• REVIEWS • scenes, while our hero, who cannot the ingenue's mother, who, as house­ Eric Till's swim, is almost drowned. keeper of the evil Tree brothers, is Don Carmody's Eric meets the ingenue, Melissa IChar­ mistress to both, and rendered helpless lene Senuik) while she is collecting to protect her nubile, and presumably Gentle Sinners money for the evil Tree brothers. Direc­ virginal, d aughter from their lecherous The Surrogate tor Eric Till gets the most out of these advances. young actors, evoking with the shimmer Okay, enough, the heroine did have to of an impressionist painting the be in some terrible danger or the hero's evanescent quality of adolescent sum­ efforts to save her would not have been m ers of first love. so grand or passionate. Still, she did One is not especially predisposed to like The climax of the film has all the have her own strategy for escape, and In spite of its terminally rotten script this film : another adolescent coming of magic, passion and dread of Tom might have succeeded had she not fallen and direction, The Surrogate has some­ age that takes place in another small Sawyer and Huck Finn. Dire threats for Eric. So we come back to the bother­ thing rare and valuable to offer the community in the Canadian bush. And arise for boy, man, and nature, plus our some wimpification of the female prin­ discerning moviegoer : dramatically yet, as soon as we get past the bible­ hero gets to rescue his "maide n fair." cipal. functional, integrated and central-to­ thumping ignominy of the caricatural And in case we missed the allusion, the For ,all that, there shouldn't be a dry the-storyline sex. parents (played in living two-dimension writer does throw Huck, in book form, at eye in front of the set when this film is Now, in the unabashed stroke movies by Jackie Burroughs and Kenneth Pogue, us more than once. screened on CBC Jan. 6. Despite its - Candy, The Story of 0 - the sex is not their fault one suspects), the film Gentle Sinners is such a work of art, a flaws, it is truly worth viewing. certainly necessary, there'd be no movie quite unabashedly seduces. The opening story worthy of telling and a Canadian without it, but it's not what you'd call scene has Eric (known as Bobby by his film which transcends in many impor­ Anna Fuerstenberg. "dramatically functional," not when the parents, and played beautifully by Chris­ tant ways the simple genre piece it drama is either perfunctory or totally topher Earlel scammed out of his money could have succumbed to being; the absent, the young-woman's-sexual­ and every stit€h of clothing off his UI;­ Cinematography is frame-for-frame odyssey storyline being a narrative GENTLE SINNERS d. Eric Till exec. p ./p . tanned vulnerable hide. The shot of a most exquiSitely executed, and the Pete r Ke lly assoc. p. Flora Macdona ld a.d. Tony rather than dramatic construction. In youngster trying to literally find his direction is almost flawless. And yet.. Thatc he r2nd a.d. Mike Williams sc. Ed Thomason, the ordinary dramatic movie - Coming trousers while thumbing rides on the again there are these nits which should based on the novel by W.O. Valgardson p. asst. Home, Body Heat - it is not sex that open road as the sun is coming up is not be overlooked, if only because they Roma n Stoyko unit man. (Tor.) Gail Eina rson­ functions, but desire (with or without McCleery unit man (Wpg.) Alix Washchyshyn both moving and hilarious, and sets the were not necessary. The women in this cont. Kath" y n Bu ck p. sec. De borah Osborne des. fulfillment) and its consequences. The tone for this quite delightful produc­ tale, most likely based on "true" or coord. Bo b Powe rs d.o.p. Ke nne th Gre ggcam. op. sex scenes have value only as statements tion. "real" ones, are, without exception, Michael Storey cam. asst. John Maxwell lighting of fact : they did it and the earth moved, Eric' s classic search for the father whores, witches and wimps. Ed Thom­ Erik Kriste nsen light. assts. Len Warier, Keith or, they did it and it shows their marriage Je nkins, J o hn W.iJ s on sd. Erik Hope boom Chris culminates in his finding the wonderful ason is a writer of such apparent and Davies art d. Milt Pa rche r des. (Wpg.) Stan Langll')' is boring. Apart from rape scenes land Uncle Sigfus, his Icelandic bach elor rich talent, that sure ly h e could have des. asSL (Tor.) Ca therine Baseraba des. d. (Wpg.) without going into the question of uncle, who shares the duties of avun­ avoided the obvious, the ch eap thrill of Robert Lowe grafix John Simons set dec. Peter whether they do, or do not, constitute cular confident with his friend Sam. Ed creating anothel- brazen buxom lass, Razmofsky. Mi chae l Ha ppy, Bill Chody cost. Betty sex scenesl, sex which delineates and Daw son. Mi chae l Ha rr is. Ruth Secord cost. (Wpg.) McNama ra as the former and George smothering mother, h e lpless house­ Gl o ria T a llma n. Te d Patte rson make-up Mario develops character, furthers the plot e lutesi as Sam give the most h eart­ keep er, or golly-gee ingenue who must Cacio ppo make-up asst. Ba rb Zaporzan hair Phil and is, itself, dramatic (that is, filled w re nching and understated perfor­ be booked and bedde d before the finale. Be nson staging Ra lph Ma cDonald. Robert Wytka. with conflict, crisis and resolution I is a mances, beautiful and totally believable, The re is so much humour a nd compas­ De rek