE should have committed to playing it in this fashion. In fact, give the success of these types of special event showings in the Cineplex chain, you'd think someone THERE might have thought about approaching the film's distributor about mounting the film in this fashion.<br />
<br />
Here's the thing. The business has changed for the worst, but it's not impossible to reapply good old fashioned showmanship on both sides of the distribution and exhibition fence. I started my life in this business as both a writer ABOUT movies and then as a film buyer on behalf of independent exhibitors in the late 70s and early 80s. I lived through the "old ways", lamented the shift in delivery and accessibility of product and now I get absolutely livid when I see how complacent and lazy both sides have become.<br />
<br />
<i>Down the Road Again</i> was an entirely different story. I loved the picture, but also conceded its theatrical appeal would be limited. Limited, yes - but there IS an audience out there that would have loved to see the movie on a big screen. Part of this IS a distribution issue. However, I also think Canada's major exhibitor is shirking its place in creating a proper venue for Canadian cinema. Responsibility to shareholders be damned. Besides, even leaving Canadian Cinema out of the equation, those shareholders are going to have very little to count on if things don't change in the exhibition industry.<br />
<br />
And yes, it IS the fault of exhibition - especially within major chains like Cineplex. They offer no real choice. Pure and simple. They rest on the laurels of whatever crap they're handed. I live for much of the year in a remote rural area. Cineplex has a seven-screen multiplex. All the same movies are locked in there for ages. I can assure you that in the late 70s and early 80s, the small market audiences had FAR more CHOICE in what was available than they do now. And idiotically, it's not that the product is NOT there. There's tons of product. Much of it good and much of it never getting screen time. Yes, having to program and promote such product takes time and effort. Yeah? So? Do it. They call it elbow grease.<br />
<br />
As for Canadian product, I will ultimately and vigorously ALWAYS point an accusatory finger at Cineplex. Every major country outside of North America had or continues to have strict indigenous content quotas. Many of these countries have leaps and bounds on Canada by decades in this respect. Many of these same countries are making indigenous product that appeals to their national audiences and, in many cases, to international audiences. Much of this product isn't of the blockbuster variety, either. It often provides entertainment to niche audiences - theatrically. These audiences exist because efforts had been made in the past to ensure cultural sovereignty. These movies mostly do NOT compete with Hollywood, anyway. In fact, they enhance the viability and attraction to theatrical exhibition period.<br />
<br />
I do not propose legislating exhibition quotas anyway.<br />
<br />
I frankly think it would be good for business if Cineplex undertook a major corporate responsibility in exhibiting Canadian films - EVEN IF THEY LOSE MONEY! Oh horrors! Isn't that horrible?<br />
<br />
<i>Down the Road Again</i> needed far more marketing and promotion than it got. This, to be sure, a distribution issue. That said, movies like this will NEVER find a theatrical audience if they are not out there. I personally think a movie like Shebib's sequel DEMANDED being placed in more cinemas across the country and held longer - even at a loss. Take one screen in every bloody multiplex and screen Canadian product exclusively. Take another screen in every bloody multiplex and program product of an indie nature exclusively - booking it, if necessary in a repertory style.<br />
<br />
Cineplex is a Canadian company.<br />
<br />
Forgive me for thinking Canada is different than our neighbours to the south. We are. We have higher literacy rates, more progressive values AND most of all, we ARE innovators. Cineplex should FORCE themselves to exhibit Canadian films at a loss. (I'm sure there are potential tax incentives that can be whipped up for this anyway.)<br />
<br />
Why, you say, at a loss? Because there could well be a pot at the end of the rainbow. If the product - good, bad, middle of the road - is made available on a consistent basis, audiences might eventually develop a thirst for a certain type of product that speaks to THEM.<br />
<br />
It's worked everywhere else in the world - out there, beyond the confines of North America.<br />
<br />
It was, however, legislated. I say again, though, legislation is no longer the answer. Besides, such quotas would fall under provincial jurisdiction, so getting all the provinces on board would be ridiculous. Cineplex as the most powerful exhibitor in the country should legislate it THEMSELVES as corporate cultural policy within their business mandate. They could actually become world leaders in this extraordinary move to actively build an audience. More importantly, they could take a leadership role even beyond Canadian product and offer theatrical accessibility to a far wider range of product.<br />
<br />
This, frankly, is good for Canada, good for foreign product, good for Hollywood, good for AMERICAN independents, good for cinema as the greatest artistic medium of all time and MOST IMPORTANTLY, good for the end-users, the customers, the myriad of movie lovers who have been lured away from the communal experience for many different reasons, but most of all, because of a lack of diversity in programming.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, though, the true heroes of Canadian theatrical exhibition are Alliance Cinemas, AMC Theatres, Independent Canadian Exhibitors (The Royal, Revue, Winnipeg Film Group Cinematheque, Canadian Film Institute, Pacific Cinematheque, etc.). They all regularly screen Canadian films - both first-run and second. TIFF Bell Lightbox in just over a year has displayed incredible courage and commitment to screening Canadian product theatrically.<br />
<br />
They, however, are just a small part of the equation.<br />
<br />
It's up to a major corporation like Cineplex to do their duty.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-29286273526723881442012-03-08T00:01:00.010-05:002012-03-09T09:28:08.677-05:00GENIE AWARDS 32 - By Greg Klymkiw - The Nominees, What Should Have Been Nominated, What Should Have Won If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It, What Should Win, What Will Win, What DID Win<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RGcAbFDQcOQ/T1fA4uvRXXI/AAAAAAAABN4/U3zL_eGhUzg/s1600/1akfcCanadianFlag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="264" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RGcAbFDQcOQ/T1fA4uvRXXI/AAAAAAAABN4/U3zL_eGhUzg/s400/1akfcCanadianFlag.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b>The 32nd Annual Genie Awards<br />
and The First Annual Klymkiw Genie Awards</b><br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<blockquote><b>A new day is dawning on the Genie Awards (Canada's version of the Oscars) with a whole new Board of Directors and a new head honcho, the inimitable Canadian Cinema Dynamo: Helga Stephenson. I'm also happy to report that the 32nd Awards ceremony is finally back where it belongs and will be broadcast on Canada's Peoples' Network, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). When the CBC decided a few years ago to stop participating in the Genie Awards I was utterly gob-smacked! Ratings be damned! The CBC is a public broadcaster and has a duty to celebrate homegrown cinema. End of story!<br />
<br />
In keeping with this momentous event, please find below all the Genie Nominee categories I care to cover. Each category will list the official nominees, but will be accompanied with my own picks for films that SHOULD have been nominated and films that SHOULD have won had the Genie Awards bothered to Nominate them. These categories (highlighted below in bold italics) comprise my picks for The First Annual Klymkiw Genie Awards. You'll also notice in a couple of categories my own personal picks for what's best DO correspond to the Genie nominations.<br />
<br />
I will also opine on what of the nominated films SHOULD win (as determined <i>pour moi</i>) and my predictions on what WILL win.<br />
<br />
The full list of the First Annual KLYMKIW Genie Awards will Be Summarized at the bottom of this piece, so if you don't feel like going through all the other stuff and ONLY want to see what I think represents the best of Canadian Cinema in 2011, just scroll down.<br />
<br />
Some of the Canadian films that I chose for my own accolades didn't even bother submitting their films to the Genie Awards for a variety of reasons - either the fees to enter the awards were too high or they just didn't think the Genie Awards were worth entering. I've personally always had a problem with the idea of producers having to submit their films for consideration and PAY for the privilege. Every film released within the Academy's guidelines should be considered and should NOT have fees attached to them. It lacks class. End of story.<br />
<br />
During the awards I will report on the actual winners of the awards live from the Genie Awards Press Room and update this column when this information becomes available. I might also present a few quips along the way at the bottom of this piece and occasionally tweet a few thoughts on Twitter (so you're welcome to check in here and/or follow me on Twitter @GregKlymkiwCFC).<br />
<br />
As you'll see below, many of my own nominees and winners differ considerably from the Genie nominees, but as James Cagney says in Raoul Walsh's <i>Strawberry Blonde</i>, "Thet's just the kind of hairpin I am."<br />
<br />
I left a few categories right off that I have no opinion on (Best Song and all the shorts), but everything else is detailed below. In reality, I can't imagine too many people outside of the Canadian film industry will be watching and/or care, but perhaps the ratings will prove me wrong. In any event, Let's have a blast.</b></blockquote>Just before we begin,<br />
feel free to watch the<br />
32nd GENIE AWARDS TRAILER<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FHoTMIKUkgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
<b>Best Motion Picture</b><br />
<br />
A Dangerous Method – Martin Katz, Marco Mehlitz, Jeremy Thomas<br />
Café De Flore – Pierre Even, Marie-Claude Poulin, Jean-Marc Vallée<br />
Monsieur Lazhar – Luc Déry, Kim Mccraw<br />
Starbuck – André Rouleau<br />
The Whistleblower – Christina Piovesan, Celine Rattray<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Daydream Nation - Trish Dolman, Christine Haebler<br />
Father's Day – Lloyd Kaufman, Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - Jody Shapiro<br />
Le Vendeur - Marc Daigle, Bernadette Payeur<br />
Take This Waltz - Susan Cavan <br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Le Vendeur - Marc Daigle, Bernadette Payeur</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Monsieur Lazhar – Luc Déry, Kim Mccraw<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Monsieur Lazhar – Luc Déry, Kim Mccraw<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Monsieur Lazhar – Luc Déry, Kim Mccraw<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Art Direction/Production Design</b><br />
<br />
Jean Bécotte – Funkytown<br />
Aidan Leroux, Rob Hepburn – Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster<br />
James Mcateer – A Dangerous Method<br />
Patrice Vermette – Café De Flore<br />
Emelia Weavind – The Bang Bang Club<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
In Darkness - Erwin Prib<br />
Keyhole - Ricardo Alms, Matt Holm<br />
Le Vendeur - Mario Hervieux<br />
The Mountie - Jim Goodall<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Keyhole - Ricardo Alms, Matt Holm</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Emelia Weavind – The Bang Bang Club<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
James Mcateer – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
James Mcateer – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Cinematography</b><br />
<br />
Miroslaw Baszak, C.S.C. – The Bang Bang Club<br />
Pierre Cottereau – Café De Flore<br />
Jon Joffin – Daydream Nation<br />
Jean-François Lord – Snow & Ashes<br />
Ronald Plante – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
In Darkness - Jolanta Dylewska<br />
Keyhole - Benjamin Kasulke<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel La Veaux<br />
The Mountie - Rene Smith<br />
Take This Waltz - Luc Montpellier<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel La Veaux</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
Miroslaw Baszak, C.S.C. – The Bang Bang Club<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
Pierre Cottereau – Café De Flore<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Jean-François Lord – Snow & Ashes<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Costume Design</b><br />
Denise Cronenberg – A Dangerous Method<br />
Farnaz Khaki-Sadigh – Afghan Luke<br />
Ginette Magny, Emmanuelle Youchnovski – Café De Flore<br />
Heather Neale – Keyhole<br />
Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt – Funkytown<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
In Darkness - Jagna Janicka, Nadine Kremeier, Katarzyna Lewinska <br />
Manborg - Astron-6<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Manborg - Astron-6</i><br />
</b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Heather Neale – Keyhole<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Denise Cronenberg – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt – Funkytown<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Direction</b><br />
<br />
David Cronenberg – A Dangerous Method<br />
Steven Silver – The Bang Bang Club<br />
Jean-Marc Vallée – Café De Flore<br />
Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
Larysa Kondracki – The Whistleblower<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Daydream Nation - Michael Goldbach<br />
Father's Day - Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - Guy Maddin<br />
Le Vendeur - Sebastien Pilote<br />
Take This Waltz - Sarah Polley<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Le Vendeur - Sebastien Pilote</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Editing</b><br />
<br />
Jean-François Bergeron – The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom<br />
Michael Czarnecki – In Darkness<br />
Patrick Demers – Jaloux<br />
Stéphane Lafleur – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
Ronald Sanders, C.C.E. A.C.E. – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
<i><b>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel Arcand<br />
The Mountie - Kerry Davie<br />
Take This Waltz - Chris Donaldson<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks</b></i><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Michael Czarnecki – In Darkness<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Ronald Sanders, C.C.E. A.C.E. – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Stéphane Lafleur – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Make-Up</b><br />
<br />
Christiane Fattori, Frédéric Marin – Café De Flore<br />
Amber Makar – Amazon Falls<br />
Virginie Paré – Bumrush<br />
Tammy Lou Pate – Snow & Ashes<br />
Leslie Ann Sebert, David R. Beecroft – Take This Waltz<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Father's Day - Steven Kostanski<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Christiane Fattori, Frédéric Marin – Café De Flore<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Christiane Fattori, Frédéric Marin – Café De Flore<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Christiane Fattori, Frédéric Marin – Café De Flore<br />
<br />
Achievement In Music – Original Score<br />
<br />
Ramachandra Borcar – Jaloux<br />
Mychael Danna – The Whistleblower<br />
Martin Léon – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
Philip Miller – The Bang Bang Club<br />
Howard Shore – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Father's Day - Brian Wiacek<br />
Keyhole - Jason Staczek<br />
Manborg - Brian Wiacek, Jeremy Gillespie<br />
The Mountie - Ivan Barbotin<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Howard Shore – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Howard Shore – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Howard Shore – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
<b>Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role</b><br />
<br />
Fellag – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
Garret Dillahunt – Oliver Sherman<br />
Michael Fassbender – A Dangerous Method<br />
Patrick Huard – Starbuck<br />
Scott Speedman – Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
In Darkness - Robert Wieckiewicz<br />
Keyhole - Jason Patric<br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks<br />
Le Vendeur - Gilbert Sicotte<br />
Take This Waltz - Seth Rogen<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Le Vendeur - Gilbert Sicotte</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Fellag – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Fellag – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Fellag – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
<b>Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role</b><br />
<br />
Antoine Bertrand – Starbuck<br />
Kevin Durand – Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster<br />
Marin Gerrier – Café De Flore<br />
Taylor Kitsch – The Bang Bang Club<br />
Viggo Mortensen – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Father's Day - Mackenzie Murdock<br />
Keyhole - Louis Negin<br />
Marécages - Gabriel Maillé<br />
Marécages - Luc Picard<br />
The Mountie - Earl Pastko<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Keyhole - Louis Negin</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Viggo Mortensen – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Viggo Mortensen – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Viggo Mortensen – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
<b>Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role</b><br />
<br />
Catherine De Léan – Nuit #1<br />
Pascale Montpetit – The Girl In The White Coat<br />
Vanessa Paradis – Café De Flore<br />
Rachel Weisz – The Whistleblower<br />
Michelle Williams – Take This Waltz<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Daydream Nation - Katt Dennings<br />
Father's Day - Amy Groening<br />
Manborg - Meredith Sweeney<br />
Marécages - Pascale Bussières<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Marécages - Pascale Bussières</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Take This Waltz - Michelle Williams<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
The Whistleblower - Rachel Weisz<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Vanessa Paradis – Café De Flore<br />
<br />
<b>Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role</b><br />
<br />
Roxana Condurache – The Whistleblower<br />
Hélène Florent – Café De Flore<br />
Julie Lebreton – Starbuck<br />
Sophie Nélisse – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
Charlotte Sullivan – Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Daydream Nation - Katie Boland<br />
In Darkness - Agnieszka Grochowska<br />
Keyhole - Isabella Rossellini<br />
Le Vendeur - Nathalie Cavezzali<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Le Vendeur - Nathaie Cavezzali</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Sophie Nélisse – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Roxana Condurache – The Whistleblower<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Sophie Nélisse – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Overall Sound</b><br />
<br />
Stéphane Bergeron, Yann Cleary, Lise Wedlock<br />
– Marécages<br />
<br />
Pierre Bertrand, Shaun Nicholas Gallagher, Bernard Gariépy Strobl<br />
– Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
Jean Minondo, Jocelyn Caron, Gavin Fernandes, Louis Gignac<br />
– Café De Flore<br />
<br />
Lou Solakofski, Stephan Carrier, Kirk Lynds<br />
– The Bang Bang Club<br />
<br />
Orest Sushko, Christian Cooke<br />
– A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke, Lou Solakofski, Stan Mak<br />
Le Vendeur - Stéphane Bergeron, Olivier Calvert, Gilles Corbeil<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke, Lou Solakofski, Stan Mak</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Lou Solakofski, Stephan Carrier, Kirk Lynds – The Bang Bang Club<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Orest Sushko, Christian Cooke – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Orest Sushko, Christian Cooke – A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
Achievement In Sound Editing<br />
<br />
Fred Brennan, James Bastable, Gabe Knox, John Sievert<br />
– You Are Here<br />
<br />
Claude Beaugrand, Olivier Calvert, Natalie Fleurant, Francine Poirier<br />
- Marécages<br />
<br />
Wayne Griffin, Rob Bertola, Tony Currie, Andy Malcolm, Michael O’farrell<br />
– A Dangerous Method<br />
<br />
Martin Pinsonnault, Blaise Blanchier, Simon Meilleur, Mireille Morin, Luc Raymond<br />
– Café De Flore<br />
<br />
Jeremy Maclaverty, Daniel Pellerin, Geoff Raffan, Jan Rudy, John Sievert, James Mark Stewart<br />
– In Darkness<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Keyhole - David McCallum, David Rose, Krystin Hunter<br />
Le Vendeur - Olivier Calvert<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Keyhole - David McCallum, David Rose, Krystin Hunter</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
In Darkness<br />
- Jeremy Maclaverty, Daniel Pellerin, Geoff Raffan, Jan Rudy, John Sievert, James Mark Stewart<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
A Dangerous Method<br />
- Wayne Griffin, Rob Bertola, Tony Currie, Andy Malcolm, Michael O’farrell<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
A Dangerous Method<br />
- Wayne Griffin, Rob Bertola, Tony Currie, Andy Malcolm, Michael O’farrell<br />
<br />
<b>Original Screenplay</b><br />
<br />
Anne Émond – Nuit #1<br />
Eilis Kirwan, Larysa Kondracki – The Whistleblower<br />
Ken Scott, Martin Petit – Starbuck<br />
Jean-Marc Vallée – Café De Flore<br />
Ryan Ward, Matthew Heiti – Son Of The Sunshine<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
<br />
Daydream Nation - Michael Goldbach<br />
Father's Day - Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - George Toles, Guy Maddin<br />
Le Vendeur - Sébastien Pilote<br />
Marécages - Guy Édoin<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
<br />
Keyhole - George Toles, Guy Maddin</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
None of them<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Jean-Marc Vallée – Café De Flore<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Ken Scott, Martin Petit – Starbuck<br />
<br />
<b>Adapted Screenplay</b><br />
<br />
Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
Ryan Redford – Oliver Sherman<br />
David Shamoon – In Darkness<br />
Steven Silver – The Bang Bang Club<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
David Shamoon – In Darkness</i></b><br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Philippe Falardeau – Monsieur Lazhar<br />
<br />
<b>Achievement In Visual Effects</b><br />
<br />
A Dangerous Method -<br />
Dennis Berardi, Mathew Bornett, Mike Borrett, Wilson Cameron, Ovi Cinazin,<br />
Jason Edwardh, Oliver Hearsey, Jim Price, Milan Schere, Wolciech Zielinski <br />
<br />
Snow and Ashes<br />
Éve Brunet, Jacques Lévesque, Philippe Roberge<br />
Marc Côté, Stéphanie Broussaud, Gary Chuntz, Vincent Dudouet,<br />
Cynthia Mourou, Eric Normandin, Martin Pensa, Luc Sanfaçon, Sylvain Théroux,<br />
<br />
Café De Flore -<br />
Nathalie Tremblay<br />
<br />
Bumrush -<br />
Geoffroy Lauzon<br />
<br />
Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster -<br />
Tom Turnbull, Ian Britton, Robert Crowther, Tony Cybulski<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Have Been Nominated But Wasn't:<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski<br />
<br />
What Should Have Won<br />
If The Genies Had Bothered To Nominate It:<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski</i></b><br />
