All images courtesy of Odeon Films
Nicholas Campbell, Liane Balaban and Tara Spencer Nairn in Allan Moyle's New Waterford Girl, written by Tricia Fish.
32 WINTER 2000 an American even then. Here I was at the age of 14, reading Alexander Korda's book on power that I got out of my par- ents' issue of Reader's Digest in Shawinigan Falls." In hindsight, he had unerring ability to move to the right place at the right time. At the impetuous age of 16, he first wan- The Rules According to Moyle dered south to do summer stock in New Hampshire at the New . London Barn Theater. This intrigued him enough to return for a second summer as prop mas- By Cynthia Amsden ter. After that experience, he upped the ante by running away, not to join the cir- cus, but to travel to Europe for a year with a girlfriend. After Moyle's European jaunt, he blended together three elements here must be something in the Allan Moyle is the Canadian-born direc- that were classic ingredients for life circa tor who fled south in the 1970s, drawn to early 1970s: university life; San Francisco water of Shawinigan Falls. For higher-energy centres of creativity. He at the Berkeley Hippie House with has approached and abandoned the film- Jefferson Airplane; and New York City's making process repeatedly, transforming Greenwich Village. During this period, a village in the countryside of himself into a cinematic Bedouin, moving he did due diligence and attended McGill from the States, back to Canada, to in Montreal where he helped found The Quebec, the municipal equiv- Europe and the Far East. He rebuffs sin- Players' Theatre, which continues to gular labels such as "teen-movie direc- flourish. Formal education was not T tor" or "eccentric screenwriter" because, Moyle's forte; although, it is difficult to alent of WKRP in Cincinnati, it produces a on any given project, he immerses him- say if this was because he intrinsically self into the role for the duration of the knew more than his instructors or disproportionate number of celebrities. task. Allan Moyle is not the sum of his because, for an individual who enjoys a parts but rather a part of his sums. modicum of outrage in his life, university Jean Chretien grew up drinking the town presented too easy a target audience. The directorial balance sheet, in reverse chronological order between 1978 and The youth-quake milieu of Moyle's San water, and it inspired him to get political. now, includes: Jailbait (2000), New Francisco experience shook him loose Waterford Girl (2000), Empire Records from the last vestiges of Shawinigan Falls An impressive move, "although we (1995), The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag while permitting him to participate in the (1992), the award-winning Pump Up the American rebel yell. Years later, his psy- che shows evidence of his early days on know he's from Shawinigan sud which Volume (1990) Times Square (1980) and The Rubber Gun (1978). The list of his the Left Coast, as indicated by his open- written accomplishments demonstrates ness to personal spiritualism, his affection isn't as cool as Shawinigan," qualifies the overlap of talents: Love Crimes (1991), for teen-dissident dramas and his eternal Pump Up the Volume, Red Blooded quest to live a life less ordinary. Shortly director Allan Moyle about his home- American Girl (1990) Times Square, The thereafter, he travelled east to New York Rubber Gun, East End Hustle (1976) and and worked as psychiatric technician at Montreal Main (1974). St. Vincent's Hospital before moving on to town compatriot. For Moyle, who also work at Beth Israel Psychiatric Institute, It's the glasses that stood out at the which jelled perfectly with time spent at spent his formative years there, the water Alliance Atlantis party at the Royal Max's Kansas City. Moyle was at ground Ontario Museum during the 1999 zero of a cultural explosion. Right place. had the same effect, creating an urge to Toronto International Film Festival. The Right time. It was the confluence of all the glasses that walk, the glasses that social- best factors: Andy Warhol, John Cassevettes, ize, the glasses that Allan Moyle confess- the theatre, the street. He studied acting go global. One chose politics; the other es that he hides behind—"Swifty Lazar" with legendary director Nicholas Ray of the Great Frozen North. Moyle takes (Rebel Without a Cause) and had a role in chose film. And both understand that in pleasure in his ability as a deip- the original production of American nosophist. Schmoozing is one of his tal- Hurrah. Another element which is part of the legend that is Moyle is his role in John their respective businesses, you're only ents. But there was pitifully little social- izing potential in that little town north of G. Avildsen's hippie cult classic Joe, which Trois-Rivieres. He had no alternative was Susan Sarandon's film debut and as good as your last gig. but to head out. "I must have been born brought Peter Boyle to prominence.