Loomes. T.B.A. IWpg.1 painter Randy Chod a k rarity. In Canadian film, only James sp. efx. Do ug Wa rdle des. sked. (Wpg.) Weiland so c lear a nd e legant one simpl\' e nvies sion and sincel-ity in this stor)" based on Jennings carpenfers Dave Mac k/iog, Gerry Filby Woods' scenes with De bby Harry in the seamless qua lity of the acting. the Valgardson nove l, that one is stunned cast. Dorothy Ga,·dner . Mich e ll e Metivier post. p. Videodrome come readily to mind. T h e plot plots its way through finding by such lapses. Toni Wra te film e d . Ra lph Brunjes lab IWpg.) Mid Entire movies built on and worked out ve nue to support the errant nephew, as Jackie Burroughs plays without a hitch Can La bs p. coord. La urie Coo k unit pub. Sa il)' in terms of explicit sexual conflict (again Swank coffee Kim Forrest I.p. Chris topher Earle. he h as fo rfe it ed his work in lumber bv the fundamentalist mama, so why must Charlen e Se niuk, Ed M cNamara, Todd Stewart , excluding rape I are almost unknown. alie nating the town grotesques, the evil w e have her go quite over the edge as a Jacki e BUI'l'ough s. h: enneth Pogue, Neil Bennett , Currently, we have Ken Russell's Crimes TI-ee bl'Others. Sigfus and Sam ta ke Eri c complete witch ? The slut in the team of John C urtis. Fr ank Ada m so n , George C lules i , Ben­ of Passion, before that The Stud (with ja mi n D ar vill, Je:-, sica Stee n , Jeff Hirschfie ld , Cathi trawling for fi sh a nd director of photo­ hitchhikers is not parti c ul a rl~ ' offensive Joan Collins, from her sister's nove l) Allen , Joan ne A llen , Don Emms, Ralph A lmon d , graphy Kenneth Gregg gets some extra­ - in fa ct s he is beautiful reali zed - only Clare nce Fran klin, Joe T e nhart, Gudmunder Peter ­ and possibly Lolita, and the films of ordinary m o m e nts out of the lake this sluttishness is a the m e amplified by so n p.c. Ca nadian Broad clI s ling Corp. Russ Meyer. Then the idea starts getting dilute d - Shivers might be included, but there are those parasites. Ther e is, of course, a perfectly good reason for the scarcity of good (or even badl sexual drama, apart from the impositions of self-, public- and govern­ mental censorship, and that is that sex require s consent and co-operation, but drama requires conflict. The premise for The Surrogate pro­ vides a fine arena for sex-with-contlict : Frank Waite (Art Hindle), an upper middle-class car-dealer, has an impo­ tence problem and so much rage that he has blackouts from time to time, both of which h e blames on his wife's frigidity­ they haven' t made love in a year. The wife, Lee (Shannon Tweed), does seem co ld and hostile, but that could just be her r esponse to life with Frank. We do know that she likes to masturbate in the bath and that she says she's willing to make it any time he can get it up, so we think she can't be all that frigid. Our sympathies, not high for either one, are balanced between them. The drama starts when Frank's psy­ chiatrist suggests the couple hire sex surrogate Anouk Ven Derlin (Carole Laure). She' ll get you fucking again, through deeds not words, says the shrink, but warns that her treatments qan be monumentally weird. Waiting for Anouk's first visit, Frank and Lee, who has been dragged into this against her better judgement, are clawing the walls. When she arrives, the tension escalates: they seem to be just making • Ed McNamara and Christopher Earle in Gentle Sinners: seamless acting nerv~us small talk, but it's plain she's probmg for an opening, a way to get

20/Cinema Canada - January 1985 • REVIEWS • as such, a betrayal of the content and direction of the drama that has gone Ronald Wilson's before. It would have taken little to fix the scene: begin with Lee, hands bound and gagged, involved with some kind of Sam Hughes's War apparently consensual SM caresses with Anouk. Bring on Frank; involve him in the scene by way of seduction. Let Lee work the gag out of her mouth and holler for help. Then bring out the knife and run the melodrama. Played that Early in this two-part historical drama, way, the scene would have held the telecast by CBC Nov. 21-22, an aide dramatic tension and raised the ques­ rushes into Canadian minister of De­ tions of the earlier scenes, but to do so fence Sam Hughes's office and announ­ would have required some understand­ ces: "Gentleman, we are at war." "Thank ing of SM as practised by real people God ,,, says Hughes heartily, "let us pray." and some sympathy for non-conforming From there on, World War I, the Great sex. Carmody seems to possess neither. War, becomes Sam Hughes's abiding Indeed, he seems inclined to laugh at passion, his raison d'etre as the drama the sexually different. Jackie Burroughs' carefully examines the complex per­ cameo, as a middle-aged woman all sonality of this military hero. Sam dressed and ready to playa fantasy as a Hughes's War is an excellent vehicle for little girl with a policeman and some ice Gordon Pinsent's talents. His Sam cream, seems structured for laughs at Hughes is a fully realized creation : by her expense (we know Hindle is the turns blustering and pompous, vulner­ wrong man, she doesn't). But Burroughs able and whimpering with martvred plays the scene with such delight and an self-pity, courageous and stubbornly utter lack of condescention that the nationalistic, paranoid and even pathe­ shabbiness of its intentions is at once tic. Pinsent's