<br />
What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
Tom Turnbull, Ian Britton, Robert Crowther, Tony Cybulski – Edwin Boyd: Citizen<br />
Gangster<br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
Tom Turnbull, Ian Britton, Robert Crowther, Tony Cybulski – Edwin Boyd: Citizen<br />
Gangster<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
Café De Flore -<br />
Nathalie Tremblay<br />
<br />
<b>Best Feature Length Documentary</b><br />
<br />
Beauty Day<br />
– Jay Cheel, Kristina Mclaughlin, Kevin Mcmahon, Roman Pizzacalla<br />
<br />
Family Portrait In Black And White<br />
– Julia Ivanova, Boris Ivanov<br />
<br />
The Guantanamo Trap<br />
– Thomas Wallner, Amit Breuer, Patrick Crowe<br />
<br />
La Nuit, Elles Dansent / At Night, They Dance<br />
– Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault, Lucie Lambert<br />
<br />
Wiebo’s War<br />
– David York, Nick Hector, C.C.E., Bryn Hughes, Bonnie Thompson<br />
<br />
<b><i>What Should Win Based Upon The Nominees as They Stand:<br />
<br />
Family Portrait In Black And White<br />
– Julia Ivanova, Boris Ivanov</i></b><br />
<br />
What Will Win:<br />
<br />
Family Portrait In Black And White<br />
– Julia Ivanova, Boris Ivanov<br />
<br />
And the winner is:<br />
<br />
La Nuit, Elles Dansent / At Night, They Dance<br />
– Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault, Lucie Lambert<br />
<br />
<b><i>THE FIRST ANNUAL "KLYMKIW" GENIE AWARDS</i></b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST PICTURE NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Trish Dolman, Christine Haebler<br />
Father's Day – Lloyd Kaufman, Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - Jody Shapiro<br />
Le Vendeur - Marc Daigle, Bernadette Payeur<br />
Take This Waltz - Susan Cavan <br />
<br />
<b>BEST PICTURE WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Marc Daigle, Bernadette Payeur</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN NOMINEES</b><br />
The Bang Bang Club - Emelia Weavind<br />
In Darkness - Erwin Prib<br />
Keyhole - Ricardo Alms, Matt Holm<br />
Le Vendeur - Mario Hervieux<br />
The Mountie - Jim Goodall<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ART DIRECTION/PD WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - Ricardo Alms, Matt Holm</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY NOMINEES</b><br />
In Darkness - Jolanta Dylewska<br />
Keyhole - Benjamin Kasulke<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel La Veaux<br />
The Mountie - Rene Smith<br />
Take This Waltz - Luc Montpellier<br />
<br />
<b>BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel La Veaux</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST COSTUME DESIGN NOMINEES</b><br />
A Dangerous Method - Denise Cronenberg<br />
Café De Flore - Ginette Magny, Emmanuelle Youchnovski<br />
Keyhole - Heather Neale<br />
In Darkness - Jagna Janicka, Nadine Kremeier, Katarzyna Lewinska <br />
Manborg - Astron-6<br />
<br />
<b>BEST COSTUME DESIGN WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - Heather Neale</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST DIRECTOR NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Michael Goldbach<br />
Father's Day - Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - Guy Maddin<br />
Le Vendeur - Sebastien Pilote<br />
Take This Waltz - Sarah Polley<br />
<br />
<b>BEST DIRECTOR WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Sebastien Pilote</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST EDITING NOMINEES</b><br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel Arcand<br />
The Mountie - Kerry Davie<br />
Take This Waltz - Chris Donaldson<br />
<br />
<b>BEST EDITING WINNER:<br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST MAKEUP NOMINEES & WINNERS:<br />
Father's Day - Steven Kostanski<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski</b><br />
*NOTE* NOTHING COMES REMOTELY CLOSE<br />
TO THE WORK IN THESE PICTURES.<br />
NOTHING! NADA! THIS IS IT!<br />
<br />
<b>BEST MUSIC NOMINEES</b><br />
A Dangerous Method - Howard Shore<br />
Father's Day - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek<br />
Keyhole - Jason Staczek<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek<br />
The Mountie - Ivan Barbotin<br />
<br />
<b>BEST MUSIC WINNERS:<br />
Father's Day - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTOR NOMINEES</b><br />
In Darkness - Robert Wieckiewicz<br />
Keyhole - Jason Patric<br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks<br />
Le Vendeur - Gilbert Sicotte<br />
Take This Waltz - Seth Rogen<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTOR WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Gilbert Sicotte</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEES</b><br />
Father's Day - Mackenzie Murdock<br />
Keyhole - Louis Negin<br />
Marécages - Gabriel Maillé<br />
Marécages - Luc Picard<br />
The Mountie - Earl Pastko<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - Louis Negin</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Katt Dennings<br />
Father's Day - Amy Groening<br />
Manborg - Meredith Sweeney<br />
Marécages - Pascale Bussières<br />
Take This Waltz - Michelle Williams<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTRESS WINNER:<br />
Marécages - Pascale Bussières</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Katie Boland<br />
In Darkness - Agnieszka Grochowska<br />
Keyhole - Isabella Rossellini<br />
Le Vendeur - Nathalie Cavezzali<br />
Monsieur Lazhar - Sophie Nélisse<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Nathalie Cavezzali</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND NOMINEES</b><br />
The Bang Bang Club - Lou Solakofski, Stephan Carrier, Kirk Lynds<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke, Lou Solakofski, Stan Mak<br />
Le Vendeur - Stéphane Bergeron, Olivier Calvert, Gilles Corbeil<br />
Marécages - Stéphane Bergeron, Yann Cleary, Lise Wedlock<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke, Lou Solakofski, Stan Mak</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND EDITING NOMINEES:</b><br />
In Darkness<br />
Jeremy Maclaverty, Daniel Pellerin, Geoff Raffan,<br />
Jan Rudy, John Sievert, James Mark Stewart<br />
Keyhole<br />
David McCallum, David Rose, Krystin Hunter<br />
Le Vendeur<br />
Olivier Calvert<br />
Manborg<br />
Astron-6<br />
Marécages<br />
Claude Beaugrand, Olivier Calvert, Natalie Fleurant, Francine Poirier<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND EDITING WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - David McCallum, David Rose, Krystin Hunter</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Michael Goldbach<br />
Father's Day - Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - George Toles, Guy Maddin<br />
Le Vendeur - Sébastien Pilote<br />
Marécages - Guy Édoin<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - George Toles, Guy Maddin</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY NOMINEE AND WINNER:<br />
David Shamoon – In Darkness</b><br />
*NOTE* NOTHING COMES REMOTELY CLOSE TO THIS ONE,<br />
IT'S GREATNESS AS AN ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CANNOT<br />
BE TARNISHED BY ASSOCIATING IT WITH OTHERS.<br />
<br />
<b>BEST VISUAL EFFECTS NOMINEE AND WINNER:<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski</b><br />
*NOTE* FORGET ALL THE REST!!!<br />
THIS IS THE CAT'S ASS!!!<br />
THIS ROCKS BIGTIME!!!<br />
<br />
<b>BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY NOMINEE AND WINNER:<br />
Family Portrait In Black And White<br />
– Julia Ivanova, Boris Ivanov</b><br />
*NOTE* NO PUSSY-FOOTING AROUND HERE!<br />
THE BEST CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY I SAW ALL YEAR!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-67901303924169888612012-03-08T00:00:00.003-05:002012-03-08T11:50:53.661-05:00The First Annual KLYMKIW Genie Awards<b><i>THE FIRST ANNUAL "KLYMKIW" GENIE AWARDS</i></b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST PICTURE NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Trish Dolman, Christine Haebler<br />
Father's Day – Lloyd Kaufman, Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - Jody Shapiro<br />
Le Vendeur - Marc Daigle, Bernadette Payeur<br />
Take This Waltz - Susan Cavan <br />
<br />
<b>BEST PICTURE WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Marc Daigle, Bernadette Payeur</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ART DIRECTION/PRODUCTION DESIGN NOMINEES</b><br />
The Bang Bang Club - Emelia Weavind<br />
In Darkness - Erwin Prib<br />
Keyhole - Ricardo Alms, Matt Holm<br />
Le Vendeur - Mario Hervieux<br />
The Mountie - Jim Goodall<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ART DIRECTION/PD WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - Ricardo Alms, Matt Holm</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY NOMINEES</b><br />
In Darkness - Jolanta Dylewska<br />
Keyhole - Benjamin Kasulke<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel La Veaux<br />
The Mountie - Rene Smith<br />
Take This Waltz - Luc Montpellier<br />
<br />
<b>BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel La Veaux</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST COSTUME DESIGN NOMINEES</b><br />
A Dangerous Method - Denise Cronenberg<br />
Café De Flore - Ginette Magny, Emmanuelle Youchnovski<br />
Keyhole - Heather Neale<br />
In Darkness - Jagna Janicka, Nadine Kremeier, Katarzyna Lewinska <br />
Manborg - Astron-6<br />
<br />
<b>BEST COSTUME DESIGN WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - Heather Neale</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST DIRECTOR NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Michael Goldbach<br />
Father's Day - Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - Guy Maddin<br />
Le Vendeur - Sebastien Pilote<br />
Take This Waltz - Sarah Polley<br />
<br />
<b>BEST DIRECTOR WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Sebastien Pilote</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST EDITING NOMINEES</b><br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke<br />
Le Vendeur - Michel Arcand<br />
The Mountie - Kerry Davie<br />
Take This Waltz - Chris Donaldson<br />
<br />
<b>BEST EDITING WINNER:<br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST MAKEUP NOMINEES & WINNERS:<br />
Father's Day - Steven Kostanski<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski</b><br />
*NOTE* NOTHING COMES REMOTELY CLOSE<br />
TO THE WORK IN THESE PICTURES.<br />
NOTHING! NADA! THIS IS IT!<br />
<br />
<b>BEST MUSIC NOMINEES</b><br />
A Dangerous Method - Howard Shore<br />
Father's Day - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek<br />
Keyhole - Jason Staczek<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek<br />
The Mountie - Ivan Barbotin<br />
<br />
<b>BEST MUSIC WINNERS:<br />
Father's Day - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie, Brian Wiacek</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTOR NOMINEES</b><br />
In Darkness - Robert Wieckiewicz<br />
Keyhole - Jason Patric<br />
Father's Day - Adam Brooks<br />
Le Vendeur - Gilbert Sicotte<br />
Take This Waltz - Seth Rogen<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTOR WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Gilbert Sicotte</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR NOMINEES</b><br />
Father's Day - Mackenzie Murdock<br />
Keyhole - Louis Negin<br />
Marécages - Gabriel Maillé<br />
Marécages - Luc Picard<br />
The Mountie - Earl Pastko<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - Louis Negin</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTRESS NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Katt Dennings<br />
Father's Day - Amy Groening<br />
Manborg - Meredith Sweeney<br />
Marécages - Pascale Bussières<br />
Take This Waltz - Michelle Williams<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ACTRESS WINNER:<br />
Marécages - Pascale Bussières</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Katie Boland<br />
In Darkness - Agnieszka Grochowska<br />
Keyhole - Isabella Rossellini<br />
Le Vendeur - Nathalie Cavezzali<br />
Monsieur Lazhar - Sophie Nélisse<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS WINNER:<br />
Le Vendeur - Nathalie Cavezzali</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND NOMINEES</b><br />
The Bang Bang Club - Lou Solakofski, Stephan Carrier, Kirk Lynds<br />
Manborg - Jeremy Gillespie<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke, Lou Solakofski, Stan Mak<br />
Le Vendeur - Stéphane Bergeron, Olivier Calvert, Gilles Corbeil<br />
Marécages - Stéphane Bergeron, Yann Cleary, Lise Wedlock<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - John Gurdebeke, Lou Solakofski, Stan Mak</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND EDITING NOMINEES:</b><br />
In Darkness<br />
Jeremy Maclaverty, Daniel Pellerin, Geoff Raffan,<br />
Jan Rudy, John Sievert, James Mark Stewart<br />
Keyhole<br />
David McCallum, David Rose, Krystin Hunter<br />
Le Vendeur<br />
Olivier Calvert<br />
Manborg<br />
Astron-6<br />
Marécages<br />
Claude Beaugrand, Olivier Calvert, Natalie Fleurant, Francine Poirier<br />
<br />
<b>BEST SOUND EDITING WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - David McCallum, David Rose, Krystin Hunter</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY NOMINEES</b><br />
Daydream Nation - Michael Goldbach<br />
Father's Day - Astron-6<br />
Keyhole - George Toles, Guy Maddin<br />
Le Vendeur - Sébastien Pilote<br />
Marécages - Guy Édoin<br />
<br />
<b>BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY WINNER:<br />
Keyhole - George Toles, Guy Maddin</b><br />
<br />
<b>BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY NOMINEE AND WINNER:<br />
David Shamoon – In Darkness</b><br />
*NOTE* NOTHING COMES REMOTELY CLOSE TO THIS ONE,<br />
IT'S GREATNESS AS AN ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CANNOT<br />
BE TARNISHED BY ASSOCIATING IT WITH OTHERS.<br />
<br />
<b>BEST VISUAL EFFECTS NOMINEE AND WINNER:<br />
Manborg - Steven Kostanski</b><br />
*NOTE* FORGET ALL THE REST!!!<br />
THIS IS THE CAT'S ASS!!!<br />
THIS ROCKS BIGTIME!!!<br />
<br />
<b>BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY NOMINEE AND WINNER:<br />
Family Portrait In Black And White<br />
– Julia Ivanova, Boris Ivanov</b><br />
*NOTE* NO PUSSY-FOOTING AROUND HERE!<br />
THE BEST CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY I SAW ALL YEAR!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-25352128922760139812012-03-02T00:01:00.005-05:002012-03-09T13:40:51.118-05:00Family Portrait in Black and White - Review by Greg Klymkiw - Canadian Feature Documentary full of heartfelt moments in lives of 17 mixed race children in Ukraine and their foster mother.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0dfxxWk_xX0/T1aePyCyGCI/AAAAAAAABNs/y8_nBJZh2z0/s1600/1acfcfamilyportrait.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0dfxxWk_xX0/T1aePyCyGCI/AAAAAAAABNs/y8_nBJZh2z0/s400/1acfcfamilyportrait.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>Family Portrait in Black and White</b> (2011) dir. Julia Ivanova<br />
<br />
<b>***</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
The first time I visited Ukraine, the land of my forefathers, two things struck me.<br />
<br />
First of all, I felt a strange, overwhelming sense - perhaps due to my own upbringing in Canada - that THIS was where I came from, even though I wasn't born anywhere near the place. The feeling of being from this seemingly magical country, being able to read the cyrillic letters, listening to people talk and realizing I understood more Ukrainian (and to a certain extent, Russian) than I thought I did and even feeling like it was a place I could live in since Canada (or more specifically, the city of Toronto) was really starting to drive me nuts. Even later in the first and subsequent trips when aspects of my time there became utterly horrendous, I somehow was able to explain it away by thinking to myself and/or saying to my (non-Ukrainian WASP wife), "I know my people all too well."<br />
<br />
The second thing that struck me was that during my first few days there, I saw absolutely no Black people - not one single person even VAGUELY resembling someone of African descent. This was so overwhelming that even now I can clearly remember the three times that I actually DID see people of colour (excluding Asians, of course, there seemed to be plenty of them - more than enough Ukrainian women were raped when Mongol hordes occasionally pillaged the land).<br />
<br />
The first Black person I saw was in a loge in the majestic Kyiv Opera House. He was an extremely handsome, dressed-to-the-nines gentleman with brown skin and a mix of African and Slavic features. The second time, I saw three Black people. They were clearly students, in their early twenties and entered one of my favourite restaurants in Kyiv - the best Ukrainian food I've had since my Baba died and cheap like the proverbial borscht. The third and final time I saw a Black person was on the stage of the Ukrainian National Philharmonic - the acclaimed American baritone Stephen Salters who performed a stunning selection of traditional African-American spirituals that had a standing-room-only house of Ukrainians leaping to their feet again and again and frankly, not leaving too many dry eyes after each and every song.<br />
<br />
This latter experience especially came to mind as I watched Julia Ivanova's feature-length documentary <i>Family Portrait in Black and White</i> because it was so shocking to see and hear some of the most virulent racism towards people of African descent that seemed more at home in Alabama (easily the most openly racist place I ever had the displeasure to spend time in), but surely not the same countrymen that were so welcoming and moved by Stephen Salters.<br />
<br />
Then again, I had to remind myself that Ivanova's documentary is set in the Sumy Oblast of Eastern Ukraine and that my most horrendous experiences in the country happened in the East. After Stalin butchered millions of Ukrainians and parachuted millions of Russians into Ukraine - most of them settled in Eastern Ukraine and this is where the insular, backwards and ruthless Soviet influence was most prominent. In fact, many cities in the East are rife with corruption and are major centres of the Russian mob.<br />
<br />
In this sense, half the country - the East - is kind of like one big, ole' Alabama.<br />
<br />
And it's in this setting that the film focuses upon Olga Nenya, a primarily Russian-speaking Ukrainian woman of middle age who has opened her heart and home to children who have been abandoned by their birth parents because of the colour of their skin. Over the years, many African men - primarily from Uganda - have come to Ukraine as foreign students to study. Ukraine has a great reputation for its educational institutions and low tuitions. (A Lebanese acquaintance studied medicine in Ukraine and has a successful practise in Paris - though, speaking of racism, his credentials weren't "good enough" for Canada.) And as any healthy, young lad is wont to do anywhere, but especially when alone in a country populated by some of the most stunningly gorgeous young women in the world (Olga Kurylenko, for one), they'll more than likely partake of the forbidden fruits (as it were). What this has sadly resulted in are huge numbers of Black children abandoned in orphanages.<br />
<br />
However, here in the Sumy Oblast, seventeen Black kids have a home and a mother. Granted, the home is physically a shambles (though from my experience, pretty common for Eastern Ukraine), but the kids have a surprising amount of privacy, they have food, shelter, a bed, companionship and yes, a sense of family.<br />
<br />
Nenya is a powerhouse - a true Russian-Ukrainian battle axe. She only wants what she thinks is best for the kids - a good work ethic, an education and a chance to get a job and contribute to the "new" Ukraine. That said, two of her children are gifted in soccer and music respectively and she has absolutely no use for this - she has no understanding how these interests will put "bread" on their tables when they leave the nest. <br />
<br />
The kids are all expected to do their part - tend to the goats, cook, clean and do well in school. Nenya also has no use for the ignorance and racism of her fellow neighbours and countrymen. She especially detests snooty bureaucrats and in one delightful scene she deals with a barrage of social workers and city officials who pop by for a visit in the only way one can deal with these horrible people - with the sort of contempt that hurls garbage back in their faces. Bureaucrats the world over are all the same, it seems.<br />
<br />
Her foster children clearly love her and are grateful that they are treated as family. That said, a few of them have established relationships with foreign families in Italy who sponsor children for holiday visits through a humanitarian program that began after the Chernobyl tragedy. Some of them long to leave Ukraine and move to Italy. Nenya essentially thinks of these foreign foster parents as part-time babysitters who also allow her time off and the opportunity to save some money for those periods the kids are away. Besides, as she points out, a bird can only have "one nest". I can't say I really disagree with this sentiment.<br />
<br />
Of all the children, it is probably the story of Kiril that is the most compelling. He's the eldest and closest to leaving the nest. His feelings about Nenya are mixed. He clearly loves her and appreciates that she's made a home for him and the others, but he's also an artistic soul and wishes to pursue his love of music and literature. This, he eventually does, leaving for Kyiv to study journalism at university. Nenya is bitter about this decision and clearly there's bad blood between them that's not resolved.<br />
<br />
Then again, there are many unresolved issues in the film. Ivanova has chosen to mostly eschew the oft-expected narrative tradition - especially in recent documentaries. As the title suggests, she is presenting a "portrait" which, delivers a portion, a glimpse, a tiny window into something that is clearly bigger. This is, on one hand, admirable, but it's equally frustrating. Ivanova tries to present all of the children's stories equally and instead, we get not enough of too many. Kiril, is by far the most compelling of the kids and I probably would have preferred more of his story and relationship with Nenya than the others.<br />
<br />
What's especially confounding is that the film never adequately addresses how or why Nenya was compelled to undertake this compassionate responsibility. What was it like to take legal charge of these kids? What was the process? What were the challenges? What were the joys? The pain? By the end of the film, we get a portrait of Nenya, but we don't get a bigger picture. I really don't feel like I know enough about her and frankly, I want to. Who is she? What is her extended family like? What was her relationship with her own parents? Did she ever have any friends, lovers, neighbours or anyone other than her foster children that she was close too? Why does she detest Kiril's artistic pursuits and intelligence so much? Is it, as Kiril suggests when commenting on Nenya, that the Stalinist form of communism she reveres and misses, really what drives her? (He calls his mother "the leader" and compares her to Stalin, "the great leader". I really loved this kid!) OR is there something more? She's clearly an intelligent woman, but what is it that drives her to such an anti-intellectual and anti-cultural position?<br />
<br />
At a certain point I wanted Ivanova to move beyond the "portrait" because the subject, Nenya, is so fascinating that she demands more. While there might have been exigencies of production that didn't allow for such added probing, the fact remains that based upon the finished product, more was needed.<br />
<br />
There are numerous things that are either left maddeningly unsaid or, for all the film's attempts to present things raw WITHOUT a slant, or angle or too much of the filmmaker's voice (all admirable, but not always satisfying), the movie DOES present a few unbalanced issues that feel (intentionally or not) like a very one-sided portrait. At one point, Kiril talks about what it means to be a Ukrainian and that it is a cultural identity he relates to and wants to relate to even more. I'll grant you it is because I feel close to this heritage that I was so deeply moved by this, however, the movie also disturbed me since it provided far too many one-sided negative portraits of Ukrainians and Ukrainian culture.<br />
<br />
There are, for example, very few Ukrainians presented who share Nenya's compassion for these children. I just find this hard to swallow. Ukraine is a country that has suffered under the yoke of Russian, Polish, Turkish, Austrian, German and Mongolian oppression for its entire history as a nation and culture. Maybe I cannot proclaim the entire country or nation as being open to relating to the African experience on (at least a level of repression and/or genocide) based solely upon a few hundred Ukrainians weeping and cheering the African-American spirituals sung by Stephen Salters in Kyiv, but for all the documented racism, there are always two sides and some balance might have been nice. Why, for example, does Ivanova go out of her way (it seems) to present ONLY fuck-witted Ukrainian skinheads or Nenya's drunken, ignorant racist neighbour? And what about that neighbour? What drove him to drink to the point where he LOST his children? Why present such a one-sided portrait without even attempting to understand where this comes from? Who knows? Eastern Ukrainians suffered a great deal under Stalin and subsequent Soviet regimes (including the ethnic Russians forced to move there). The repression, poverty, discrimination could well be traced back to policies of genocide and Russification.<br />
<br />
Another oddly offensive one-sided portrait is of the Ukrainian women who supposedly "abandoned" their Black children in orphanages? Why are they portrayed as so thoughtless? So heartless? For a multitude of Ukrainian women - no matter what or who their children are - placing their children in orphanages is their only hope that maybe, just maybe their children will have a better life than they can provide them?<br />
<br />
What of the African men who have seduced and abandoned their blonde, blue-eyed living sex toys and by extension the results of their seed-scattering - the children? Are they blameless? Throughout the entire film I kept wondering if we were ever going to get an interview with an older African male in Ukraine. I would have loved to hear the opinions of some of the Ugandan students on the fates of these children who were sired by fellow members of their country? And finally, when Ivanova DOES present an interview with ONE African man who DOES care about his children and wants them back. It's a brief interview that takes place well into the film and the context it's presented in, once again, raises more questions that the film doesn't bother to answer. The man claims he will wait in Ukraine until the children can legally leave the care of Nenya so he can be their father. He states that the Ministry presiding over Ukrainian orphans are asking him to prove, via DNA testing - at his expense - that the children are really his. Well, uh, yeah! Makes sense to me. Anyone can say they're the biological father of a child. It has to be proven. If he can't afford it, what is his embassy or consulate doing about it? Has he even tried to secure their financial and/or political assistance?<br />
<br />
This is a movie so full of magnificent moments that I kept longing for it to soar as it had the potential to. It's finally never enough for any movie to present a "portrait". When there are too many questions left unanswered, when there are endless one-sided perspectives as unfair and hateful as those presented amongst some of the film's subjects, part of me thinks that the filmmaker didn't get the job done. That said, Ivanova clearly has the soul of a filmmaker. She shot the film herself and there are images of such poignance, beauty and artistry, that I simply cannot believe that this is all there is.<br />
<br />
Maybe, just maybe, there's enough material on the cutting room floor and, more importantly so much more material yet to be shot, that eventually, Ivanova, like Michael Apted and his extraordinary "Up" series will return to these people and this subject and present a lifetime document as anthropologically and artistically important as Apted's.<br />
<br />
I hope so. She owes it to the kids, to Nenya, to the country and its culture. She certainly owes it to herself to take potentially wonderful material to even greater heights. Most of all, she owes it to the audience and potential audiences. With <i>Family Portrait in Black and White</i>, I personally see the beginnings of something that could be imbued with significance and staying power beyond its wildest dreams.<br />
<br />
That's what makes it art.<br />
<br />
<i>"Family Portrait in Black and White" is in limited platform release across Canada via Vagrant Films (with a current playdate at Toronto's Royal Theatre). It played at the Sundance Film Festival and is a Hot-Docs Award Winner. It has been nominated for a Genie Award for Best Feature Documentary.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OvzGzdXVprk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-24666791675982531782012-02-24T12:00:00.007-05:002012-08-26T14:13:59.806-04:00GOON - Review By Greg Klymkiw - A Great Canadian Hockey Movie to follow in the footsteps of Canuck "Lumber-in-the-Teeth" Classics as FACE OFF and PAPERBACK HERO and, of course, the most Canadian Movie Never Made By A Canadian, George Roy Hill's Classic SLAP SHOT<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mQlVqceEImE/T0gGjfvB5bI/AAAAAAAABM8/8t3pLlPPch0/s1600/1acfcgoonmontage.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="256" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mQlVqceEImE/T0gGjfvB5bI/AAAAAAAABM8/8t3pLlPPch0/s400/1acfcgoonmontage.png" /></a></div><br />
<b>GOON</b> (2011) dir. Michael Dowse<br />
Starring: Seann William Scott, Jay Baruchel, Liev Schreiber, Alison Pill, Eugene Levy, Kim Coates, David Paetkau. Marc-André Grondin<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
I kept wondering when a great Canadian hockey movie would come along. The truly cool Golden Age of Canadian Cinema in the 70s and early 80s yielded George McCowan's legendary <i>Face Off</i> (with its phenomenal rare 35mm footage of actual NHL action from the period), Peter Pearson's <i>Paperback Hero</i> (with the irrepressible 70s anti-hero played by Keir Dullea) and Zale Dalen's lovely ode to famed Saskatchewan kids' hockey coach Father Athol Murray, <i>The Hounds of Notre Dame</i>.<br />
<br />
Canadian TV-movies in the 90s briefly flirted with hockey thanks to Atom Egoyan's still-pungent <i>Gross Misconduct</i> (about Brian "Spinner" Spencer) and Jerry Ciccoritti's superb <i>Net Worth</i>, which dealt with the struggle for a players' union and was, according to my Dad, not only a fine rendering of the period, but featured - in his opinion - a brilliant performance by Al Waxman as Detroit manager Jack Adams. Dad told me that Waxman captured Adams to perfection. Dad would know. He played briefly for the Red Wings WITHOUT a union in the late 50s and in spite of being cited by goalie Ken Dryden as a personal hero in his book "<i>The Game</i>" was subsequently booted by Adams after he broke his ankle. <br />
<br />
So what happened? Where did all the Canadian hockey movies go? It's the country's God-Given national sport, for Christ's sake!<br />
<br />
Well, not much of anything happened. Charles Biname's lame 2005 biopic of Maurice Richard, <i>The Rocket</i>, sadly didn't cut the mustard and as terrific as they were, the 90s TV flicks were revisionist takes on the sport Canadians embrace as steadfastly as maple syrup and beaver(s). And the less said about the loathsome <i>Breakway</i> and utterly inept <i>Score: The Hockey Musical</i> the better.<br />
<br />
So basically, no great Canadian hockey pictures existed for 30 years - unless, of course, you count George Roy Hill's immortal <i>Slap Shot</i> with Nancy Dowd's delightfully foul mouthed screenplay, Paul Newman's sparkling player-coach Reggie Dunlop and, of course, the Hanson Brothers. Unfortunately, <i>Slap Shot</i> wasn't Canadian, though it should have been, and at times, sure felt like it.<br />
<br />
When the movie came out, I was immersed in the world of hockey whilst hanging out with my Dad during the various promotional tie-ins he orchestrated via Carling-O'Keefe Breweries with both the WHA and Alan Eagleson's various "lost" Canada Cup series. The WHA was, of course, the world leader in bench-clearing brawls and I consider the most momentous occasion of my life to have been actually sitting in the Quebec Nordiques bench during their first bench-clearing brawl with the Winnipeg Jets.<br />
<br />
<i>Slap Shot</i> nailed it by so indelibly capturing the on and off-ice atmosphere of hockey that I wasn't the only person in Canada who saw the movie dozens of times - ON A BIG SCREEN. In fact, <i>Slap Shot</i> was a huge hit in Canada, but flopped everywhere else in the world.<br />
<br />
Oh, but thank Jesus H. Christ! Ah, fuck it! Thank ace Canadian director Michael Dowse!<br />
<br />
The wait is over!<br />
<br />
The Second Coming is here!<br />
<br />
We are all now blessed with a Great Canadian Hockey Movie and the wait was well worth it!<br />
<br />
Call it, The Rapture, if you will.<br />
<br />
Based upon Doug Smith's novel "<i>Goon: The True Story of an Unlikely Journey into Minor League Hockey</i>" and with a screenplay co-written by everyone's favourite Canuck comic genius Jay Baruchel, Michael (<i>FUBAR I & II, It's All Gone Pete Tong</i>) Dowse renders yet another bonafide contender for masterpiece status.<br />
<br />
Etching the tender tale of the kindly, but brick-shit-house-for-brains bouncer Doug Glatt (Seann William Scott) who is recruited to a cellar-dweller hockey team in Halifax to protect the once-promising forward Xavier Laflamme (Marc-Andre Grondin), Dowse captures the sweaty, blood-spurting, bone-crunching and tooth-spitting circus of minor league hockey with utter perfection. The camaraderie, the endless bus trips, the squalid motels, the brain-dead fans, the piss-and-vinegar coaches, the craggy play-by-play sportscasters, the bars reeking of beer and vomit and, of course, Pogo Sticks - it's all here and then some.<br />
<br />
<i>GOON</i> delivers laughs, fisticuffs, mayhem and yes, even a dash of romance in a tidy package of good, old-fashioned underdog styling. Comparisons to <i>Slap Shot</i>, however, are going to be inevitable. <i>GOON</i> does lack the almost Bunuel-like set pieces of George Roy Hill's untouchable classic. Can anyone ever forget the interview with the Quebecois goalie wherein he describes what it's like to be in the penalty box? "You sit there. You feel shame." Or Paul Newman taunting an opposing team member about his wife going "dyke" with the mantra,"She's a lesbian, a lesbian, a lesbian." Or, finally, can any hockey movie - even a Great CANADIAN hockey movie like <i>GOON</i> ever top the Hanson Brothers and virtually anything they did - from "putting on the foil" to manhandling the Coke machine to smacking the helmets of the opposing team in their bench or the immortal slap shot that sends a puck sailing into the side of the organist's head?<br />
<br />
Well, Dowse and his team are smart. They know you don't fuck with the <i>Citizen Kane</i> of hockey movies and instead try to move in a more, shall we say, esoteric direction. Whereas <i>Slap Shot</i> had the legend of Ogie Ogilthorpe, the worst goon in hockey history, <i>GOON</i> manages to go a step further and utilize a fabulous Ogilthorpe-styled character who is all flesh and blood.<br />
<br />
Ross Rhena (Liev Schreiber) is the goon to end all goons. (Uh, yeah - Liev FUCKING Schreiber! This is one great actor and he delivers one of his best performances here.) Rhena is, in effect, a goon's goon. And what Dowse and team do here is perfect. They create a character with a bit of sentimental, old guard flavour and in one tremendously moving scene, Doug and Ross meet face to face in some squalid diner and engage in a conversation worthy of every great sports picture that ever featured the grand old man and the eager young up-and-comer.<br />
<br />
Right across the board the casting and performances are first rate, but the revelation here is Seann William Scott as Glatt. His sweet, goofy, still-boyish appeal is so infectious, you actually enjoy seeing this happy-go-lucky lug doing what God intended him to do - bust heads.<br />
<br />
I also suspect Mr. Scott can finally put his <i>American Pie</i> laurels as the immortal Stifler aside.<br />
<br />
Glatt now reigns supreme in <i>Le canon de Scott</i>.<br />
<br />
While <i>GOON</i> might not have individual set pieces on a par with <i>Slap Shot</i>, it more than makes up for this with quantity. You will never - in your life - see so much man-on-man carnage on the ice as you will in <i>GOON</i>, and it's not just a matter of quantity - the quality of the carnage is pure, exquisite bravura pulverizing.<br />
<br />
It is a beautiful thing!<br />
<br />
If <i>Slap Shot</i> is the <i>Citizen Kane</i> of hockey movies, <i>GOON</i> is <i>The Magnificent Ambersons</i> of hockey movies only now, imagine a work that rekindles the butchered glory of Orson Welles's masterpiece, but now on the blood-spattered hockey rinks of Canada!<br />
<br />
It is a beautiful thing!<br />
<br />
And fuck it, let's stretch the Orson Welles metaphor further. A great director needs a great editor. Welles had Robert Wise (an editor with the soul of a director). Dowse is blessed with Reginald Harkema (an editor with the soul of a director, 'natch!). If there are better editors in Canada than Reginald Harkema, I frankly have no idea who they are. The cutting in this film is utter perfection. Harkema slices and dices both comedy and action with equal aplomb.<br />
<br />
Now granted, a director had to get the proper coverage for an editor to work such magic, but I was utterly floored by the cutting of the sequences on the ice. The sense of pace and geography is impeccable. Though Dowse has chosen a cuttier mise-en-scene than George Roy Hill, this doesn't result in the horrible mish-mash of cutty confusion in virtually every other contemporary action sequence. Harkema makes every cut a DRAMATIC beat and this is finally what gives <i>GOON</i> both its drive and emotional resonance.<br />
<br />
It is, indeed, a beautiful thing!<br />
<br />
If I have one quibble with <i>GOON</i>, it's that the filmmakers, due no doubt to exigencies of financing, chose to shoot in my old winter city of Winnipeg to stand-in for Halifax.<br />
<br />
Come on, guys. Is Halifax really that pathetic?<br />
<br />
<i>"GOON" is in wide theatrical release via Alliance Films.</i><br />
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-56103817377739420132012-02-17T00:01:00.114-05:002012-02-17T19:49:09.299-05:00IN DARKNESS - Review by Greg Klymkiw - This powerful true story of the Holocaust, a Canadian-Polish co-production, has been nominated for a Foreign Language Oscar. The true story of a Polish war profiteer in the Ukrainian city of Lviv during WWII is replete with great performances, a fine screenplay by David F. Shamoon and expert direction from Agnieszka Holland.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WukD8lUwIk8/Tz52mNntuYI/AAAAAAAABKg/gqs6o6xJnUo/s1600/1acfcInDarkness1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="277" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WukD8lUwIk8/Tz52mNntuYI/AAAAAAAABKg/gqs6o6xJnUo/s400/1acfcInDarkness1.jpg" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w7oLA_O3ATc/Tz52nB0_TII/AAAAAAAABKs/HyRaHPN2rN0/s1600/1acfcindarknes2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="267" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w7oLA_O3ATc/Tz52nB0_TII/AAAAAAAABKs/HyRaHPN2rN0/s400/1acfcindarknes2.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>In Darkness</b> (2011) dir. Agnieszka Holland<br />
Starring: Robert Wieckiewicz, Benno Fürmann, Michal Zurawski, Kinga Preis, Agnieszka Grochowska, Maria Schrader, Herbert Knaup<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
Whenever a new film about the Holocaust appears, the oft-heard refrain is, "Not another one!" It's as if the subject itself is enough to inspire such dismissive reactions - which, frankly, I've never understood. Genocide is one of the greatest blights upon mankind as a species and given the especially horrific events of the 20th century, stories such as <i>In Darkness</i> must be told.<br />
<br />
Set in the Ukrainian city of Lviv during World War II, we're introduced to the Polish plumber and sewer-worker Leopold Socha (Robert Wieckiewicz) who supplements his livelihood during the Nazi occupation by thieving and black marketeering. A group of people in the Jewish ghetto have burrowed into the sewers in order to escape the impending horrors that await them. Socha happens upon the Jews and agrees to hide them beneath the old city where nobody will find them - for a price, of course.<br />
<br />
A major payday awaits when Socha's old friend Bortnick (Michal Zurawski), a member of the Ukrainian SS, mentions the substantial reward available for pointing officials to Jews in hiding. Socha gets the bright idea of soaking his Jewish charges until their money runs out and THEN betraying them for the bounty.<br />
<br />
War, however, has different effects upon different people. Some take the easy road, while others face up to who they really are and make sacrifices with their very lives.<br />
<br />
Much of the film takes place in the dank, dark sewers of Lviv and we are privy to the horrendous conditions the Jews must live in order to survive. While we follow Socha's adventures above ground, life for the Jews is presented in clear juxtaposition.<br />
<br />
Here is where David F. Shamoon's screenplay adaptation of Robert Marshall's book really shines. Given the number of characters, above and below ground that must be juggled, he presents a series of evocative portraits on both sides of the divide. Above ground, not everyone is a villain, whilst below ground, not everyone is a saint. The screenplay provides humanity with a layered dramatic resonance.<br />
<br />
The fine script allows for a flawless cast to deliver a series of performances that will burn in your memory long after seeing the film. Holland's direction is precise and classical. She doesn't miss any dramatic beats and it's finally a movie that never lets up - it's compelling, surprising, shocking and finally, profoundly moving from beginning to end.<br />
<br />
I have one major quibble, however. I will admit that it would probably not even be a problem if I was NOT of Ukrainian heritage, but luckily I am, because it allowed me to pinpoint a missing political element that might well have added an even deeper layer to this fine film.<br />
<br />
Here's the problem, as I see it. The city of Lviv was, prior to the Nazis marching in, already an occupied city. Poland had claimed a huge portion of Western Ukraine as its own and parachuted (so to speak) huge numbers of Polish citizens to populate and run the city. Many Ukrainians were forced out and eventually settled in outlying areas of the Oblast. Being in the midst of researching my own family tree, I have discovered that a great many of my blood ancestors were driven out of Lviv by the Poles. Ironically, many of them formed their own village which also bore my surname. The village was subsequently destroyed by the Poles when they decided to build a dam and flood the whole village. From there, my ancestors split up and settled even further West in and around Ternopil.<br />
<br />
I have to admit that in light of this research I was troubled that the script ignored the fact that this "Polish" city was, in fact, already an occupied city prior to the Nazis. I was further disturbed that the only Ukrainian character in the tale was portrayed as a vile Jew-hating pig who doesn't collaborate with the Nazis for the usual reasons Ukrainians collaborated (many were duped into believing the Nazis would be their liberators from both Polish and Russian oppression). These are issues of ethnocentric ignorance that are hurtful, but let's cast them aside for a moment and think about this otherwise compelling story if it had added the element of Poles being an occupying force to begin with who were, in turn occupied. From a narrative standpoint, I'd argue this might have made the piece far more interesting and added an additional layer of complexity to one in which the filmmakers do not present easy Hollywood-style answers to the dilemmas facing all the characters.<br />
<br />
It's the fact that the screenplay so diligently creates drama and conflict by presenting a myriad of complexities within the characters that it disappoints me the film did not take the time or effort to explore this avenue also.<br />
<br />
This will no doubt be seen as an easily dismissed and biased quibble, but the fact remains that World War II and the Holocaust are fraught with horrendous sufferings and issues that are not black and white. <br />
<br />
Some biases, it seems, are acceptable, while others are not.<br />
<br />
The bottom line though, is that it's a terrific film. That said, even great pictures have potential to be greater and I believe my "bias" might well have improved the tale considerably.<br />
<br />
<i>"In Darkness", 2011 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film is currently in theatrical release and now playing in Canada via Mongrel Media.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/0LV4JJPZCwI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-37957330719968362052012-02-02T01:00:00.040-05:002012-02-02T10:39:47.504-05:00LE VENDEUR - Review by Greg Klymkiw - This stunning Quebecois kitchen sink drama is so raw and real, the pain evoked so acute, you'll be devastated by its quiet power while at the same time dazzled by its cinematic genius. The film had its World Premiere in Competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011 and was cited as one of Canada's Ten Best Films of the year in the Toronto International Film Festival's (TIFF) CTT. That it has not garnered one single nomination for a Genie Award is an utter disgrace! Don't miss it!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09DRoXI7-qw/TyoluSgsp8I/AAAAAAAABBU/Blj8MqEHkxw/s1600/1acfcLeVendeur.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="277" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-09DRoXI7-qw/TyoluSgsp8I/AAAAAAAABBU/Blj8MqEHkxw/s400/1acfcLeVendeur.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>Le Vendeur</b> (2011) dir. Sébastien Pilote<br />
Starring: Gilbert Sicotte, Nathalie Cavezzali, Jérémy Tessier and Jean-François Boudreau<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
It's a rare experience for me, but when it occurs, there's nothing like it. Sometimes I see a movie and after the final end-title credit has faded and the lights come up, I bolt from the cinema to be alone with my thoughts and to savour and extend the emotional response I had. Off the top of my head, other movies that made me feel this way were <i>Au Revoir Les Enfants, Les Bons Debarras, The Straight Story, Ivan's Childhood</i> and seeing the restored print of <i>Nights of Cabiria</i>. The experience, so indelibly etched into my soul, is as close to soaring as I'm ever likely to get.<br />
<br />
And now, there's a new gun in town, pardner.<br />
<br />
While its thematic concerns and narrative are both timeless and universal, and though it is set in a small factory town in Quebec, I was profoundly moved and deeply taken with just how Canadian Sébastien Pilote's astounding film <i>Le Vendeur</i> is. This staggeringly powerful, exquisitely-acted and beautifully written motion picture is easily the first genuine Quebecois heir apparent to the beautiful-yet-not-so-beautiful-loser genre of English Canadian cinema of the 60s and 70s (best exemplified by films like Don Shebib's <i>Goin' Down the Road</i>, Peter Pearson's <i>Paperback Hero</i> and Zale Dalen's <i>Skip Tracer</i>).<br />
<br />