range here is remarkable eclipsed and highlighted. and the role must be a landmark in his Much the same OCCUI'S with the career. But what makes this production char;acter of Eric (Jim Bailey), Lee's best work is the subtle edge of irony, even friend. He needs to be sexually non­ cynicism, that runs right through the threatening for her, but he's written as a drama, carefully, quietly undercutting mincing flutey queen with a wholly any simplistic notion of official heroism unnecessary fondness for at-home drag that such Great Wars give rise to. - a typical gay caricature - so that when Partly, this ironic edge is the result of the script demands he develop a sexual focussing on the bureaucrats, the officers interest in Anouk. the result is total and politicians working safely behind unbelievaqility. Despite this, Bailey the scenes of war's grim theatre, rather • Carole Laure as The Surrogate: more deeds than words manages to inject some sympathy and than detailing the drama of soldiers at real human feeling into the role, as does the front. Staying mainly inside the things roIling. It comes when Frank says will precipitate the climax and un­ every other major cast member. Laure boardrooms and offices and Cabinet Lee doesn't like to be touched. So Anouk masking. and Hindle are competent pros and they meetings and Parliamentary arena and starts touching her, sexually. How will Unfortunately, any but the most naive give it their all, to good effect. Newcomer private luncheons of these war-time, Lee react to her first sexual touch from viewer will guess the killer long before Shannon Tweed handles Lee's brittle­ male bureaucrats is both a faSCinating another woman? How will Frank react the halfway mark, thanks to Carmodys ness and low-key hysteria well enough decision and a problematic one. On the to seeing the woman he cannot arouse hamfisted handling of verbal and visual to suggest that she may grow into a good one hand, it makes the production very being turned on by another? How will clues and thanks, more importantly, to actress. Watching them work provides dependent on dialogue and rather Lee react when Frank's hands replace his rigid adherence to genre cliche. the main pleasure, sexual or otherwise, visually static and claustrophobic. On Anouk's? How will she react when the More unfortunately still, Carmody has of the movie. the other hand, it is the means for caresses get genital, when tongue re­ no idea of how to make his movie move. Co-producer, with Andre Link, John depicting the personal intrigues, the places finger? What will Frank's attrac­ His dialogue is banal and obvious, his Dunning, is quoted in the press kit to the political wheeling and dealing, the in­ tion to Anouk do to the current situation camera placement tries, at best, for the effect that what interested them in The fighting of officers, Cabinet ministers, and to later developments? Can either functional, and sometimes misses. Tri­ Surrogate was the originality of the and Honourable Members on-the-make. of them cope with this while it's happen­ vial and irrelevant scenes are played out idea. Iftheyd allowed themselves at the -To a degree, Sam Hughes's War becomes ing? How will they be changed when in full, while important ones move by same time to become attracted to a somewhat mired in the slough of these it's over? These are dramatic questions too quickly. The suspense scenes, in talented writer and director, The Surro­ interrelationships. It is hard to keep central to the development of character particuf'ar, are so flat that one suspects gate could have been a fine addition to a track of all the players, hard to follow all and plot and their presence generates a Carmody, whose previous experience badly neglected genre. the career-intrigues being advanced, level of tension not often found in sex was as producer on Porkys I and /I and especially when the British contingent scenes. Spacehunter, is only interested in his Andrew Dowler • of bureaucrats, officers, and politicians Anouk's next appearance carries the sexual material. becomes included. But the primary re­ sexual drama forward. She shows up at Which brings us to the most unfortu­ lationship is that between Sam Hughes the apartment with a sample-case in nate thing of all: Carmody can't handle THE SURROGATE d./p. Don Carnody and the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir hand, exptaining that the surrogate his sex. It's not only that his directorial exec. p. John Dunning, Andre Link p. Jim Hanley Robert Borden. Pinsent's volatile Hughes business doesn't pay the rent and won­ ineptitude denies us the eroticism that asst. to p. Oriana Bielawski p. man. Josette Per­ and Douglas Rain's patient Sir Robert dering if Lee would like to buy some cinema can create, but that his kinder­ rotta p. office coord. Irene Litinsky loc. man. playoff each other very interestingly, Fran~ois Sylvestre craft servo George Calamatas sexy lingerie. Lee isn't home, but Frank garten-level sexuality just doesn't under­ loc. scout Jacques Laberge p. acct. Rejane Bou­ leading up to a crisis of opposing wills is and he's getting hot, hotter still when stand or sympathize with the more non­ dreau bookeeper Barbara Pecs 1st a.d. Jim that threatens the friendship, their Anouk shows him the panties she's conformist sexual expressions his script Kaufman 2nd a.d. Elizabeth Halko script Marie political