The title character of Pilote's great film is ace car salesman Marcel Lévesque (Gilbert Sicotte). He lives in a small town on the brink of complete financial collapse - the primary industry has shut down production and locked out its workers and yet, while people are starving, losing everything, moving away and many local businesses shutting down forever, Marcel turns a blind eye to all this. He's not the undisputed Salesman of the month in the dealership for nothing - and not just one month, but EVERY month, for years on end.<br />
<br />
Financial crisis be damned! There are cars on the lot and they need to be moved.<br />
<br />
And they will be moved.<br />
<br />
At any cost.<br />
<br />
Marcel, you see, has nothing. With a healthy nest-egg and no financial commitments, he's at an age when most men would retire and enjoy life. For Marcel, life is selling cars. His late wife has been six feet under for a long time and his only real human connection is to his daughter Maryse (Nathalie Cavezzali), a hairdresser and single mother to Antoine (Jérémy Tessier). If it weren't for them, he'd have even more time to sell cars.<br />
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He is, however, in spite of this obsession, a devoted, loving and caring father and grandfather. He makes regular visits to his daughter's shop, attends local events with her, watches his grandson play hockey in the local arena whilst gently tut-tutting any suggestion from his only surviving blood relations that perhaps he should retire.<br />
<br />
He is a friend to everyone in town, yet in reality, he has no friends. His effusive manner with all he meets is part of his ongoing schtick - he knows damn well that people will buy from someone they like.<br />
<br />
And he must be liked to be successful.<br />
<br />
His colleagues love him too. It's no matter to his fellow salesmen that he outsells them ten to one. He's a great guy and because he's a great guy they all believe his prowess and luck will rub off on all of them.<br />
<br />
And then there are the locked-out workers at the factory he passes every morning on his way to the dealership. They stand in the frigid Quebec climate, snow piled up around them and warming themselves on the fires raging in steel drums as they keep vigil over their only hope for employment - their placards demanding fair treatment while the factory's fat-cats get bonuses and they potentially lose their jobs, benefits and pensions.<br />
<br />
No matter to Marcel.<br />
<br />
The unemployed need to buy huge, gas-guzzling American cars they can't afford as much as the next guy.<br />
<br />
And he's just the man to make the sales. Marcel prides himself on remembering and knowing as many details about his customers (past, present and future). For those times he needs his memory jogged, he maintains a collegial and caring rapport with the guys who work in the service department. He plies them with daily cans of Coke from the pop machine and when he spies a familiar vehicle up on a hoist, he gets as much info as he needs from the mechanics about the owner of the ailing vehicle. He then consults his files to confirm he actually sold the car (and any salient details that can breed added familiarity), finds the "mark" in the waiting room, greets him as if they've known each other their whole life and slyly presents options available to trade-in the old and buy the new.<br />
<br />
One such mark is the sad-sack François Paradis (Jean-François Boudreau), an out-of-work labourer locked out of the factory. This is a man who is unsure of where his family's next meal is coming from, but all Marcel knows is that a trade-in (at a loss to the customer), easy financing (at usurious interest rates) and cars on the lot that must be moved are the ultimate order of the day.<br />
<br />
A sale is imminent.<br />
<br />
So too is disaster. <br />
<br />
Marcel's single minded need to sell knows no bounds. When this results in not just one, but two major tragic events, Marcel holds the ultimate key to his own survival - he can sell.<br />
<br />
Pilote has crafted an astonishing screenplay - rife with details that are indelibly rooted in the realities and truths we all have experienced and/or recognize. As a director, he renders his screenplay with one jaw-droppingly poetic shot after another and yet, as exquisite as Pilote's eye is, the frame is rife with the reality of both beauty and despair.<br />
<br />
And it is so Canadian: The endless snow, the frosty breath permeating the air, the crispness of the night, the sun and clear skies beating down on a frozen Earth, the constant parade of tractors clearing the streets, removing ice from the windshields, plugging and unplugging one's car to keep the block and interior heaters working overtime in sub-zero temperatures, the hot cups of java in the local diner, steaming hot chocolate in the hockey arena, the forays onto the frozen lakes to ice-fish and the ice-and-snow-packed highways that convey people from one solitary place to another - sometimes even as solitary as death.<br />
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Pilote's mise-en-scene has been rendered with the keen eye of cinematographer Michel La Veaux and I submit this might well be one of the best shot Canadian films in years. The compositions are often painterly, but most astounding is both the lighting of the interiors (starkly beautiful with a delicate grain and considerable detail) and the stunning exteriors wherein La Veaux paints with natural light. One of the shots I'll take to my grave is an interior of a snow-packed frigid car - that special beauty of darkness and light that we've all experienced at some point or another as we enter a vehicle that's yet to be swept free of the layers of frozen precipitation. This is great shooting and puts so much of the more expressionistically flashy Quebecois cinematography to shame.<br />
<br />
Finally, the most Canadian image of all in <i>Le Vendeur</i> is the bloodied carcass of a moose who has strayed in the path of a car cascading along the black ice on a wilderness-enshrouded highway and the twisted wreckage of said vehicle that has collided with the huge, lumbering beast. I'd argue that anyone who has not seen this with their own eyes, experienced it themselves or, at least knows or knows of someone involved in such an accident can't possibly be Canadian - or, at the very least, lives a very sheltered life from one of the more characteristic experiences of Canadian life. (I've accidentally hit everything from rabbits to porcupines to coyotes to deer on the highways of northern Canada and a dear friend was invalided for life after hitting a moose. I can assure you, it's not a pretty sight.)<br />
<br />
This is Quebec. This is Canada. And this is a film replete with so many aspects of indigenous familiarity that adds to the already tremendously moving narrative of <i>Le Vendeur</i>.<br />
<br />
Yet amidst these details that speak to our culture - both English and French - there are the details of both the character and narrative which reflect realities as profound and universally recognizable as such works as Arthur Miller's "<i>Death of a Salesman</i>" or David Mamet's "<i>Glengarry Glen Ross</i>" or Joseph Heller's "<i>Something Happened</i>" or Saul Bellow's "<i>Seize the Day</i>". These are stories of men and families torn to shreds by the seeming freedom of capitalist society.<br />
<br />
And so too is Pilote's <i>Le Vendeur</i>.<br />
<br />
While watching the film, I could not get the aforementioned canon of English-Canadian loser cinema out of my head. For the townspeople who leave <i>Le Vendeur</i>'s northern Quebec - especially the young men, I thought about Joey and Pete in Shebib's <i>Goin' Down the Road</i>, leaving their small Maritime town for new horizons, yet facing equally uncertain futures once away from the nest. I imagined the future of Marcel's hockey-playing small-town grandson and wondered, if fortune allowed him a full blossoming, would he too remain a big fish in a small pond like Rick "The Marshall" Dylan (Keir Dullea), the boozing, brawling, womanizing small potatoes hockey player from Peter Pearson's <i>Paperback Hero</i>? Worse yet, I wondered if Marcel himself was actually Joey or (more likely) Pete from Shebib's masterpiece if either had stayed in their small town and channelled the malevolent drive to succeed at any or all cost as imbued in the character of John the psychopathic debt collector in Zale Dalen's <i>Skip Tracer</i>?<br />
<br />
Look, I doubt any of the aforementioned English Canadian films registered with Pilote when he wrote and directed <i>Le Vendeur</i>, but what's truly uncanny is just how connected and rooted to the English Canadian experience and aesthetic his film is. Perhaps the two solitudes are not as solitary as some would like to believe.<br />
<br />
Like those films, Pilote has crafted what may well become a masterwork of CANADIAN cinema and one that is rooted in an indigenous cultural tradition no matter what side of the French-English fence one is on.<br />
<br />
<i>Le Vendeur</i> is from Quebec.<br />
<br />
And it is truly Canadian!<br />
<br />
This is a good thing.<br />
<br />
<i>"Le Vendeur" is in limited release in English Canada via E-One Films. It begins a theatrical release in Toronto February 3 at the Alliance Atlantis Cumberland Cinema. It had its world premiere in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January of 2011 and was wisely - VERY WISELY - cited by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Canadian Top Ten (CTT). How it has not garnered one single Genie Award nomination is not only beyond me, but frankly, a disgrace. (Even the Quebec-based Jutra Awards have egg on their face for ignoring Pilote's direction, but citing the film in other categories - but the Jutras are regional and the Genies are national. They should know better.) In any event, do yourself a big favour and DO NOT MISS "LE VENDEUR" ON A BIG SCREEN WHERE IT MUST BE SEEN.</i><br />
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<b>WATCH THIS TRAILER. DON'T MISS THIS MOVIE!!! (Note to Anglos: The trailer has English subtitles, but for some reason it tags the film with its English title THE SALESMAN, but when you look for the title in your movie listings in English Canada, it will most likely be listed as "Le Vendeur" - as it should be.) And again - DON'T MISS THIS MOVIE! SEE IT THEATRICALLY ON A BIG SCREEN WHERE IT MUST BE SEEN!<br />
</b><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fuhHU_Q5Je0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><br />
<br />
The film's official website can be found <a href="http://levendeur-lefilm.com/">HERE</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-83013271182543014272012-01-30T00:01:00.018-05:002012-01-31T11:16:24.539-05:00WAKE IN FRIGHT (aka OUTBACK) - This extraordinary classic Australian film by the acclaimed Canadian director Ted Kotcheff ("The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz"), was, at a mere 30-years-old, a Cannes Palme D'Or nominee and the first film to revitalize Down Under as an important force in cinema, was ONE WEEK AWAY FROM HAVING ITS ORIGINAL NEGATIVES DESTROYED.<script type="text/javascript">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BPSa5NaPDFg/TycQQBUzUsI/AAAAAAAABAk/zUDiXM0V8rQ/s1600/1acfcwake-in-fright0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="241" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BPSa5NaPDFg/TycQQBUzUsI/AAAAAAAABAk/zUDiXM0V8rQ/s400/1acfcwake-in-fright0.png" /></a></div><br />
<b>Wake in Fright</b> – also known as: <b><i>Outback</i></b> (1971) Dir. Ted Kotcheff<br />
Starring: Donald Pleasance, Gary Bond, Chips Rafferty, Al Thomas, Jack Thompson, Peter Whittle and Sylvia Kay<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
It seems unthinkable in this day and age of film preservation and restoration that a motion picture classic made – not during the silent period of the early 20th century, but in 1971, a Cannes Palme D’Or nominee no less, and often cited (along with Nicholas Roeg’s <i>Walkabout</i> from the same year) as the beginning of Australia’s revitalization as a filmmaking force – was one week away from having all of its original negative elements destroyed. After a two-year search all over the world at his own expense, the film’s editor Anthony Buckley finally discovered the elements in the bowels of the CBS vaults in Pittsburgh (no less) in a pile of items marked to be “junked” (industry parlance for “destroyed”) and, I reiterate, ONE WEEK from the date he found them.<br />
<br />
Because of his Herculean efforts as well as the frame-by-frame restoration by the National Film and Sound Archives of Australia and Deluxe Labs, Ted Kotcheff’s <i>Wake in Fright</i> (released outside of Australia as <i>Outback</i>) has a new lease on life – to shock and mesmerize audiences all over the world. Screened at Cannes in May of 2009 (only one of two features ever to be screened on two separate occasions at Cannes) and in a special presentation featuring Kotcheff in a personal dialogue on the film at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival, <i>Wake in Fright</i> stands as one of the most powerful explorations of male savagery in the context of a topography that seems as rugged and barren as the surface of the Moon. In a world of Samuel Fuller and Sam Peckinpah, Kotcheff’s brilliant film holds its own.<br />
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I first saw the movie when I was about 13 or 14 years old as <i>Outback</i> during a late night showing on the CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation) when, during this time, Canadian content guidelines allowed for the broadcast of ANY film that came from Britain’s Commonwealth to meet said guidelines. (Because of this, we saw some really fine movies and TV series during the 60s and 70s.) It was a movie that completely bewildered and obsessed me. Even a full frame standard telecine transfer did not detract from its strangeness, its terrible and terrifying beauty and its depiction of a world so foreign to my own, yet seeming to be imbued with a quality that suggested to me, even then, that what I was seeing was the stuff of life itself. For over thirty years I looked and waited, seemingly in vain, to see it again. To think I almost didn’t have that opportunity because of the aforementioned disappearance and death sentence is now, after seeing it again much older and (hopefully) wiser (on a big screen in a pristine, lovingly restored 35mm print), makes me feel like I have been witness to a miracle.<br />
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And what a miracle this movie is! Kotcheff, the Canadian born, raised and trained director (trained via and not unlike Norman Jewison, within the legendary CBC television drama department of the late 50s and early 60s), has made his fair share of good pictures – most notably the Berlin Golden Bear Award winner <i>The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz</i>, the droll <i>Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe?</i> and the first and, by far, the best of the <i>Rambo</i> pictures <i>First Blood</i> – but nothing in his canon comes close to the mind boggling perfection of <i>Wake in Fright</i>.<br />
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Stunningly photographed by Brian West, the picture opens on one spot of the desolation that is the outback of Australia and the camera proceeds to do a slow 360 degree turn – shocking us with the reality that the land is the same whichever direction one looks and that it seems to go on forever. Into this environment we’re introduced to the impeccably groomed and fussily attired schoolteacher John Grant (Gary Bond) who is about to leave the two-building rail town for a much-needed vacation to Sydney.<br />
<br />
Grant describes his position as being enslaved to the Ministry of Education as they have required all new teachers to post a one-thousand-dollar bond to ensure they serve their entire first term in the most desolate postings imaginable. During a stopover in the bleak mining town of Bundanyabba, Grant meets Jock (played by legendary Aussie actor Chips Rafferty), an amiable policeman who plies him with beer and gets him into a card game where he loses all of his money. Stranded, perpetually drunk and eventually and brain-numbingly hung-over, Grant is hosted by a motley crew of locals (several hard drinking macho men and one extremely horny single female) who proceed to take him into the very heart of the Australian darkness.<br />
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Grant is practically force-fed steady supplies of beer, seduced by the lonely woman (which is scuttled when he pukes while trying to penetrate her), taken on a mad, drunken and vicious kangaroo hunt and finally locked in a sweaty, smelly and almost violently homoerotic coupling with the mad alcoholic doctor Tydon (a malevolent Donald Pleasance).<br />
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At first, we are shown a passive observer, but as the film progresses, he regresses to the same savage state as the men he initially holds his nose up to and he decidedly and actively engages in acts so barbaric that he is forced to confront his inner demons to the point where he is sickened to the point of contemplating suicide.<br />
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Not unlike the world of playwrights Eugene O’Neill and Edward Albee, we find ourselves in the realm of alcohol-fueled depravity and game playing. Like any respectable <i>Walpurgisnacht</i>, booze is sloshed into empty cups with abandon and full cups are drained greedily, but these pagans who celebrate ARE the tortured spirits walking amongst the living and any bonfires they create seemed to be aimed squarely at themselves. Furthermore, the movie presents a “<i>Paradise Lost</i>” situation where depravity is merely presented and much like John Milton’s “hero”, Grant makes a conscious choice to immerse himself in the foul macho shenanigans like a pig in shit.<br />
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This is one daring, nasty piece of work and without question, the movie Kotcheff will ultimately be best remembered for. He not only elicits fine performances from a stellar cast, but his mise-en-scene is pretty much perfect.<br />
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It’s also no coincidence that he is Canadian and perhaps the perfect director outside of Australia to have tackled this story so rooted in that nation’s pathology. Given that the vast majority of Canada’s population resides within 100 kms along the Canadian and U.S. border, the rest of this vast country north of the 49th parallel is not unlike the world of the Australian outback. (To all non-Canadians: just think of a land populated by <i>SCTV</i>’s hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie – seemingly benign, but below the simpleton surface, a roiling, frustrated, angry, bitter nation of moose-hunting psychopaths.)<br />
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As well, it is no surprise that it was Anthony Buckley, the editor of the film, who searched high and low for the lost negative elements, since the cutting in this picture has few equals. For the most part, things are delivered at a steady, unobtrusive pace, but when we’re in the territory of dreams or overtly physical action, the editing veers from measured to positively Eisensteinian. At times, the action borders on the hypnotic, while at other points, it’s as jarring and disturbing as the images and action engaged in by the characters.<br />
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This action, as designed by director Kotcheff, is expertly blocked. His shot choices are impeccable and most importantly, he seems perfectly at home in capturing the claustrophobic nature of both barren exteriors and interiors – where the only way to break free is to rage against the dying of the light that has, for the characters who populate this world, become life itself.<br />
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This picture rages, alright!<br />
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It’s one hell of a ride and we’re all the better for it.<br />
<br />
<i>Sadly, the movie appears to not be available on any home entertainment format outside of Australia. A PAL version is available here:</i><br />
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<iframe src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=klyfilcor-20&o=1&p=8&l=as1&asins=B0032OE6PQ&ref=qf_sp_asin_til&fc1=000000&IS2=1<1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="width:120px;height:240px;" scrolling="no" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" frameborder="0"></iframe><br />
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Here is an extended item from Australian television:<br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RF6mW1-sroI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Eu5gxt314_M/TycONx0DKgI/AAAAAAAABAY/fQcOmt8hzbc/s1600/1acfcwake-in-fright0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="241" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Eu5gxt314_M/TycONx0DKgI/AAAAAAAABAY/fQcOmt8hzbc/s400/1acfcwake-in-fright0.png" /></a></div><br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FHoTMIKUkgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-44837216992182524422012-01-29T00:00:00.044-05:002012-01-31T11:16:48.438-05:00MONSIEUR LAZHAR - French Canada's Oscar Nominee is a crock; an entertaining and well acted crock, but a crock nevertheless.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0j6q1w_LQFc/TyTwTVGHlpI/AAAAAAAABAM/u1AA9eIC3QA/s1600/1acfclazhar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="156" width="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0j6q1w_LQFc/TyTwTVGHlpI/AAAAAAAABAM/u1AA9eIC3QA/s400/1acfclazhar.jpg" /></a></div><br />
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<b>Monsieur Lazhar</b> (2011) dir. Phillipe Falardeau<br />
Starring: Fellag, Émilien Néron, Sophie Nélisse, Danielle Proulx<br />
<br />
**<br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
When a popular teacher in a Montreal public elementary school commits suicide, she is replaced by the title character <i>Monsieur Lazhar</i> (Fellag), an Algerian immigrant who helps the children heal while hiding his own political refugee status as well as the fact that his wife and children were murdered by extremist terrorists in his home country.<br />
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Lazhar blends "old world" teaching methods with clearly personal and unconventional approaches. He eschews curriculum in favour of both practical AND philosophical areas more suited to genuinely providing deeper learning to kids who have clearly been traumatized by this horrific action. His insistence upon using Balzac for dictation opens up areas of learning that otherwise would have been ignored. This even inspires a gifted young student, his pet, to suggest he try using Jack London's immortal "White Fang" instead of the Balzac. This is one of many lovely details that desperately compel one to forgive the serious storytelling flaws that keep the film from attaining the greatness it should otherwise have attained.<br />
<br />
The kids fall in love with this rascally Algerian and so do we. (There's also a delightful sub-plot where one of his colleagues falls for him romantically.) A large part of the character's winning qualities are due to Fellag's exquisite performance. Lazhar's good humour, his zest for teaching, his love of children are all worn on this magnificent actor's sleeve whilst he alternately displays, deep in his eyes, the pain of loss that haunts him.<br />
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The hurt the kids feel from the suicide of their teacher is tackled by Lazhar's sensitive handling of the problem. He makes a difference in their lives - he's a teacher AND a friend.<br />
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This all sounds like perfect Oscar bait to me: Immigrant mends his broken heart by mending the broken hearts of children. And sure enough, the movie has garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language film, a whack of Genie Award (Canada's "Oscar") nominations, a spot on the TIFF Canada Top Ten, glowing reviews, The Toronto Film Critics prize for Best Canadian feature film and excellent box office. The movie is well made in so many respects (lovely mise-en-scene, great performances all around and a heart nestled firmly in the right place), but the story itself is rife with far too many lapses in logic and/or credibility for the movie to be taken seriously as anything but a feel-good wallow for the less-discriminating.<br />