party, and the Canadian war wearing. The action starts as a cross Theberge sc. Carmody, Robert Geoffrion mus. demands. After the standard porno fan­ Daniel Lanois cast. Elite Productions. Vera Miller, effort. between a seduction and a tease, then tasy of Anouk as the horny Avon lady, Nadia Rona, Rosina Bucci d.o. p. Fran<;ois Protat 1st But the essentially refined politesse of turns violent. Frank rapes Anouk. Or she next shows up as a dominatrix and, asst. cam. Yves Drapeau 2nd asst. cam. Michel these personaVpolitical intrigues is con­ does he? There is equal indication that sexually, the picture collapses. What Be rnier stills Piroshka Mihalka sd. man. Stua rt trasted by the occasional, brief scene at he has been manipulated into fulfilling happens is this: Frank arrives home to French boom Mi chae l Berrie best boy Jean Courteau rigging Jean·Paul Houle elect. Alex the front : sce nes that quieth' reveal the a violent fantasy. But Frank is terrified of find Lee bound and gagged in a chair. Arnyot key grip Serge Gre ni er best boy Robe rt infe rior equipme nt, the miser" a nd his own rage. He's left weeping and Anouk, in full leather gear, rushes out Gre nie r trainee Bore k 5edh·ec 3rd grip G,·egoire mud of the tre nch es, the arrogance of huddled, not knowing what's happened and belts him with some kind of ritual Schmidt art. d . Ch a rl es Dunlop ass t. art d . Jean the officers, the terrible a nonymity of land we're not supposed to know either) baton. He grabs it and breaks it. She puts Bourret set dresser Normand Sarrazin asst. a rt the foot-sold ier. One scene slands o ut : a dept. Mi che l Boyer ward. mistress Nicole tt a and wondering what he's turning into. a knife to Lee's throat and demands a Massone asst. ward. Fra ncesca Cha mbe rl and ha lf-dozen corpses lie caught in the And what will this do to Lee when she little bootlicking from Frank. He com­ dresser Cata rina Chambe rla nd make-up Jillian barbed-wire while two comma nding finds out? plies to save his wife, but Anouk comes Chandle r daily m a ke-up Mi ch e line Foissv. offi cers stroll past the d ead sotdiers, All this occurs against, and is given too close. He disarms her and chucks Kathryn Casault hair Bob Pritche tt hair (da ily ) talking about some a bstract m atter. In Christianne Bleau p. assts. Ha ro ld Trepanier. weight by, a series of murders, first of her out. Lee, freed, reveals Anouk was Miche l Cha u vin trans p. coord. Neil .·\lIa n Bibbv a nothe r brief scene, Prime Mi niste r random men, then of the couple's friends waiting for her when she came home. drivers Joe Sanc hez. Mark Hindle. Philip Stilman Borde n visits the wounded a t the fI'ont. and associates. We know from the struc­ They conclude she's gone off the deep ed. Rit Wallis asst. ed. Su san 5chneir p.c. Cinepix He sloops down to comfort a soldie r ture that the killer is one of the three Inc., Te lemetropole Infl. dis t. (int'!) Inte r·Ocean whose eyes are ba ndaged, saying : "Your end. Despite the wardrobe and dialogue, Film Sales running time : 100 mins. I.p. Art principals and that it will be the effects this is not a sex scene; it is straight Hindle, Ca role Laure, Sha nno n Tweed , ~Ii c h ae l noble sacrifice will not have been in of increasingly experimental sex that melodrama from beginning to end and, Ironside, Marilvn Li ghtstone. Jim Bailt', vain." The nurse replies teI'sely that the

January 1985 - Cinema Canada/21 • REVIEWS • remain an uneasy mixture of the three, a Tom Shandel's pis aller until we make up our minds, and they are controlled in practice by the wardens and guards who operate Walls them. Just how cruel the guards are is known only to the prisoners, and it is on this point that the effectiveness of Walls depends. Unfortunately, some of the film's drama is dissipated in the uncer­ tainty of a single issue: whether the Ought one to give a violent sociopath an guards did in fact plant drugs in the even break ? prisoners' cells in order to have a pre­ The question remains very much text to send them back to the hole. open as the humanitarian social worker The question is important because Joan Tremblay (Andree Pelletier) slumps the answer would tell us whether it is to her inevitable, bloody, stop-action the guards' cruelty or Dannys inability death at the end of Walls, a low-budget to cooperate that sends him back to 16mm film based on the famous 1975 solitary and galvanizes him to plot a hostage-taking by Andy Bruce at the desperate escape. We hear only in now defunct B.C. Penitentiary. The passing, as a throwaway when Joan is socio-path in this case is Danny Baker talking to another prison official, that (Winston Rekert), who has been doing the drugs were planted, and there is stretches of time in "the hole" (solitary doubt that she may have been deceived confinement) and who, after a brief by Danny, to whom she has been grow­ reprieve to ordinary cell life, possible ing more attached as the focus of her only because of the exertions of Joan cause. And so, just whose fault is Dannys and a humanitarian lawyer (Alan Scarfe), final catastrophiC eruption? We don't becomes fighting mad when returned know, and our lack of knowledge pre­ there. It is then that he plots and execu­ vents us from taking sides, from par­ tes his escape attempt, with three ticipating fully. other prisoners holding Joan and five Christian Bruyere has WTitten a com­ other prison staff