<br />
Lazhar's journey allows HIM to live with the pain and guilt he feels for his own family being slaughtered by extremists in Algeria and make no mistake - this NOTION is profoundly moving, but it's an element of the tale that sadly loses the depth it could have had.<br />
<br />
The narrative's first major stumbling block occurs early on when it is revealed that there are no takers for the replacement position because of the perceived stigma attached to replacing a teacher who has hung herself in her own classroom. This plot detail stunned me. Things might be different in <i>La Belle Province</i>, but given the fact that there are jobless teachers all over the country who can't get work, let alone steady work, it's pretty much impossible to buy that the school's principal (Danielle Proulx) can't fill the open spot.<br />
<br />
Granted, things in Quebec tend to march to the beat of their own drum more than in English Canada (or for that matter, the rest of the world), but given the strength of unions - particularly teaching unions - issues of seniority, etc. would definitely come into play here no matter what the circumstance.<br />
<br />
I also grant that over ten years ago there was a weird generational cusp period all over North America where a teacher shortage did indeed exist and substitute teachers with little or no qualifications were hired at the discretion of principals in emergency situations. The movie appears to be contemporary and if, at any point it emphasizes being set during the turn of the new millennium, it does so rather ineffectively.<br />
<br />
Here's the problem with such a lack of attention to these details. All the aforementioned speed bumps paraded through my thoughts while watching the movie and severely impeded my ability to go with the flow. <br />
<br />
Further to the above, then, is that Lazhar is hired by merely dropping off his resume, expressing an emphatic interest in teaching AND the fake excuse the movie delivers about not being able to find a replacement for the teacher who snapped her neck. Again, the requirements to get a teaching job with any school board are so stringent and the hiring process so carefully regulated, that this is absolutely impossible to swallow. (Sure, stuff can slip through the cracks, but for this to register narratively in a believable manner, would have required a much more careful set-up.)<br />
<br />
Other impediments to the flow of the drama are the fact that Lazhar is required to do is fill out some Ministry forms shoved at him by the principal and that while awaiting a ruling from the courts as to his eligibility to be considered a landed immigrant on the basis of political asylum, he seems to be completely oblivious to the seriousness of misrepresenting himself in order to get a job as a teacher. Astonishingly, we know early on that he actually ran a restaurant in Algeria and that his late wife was, in fact, a teacher. Surely such an understandable need to continue her work in the "new world" is a lovely character-touch, but is not at all exploited for its value in terms of both the moral issue of misrepresentation and the tension/conflict this could have added to the narrative.<br />
<br />
Some might argue that all movies (and all stories, for that matter) require - to certain degrees - a suspension of disbelief. Yes, true; to an extent. But given that the above elements are so huge, so overwhelming that no matter how beautifully acted and directed the proceedings are, no matter how exquisite individual scenes and sequences are, no matter how important the themes of healing and acceptance are - if a movie doesn't do its job and address narrative elements that have so much potential to provide stumbling blocks, then the picture is not doing its job - period.<br />
<br />
I'm willing to concede that this problem might have more to do with the original source material used to adapt the tale to film. Evelyne de la Cheneliere's play "Bachir Lazhar", a one-man show, would have been written closer to the period when a teaching shortage existed. That this appears to have been completely ignored in the film's journey from stage to screen is, however, a major lapse.<br />
<br />
Given director Falardeau's welcome lack of the annoying Quebecois stylistic excess of the majority of the province's artier fare and his attempt to provide a mise-en-scene that's rooted in reality, it's shocking to me that the screenplay never bothered to address any of the above issues in any serious fashion. I still can't, for the life of me, figure out (or buy) how Lazhar got the job in light of everything detailed above.<br />
<br />
As the movie unfolds, it's very hard to just sit back and enjoy the movie. I'd argue these holes and unaddressed issues would have all been easy fixes. In fact, if more had been made of the fact that Lazhar had to have brazenly and intentionally falsified his qualifications, there might even have been added elements of suspense in terms of his courtroom battle to gain political refugee status.<br />
<br />
If <i>Monsieur Lazhar</i> was some Hollywood nonsense like <i>Dangerous Minds</i>, it might have been a bit easier to swallow, but because Falardeau is clearly a gifted filmmaker dealing with a story infused with important thematic issues of healing in a world so rife with strife, the narrative flaws are a bitter pill. It is not only hard to swallow, but ultimately, impossible to swallow. The movie tries to shove an oversized horse pill down our throats and in so doing, inspires our collective gag reflexes to work overtime.<br />
<br />
So much in this film is so beautiful and yet, in spite of a desire to fall in love with it, I was unable to do so because of its sloppy storytelling.<br />
<br />
That said, the tale's dishonesty might be enough to win it a surprise Oscar over the powerful Iranian favourite <i>A Separation</i>. Such a win, however, might well open the floodgates for more of the same. This will be a good thing, if any subsequent works inspired by <i>Monsieur Lazhar</i> take better care addressing basic issues of logic.<br />
<br />
<i>"Monsieur Lazhar" is nominated for a Best Foreign Language Oscar and currently in theatrical release via e-One. In Toronto, it is playing to sellout houses at the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF Bell Lightbox.</i><br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FHoTMIKUkgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-59242302533675290722012-01-24T11:00:00.074-05:002012-01-31T11:17:20.016-05:00The TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival) CTT (Canada's Top Ten) has just wrapped its run at TIFF Bell LightBox and the Genie Award Nominations for outstanding achievement in Canadian Film have just been announced. This should be a time of celebration, but a dark cloud is hanging over these events and raining on the parade. In a country where the largest, most powerful "Canadian-owned" exhibition chain refuses to uphold its corporate responsibility to Canadian Culture, every little bit helps.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rJrUYsJfaRY/Tx5bm3g0a5I/AAAAAAAAA_c/KFpBiCDfeHQ/s1600/1acfcctt-banner.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="201" width="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rJrUYsJfaRY/Tx5bm3g0a5I/AAAAAAAAA_c/KFpBiCDfeHQ/s400/1acfcctt-banner.gif" /></a></div><br />
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<br />
<b>WITHER CANADIAN CINEMA?<br />
CELEBRATION, PLEASE - NOT CASTIGATION!<br />
CINEPLEX ENTERTAINMENT IS ALREADY DOING<br />
A VERY GOOD JOB IN THE LATTER DEPARTMENT!</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
When the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Bell LightBox presented a week-long celebration of Canadian cinema earlier this month - screening all the features and shorts selected in its annual Canada's Top Ten (CTT) - a number of print and online articles sparked a flurry of hot debate on such social networking sites as Twitter and Facebook. I can also attest to such conversations being hotly debated in any number of face-to-face social situations. Canadian filmmakers have much time on their hands to debate such matters. ("I'm between films," was the oft-heard remark prefacing most verbal trashing of TIFF's CTT.)<br />
<br />
No sooner did the dust clear from those debates when rumblings began to surface from within the roiling volcano of Canuckle industry pundits and players. On the eve of the big day when The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCT) would announce nominations for the 32nd annual Genie Awards (Canada's - ahem - "Oscars"), ruminations of the same kind began to surface.<br />
<br />
Would the new ACCT head honcho Helga Stephenson (former TIFF topper), a leaner (and supposedly meaner) Board of Directors, as well as substantial amendments to the Genie Awards entry fees and qualifications actually make a difference in rendering the awards relevant to Canadians outside of the movie business? (Or, for that matter, anyone living north of Dupont Street in downtown Toronto?)<br />
<br />
Well, scrutiny and slags are just fine, but I have to admit that far too many pundits and players in Canada (including, sadly, more said players and pundits who really ought to know better) seem, I think, to be looking in the wrong directions to level their volleys of criticism. TIFF's CTT and the ACCT Genie Awards are not it.<br />
<br />
In English Canada, there is one primary target: Cineplex Entertainment. The "Canadian" exhibition chain owns and/or controls more screens than anyone in the country. They'll always argue that their only concern is the stockholders and that they'll play any Canadian movie as long as it makes money. That's all well and good when it comes to no-brainer programming choices like the start-studded Cronenberg spanking-fest <i>A Dangerous Method</i> and others of this ilk (no matter how acclaimed or not they might be), but what about the rest of the product?<br />
<br />
A secondary target for scrutinous ire-infused debate on the state of Canada's domestic motion picture product is the gaggle of domestic film distributors that adhere to the status quo, but in all fairness to them, they're only going to spend money on the marketing necessary to keep the product on screens if they actually GET screens. Cineplex Entertainment is stingy with those. They have far too many Hollywood movies to play (often to empty or near-empty houses given the ridiculous number of screens said product hogs).<br />
<br />
There's no two ways about it. English Canadian cinema lags far behind other indigenous industries outside of North America in terms of audience support for its own work. Canadian audiences are not quick to embrace their own cinema, but in order to embrace it at all, the work needs venues. This, of course, is not (and has never been) a problem in Quebec as the province has had very stringent guidelines regarding Quebec-based distributors and a more-than-level playing field for the exhibition of French-language product - thus allowing for the development of audiences ravenous for homegrown movies.<br />
<br />
I'd also argue it's not necessarily always the fault of the product, either. Many decent, perfectly entertaining and/or artistically challenging movies get little chance to be seen.<br />
<br />
If screens cannot be secured and held onto, there is no real way to adequately develop an interest in domestic product. Until Cineplex Entertainment gets off its lazy corporate duff and waggles its piggy tail in the direction of Canadian cinema and - even at a loss - does its corporate duty with respect to AGGRESSIVELY making DECENT screens available to said product, thus fulfilling their responsibility in supporting cultural initiatives in this country, then things are going to continue their snail-paced incremental changes.<br />
<br />
Until Cineplex Entertainment does the right thing, any efforts that can be made to promote Canadian cinema must be welcomed and supported.<br />
<br />
This is where TIFF's CTT and the Genie Awards come in - promotion and celebration!!!<br />
<br />
End of story.<br />
<br />
Does this mean both entities are above scrutiny? Of course, not. However, I'm not sure the scrutiny applied in recent weeks has proven all that effective other than getting noses already out of joint - out of joint even further.<br />
<br />
And for what?<br />
<br />
With TIFF's CTT, the first volley in print came from film critic Norman Wilner in that pseudo-left-wing-rag I (stereotypically, but genuinely) use to line my budgie cage when I can't get enough free copies of the Toronto Star (the latter being freely dispensed at flea markets, home shows and, on occasion, WalMart). Wilner's piece asserted that "the problem" with TIFF's CTT is "a larger tendency in Canadian cinema" to elevate "our filmmakers to Great Cultural Hopes as soon as they wow a festival or win a prize, never reassessing them once they’re up."<br />
<br />
Huh?<br />
<br />
When they're up? <br />
<br />
Up?<br />
<br />
From what? Bed? An erection? A snort of coke?<br />
<br />
Wilner attempts to elaborate on the aforementioned thesis (as it were) by suggesting that "when someone like Cronenberg has an off year, his picture still gets in because the potential media outcry if we exclude the country’s most esteemed working filmmaker would be unimaginable."<br />
<br />
I doubt anyone WOULD raise much of a hue and cry when a genuinely dreadful (or even good) picture is excluded. That includes Cronenberg. Wilner does, however, offer-up an interesting question that might have had more weight (and reason for serious analysis) if he'd bothered to elaborate properly on how or why he believes a "potential media outcry" would occur.<br />
<br />
Wilner's question is thus: "But what if that exclusion led to an honest conversation about the way the Canadian entertainment media pander to the idea of national treasures?"<br />
<br />
Great question.<br />
<br />
For the life of me, I can't even begin to fathom why Canadian critics were so kind to Paul Gross' execrable <i>Passchendaele</i>. This is a movie that deserved to be laughed off by every critic with anything resembling taste, intelligence and/or self-respect.<br />
<br />
The movie STUNK!<br />
<br />
End of story.<br />
<br />
The domestic boxoffice gross for <i>Passchendaele</i> (such as it was) was bought and paid for with a whole lot of tax dollars (directly and indirectly), so I doubt one can genuinely say the picture was a hit. And to reiterate, it was equally disturbing that most of Canada's critics didn't use their prose to wipe Gross' shit from their collective asses instead of politely spreading the falsehood that it was a noble effort worth seeing.<br />
<br />
Wilner uses <i>Passchendaele</i>, along with <i>Barney's Version</i> as examples of the sort of Cunuckle-headed movies that "were at best competent stabs at complex material that desperately needed an artistic vision behind them" and cites the ludicrous "buzz" on both that was "whipped up by friendly newspapers for months before the films reached theatres, the better to convince the public that seeing these films was an act of patriotism."<br />
<br />
That said, it still doesn't adequately support his notion that the exclusion of those films on the CTT would have caused explosive jets of indignant diarrhea from the media. Those critics who shamed themselves by being polite to <i>Passchendaele</i> were, no doubt, secretly delighted (save for the brain dead amongst them) that someone had the guts to ignore it and I cannot locate an even passing mention criticizing the film's exclusion from the CTT. (That the miserably directed <i>Barney's Version</i> secured a CTT nod will always be beyond me, but I suspect not too many would have cried foul if it HAD been excluded.)<br />
<br />
Paul Corupe's Canuxploitation! site appears to side with Wilner unequivocally, going so far to title its analysis of the CTT "Canada's Token 10?" Corupe proclaims: "If you only read one article about the Top 10, make it Norman Wilner’s recent piece for Toronto alt-weekly NOW, 'Canuck Conundrum,' which takes issue with the TIFF panel’s reliance on established and celebrated Canadian directors–even when their latest work is not considered up to par."<br />
<br />
Corupe elevates Wilner's piece in lofty enough terms that I'm reminded (with tongue firmly planted in cheek) of Pauline Kael comparing the New York Film Festival's premiere of <i>Last Tango in Paris</i> to the unveiling of <i>Le Sacre du Printemps</i>.<br />
<br />
In fairness to Wilner, he does indeed cite David Cronenberg's loathsome <i>A Dangerous Method</i> for what it is and calls it "a dud", but again, this does little to PROPERLY support his assertion that its exclusion from the CTT would have raised media ire.<br />
<br />
I do agree most wags would certainly have been tut-tutting, but the bigger and more interesting question is, why did critics (not just in Canada) rave about this movie? In a sense, <i>A Dangerous Method</i> is not unlike an eager Bukkake recipient of critical, egghead and arthouse-snob jets of spunk, splashing ever-so voluminously upon its greedy face and into its wide open mouth.<br />
<br />
(Oh, and as a side note, allow me to clarify that I use the term "arthouse-snob" to describe pseuds who don't REALLY like art films, but prefer movies that make them THINK they're seeing art.)<br />
<br />
Look, there's no way this movie would have been excluded from the CTT - none! The buzz on the picture has been extremely positive world wide. IF all the aforementioned loved the movie as much as they did, there's no way in hell the CTT jury wouldn't have also. <i>A Dangerous Method</i> is no <i>Passchendaele</i>. Tons of people loved the former all over the world, whilst the latter drew mostly polite accolades domestically and derision and/or indifference everywhere else. And frankly, in spite of the fact that Wilner acknowledges that <i>A Dangerous Method</i> is "inert and schematic and doesn’t illuminate its subject" (in addition to the aforementioned "dud" declaration), I'd argue he's being as polite as all those other Canucks who politely hailed <i>Passchendaele</i> when he says that Cronenberg's snore-fest is "a stately and well-acted drama".<br />
<br />
Hey, that's reason enough for movies to win Oscars.<br />
<br />
(<i>The King's Speech</i>, anyone?)<br />
<br />
For his part, Corupe cites "Peter Morris’ essential 1994 article <i>"In Our Own Eyes: The Canonizing of Canadian Film”</i> [which] asks some worthy questions about the way certain kinds of Canadian films have been canonized over the last few decades while others, many equally deserving, are brushed aside. Imagine, for example, an alternate Canadian film landscape where John Paizs’ superior <i>Crime Wave</i> scooped the 1985 Best Picture Genie from the actual winner, the far less essential <i>My American Cousin</i>.<br />
<br />
I am probably one of Paizs' biggest champions. I've seen <i>Crime Wave</i> more times that I can easily remember. Its genius, humour and innovation have few equals in Canada and most importantly, Paizs paved the way for an entire generation of Canadian filmmakers with his indie-minded vision. Even Guy Maddin will admit how much of his career he owes to John Paizs.<br />
<br />
While Corupe's comment is clearly focusing on the landscape that might well have been affected by such a win (and not suggesting that the movie necessarily should have won the Genie), I suspect that the Genie-snubbing of Paizs and many of those who followed him is part of what contributes to a vibrant counter-culture. Alas, many whacko indie-minded Canuck films found much more eager audience support outside Canada's borders and in spite of the unquestionable brilliance of <i>Crime Wave</i>, I suspect its magnificent pop-culture sensibilities derived from such deliciously oddball sources as 50s crime pulp mixed with the bizarre Canadian tradition of National Film Board and corporate filmmaking kept it from exploding in the same European territories that many other indie Canuckle pics did. It was bereft - thankfully - of snob appeal and it truly found its way into the world as cult film via homevideo during a strange period (the 80s and 90s) when many THEATRICAL venues for cult product were closing down or changing their programming strategies to be second run cinemas. <br />
<br />
That said, it ultimately wasn't necessary for a movie like <i>Crime Wave</i>, which will be revered and remembered when most Canadian films are rendered to a slag heap, to win a Genie Award. Paizs, and by extension, <i>Crime Wave</i>, having to join any club that would have someone like him or his film as a member seems unthinkable. Besides, I don't recall David Lynch's <i>Eraserhead</i>, John Waters' <i>Pink Flamingos</i> or Russ Meyer's <i>Faster Pussycat Kill Kill</i> winning any Oscars. They will, however, live a whole lot longer than, say, <i>The King's Speech</i>.<br />
<br />
I agree wholeheartedly with Wilner when he says: "When we exalt filmmakers into icons, we stop seeing them as artists who have hits and misses. If you can do no wrong, you can never be challenged, and any perceived failings in your work must be the failings of the audience." Hell, I'm more than guilty on that front when it comes to John Ford - I even like <i>Seven Women</i> for Christ's sake!<br />
<br />
Bottom line: Those who love film ALWAYS tend to "exalt filmmakers into icons" and there are any number of filmmakers on the CTT list who, frankly, deserve it. (For me, it's Guy Maddin. Yeah-yeah, full disclosure: I'm an old friend and produced some of his movies. Big deal. I love them all. Well, maybe all save for one, but I'm not telling.) Hell, even Wilner acknowledges that Cronenberg is "a legitimate artist and a Canadian treasure... [and looks forward] to each new project that bears his name, and always will."<br />
<br />
<i>Moi aussi!</i><br />
<br />
All that said, there aren't enough of us who hate <i>A Dangerous Method</i> and can see it for what it really is and that alone, I suspect, is what DEMANDS inclusion on the CTT list.<br />
<br />
Wilner is completely off-base when he states: "Pretending it’s one of the year’s best films does no one any favours. It just makes it look like TIFF is playing favourites – and why wouldn’t they? Cronenberg’s name guarantees media coverage."<br />
<br />
Huh?<br />
<br />
Who, pray tell, is pretending?<br />
<br />
Most of Wilner's colleagues, domestically and internationally think it's one of the year's best. Do you really think THEY are playing favourites? No. As wrong-headed as they might be on this one, the accolades all seem genuine. Why then would Wilner assert that TIFF is playing favourites by including it on the CTT? As for the media coverage, Cronenberg's movie had ALREADY been afforded plenty of support long before the CTT was announced.<br />
<br />
Corupe asserts "that Morris’ notion is taking on extra importance this year, perhaps due to an increasing disconnect between 'officially' canonized CanCon and the varied Canadian films that audiences (and, obviously, more vocal critics) now want to see. It may also be a symptom of frustration with the way Canadian film industry is portrayed so reductively by lists and award shows–they seem to infer that the only game in town is a handful of the same old established icons."<br />
<br />
Sorry, I'm not swallowing that one. How does this differ in any other country? It doesn't.<br />
<br />
Corupe offers up the old "national insecurity" argument to condemn the notion that Canada "reassures" itself that our "filmmakers are global leaders" by "awarding them the same homegrown prizes every few years". Ho-hum. That's as boringly Canadian as the assertions made by all of the other CTT critics.<br />
<br />
Wilner, however, astutely asserts "that leaving out a lesser work by an established filmmaker might actually generate a conversation this country needs to have about how we see our cinema." Yeah, it would, but I just don't see how this has happened with the 2011 CTT? Other than <i>A Dangerous Method</i>, which really isn't a good example to boost this argument, Wilner dashes off Sarah Polley's <i>Take This Waltz</i> as being "problematic but genuinely felt" and dismisses its inclusion as being merely the result of "star power".<br />