hostage. petent screenplay here, wisely steering Rekert turns in a good performance clear of an improbable love story (al­ as Danny, an intelligent (we are im­ though classification officer Mary Stein­ pressed by his reading "The Waste Land" hauser was supposed to have been in love in solitary - not easy with a berserker in with Andy Bruce) and concentrating on a the next cellJ and, we suspect, mis­ hardhitting, just-the-facts presentation guidedly sincere if brutal drug addict. (this viewer had to avert his face from He is at V\' estern Penitentiary because wrist-slashings and countless hypoder­ he slit a guard's belly back East in order mic syringes being discharged into to be transferred to this maximum­ elbows). Tom Shandel's direction also security institution near his mother, has played up the documentary feel of who is hospitalized nearby. Can we say the film, consciously minimizing any that his heart was in the right place? glamor that might attach to the lead Danny tells Joan that it is inhumane players as would have done a 1940s treatment tha t has forced him to use Warner Bros. movie of this type. Walls is violence to get what he wants. This is blemished, however, by an aggressively not hard to believe; scenes of life in the inSipid and pervasive musical score by hole show it to be what it no doubt is: J. Douglas Dodds and Michael Oczko, psychic torture. Given the horror of his which makes the film seem needlessly surroundings and the soul-destroying cheap and made-for-TV, and also a re­ treatment he receives from his guards, it verberant soundtrack in which some of is no wonder that Danny is violent. The the dialogue is lost. Cinematographer • Gordon Pinsent as Gen. Sam Hughes : Tory businessman finds war a raison d'etre question is, how far can h e be trusted Douglas McKay has done well making with more freedom? the B.C. Pen look almost as dismal as it man can' t hear him - his hearing is gone tion of the home front, but also for the -- Walls can provide no answer, only the really was. as well. future directions in which government suggestion that the solution lies far In their effort to expose a social prob­ Through the use of such brief mo­ propaganda would be taken. In this . beyond the penitentiary precincts, in lem through a personal drama the ments from the front, the production production, Aitken (later, Lord Beaver­ reform of our notions of crime and makers of Walls have been careful, but subtly but effectively punctures the brook I remains a somewhat mysterious punishment; the question of what the for this viewer they have in their fas­ pomposity of bureaucrats using the war figure: clearly central to the intrigues, true function of prison is, whether to tidiousness made a -few errors of em­ to advance their own political or mili­ but rather nebulous and undefined in puni~h , detain, or correct, has always phasis. By leaving vague the precise tary careers. This ironic edge keeps an terms of exactly what he does. Had his been in debate. In the meantime prisons degree of responsibility of Danny and interesting tension at work in the drama, press role been explored, the dimensions a tension that is especially effective in of war-time bureaucracy would have the portrayal of Sam Hughes. For exam­ been even more fascinatingly illumi­ ple, in a shot clearly alluding to the nated. movie Patton, Hughes stands in front of the British/Canadian flag, giving a Joyce Nelson • rousing speech about making the Cana­ dian army "500,000 strong." After a slight SAM HUGHES'S WAR d. Ronald Wilson delay, there is a polite sprinkle of ap­ exec. p. Peter Kelly p. Martin Kin ch sc. Jim Burt plause for his rousing words. Such non­ cam. David Dohe t\' . Ross Menzies. Tom Farquhar­ verbal signifiers recur throughout - a son co-po John Delmage, assoc. p. Sharon Keogh, pause, a glance, a bit of music that subtly p. asst. Stacey Curtis sc. asst. Jeanett e Solomcoe unit man. Jacques Simard cast. Christine Shipton, undercuts Hughes's world-view. At the Tina Neal cost. Hilary Corbett make-up Mario same time, he emerges as almost larger­ Cacioppo des. Ray Kellar hair. Sandra Petelko p. than-life: the hero with the tragic flaw. sec. Dana Mason ed. Peter Evans mus. Richard The achievement of Sam Hughes's War Bronskill J.p. Gordon Pinsent, Dougla s Rain, Rony Van Bridge, Christopher Newton, Richard Donat. is that it is able to maintain the creative Peter Elliott, Mary Charlotte Wilcox, James Rankin, tension among its various levels of Marigold Charlesworth, Douglas Campbell, Rodger meaning. Barton, Raymond Clarke, Desmond Scott, Maurice I would have liked the role of Max Evans, Mervyn Blake, Claude Bede, David Gardner, Gillie Fenwick, John Innes, David Fox, David Main, Aitken (James Rankin) to have been Michel Lefebvre, Mary Charlotte Wilcox, Philip more expanded, more clearly defined. Craig, Herb Rolland, Darey Dunlop, Leslie Yeo, As Canada's first press publicist for the David Clement, Brendan McKane, Ted Follows, was effort, Aitken's political manoeuver­ Lewis Gordon, Howard Jerome, Reg Dreger, Herb Field, Anthony Bekenn, George Buza, William ings and insights into the use of film and Colgate, Sam Malkin, Andrew Lewarne, Tom print for propaganda purposes ~.ere Rickert, Alan Katz running time: IPan II 86'32", • Moral dilemmas in Walls as Winston Reckert holds Andree Pelletier.hostaQe clearly pivotal not only for the moblhza- (Part III 87'.

22/Cinema Canada - January 1985 • REVIEWS • his warders they have revealed a lack of society. At a time when " ordinary" men ending before his inevitable confronta­ friends or the ironic banality of lines like concern over Danny as an individual, either sided with the Nazis or con­ tion with his uncle and reunion with his "All citizens are treated equally in the and have thereby deprived the viewer veniently ignored their treatment of mother, who reluctantly took up his civil service." But this political stance of some of the dramatic participation to Jews, Grant risked his life to save people cause. takes precedence over Grant's personal which he is entitled. As for the social who were neither his family, co-reli­ Charlie Grant's War holds your in­ story. The film seldom accomodates the issue, Walls hints that humaneness is gionists nor countrymen. As a price he terest largely because ofR.H. Thomson's viewer's desire to look a little deeper the best attitude as far as making prison suffered the horrors of wartime prison agile and skilled performance in the into Grant's character. a more pleasant place goes, but that an and concentration camps - and survived. leading role. Thomson plays Grant as a When director Lavut can interrupt atmosphere of trust and compassion This is hardly an ordinary, but a singular, typical Canadian hero - that is, a hero the social and political agenda long can be poisoned in an instant so long as complex, extraordinary man. who is barely heroic. [n manner, gesture enough to fix his camera on the actors a capacity for cruelty remains in people. Yet the film, especially in its treat­ and expression Thomson leaves no and keep it there, as when Jacob Gold­ The film even leaves open the possibility ment of the early Vienna days, where his doubt Grant is a Canadian abroad, not man teaches Grant kaddish in the con­ that Joan was the cruellest of all, for whole achievement just drops into his an American or a Brit: unimpressed centration-camp quarry, the film re­ making Danny believe in a mercy that lap, chooses to simplify Grant in a way with airs and pomp, he still worries that gisters a substantial emotional impact. was impractical and therefore could that seems false. A carefree Grant knocks his clothes are wrong. A Thomson per­ The concentration-camp sequence is only be snatched away. about Europe until his money runs out formance is always a pleasure - his the film's strongest, perhaps because all in Vienna, at which point destiny pro­ exhuberance carries the role - yet it issues are reduced to the bare require­ Paul Vitol" • vides a series of wonderful people to does not seem to convey the real Charlie ments of survival. However, these mo­ befriend him: they just can't help trust­ Grant. That man's personal wars- against ments of genuine drama, as opposed to ing his honest Canadian face. While family, country and self- remain obscure. dramatized social criticism, are too WALLS d. Tom Shandel sc. Christian Bruyere playing up Grant's charmed life among Issues, not characters, shape Charlie few: the film needs less history, more exec. p. Michael Chechik p. Christian Bruyere &­ the musicians, intellectuals and cultural Grant's War - the refugee question, Grant. But with an "ordinary" Grant at Tom Shandel assoe. p. Tom Braidwood ed. Barbara elite of Vienna, the film avoids any Austria's collective responsibility, the the centre, lacking conflict, self-doubt, Evans mus. J. Douglas Dodd &- Michael Oczko d.o.p. Douglas McKay p. des. Graeme MUlTay p. emphasis that he moves among pre­ Mackenzie King government's shameful or an engaging complexity, the docu­ man Tom Braidwood 1st ad.d. Bob Akester sc. dominantly Jewish society. Its light­ policy toward Jewish immigration. The drama approach cannot sustain the sup. Christine Wilson 1st asst. cam. Trig Singer weight tone ignores the possibility film emerges from CBC's docudrama film's two hours and 15 minutes length 2nd asst. cam. Joel RanJom gaffers Burt Skelton, Grant's benefactors might have had an tradition - Gough, Sandor and Lavut all and this compelling story rarely soars to Dave Anderson best boy Leonard Wolf, Jim Hurford key grip Fred Ransom loe. sd. Richard Patton sd. ulterior motive - to place a sympathetic have worked on the network's docu­ compelling heights. Charlie Grant's boom B.J. Clayden cost. des. Trish Keating ward. Gentile foreigner deliberately in an in­ drama series For The Record - a tradi­ War is by no means a bad film : if only it sup. Tish Monaghan prop. master Wayne fluential position to help them later. tion which tends to place social and were not so damned undistinguished. McLaughlin asst. props. Bill Thumm make-up The film eschews such complexity. It political