<br />
Other than Polley and Cronenberg, Wilner's piece offers no real backup to the assertions he makes that "lesser work" was included in the CTT. (I agree the Cronenberg stinks, but its inclusion makes sense and frankly, I think Polley's film is terrific and a much braver work than the universally loved <i>Away From Her</i>.)<br />
<br />
Corupe seems to extol the flawed arguments in Wilner's article whilst reporting upon "a panel discussion on TIFF’s picks, as published on Cinema Scope magazine’s blog. The participants only briefly touch on the idea of 'pandering' that Wilner notes, with AV Club Toronto editor John Semely again singling out <i>A Dangerous Method</i> as a curious selection, but the bulk of the conversation questions TIFF’s canonization of certain types of films over others, and even suggests that TIFF’s list is behind the curve of contemporary filmmaking trends."<br />
<br />
<i>A Dangerous Method</i> is, according to John Semley, a "curious selection"? I reiterate: there's enough reason to suggest it isn't.<br />
<br />
When Corupe reports upon the Cinemascope panel suggestion that the CTT titles are "behind the curve of contemporary filmmaking trends", I can only, ladies and gentlemen, present you with the dull, predictable 2012 Academy Awards nominations. Token nods to the genuinely great <i>Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy</i>, nothing for Lars Von Trier's <i>Melancholia</i>, dick-all for Roman Polanski's <i>Carnage</i>, a completely disgraceful shutout for <i>50/50</i> (which boasted one of the best screenplays in years) and nary a wisp of acknowledgment in the direction of truly ahead-of-the-curve works as Bobcat Goldthwait's <i>God Bless America</i>, Jean-Baptiste Léonetti’s <i>Carré blanc</i>, Terence Davies' <i>The Deep Blue Sea</i>, Scott Leberecht's <i>Midnight Son</i>, William Friedkin's <i>Killer Joe</i>, Jeff Nichols' <i>Take Shelter</i> (I mean really! A nomination for Jean Dujardin's prancing, preening pantomime over Michael Shannon for Best Actor?) and among many, many others, Lucky McKee's <i>The Woman</i>.<br />
<br />
How is it, again, that the CTT choices are "behind the curve of contemporary filmmaking trends" when one can compile several lists of a myriad of films that have NOT been acknowledged by the Oscars this (or any) year (and, for that matter, any number of critical Ten Best lists that stuck like flies to shit on mostly tried and true stodge-fests)?<br />
<br />
Christ, at least the CTT has Guy Maddin's <i>Keyhole</i> on it. Whether anyone loves it or hates it, the movie is definitely ahead of the curve. There's NOTHING out there like it.<br />
<br />
For his part, Wilner too swims in the same waters as Corupe and the Cinemascope panel on this. He states that "Far too often, we assign merit to a project based on the talent attached or the source material." We? We, who? Canadians? Uh, I think not, Norm. To the former, I give you the undeserved Jeff Bridges Oscar nod for <i>Crazy Heart</i> and for the latter, allow me to provide you my almost foolproof method of picking winners in the Best Short Drama or Short Documentary Oscars (none of which I ever see prior to the Awards telecast). I read the synopses and look for subjects that include - in this order - the Holocaust, the environment and the homeless.<br />
<br />
This is not a Canadian problem. In fact, I'm not even sure it IS a problem.<br />
<br />
It's just the way things are. <br />
<br />
Wilner's article also opened the other tin of that dreaded clostridium botulinum bacteria - the much-hated (mostly, it would seem, by me) notion that we must always be celebrating what's new and fresh. Give me a break. I'm not just being a curmudgeon here when I say how sick and tired I am of every Tom, Dick and Harry going out of their way to extol the virtues of the new and unsung. Wilner suggests he'd "much rather see an awards list that celebrates the actual passion expressed by younger, hungrier filmmakers" and cites the CTT-acknowledged "first-timers" Nathan (<i>Edwin Boyd</i>) Moraldo and Jason (<i>Hobo With a Shotgun</i>) Eisener as worthy inclusions on this list. Maybe so, but I'd argue that both films, whatever their merits, are NOT the sort of cutting-edge first features worthy of citation based on the "passionate" ideals of "younger" and "hungrier". If these are criterion by which to present lists of the "best", where then are the works of the truly mad geniuses comprising that Winnipeg-spawned filmmaking collective Astron-6? These psychos gave us the magnificent bum-blasting $10,000-budgeted splatter-fest of the funniest and highest order <i>Father's Day</i> and the phenomenally imaginative and hilarious $1000-budgeted (!!!!!) <i>Manborg</i>. (Full disclosure: I don't personally know any of these miscreants of cinema brilliance who hail from Winnipeg, but I AM from Winnipeg and have, like every member of the Astron-6 collective, consumed the drinking water from all those 'Peg pipes laden with delicious and nutricious asbestos.)<br />
<br />
Besides, there's a reason more established filmmakers with a great track record are oft-cited in such lists. They've got more than "hunger", "youth" and "passion" on their side, they've generally got the sort of life experience and canon of work that yields movies that end up, more often than not, being imbued with a universality that extends well beyond the ephemeral <i>frissons</i> that tub-thumpers for "new and fresh" ignore. (For example, I've had my fair share of problems with centenarian filmmaker Manoel de Oliveira's recent output, but it ultimately speaks with the voice of experience and I'll take his flawed work over the best of some snazzy young turk with very little to say - ANYTIME!)<br />
<br />
Hell, even most of the predictable Oscar nominees (including ones I hate) are, at the very least, ABOUT something.<br />
<br />
Corupe, wisely notes that the CTT has often acknowledged very cool Canuckle genre fare. As a genre geek, I've ALWAYS appreciated this. I, however, did (as noted above) not register surprise over the inclusion of <i>Hobo With a Shotgun</i> - compared to the work of Astron-6, the movie is extremely conventional. I also did a major double-take when, during the Cinemascope roundtable, The Grid's Jason Anderson lamented the absence of <i>The Corridor</i> - this was hardly the paragon of genre excellence some might think it is. I mean, come on - a bunch of smelly guys in a cabin in the woods inspired to kill each other by some mysterious force? Dullsville, baby, Dullsville. And nary a single babe to spice up the proceedings.<br />
<br />
I certainly do share Wilner's shock at the CTT exclusion of Ingrid Veninger's phenomenal <i>i am a good person/i am a bad person</i> and certainly it's a better movie than <i>A Dangerous Method</i> or <i>Starbuck</i>, but here's one thing that needs to be addressed: LISTS ARE SUBJECTIVE!<br />
<br />
End of story.<br />
<br />
In fact, the way in which the CTT is administered seems really fair. There isn't a single person on the jury who shouldn't be there. This year's crop of jury members seemed especially stellar and more than up to the task. As Curtis Woloschuk astutely notes in the Cinemascope roundtable: "Ultimately, I think it is inevitable that the responsibility for an undertaking like CTT will fall to an established gatekeeper. With TIFF’s cultural clout, it ensures that a worthy panel of voters can be assembled and that the press (and, in turn, public) will take notice when the results have been tabulated."<br />
<br />
And as for the various notions akin to Art Bell-styled conspiracy theories about the selection process, I'd pretty much have to say they're a crock. As Woloschuk adds: "I tend to believe that CTT represents what the voters, for better or worse, truly believed to be the year’s best films." <br />
<br />
Wilner ends his piece by saying: "And, yeah, you can write all of this off as a critic cranking about how the 2011 list doesn’t properly represent his values or opinions. But before you do, ask yourself whether it represents yours."<br />
<br />
Norm, of course it doesn't. Neither do your lists, my lists or anyone else's lists.<br />
<br />
They represent those who compiled them.<br />
<br />
And you know what? Whether people agree with the choices or not, I agree wholeheartedly with Woloschuk that the CTT promotes Canadian Cinema and gets people talking about Canadian films and seeing them (at least) in Toronto (and as a result, hopefully beyond), English Canada's undisputed Centre of Excellence (as a Winnipegger this sad truth makes me gag).<br />
<br />
I generally detest juries and committees. I especially think Canada relies too heavily on them. I also don't want to seem like I'm waving some sort of flag for TIFF. They too have ignored many important films within their programming of the film festival proper (I'll never forgive them for not showing Monte Hellman's <i>Road to Nowhere</i>) and even more maddeningly, they've often scuttled behind the safe walls of "the committee". Just as annoying, I don't buy the other wall TIFF and others hide behind. An insider at TIFF told me that Hellman's film was excluded from the festival because "WE" didn't have room in the program for it. My response? Fuck off, it's Monte Hellman. MAKE ROOM!!! <br />
<br />
Lord knows, I've had a few of my own films not invited to TIFF and/or turned down for financing from various agencies, investors, broadcasters and distributors with that cowardly Canuck preface of, "The committee felt that…"<br />
<br />
My response is, "Yeah, but what the fuck do YOU think?"<br />
<br />
They never say. It's so much easier to hide.<br />
<br />
On the flip side I've found myself on all manner of selection committees in this business. It's not something I've ever been happy about - finding consensus is what leads to lowest common denominators - but during the aftermath, when I have to face the rejected, I can't ever recall resorting to "we". That said, I always enjoyed saying "I" when <i>I</i> was right and the committee/jury was wrong. To quote James Cagney in Raoul Walsh's <i>Strawberry Blonde</i>, "That's just the kind of hairpin I am."<br />
<br />
"We" is such a detestable word. Like a mantra, the words "the committee", "the jury" or, finally, the dreaded "we" assault you as a filmmaker as deeply as a garotte slipped round your neck - from behind, of course. Canadians have a problem with looking you in the eye while they gut you with a <i>Rambo</i> blade. Happily, Steve Gravestock, TIFF's head honcho of all things Canuck has managed a fantastic way to make use of a jury and in his job as a programmer, he's one of the few people - in my experience - to ever use the word "I" instead of the royal "we".<br />
<br />
This is what a mensch does.<br />
<br />
Mice do the other.<br />
<br />
And now, on the eve of the Genie Awards, nonsense about <i>their</i> value is being bandied about. Some of it I even agree with, but you know what? They're trying to make it better. Helga Stephenson is at the helm and she too is one of the real ones. I expect to hear the word "I" coming from her far more than the loathsome "we".<br />
<br />
Sure, I have a whole mess of quibbles about the Genie nominations this year - I hate how Guy Maddin, for one, has been hosed bigtime with a mere one nomination. That said, given how gloriously insane <i>Keyhole</i> is, it stands the biggest chance of all the nominees and eventual winners to live well beyond this year and in particular, this year's Genie Awards. The other reprehensible genie snub is Mike Goldbach's stunning black comedy <i>Daydream Nation</i> with one token nod. This, for me, was the Canadian equivalent to the recent Oscar snub leveled at <i>50/50</i>. That both of these films had some of the best writing of the year in Canadian (Mike Goldbach) and American cinema (Will Reiser) respectively, I can't begin to fathom either picture's exclusion in at least THAT category. And the biggest Genie hosing of all is Maddin-related: HOW IN THE NAME OF CHRIST DID THE BRILLIANT LOUIS NEGIN NOT GET NOMINATED FOR HIS GREAT SUPPORTING TURN IN <i>KEYHOLE</i>?<br />
<br />
As for Norman Wilner's article - I've been especially hard on him. But allow me to be Canadian for just a second and say that in spite of the low-rub ink advertising rag that printed his article, he's a much better critic and writer than the column inches and word count he gets actually allows him to be. For all my disagreements with the article, it finally did what it was supposed to do. Bloggers blogged, tweeters twittered, wags wagged and the cocktail/canape set did what they always do when they don't really read what they're reading and accept what they want at face value to bolster whatever pathetic sour grapes are giving them the runs.<br />
<br />
Wilner sparked debate and perhaps, in his own way, was as tub-thumping as those Cunuckles who extolled the virtues of <i>Passchendaele</i>. The difference is that the debate Wilner's article inspired contributed to further awareness of Canadian Cinema. (Those who rejoiced over the, uh, genius that was <i>Passchendaele</i> did little but pay lip service to it, and perhaps even bolstered the nay-sayers.)<br />
<br />
As Corupe himself admits in summarizing the views of the Cinemascope panel: "It all boils down to one thing – the purpose of the Canada’s Top 10 intiative is to promote Canadian films and filmmakers to audiences. It’s about getting names of films in front of potential viewers."<br />
<br />
So, if that's the case, what, I ask, is the problem in the first place?<br />
<br />
<i>Norman Wilner's full article can be found <a href="http://www.nowtoronto.com/movies/story.cfm?content=184590">HERE</a>, Paul Corupe's <a href="http://blog.canuxploitation.com/2012/01/canadas-token-10/">HERE</a> and the Cinemascope roundtable <a href="http://cinema-scope.com/wordpress/cs-online/canada’s-top-2011-the-roundtable/">HERE</a>.<br />
<br />
Canada’s 2011 Top Ten Feature films as chosen by the TIFF CTT Jury were:<br />
<br />
Café de flore — Jean-Marc Vallée (Alliance Films)<br />
A Dangerous Method — David Cronenberg (Entertainment One)<br />
Edwin Boyd — Nathan Morlando (Entertainment One)<br />
Hobo With a Shotgun — Jason Eisener (Alliance Films)<br />
Keyhole — Guy Maddin (Entertainment One)<br />
Marécages — Guy Édoin (Mongrel Media)<br />
Monsieur Lazhar — Philippe Falardeau (Entertainment One)<br />
Starbuck — Ken Scott (Entertainment One)<br />
Take This Waltz — Sarah Polley (Mongrel Media)<br />
Le Vendeur — Sébastien Pilote (Entertainment One)<br />
<br />
Oh, a note about NOW Magazine's low-rub ink. When one is in a pinch (so to speak, loaf-wise), the paper still leaves a lot to be desired as toilet tissue.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FHoTMIKUkgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-31357255824178956582012-01-23T00:01:00.003-05:002012-01-31T11:17:49.351-05:00DANCING IN THE DARK - Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Open Vault Series at TIFF Bell LightBox presents Leon Marr's classic 1986 film adaptation of Joan Barfoot's novel examining the mental breakdown of a model wife infused with 50s values.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m5ZaQYp0n1k/TxzSTrcMjPI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/xVZtFO-fHqI/s1600/1acfcdancerinthedark.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="400" width="296" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m5ZaQYp0n1k/TxzSTrcMjPI/AAAAAAAAA_Q/xVZtFO-fHqI/s400/1acfcdancerinthedark.png" /></a></div><br />
<b>Dancing in the Dark</b> (1986) dir. Leon Marr<br />
Starring Martha Henry, Neil Munro, Richard Monette, Rosemary Dunsmore<br />
<br />
<b>***1/2</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>"I'd like to go home, please. I didn't get the cleaning done."</i><br />
- Edna's final words to the court before sentence is pronounced in Leon Marr's <i>DANCING IN THE DARK</i></blockquote><br />
If there are greater performances in Canadian cinema than that rendered by Martha Henry in <i>Dancing in the Dark</i>, I'd sure like to know what they are. Released in 1986 on the heels of triumphant screenings at film festivals in Cannes, New York and Toronto, Henry's portrait of a woman who finds freedom in her own thoughts, represents the heights all actors in Canada were henceforth forced to aspire to.<br />
<br />
Henry raised the bar and it remains where she left it - surely as untouched, unsullied and soaring as high as Edna, the character she plays who is released from the servitude of patriarchal expectations when she's incarcerated in an asylum for the criminally insane.<br />
<br />
Twenty five years after <i>Dancing in the Dark</i> first electrified audiences worldwide, it is now, with the passage of time, easy to see why. For all the strides and advancement made by the feminist movement to that point, the expectations placed upon women of a certain generation - especially those within the middle class - remained locked in a 1950s deep freezer.<br />
<br />
Subservience and complacency were still considered virtues of womanhood among a generation of men and women - especially within the rigid WASP Presbyterianism of Toronto and virtually any enclave in Canada ruled by a need to live up to the homogeneous perfection (and/or aspiration to) the values instilled in English Canadians by the Old Money power brokers. A woman had to be June Cleaver in <i>extremis</i> and this is precisely the character Martha Henry plays so brilliantly.<br />
<br />
Seamlessly shifting from present to future, from internal to external, director Leon Marr leads us through a world where Edna - on a daily basis - provides a perfect home for hubby. She has no voice, no identity, no other purpose on this earth other than to clean, cook, lend an ear to her husband's endless talk about himself and his career and submit, on occasion, to his needs in the nuptial chamber.<br />
<br />
Edna worships her husband. To Edna, he is perfection incarnate. Yet, when he betrays her by having an affair with his secretary, the act is shocking to Edna - not so much because of the infidelity, but because, in its very ordinary tawdriness, she realizes how much of herself she has devoted to someone who is far from extraordinary.<br />
<br />
Edna has betrayed herself. She's sacrificed her identity for mediocrity, for banality, for the pinnacle of all that is so horrendously ordinary - her husband.<br />
<br />
For much of the film's running time, Henry's performance is wordless. The voice-over narration, derived from the journals she keeps in an asylum she'll spend the rest of her days in, creep over endless shots of Edna scrubbing, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming and cooking. Marr's camera focuses obsessively on all the mundane details of Edna's life. Henry retains a pokerface throughout. Her rigidity is what allows for those moments when, through the smallest gesture and in her eyes, we see the gradual breakdown of a woman pummelled by societal expectation. She is, without question, chained to the shackles of servitude, of slavish devotion to all that is her husband.<br />
<br />
Even more astounding, is that Henry manages to convey how Edna has, on her own, made this choice and yet, in some of the most exquisite moments ever committed to celluloid, a combination of Marr's compositions and Henry's controlled performance betrays the reality that choices can be made that are really no choice at all. It is a choice of nurture and influence - a pervasive demand set by a society rooted in patriarchy, allowing no conscious room to breathe, to act, to live.<br />
<br />
Towards the end of the film, there are a series of shots and moments worthy of Bergman and from Henry, a performance to rival any great piece of acting rendered by the likes of Liv Ullman and Harriet Anderson. Marr, via Vic Sarin's stunning cinematography, places the lens in close on Henry's face and what is revealed is finally so shattering, so emotional, so raw - that we are plunged into a time and place that seems long ago, yet infused with a universality that cannot fail to touch audiences now as it did then and will continue to do so for generations to come.<br />
<br />
Some might find the notion of salvation and freedom through madness - especially by the act of murdering the person who represents the reason for the central character's slave-like existence - to be arcane and/or dated. I'd argue this presents a very real, albeit tragic triumph over subjugation. The actions presented throughout the film mirror the suffering heroines of Douglas Sirk (and/or virtually all) melodramas of that period in American cinema where women would often give up everything for their man. This often extended to murdering them in order to preserve the purity of what once was. The difference here, though, is that Edna gives up everything to finally see who she is, who she COULD have been, instead of what she became.<br />
<br />
This is the stuff of great drama. Marr employs ACTIONS that are melodramatic, but he renders them, along with Henry's great performance, in ways that are closer to neo-realism. Because of this, it's a trifle bothersome that the only aspect of the film that doesn't always ring true are the endless voiceovers. Edna's prose style in her journals is far too literary (and literal) and from time to time, one is taken out of the drama in ways that make one wish Marr had been far more sparing with his use of the journal readings/writings. What he does/did by draping them wall-to-wall, can be commended for the almost insane audacity of doing so, but watching the film now, there are s myriad of great moments BECAUSE of Marr's astounding mise-en-scene and Henry's perfect performance where one wishes he'd have placed more faith in the drudgery and repetition of the banalities of both the world and character on display.<br />
<br />
All that said, though, <i>Dancing in the Dark</i> is a classic of English Canadian cinema that still has the power to shock and move. One of the bravest things Marr does during the final minutes of the film is cut all sound from the track when Edna commits murder. It's brilliant, actually. We see a character find her voice - in silence,<br />
<br />
This, ladies and gentlemen, is cinema!<br />
<br />
<i>On Wednesday, January 25 at 7:30pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox features writer-director Leon Marr and actress Martha Henry to introduce a special screening of "Dancing in the Dark". The Canadian Open Vault programme is one of TIFF’s most important efforts to make the country’s rich cinematic heritage accessible to audiences.</i><br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FHoTMIKUkgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-4530475621739212042012-01-06T00:01:00.013-05:002012-01-31T11:18:15.802-05:00DON'T MISS GUY MADDIN'S "KEYHOLE" and a host of other Canadian films (features and shorts) representing TIFF's CTT at the TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DbIkMvYkb3Q/TwaOLUTzkTI/AAAAAAAAA7c/SLBOQIKt2rc/s1600/1acfcctt-banner.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="201" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DbIkMvYkb3Q/TwaOLUTzkTI/AAAAAAAAA7c/SLBOQIKt2rc/s400/1acfcctt-banner.gif" /></a></div><br />
<b>TIFF CTT</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<blockquote><i>Every December since that hallowed year when man was supposed to go to Jupiter and meet the Star Child, a jury of filmmakers, critics and other noted mavens of movie culture in Canada would assess and award the acronymous accolades now referred to as the TIFF CTT, or, if you will, the Canadian Top Ten. This genuine honour is primarily due to the tireless efforts of Steve Gravestock, head honcho of all things Canuckian at the TIFF cineaste dude ranch (or, if one must, Associate Director of Canadian Programming at the Toronto International Film Festival). <br />
<br />
Following the announcements of what constituted the best films in Canada would be screenings of all the honoured titles at the Cinematheque Ontario - now better known as the premiere art house in Canada, the TIFF Bell LightBox, year-round home to Canada's largest, most star-studded film festival. The screenings are another way for movie-lovers to get another gander at these movies before they go on to first-run engagements.<br />
<br />