perspectives ahead of personal Linda A. Brown asst. make-up Phyllis Newman sd. ed. Jane Morrison, Ingrid Rosen asst. ed. Bruce keeps safe distance from a theme which ones. Docudrama style accounts for the Bruce Malloch • Giesbrecht 2nd asst. ed. Patricia Isaacs neg. cut. could have given it extraordinary emo­ film's superfluous newsreel footage (the Daniele De Foy sd. mix. Barry P. Jones set dec. tional weight: Grant's personal identifi­ 1930s Austria setting alone should cue Rose Marie McSherry asst. set dec. Della Johnston cation with the Jews. Born into a WASP the impending Nazi rise) and its earnest const. coord. Barry Brolly lead carp. Garry Brolly carp. Chris Prior lead painter Elmar Theissen family whose anti-SemiHsm is ingrained journalistic tone. It uses Grant's personal sp. painter Philip Morgan set wireman Duncan (his mother, though working to get Jews story to illustrate the Canadian govern­ McGregor greensman Mark Guildemeester into Canada, comments : "It's one thing ment's unconscionable anti-Semitism, CHARLIE GRANT'S WAR d. Martin labor. Ben Rusi. Bob Nicholson, Chris wills, Dennis to keep them out of clubs - I can featuring characterizations of Prime Lavut a.d. Rob Malenfant sc. Anna Sandor p. Bill McBride 2nd a. d. Mathew O'Connor 3rd a . d. Rob Gough assoc. p. Harris Verge d.o.p. Vi c Sarin orig. Cowan university loco Fitch Cady p. coord. understand that." ), Grant himself bears Minister Mackenzie King and Immigra­ mus. Thomas Legrady art. d. Arthur Herriott unit Gabriella Martinelli, Catherine Howard p. acct. no prejudice. The film never tells us tion Minister Fred erick Blair, and in­ man. Neill Browne cast. Marsha Chesley, Doug Elizabeth Pontsa cast. d. Lindsay Walker asst. why. Grant is fatherless ; his uncle forming us that Canada received a dis­ Barnes film ed. Myrle Virgo p.c. CBC·TV t.p. R.H. cast. Michelle Allen, Hagan Beggs art work Cecili a Manlus (Douglas Campbell) looks after gracefully low to,tal of 5,000 Jewish Thomson, Joan Orenstein, Jan Rubes, Douglas Ohm·Eriksen sp. elL Thomas Special Effects Ltd. Ca mpbell. Marigold Charlesworth, Peter Boretski. I sp. elL tech. Bill Orr teamsters Ken Johnston, fan him only from a sense of duty; his two refugees during that period if Grant h as John Friesen, Nicholas Rice, Annie Szomozi, Da\~d Urquhart, George Grieve add. photog. Tobias father-figures, Jacob Go ldman (Jan been unsung, it is because most Cana­ Bolt, Heinar Pillar, Michael J. Reynolds, Jean Schliessler, Trig Singer p. asst. Christopher Rubes) and Paul Trefius (Pe ter Boretski), dians would prefer to forget their coun­ Archamba ult, Peter Dvorsky, Michael Fle tche r, Haddock craft servo Leslie Beale cater. Brown are both Jewish. This intriguing motif at try's shamel. Social criticism stands Be linda Metz, Charles Palme r, La rry Reynolds, Joe Cow lighting Canadian Prolite Inc. sec. Moss' Cooper, Bre ndan McKane, Derek Ke urvorst, Robin Trucking Services mus. rec. Goldrush Recording best remains submerged. The film behind Grant's misplaced confidence McCullough, Vlasta Vrana, Michae l Tait, Don Mac· Co. at Mushroom Studios, Vancouver post. p. Omni minimizes Grant's Canadian family life, that Canada· would accept his Jewish quarrie, Chris Bark running time; 129 mins. Film Productions Ltd. titles West Coast Film Opticals lab. Alpha Cine Services p. C . Je richo Films 16041 224·0506, 732·9983 inti. sales Films Transit 15141 527·9781 running time: 90 mins. lp. Winston Rekert, Andree Pelletier, Al~ Scarfe, John Wright, John Lord, Lloyd Berry, Howard Storey, Antony Holland, Elizabeth Leigh-Milne, Perry Long, Dale Wilson, Tony Morelli, Jacques Hube rt. Raimund Stamm, Ron Sauve, Blu Mankuma, Denis Nouveau, Kent Barrett, Christopher Haddock, Hagan Beggs, Judith Berlin, Mike Winlaw. Lon Katzman, Cam Lane, John Wardlow, Ted Stidde r

Martin Lavut's Chariie Grant's War

CBC producer Bill Gough, writer Anna Sandor and director Martin Lavut chose to build Charlie Grant's War around the myth Grant was "an ordinary man who made a difference." It is an odd choice, given the details of Grant's life in this made-for-television feature, and one which reduces the film's dramatic scope. Grant, an unsung Canadian hero who helped rescue 600 Viennese Jews from the Nazis before the Second World War, must have experienced radical personal changes in his lifetime. He left behind a complacent upperclass Vancouver exis­ tence when he journeyed to Europe in 1930, where eventually he became established in the Vienna diamond • R.H. Thomson as Charlie Grant: obscurity hiding behind an honest Canadian face trade and mixed with the cily'S best

January 1985 - Cinema Canada/23 • REVI~WS • .------Camera Canada------,