And I reiterate, all this and more is possible through the efforts of one ass-kicking man of cinema and his partner in crime Magali Simard (TIFF's Senior Coordinator of Canadian Programming). Like the late, great Jack Palance as Curly in the immortal "City Slickers", Gravestock calls the shots for all wanna-be cowpokes - guiding them amisdst the joys and splendours of all Maple-infused movies the whole year through - year after year.<br />
<br />
The bonus here, for all the films, is the publicity they receive, but I think, more importantly, they get to be screened theatrically in a communal atmosphere via the best means of projection since those halcyon days when most big-chain cinemas sported first-rate union projectionists instead of the underpaid, glorified concession staff and/or manager trainees who push buttons at the big box emporiums, mostly operated in this country by one faceless corporate entity that cares only about pleasing its shareholders rather than providing good, old-fashioned showmanship and first-rate presentation (and worse, displaying very little corporate responsibility in supporting homegrown product).<br />
<br />
Seeing this selection of Canadian films at TIFF Bell Lightbox, might be one's only chance (at least in English Canada) to see these films properly presented and in an atmosphere conducive to the true celebration of cinema (save for the few independents and other festivals that actually care about what they show and HOW they show it).<br />
<br />
There are a couple of notable omissions on the CTT list. The most egregious snub is Ingrid Veninger's astonishing no-budget joy-fest "i am a good person/i am a bad person" (Cassavetes meets "Bridesmaids"). The no-surprise omission is one of the most delectably original Canadian films just this side of Maddinville, the grotesquely hilarious splatter/sodomy-fest "Father's Day" from the brilliant Winnipeg filmmaking collective Astron-6. No matter, if the Gods are smiling, maybe TIFF Bell Lightbox will have the courage and foresight to program these two films a bit later. <br />
<br />
The TIFF Bell Lightbox CTT mini-festival includes the following:<br />
<br />
"Monsieur Lazhar", Jan6, 4PM<br />
"Keyhole", Jan6, 7PM & Jan7, 4PM<br />
"Edwin Boyd", Jan6, 9:30PM & Jan 8, 3PM<br />
"Hobo With A Shotgun", Jan7, 9PM & Jan10 4PM <br />
"Canada's Top Ten Shorts Programme A", Jan8, 7PM<br />
"Canada's Top Ten Shorts Programme B", Jan8, 8:30PM<br />
"Starbuck", Jan10, 7PM & Jan11, 3PM & Jan13, 3PM <br />
"Marécages", Jan11, 7PM & Jan12, 3PM<br />
"A Dangerous Method", Jan 12, 7PM<br />
"Café de flore", Jan 13, 9PM & Jan15, 5:30 PM<br />
"Le Vendeur", Jan 14, 6PM & Sunday Jan15, 12PM<br />
"Take This Waltz", Jan14 9PM & Jan15 3PM<br />
<br />
Guy Maddin's "KEYHOLE" made my TEN BEST FILMS OF 2011 List and the astounding Louis Negin from "KEYHOLE" made my Best Supporting Actor of 2011 Citation at <a href="http://klymkiwfilmcorner.blogspot.com/2011/12/greg-klymkiws-10-best-and-10-worst-of.html">KLYMKIW FILM CORNER(KFC)</a> and Steve Gravestock (via my nod to TIFF), "Take This Waltz" helmer Sarah Polley, Guy Maddin and his screenwriter George Toles all made my 2011 TOP 10 HEROES IN CANADIAN CINEMA here at <a href="http://canadianfilmcorner.blogspot.com/2011/12/greg-klymkiws-cfc-presents-top-10.html">CANADIAN FILM CORNER(CFC)</a>.<br />
<br />
The absolute MUST NOT MISS EVENT is Guy Maddin's "KEYHOLE". Below you'll find a slight rewrite of the full version of a review I wrote that was published last fall in "Electric Sheep Magazine - a deviant view of cinema". Read it and go! Or don't read it, go and then read it. Most of all, GO! I assure you that you'll have never seen nor will ever see anything like "KEYHOLE" ever again.<br />
<br />
And below the "KEYHOLE" review, you'll find my merciless pan of Cronenberg's "A Dangerous Method", a slight rewrite of a piece previously published by Electric Sheep Magazine.<br />
<br />
Again I urge you to see the CTT movies at LightBox to support their efforts in promoting and screening both Canadian and THEN, if you love any of the movies you see there, see them AGAIN if and when they open theatrically. I reiterate that Cineplex should be a leader in programming a much wider variety of product - Canadian and otherwise. I even suggest people do their second helpings of stuff they like at LightBox and/or any cinema OTHER than Cineplex. Screw the Man, until the Man does what's right - not just for their customers, but for BUSINESS and to fulfill their corporate responsibility to the community at large. Until those losers earn their right to be winners, do not give them money unless you absolutely have to. Also, if you go to Cineplex, it's soooo easy to sneak in your own food and beverages. Keep doing that, too - UNLESS they start doing the right thing.<br />
<br />
</i></blockquote><b>KEYHOLE</b><br />
<br />
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<b>Keyhole</b> (2011) dir. Guy Maddin<br />
Starring: Jason Patric, Louis Negin, Udo Kier, Isabella Rossellini<br />
<br />
<b>****</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
Full disclosure: I produced Guy Maddin’s first three feature films, lived with him as a roommate (I was Oscar Madison to his Felix Unger – Neil Simon’s <i>The Odd Couple</i> sprang miraculously to life on the top two floors of a ramshackle old house near Winnipeg’s Little Italy district), continue to love him as one of my dearest friends and consider his brilliant screenwriting partner George E. Toles to be nothing less than my surrogate big brother.<br />
<br />
Most importantly, I am one of Maddin’s biggest fans and refuse to believe I am not able to objectively review his work. Objectively, then, allow me to declare that I loved <i>Keyhole</i>. What’s not to love? Blending Warner Brothers gangster styling of the 30s, film noir of the 40s and 50s, Greek tragedy, Sirk-like melodrama and odd dapplings of Samuel Beckett’s <i>Endgame</i> and Jean-Paul Sartre’s <i>No Exit</i>, it is, like all Maddin’s work, best designed to experience as a dream on film. Like Terence Davies, Maddin is one of the few living filmmakers who understands the poetic properties of cinema, and this, frankly, is to be cherished as much as any perfectly wrought narrative.<br />
<br />
This is not to say narrative does NOT exist in Maddin’s work. If you really must, dig deep and you will find it. That, however, wouldn’t be very much fun. One has a better time with Maddin’s pictures just letting them HAPPEN to you.<br />
<br />
The elements concocted in <i>Keyhole</i> to allow for full experiential mind-fucking involve the insanely named gangster Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric as you’ve never seen him before – playing straight, yet feeling like he belongs to another cinematic era), who drags his kids (one dead, but miraculously sprung to life, the other seemingly alive, but not remembered by his Dad) into a haunted house surrounded by guns-a-blazing.<br />
<br />
Populated with a variety of tough guys and babe-o-licious molls, Ulysses is faced with ghosts of both the living and the dead, including his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini – gorgeous as always and imbued with all the necessary qualities to render melodrama with joy and humanity), her frequently nude father (the brilliant Louis Negin – perhaps one of the world’s greatest living character actors, who frankly should be cast in every movie ever made), chained to his bed, uttering the richly ripe George Toles dialogue and Udo Kier (the greatest fucking actor in the world), whose appearance in this movie is so inspired I’ll let you discover for yourself the greatness of both the role and Udo himself.<br />
<br />
<i>Keyhole</i> is, without a doubt, one of the most perversely funny movies I’ve seen in ages and includes Maddin’s trademark visual tapestry of the most alternately gorgeous and insanely inspired kind. For movie geeks, literary freaks and Greek tragedy-o-philes, the movie is blessed with added treats to gobble down voraciously.<br />
<br />
Like all of Maddin’s work, it’s not all fun and games. Beneath the surface of its mad inspiration lurks a melancholy and thematic richness. For me, what’s so important and moving about the film is its literal and thematic exploration of a space. Strongly evoking that sense of how our lives are inextricably linked to so many places (or a place) and how they in turn are populated with things – inanimate objects that become more animate once we project our memories upon them – or how said places inspire reminiscence of said objects which, in turn, inspire further memories, <i>Keyhole</i> is as profound and sad as it’s a crazed laugh riot.<br />
<br />
Of all the pieces about the movie that I bothered to read (after I saw the movie), I was shocked that NOBODY – NOT ONE FUCKING CRITIC – picked up on the overwhelming theme of PLACE and the SPIRIT of all those THINGS that live and breathe in our minds. It was the first thing to weigh heavily upon me when I first saw the movie. It has seldom been approached in the movies – and, for my money – NO MORE POIGNANTLY AND BRILLIANTLY than rendered by Maddin, Toles and their visionary young producer Jody Shapiro.<br />
<br />
All the ghosts of the living and the dead (to paraphrase Joyce), the animate and inanimate, the real and the imagined, these are the things that haunt us to our graves, and perhaps beyond. And they all populate the strange, magical and haunting world of <i>Keyhole</i> – a world most of us, whether we want to acknowledge it or not, live in. We are all ghosts and are, in turn, haunted by them.<br />
<br />
<b>A Dangerous Method</b><br />
<br />
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<b>A Dangerous Method</b> (2011) dir. David Cronenberg<br />
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley<br />
<br />
<b>*</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
When David Cronenberg is good, he is very, very good.<br />
<br />
When he is bad, he’s cerebral.<br />
<br />
<i>A Dangerous Method</i> is dour, dull and decidedly humourless. That said, the first few minutes do suggest we’re in for a hootenanny of the highest order. The score, oozing with portent over a twitching, howling, clearly bonkers Keira Knightley, thrashing about in a horse-drawn carriage as it hurtles towards Carl Jung’s Swiss nuthouse, initially suggested a belly flop into the maw first pried open by such Cold War wacko-fests like <i>The Snake Pit</i> or <i>Shock Corridor</i>.<br />
<br />
Alas, Cronenberg seems to have abandoned his pulp sensibilities and instead appears to be making an Atom Egoyan movie fused with <i>Masterpiece Theatre</i>. Sorry David, Atom Egoyan makes the best Atom Egoyan movies. And Egoyan has never, nor will he ever make <i>Masterpiece Theatre</i>. However, if Cronenberg himself genuinely fused <i>Masterpiece Theatre</i> with <i>The Snake Pit</i> and, say, <i>Salon Kitty</i> or <i>The Story of O</i>, with dollops of the madhouse scenes in Ken Russell's <i>The Music Lovers</i>, then he might have generated something not guaranteed to induce snores.<br />
<br />
Cronenberg’s unwelcome return to the cold and clinical approach from his pre-<i>Eastern Promises</i> and <i>A History of Violence</i> oeuvres quashes all hope for a rollicking good wallow in lunacy.<br />
<br />
Come on, David, we’re dealing with psychoanalysis and sex here.<br />
<br />
A little oomph might have been in order. (Or as Norman Jewison is wont to say, "A little bit of the old razzle-dazzle.")<br />
<br />
Lord knows Cronenberg’s dealt deliciously with psychoanalysis and sex before – most notably in <i>The Brood</i>. It starred a visibly inebriated Oliver Reed, crazily cooing about "the Shape of Rage" amid spurts of horrific violence laced with a riveting creepy tone. Most notably the movie provided us with the indelible image of a semi-nude, utterly barmy Samantha Eggar adorned with monstrous pus sacks dangling from her flesh, licking globs of gooey, chunky afterbirth from a glistening mutant baby expunged from one of the aforementioned pus sacks.<br />
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Now, THAT'S entertainment!<br />
<br />
Annoyingly, no similar shenanigans are on view in <i>A Dangerous Method</i>. It’s pretty much a <i>Masterpiece Theatre</i>-styled period chamber drama with with Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) jousting with his mentor-rival Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) betwixt spanking sessions with Keira Knightley, a daft want-to-be-psychiatrist with Daddy issues.<br />
<br />
Sadly, no proper views of open palms connecting with buttocks or slap imprints on said buttocks are afforded to us.<br />
<br />
A pity.<br />
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<i>For more info and tix, visit the <a href="http://tiff.net/topten">TIFF website</a>.</i><br />
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<i>Here's my original coverage of TIFF 2011 (including the two above films) for <a href="http://www.electricsheepmagazine.co.uk/features/2011/10/11/toronto-international-film-festival-2011/">Electric Sheep</a>.</i><br />
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<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FHoTMIKUkgc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8709542840017762860.post-9858056793943383812011-12-31T02:54:00.004-05:002012-01-31T11:19:03.422-05:00GREG KLYMKIW'S CFC PRESENTS THE TOP 10 HEROES OF CANADIAN FILM IN 2011<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Y_lPHxzfy0/Tv4uQAMVEmI/AAAAAAAAA4c/VblR0IJ8DzI/s1600/1akfcCanadianFlag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2Y_lPHxzfy0/Tv4uQAMVEmI/AAAAAAAAA4c/VblR0IJ8DzI/s400/1akfcCanadianFlag.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>Greg Klymkiw's CFC presents the TOP TEN HEROES of CANADIAN FILM in 2011</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>By Greg Klymkiw</i></b><br />
<br />
<b>TOP TEN HEROES IN CANADIAN CINEMA (2011)</b><br />
(in alphabetical order, by first letter of name/company)<br />
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<b>Astron-6</b>: The brilliant Winnipeg-spawned filmmaking collective (Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, Matthew Kennedy, Conor Sweeney and Steven Kosanski) delivered not ONE, but TWO astounding no-budget feature films this year. <i>MANBORG</i> was replete with mega-martial-arts, chase scenes, ATVs that fly, Tron-like arena jousts and plenty of shit that blew up real good. The movie was made for a thousand smackers, shot on glorious DV-CAM and included tons of in-camera and rudimentary effects resembling early 80s community cable blue screen and there is not one damn thing in the movie that looks awful (thanks in good measure to director Steven Kostanski who is also one of the very best special effects geniuses in Canada. <i>Father's Day</i>, is a bum-blasting gore-fest of the highest order wherein a one-eyed, stalwart Jason Statham-like hero kicks mega-butt (as it were) to track down a heinous serial killer from Hades who specializes in sodomizing and butchering hapless Dads. The movie is the ultimate evil bastard child sprung from the loins of a daisy chain twixt Guy Maddin, John Paizs, early David Cronenberg, Herschel Gordon Lewis and Abel Ferrara's <i>The Driller Killer</i>. The picture happily combines the effects of asbestos-tinged drinking water in Winnipeg with the Bukkake splatter of the coolest artistic influences imaginable. It was co-produced by the legendary Lloyd Kaufmann and Troma Films and it opens theatrically in New York in January.<br />
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<b>Dan Lyon</b>: I am the first person in the world to vigorously slag bureaucrats - in the public, private and non-profit sectors - for a variety of excellent reasons I won't bother going into here (though anyone who reads Chris Hedges or, uh, Franz Kafka, will know why they are, ultimately, evil). Dan Lyon is the head honcho of the Ontario branch of Canada's chief public financing agency Telefilm Canada. By rights, I guess this technically makes him a bureaucrat, but I've never thought of him this way because, frankly, he comes from a very real place in the world of film. Dan toiled away as a chief executive with Astral Films (and its various/subsequent theatrical distribution off-shoots) for mucho-moons. He was, with his late, great colleague, the inimitable Jim Murphy, a huge champion of the much-beloved Canuck feminist werewolf cult film <i>Ginger Snaps</i> and was the first executive IN THE WORLD (I repeat - IN THE WORLD) to pony up real dollars and cents support for Roman Polanski's <i>The Pianist</i> when it was in its earliest stages - a script. When he left the private sector to command the Ontario office of Telefilm Canada he secured two of the film industry's best script editors, Carrie Paubst-Shaughnessy and Anne Fenn, to buttress his team of creative analysts. (I personally had a great deal of experience with Carrie when she brilliantly contributed to the training of a number of young filmmakers I worked with in the area of story editing. As anyone who knows me, KNOWS, I do not suffer fools of any kind and her tutelage was of the highest order - so much so that within minutes after my first encounter with her I was easily able to expunge my usual "Yeah, tell me something I don't know" bile.) I have heard testimonials from innumerable sources - mostly writers (some burgeoning, others seasoned) - to know how valuable Dan and his team are at a creative level. I hope the recent boneheaded changes to Telefilm's feature development policies, which are the result of some head-office bean-counter's vision-bereft survey of trough-gobblers, won't have dire consequences upon the great work this office, under Dan's leadership, will be able to continue. Dan, like the very best executives in the film industry anywhere (in both historic and contemporary contexts) is NOT a bureaucrat. He's a filmmaker. Oh yeah, and he's cool. At a party last year, my wife asked me who Dan was. When I explained briefly that he ran the Ontario Telefilm office, she replied, almost incredulously, "Wow! He's really cool." That is, of course, what this country needs. Fewer nest-featherers with no vision and more cool dudes like Dan. (And thank Jesus H. Christ! Dan's office had NOTHING to do with the cinematic coat hanger abortion that is <i>Passchendaele</i>.)<br />
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<b>Donald Shebib</b>: As a movie nut since childhood, I'm happy and proud to say I saw many of the coolest movies in movie theatres in my pre-teen and teen years and they include such counter-culture Canadian pictures by Don Shebib as <i>Rip-Off</i>, <i>Between Friends</i> and yes, his legendary <i>Goin' Down The Road</i>, a movie that practically invented English Canadian cinema with its neorealist portrait of two losers from the Maritimes making their way in the big smoke, Toronto. For me, as a crazed lover of movies, Shebib continued to deliver the goods. I loved <i>Heartaches</i> and <i>Fish Hawk</i> and yes, even <i>Running Brave</i> (which Shebib used a nom-de-plume for his credit). Alas, much of his output for many years was unavailable to me as I gave up cable in the mid-80s and watched virtually no television since that time (where it appears he eventually did much of his later work in). In 2011 Shebib crafted <i>Down the Road Again</i>, a deeply moving and funny sequel that works as a continuation to a movie beloved by so many Canadians, but also works if one has never seen the original. It's a great movie about fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friendships that last beyond the grave and most of all, the open roads of this magnificent country, Canada. Shebib's the real thing and I'm grateful he made this movie. I know he'd probably hate such effusive hyperbole, but screw it - I think he's a living patron saint of all of us who thought that maybe, just maybe, we could make movies in this country - movies that spoke to our own experience and that hopefully touched people beyond our borders. I know (yes, I was this much of a geek as a kid) that when I first read, as a youth, Pauline Kael's review of <i>Goin' Down The Road</i>, it infused me with considerable pride. Shebib's the man! <br />
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<b>Foresight Features</b>: Foresight Features is a powerhouse new force in Canadian cinema from the wilds of Collingwood. This burgeoning Canadian company produced <i>Exit Humanity</i> (post-Civil War western with… wait for it… ZOMBIES) and the delightful <i>Monster Brawl</i> (a completely whacko mocku-pay-per-view event with… wait for it… WRASSLIN' MONSTERS). These guys (in particular, helmers John Geddes and Jesse T. Cook) are making cool movies with extremely high production value, micro budgets, private financing, tons of sweat equity and no dining at the Telefilm Canada trough. They've signed with Anchor Bay and frankly, one of their productions is a natural for wide exploitation through the Cineplex Entertainment chain. <i>Monster Brawl</i> DEMANDS the biggest support and resources to go into launching this insane movie as a major theatrical special event not unlike the Front Row Centre or big screen wrasslin' matches. I wonder if Cineplex is cool enough to do this BIGTIME? Oh, allow me to add that the two aforementioned features from Foresight collectively include such astonishing cult figures in starring and supporting roles like: Dave (<i>Kids in the Hall</i>) Foley, Art (<i>The Brood, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Face Off</i>) Hindle, Robert (<i>300</i>) Maillet, Jimmy ("The Mouth From The South") Hart, Herb (UFC Martial Artist and Ref) Dean, Kevin (WWE, WCW and TNA Champ) Nash, Lance (FUCKING) Henriksen, Dee (<i>E.T., Cujo, The Howling</i>) Wallace, Stephen (<i>James Dean, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, A History of Violence</i>) McHattie, Bill (<i>Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil's Rejects</i>) Moseley and Brian (the real, the original, the one, the only, the scariest Hannibal Lecter in Michael Mann's <i>Manhunter</i>) Cox. If Foresight isn't about showmanship, then nothing is.<br />
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<b>Guy Maddin and George Toles</b>: In this year of Our Lord 2011, Canadian cinema's national treasure delivered the utterly insane feature film <i>Keyhole</i>, a tantalizing amalgam of Warner Brothers gangster styling of the 30s, film noir of the 40s and 50s, Greek tragedy, Sirk-like melodrama, odd dapplings of Samuel Beckett’s "Endgame", Jean-Paul Sartre’s "No Exit" and, of course, male genitals - starring Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini, Udo Kier and the incomparable Louis Negin. By extension, his longtime screenwriter George Toles shares the heroism of cinema I loft in Maddin's direction. He's a great writer, a brilliant critic, a superb actor and theatre director and frankly, the best goddamn teacher of film, theatre and English Literature in this country. In 2011, let us also not forget that Maddin presided over the madness of two astonishing productions of his cult classic <i>Tales From The Gimli Hospital</i> at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Lincoln Centre in New York that featured an original score, played live with musicians and singers, live narration by Udo Kier, live soundscape and foley and in one of the shows, live projections. Nobody, and I mean NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-BODY, makes movies like Guy Maddin. Yeah, full disclosure (blah-blah-blah), I produced his first three features, was his Oscar Madison-like roommate long ago in the 'Peg and overall pal amongst the 'Peg Drones that slacked as if our lives depended on it, benignly stalked young ladies we didn't know (nor ever would), haunted cafes, record stores, flea markets, drank cocoa whilst spinning 78 recordings of fruity tenors, taking midnight drives to Lockport and Gimli whilst playing Paul Whiteman or Bing Crosby or Edith Day full blast on tapedecks and committing to 13-hour pilgrimages on the open road to Minneapolis to see Twins games, but screw it! First and foremost, I'm his biggest fan! And damn! He makes great movies!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kx_GYJnPCJg/Tv4wZPQQ8TI/AAAAAAAAA4o/c5MCV100S1Q/s1600/1akfcroyal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="300" width="400" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kx_GYJnPCJg/Tv4wZPQQ8TI/AAAAAAAAA4o/c5MCV100S1Q/s400/1akfcroyal.jpg" /></a></div><br />
<b>Independent Canadian Exhibitors (The Royal, Revue, Winnipeg Film Group Cinematheque, Canadian Film Institute, Pacific Cinematheque, etc.), Alliance Cinemas, AMC Theatres, TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto After Dark Film Festival (TADFF), Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and pretty much anyone who publicly exhibits films except the "proudly Canadian" (self-proclaimed) Cineplex Inc.</b>: I saw Don Shebib's classic Canadian feature <i>Goin' Down the Road</i> when I was a kid at a huge first-run theatre in Winnipeg. I loved it then and loved it more every time I saw it. When I heard Shebib had crafted a sequel, I was imbued with a bit of healthy skepticism. That said, I was still excited to see it. I was out of town for the first two weeks of the film's theatrical run at Cineplex's flagship Toronto venue, the Varsity Cinema. When I returned during the film's third week of release, I hightailed it down to the Varsity (not bothering to check the showtimes as is my wont) and was shocked (genuinely) that it wasn't playing. I quickly accessed my iPhone movie listings and was even more distressed that the movie, at least for that evening, was playing absolutely nowhere in Toronto. There was, however, one lone screening the following evening at the Royal cinema, everyone's favourite indie venue in Little Italy. What shocked me even more was that Barbara Willis Sweete's film adaptation of <i>Billy Bishop Goes To War</i> was the other film playing at the Royal the same evening - first run and ENDING!!! Okay, my fault for being out of town, I guess. Excuse me all to hell for expecting movies with a reasonable pedigree by Canadian standards were (a) not available on any Cineplex screen in the country's largest city and that (b) they were both ending.<br />
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No matter, I sashayed on down the next night to The Royal. I really enjoyed <i>Billy Bishop</i>. I first experienced it as a kid in Winnipeg when John Gray and Eric Peterson presented the play at the Manitoba Theatre Centre's Warehouse venue. I loved it then and was delighted to see a film that preserved its theatrical roots. (I won't rant about one of my many pet-peeves involving the idiotic, myopic assumption on the part of critics and film types who should know better that anything and everything based upon a theatrical piece MUST be opened up for the cinema. Just don't get me started and I promise to stop now.) My first thought was, "Hmmm, there are wads upon wads of people my age and older who love this play ALL ACROSS THE COUNTRY. This would have been a perfect film to platform wide in the Front Row Centre-styled exhibition format that Cineplex has been exploiting in big cities and beyond." I played out a release pattern for the film in my mind whilst waiting for the Shebib to begin: Coast-to-coast, hugely hyped one-shot screenings of the film at the premium Front Row Centre prices. You'd have to blow a decent whack o' dough on advertising, BUT, with the same kind of thought and elbow grease that USED to go into marketing ANY movies (never mind Canadian films), there would be all sorts of alternate advertising venues with far more reasonable ad rates than traditional outlets anyway. As well, there would be an inordinate number of cross-promotions and tie-ins with theatre companies and arts groups across the country. Hell, target theatre schools also - not just including private companies, or even secondary schools, but given that virtually every post-secondary institution has a theatre program, promote the picture there. In any event, my fantasy release of <i>Billy Bishop</i> then included regular screenings one week later in many of the same venues it played at in the Front Row Centre release. Those post-Front-Row screenings may or may not have had numbers to sustain the secondary runs that long, BUT, the important thing is that Canadians would have been able to see the movie on a BIG SCREEN in a COMMUNAL ENVIRONMENT. This, in turn, would have created a far more advantageous bed of hype and anticipation for any number of home entertainment venues.<br />
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Alas, the way the movie was released feels like home penetration was the only real goal.<br />
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Whose fault was it?<br />
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Well, as of this writing, I can't be sure if the film's distributor considered this sort of theatrical penetration, nor do I know if they even offered the movie to Cineplex. What I can say is this. SOMEONE should have thought about it and SOMEONE should have committed to playing it in this fashion. In fact, give the success of these types of special event showings in the Cineplex chain, you'd think someone there might have thought about approaching the film's distributor about mounting the film in this fashion.<br />
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Here's the thing. The business has changed for the worst, but it's not impossible to reapply good old fashioned showmanship on both sides of the distribution and exhibition fence. I started my life in this business as both a writer ABOUT movies and then as a film buyer on behalf of independent exhibitors in the late 70s and early 80s. I lived through the "old ways", lamented the shift in delivery and accessibility of product and now I get absolutely livid when I see how complacent and lazy both sides have become.<br />
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<i>Down the Road Again</i> was an entirely different story. I loved the picture, but also conceded its theatrical appeal would be limited. Limited, yes - but there is an audience out there that would have loved to see the movie on a big screen. Part of this IS a distribution issue. However, I also think Canada's major exhibitor is shirking its place in creating a proper venue for Canadian cinema. I'm sure they'd argue that their responsibility is to their shareholders. Well, never mind Canadian movies, those shareholders are going to have very little to count on if things don't change in the exhibition industry. And yes, it IS the fault of exhibition - especially within major chains like Cineplex. They offer no real choice. Pure and simple. They rest on the laurels of whatever crap they're handed. (I live for much of the year in a remote rural area. Cineplex has a seven-screen multiplex. All the same movies are locked in there for ages. I can assure you that in the late 70s and early 80s, the small market audiences had FAR more CHOICE in what was available than they do now. And idiotically, it's not that the product is NOT there. There's tons of product. Much of it good and much of it never getting screen time. Yes, having to program and promote such product takes time and effort. Yeah? So? Do it. They call it elbow grease.<br />
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As for Canadian product, I will ultimately point an accusatory finger at Cineplex. Every major country outside of North America had or continues to have strict indigenous content quotas. Many of these countries have leaps and bounds on Canada by decades in this respect. Many of these same countries are making indigenous product that appeals to their national audiences and, in many cases, to international audiences. Much of this product isn't of the blockbuster variety, either. It often provides entertainment to niche audiences - theatrically. These audiences exist because efforts had been made in the past to ensure cultural sovereignty. These movies mostly do NOT compete with Hollywood, anyway. In fact, they enhance the viability and attraction to theatrical exhibition period.<br />
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I do not propose legislating this anyway. I frankly think it would be good for business if Cineplex undertook a major corporate responsibility in exhibiting Canadian films - EVEN IF THEY LOSE MONEY! Oh horrors! Isn't that horrible? Look, <i>Down the Road Again </i>needed far more marketing and promotion than it got. This is a distribution issue. That said, movies like this will NEVER find a theatrical audience if they are not out there. I personally think a movie like Shebib's sequel DEMANDED being placed in more cinemas across the country and held longer - even at a loss. Take one screen in every bloody multiplex and screen Canadian product exclusively. Take another screen in every bloody multiplex and program product of an indie nature exclusively - booking it, if necessary in a repertory style.<br />
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Cineplex is a Canadian company.<br />
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Forgive me for thinking Canada is different than our neighbours to the south. We are. We have higher literacy rates, more progressive values AND most of all, we ARE innovators. Cineplex should FORCE themselves to exhibit Canadian films - even at a loss. (I'm sure there are potential tax incentives that can be whipped up for this anyway.) Why, you say, at a loss? Because there could well be a pot at the end of the rainbow. If the product - good, bad, middle of the road - is made available on a consistent basis, audiences might eventually develop a thirst for a certain type of product that speaks to THEM. Look, it's worked everywhere else in the world - out there, beyond the confines of North America.<br />
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It was, however, legislated. I say again - why legislate? Cineplex as the most powerful exhibitor in the country should legislate it as cultural policy within their corporate mandate. They could actually become world leaders in this extraordinary move to actively build an audience. More importantly, they could take a leadership role even beyond Canadian product and offer theatrical accessibility to a far wider range of product. This, frankly, is good for Canada, good for foreign product, good for Hollywood, good for AMERICAN independents, good for cinema as the greatest artistic medium of all time and MOST IMPORTANTLY, good for the end-users, the customers, the myriad of movie lovers who have been lured away from the communal experience for many different reasons, but most of all, because of a lack of diversity in programming.<br />
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In the meantime, though, let us pause and acknowledge the true heroes of Canadian theatrical exhibition. It sure ain't Cineplex - at least until they consider getting their act together on this front. Canadian product has had a home at all my aforementioned picks for heroism accolades. Alliance Cinemas, AMC Theatres, Independent Canadian Exhibitors (The Royal, Revue, Winnipeg Film Group Cinematheque, Canadian Film Institute, Pacific Cinematheque, etc.) all regularly screen Canadian films - both first-run and second. TIFF Bell Lightbox in just over a year has displayed incredible courage and commitment to screening Canadian product theatrically. In 2011, the tiny, fan-run Toronto After Dark Film Festival (TADFF) screened what must be a record number of Canadian genre films (features and shorts) - many of them winners. The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) also continues a leadership role in supporting Canadian film - not just with festival screenings, but such important initiatives as the Film Circuit (bringing fine cinema from Canada and the world to rural locales) and their ongoing work archiving and contributing to the restoration of Canadian cinema. Heroes deserving of special mention in the organization for this year would include Steve Gravestock who oversees all matters Canuckian, Colin Geddes who does Midnight Madness and selected whack-job stuff in other serctions and the incomparable Julie Lofthouse in the TIFF film reference Library.<br />
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Good on TIFF and all the aforementioned, but whose turn it is now? Allow me to quote directly for the Cineplex website:<br />
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<i>"Cineplex Inc. ("Cineplex") is the largest motion picture exhibitor in Canada and owns, leases or has a joint-venture interest in 130 theatres with 1,352 screens serving approximately 70 million guests annually. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Cineplex operates theatres from British Columbia to Quebec and is the exclusive provider of UltraAVX™ and the largest exhibitor of digital, 3D and IMAX projection technologies in the country. Proudly Canadian and with a workforce of approximately 10,000 employees, the company operates the following top tier brands: Cineplex Odeon, Galaxy, Famous Players, Colossus, Coliseum, SilverCity, Cinema City and Scotiabank Theatres. Cineplex shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) under the symbol "CGX"."</i><br />
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Great! Let's see some of the real leadership and innovation that makes so many Canadians proud of Canada. Cineplex declares they're "Proudly Canadian". Great. Let's see it. For real.<br />
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<b>Ingrid Veninger</b>: I've said it before, I'll say it again - Ingrid Veninger might well be cinema’s only living equivalent to a whirling dervish. Like a dervish, she honours her Creator (cinema), her prophets (John Cassavetes, Mike Leigh and others of a very noble tradition), then whips her imaginary concoctions into a frenzy – literally living and breathing cinema – producing work from within herself, her devotion and life in all its joy and sadness. In addition to be a terrific actress, she's one of our country's most visionary producers and her astounding work here includes Charles Officer's <i>Nurse Fighter Boy</i> (which she co-wrote also) and Peter Mettler's mind blowing <i>Gambling, Gods and LSD</i>. She's a teacher and mentor to all those with passion and a desire to create cinema. This year, she delivered up her third feature <i>i am a good person/i am a bad person</i>, a micro-budgeted romp through the European film festival circuit that tells a funny and moving Mother-Daughter story. The picture is full of humour, gentle bits of human comedy and (surprisingly) full-on <i>Bridesmaids</i>-style blowjob and scatological knee-slappers. A worthy addition to her rapidly accelerating canon of features as a director including <i>Only</i> (which she co-directed with Simon Reynolds) and <i>Modra</i>.<br />
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<b>Jody Shapiro and Robin Cass</b>: These two gentlemen produced two of the best Canadian films of 2011. Shapiro delivered the goods with Guy Maddin's <i>Keyhole</i> and Cass did what everyone said couldn't/shouldn't be done. In so doing, he produced a terrific sequel to one of the most beloved, iconographic Canadian films of all time, Don Shebib's <i>Goin' Down the Road</i> followup <i>Down the Road Again</i>. Cass, with his Triptych Media partner Anna Stratton continue to place their faith in our country's writers. Shapiro, is also some kind of wonderful - a great photographer and director in his own right and a lover of cool movies. With producers like these, I still hold out hope that Canada as a filmmaking force will explode.<br />
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<b>Sarah Polley</b>: Earlier this year, within the context of a cinematic tribute to the late Jack Layton in the UK-based Electric Sheep Magazine, I had the opportunity to finally put into words why I love Sarah Polley. I'll reprint them here now because she really is, to my mind one of our country's great heroes. Sarah is not only one of the best actors in Canada, but she has proven to be one of the country's best filmmakers, serving up the astounding short drama <i>I Shout Love</i>, the tremendously moving Academy Award-nominated <i>Away from Her</i> and her soon-to-be-released <i>Take This Waltz</i> starring one of the world’s most gifted Canadian funny men, Seth Rogen. Sarah Polley is a maverick. I love mavericks and I most certainly love Sarah. As if she isn’t/wasn’t busy enough, Sarah always made time for ‘the little guy’. Since her earliest years, the former child star of Terry (out-of-his-fucking-mind) Gilliam’s <i>The Adventures of Baron Munchausen</i> and the beloved family TV drama <i>Road to Avonlea</i> Polley had maverick qualities and activism hard-wired into her genetic code. For example, at the height of its popularity, Polley up and left <i>Avonlea</i> in protest over the increasing ‘Americanization’ of the Canadian series produced by Canuck Kevin Sullivan in collaboration with Disney. And, speaking of Disney, it’s been reported that she attended some public function the Mouse-Eared conglomerate was sponsoring and refused a dim-witted studio executive’s demand that she remove a peace-sign button affixed to her blouse. Who needs peace when you can start another useless fucking war? Through her teens and 20s Sarah continued to confound and delight movie fans the world over as she blossomed into adulthood – engaging in several political protests wherein she was physically assaulted by goons (uh, the fine members of Toronto’s Police Department), while on the silver screen she performed some truly major-zombie-ass-kicking in Zack Snyder’s surprisingly effective remake of George A. Romero’s <i>Dawn of the Dead</i> and butted heads with a crazed creature created from gelatinous amphibian goo cloned with her character’s own DNA in Vincenzo Natali’s deliciously fucked-in-the-head monster movie <i>Splice</i>. Sarah became revered and respected as one of our country’s most powerful and persuasive activists and artists. Socially, politically and culturally, Sarah Polley has led the way on so many fronts and, I might add, NOT in that annoyingly fashionable way contemporary Hollywood stars have done. Sarah was an activist early on in her life – long before celebrity activism became so degraded. She came by it truthfully, honestly and one might even say, innocently. Like the late Jack Layton, she has always fought for the rights of what’s genuinely right. She’s also funny and has one of the most perverse senses of humour I’ve ever encountered. Sarah Polley is probably one of 10 people on this planet who actually gets the insanely muted knee-slappers that Atom Egoyan occasionally dollops like globs of rich sour cream into the dour, though flavourful borscht of his movies. She’s also a thoughtful and generous human being. She's a star, but she sure doesn't act like one. And I do love her seemingly ages-old belief in a quota for Canadian theatrical features. She kicks ass! There's nobody like her. <br />
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<b>S. Wyeth Clarkson</b>: I first met Wyeth Clarkson in 1997 when he was studying editing. He was a GREAT editor. His instincts were pure, his craft impeccable and most of all, he was a filmmaker - first and foremost. As the years progressed, he partnered with his visionary pal Phil Daniels and together they formed Travesty Productions and have since produced several features, documentaries and shorts. 2011 was the year he brought to bear his most ambitious project to date. <i>The Mountie</i> is an old fashioned western replete with a strange blend of 70s cynicism, grit and, I kid you not lush panoramas and a weirdly affecting sentimental streak that would have made John Ford proud. It's a solid picture and one that Canadians would have enjoyed on a big screen - if they could find it. Clarkson took the figure of the Mountie, Canada's iconic red-coated crime-fighter and imbued it with a sense of myth that was both unabashedly Canadian and yet presented in homage to a myriad of great western traditions. His dream was to open the movie nationwide on Canada Day long weekend. It was, from an exhibition standpoint a total no-brainer. What happened was (apologies to his company's monicker) a travesty. Pictures speak louder than words, however, so let's examine this from that standpoint. As a Canadian, if I saw the following trailer repeatedly splashed in front of every movie I saw for two or three months before it opened, I'd have been there on Canada Day where it should have been - on a few hundred screens coast to coast. I doubt I'd have been alone. That, of course, would only have been possible if Cineplex Inc. had the guts to truly be "proudly Canadian" and programmed this trailer and subsequently, the film itself, with the same vigour as they do with Hollywood blockbusters people are avoiding like the plague. If Cineplex had any courage and vision to do this, the release would have no doubt received a huge amount of Prints and Ads support from Telefilm Canada. Watch this trailer.<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wtIxclpZ680" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Okay, so now you've seen it. If you're into genre pictures and a Canadian, I defy you to tell me you wouldn't have been curious to lay down your dollars and see this movie in a theatre. What Clarkson ended up with was a handful of screens - mostly on AMC and/or independents, plus a prints and ads budget commensurate with such a small release. The numbers weren't great, but they were surprisingly on a par, if not higher than a number of Hollywood releases within the same multiplexes. Clarkson pushed and pushed to get screens. He got them, but not what he imagined and certainly not what he deserved. He made a cool movie that is even cooler in light of the fact that Canada, as a nation, strapped on extremely comfy kneepads during the Golden Age of Hollywood and struck a deal with the devil. Hollywood basically said, "Hey Canada, don't make feature films. Make documentaries and animated movies and educational films. Let US make movies about Canada. It'll be good for tourism." Canada swallowed this jism greedily and we ended up with no feature film policy and no quota system (unlike virtually every other major country in the world). What Hollywood produced in this deal worthy of Mephistopheles were hundreds of sub-par B-movies set in Canada, featuring some second unit or stock footage of Canada and often about - you guessed it - MOUNTIES!!! Good deal, Canada.<br />
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Now, I don't mean to suggest that flooding the screens with trailers for Canadian movies and ensuring screen time for said Canadian films is going to be the immediate solution, but given that Canada NEVER had an official policy (beyond the National Film Board of Canada) on feature film during the first 60-or-so years of cinema's history, something has to start somewhere.<br />
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A few years ago, sitting in the Cineplex flagship Varsity Cinema in Toronto, I watched a mediocre horror picture that had a decent, though not exceptionally large audience. Earlier that day I had just seen a trailer for Paul Fox's terrific Canadian horror picture <i>The Dark Hours</i> in a private screening. If Cineplex had exercised their corporate responsibility to Canadian film culture and played the trailer in front of every crappy and/or (God forbid!) good genre film and agreed to open the movie in more than ONE cinema in Toronto as they grudgingly did, I'd bet most people seeing the trailer would have been thrilled to go see the movie when it opened. Take a look.<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/w9ihF6eqzcY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Again, I defy anyone who loves genre pictures to say they wouldn't have seen the movie after seeing that trailer, especially if Cineplex had committed to a whack o' screens which, in turn, would have given the distributor incentive to spend the money needed to hype it (and in fact, get a good whack of the dough to do this from Telefilm Canada).<br />
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Another example of 'Twas not to be.<br />
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That said, Wyeth Clarkson continues to fight the good fight - lobbying for accessibility to Canadian cinema on Canadian screens. Most of all, though, he's writing a new screenplay. Let's hope that by the time that movie is ready to be seen, there WILL be a system in place to provide the accessibility that Canadian films (and, in fact, all indie productions from a variety of countries) deserve.<br />
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