On Dec. 2 the CBC-1V network began the basketball team, and the pair A pleasant, sincere, slow-moving, The grieving parents finally decide to a 13-week anthology of half-hour make a pact : if both of them don't rather stodgy little film, but with take in Hildie, a younger girl, from dramas under the title Sons and make it, neither will play. general all-round family appeal. the Children's Aid. As she has a Daughters, running in the 5:30-6 p.nL The inevitable happens. Emma is Competently acted, especially by brother, they decide to keep the two slot each Sunday. All were produced selected for the team and Marie­ Joanna Schellenberg, who makes children together. The boy's name is by Atlantis Films/ Toronto (416) 960- Anne isn't. Emma agonizes ; talks to her debut opposite her real-life Michael and he's about the same age 1503. another girl about it; discusses it father, August, playing old Ben, her as Jennie. This anthology is a mixture of with her older brother ; and shies grandfather. The pressure builds as Jennie tries previously televised pieces, plus six away from the hard decision. She lies to cope with feelings of hostility new dramas being presentedfor the to Marie-Ange about going skiing d. Peter Shatalow, p. Seaton McLean, Michael towards Michael, who uses some of first time. The opening film Comet with her parents for the weekend, MacMillan, Janice PIaU sc. Janice Platt, Seaton her brother's possessions and gets on McLe an (from a dramatization by Alexander well with her father. The mother At Night was reviewed in Cinema and her hapless friend sees her with Bremner, based on short story "The Sense She Canada last month. The remaining another girlfriend. So Marie-Ange Was Born With" by W.P. Kinsellal, cam. Mark explains the background to Michael five new offering are now reviewed lies to Emma, "The family is moving­ Irwin, esc orig. mU8. Richard Bronskill. In assn. who, after his friendly overtures with TV Ontario and with participation of - all 24 mins/coL The complete 13- perhaps to Indonesia I" Emma wal­ have been repulsed by Jennie, retires C.F.D.C. week schedule is also appended. lows around and quits the basket­ to his personal hideaway in an old ball team, and then finds out Marie­ wooden garage. When Jennie dis­ Ange has lied, lied to her! Mutual AN OUNCE OF CURE covers it, she has to see what he's recriminations ensue, everything is doing and, after lighting a candle, JO'S SONG It's the faraway '50s and the wonder­ got off respective chests, and they prowls around. Startled by the re­ Jo admires her friend Lisa, who is i,n ful moment has arrived for Elizabeth finally reach an understanding - and turning Michael, she overturns the the school's Fall Follies, playing the - Martin, heart-throb of Grade 13, is candle and starts a fire. Together piano and singing the song for which playa little street hockey in a snowy about to kiss her, in the moonlight, on back alley. they manage to douse the flames. Jo wrote the lyrics. Performing is the verandah. "I was a mess of emo­ In a coda, the parents talk over the much more exciting than writing, A sort of empty piece, with not tions." But her dilemma is that she enough bite in the script and soft matter and Jennie tries to accept all says Jo: "How many people have can't decide whether she wants Mar­ direction. The teenagers' acting is on the blame. The kids discuss their posters of writers on their walls?" tin to kiss her again, or to leave so that one note and, consequently, there's feelings of guilt, and about hurting, She wants to be up there too - in the she can rush to the telephone and tell not too much tension. But Montreal and then join amicably on a project­ spotlight - so, aspiring to be like her her best friend Joyce all about it. in winter looks, well, if not inviting, a playhouse for Hildie. At the gala Mom who's a dancer, she takes up The first experience with love is definitely picturesque. opening they put on a magic show, tap-dancing. Somehow Joe doesn't tersely chronicled with humour, using the late Michael's costumes seem to get the expected fun out of it, understanding, wit, and a large dollop d . Don McBrearty, p. Michael MacMillan, Sea­ and box of tricks. and certainly nothing approaching ton McLean, J anice Platt, Be. John Frizzell, cam. of irony. The torture, the agony, the A rather icky script is given some her Dad's enthusiasm for his sports Re ne Ohashi. mus. (composed by) Bruce Ley, time spent with the beloved - "37 life by the children, who are well J.p. St e phanie Morganstern, Virginia Thomas, coaching. Practice does not make for days and 65 hours" - and the sixty­ handled, but the parents come across. perfect twinkling tap toes, and Jo is Julie Desjardins, Tim \"'ebber. In association five pages of diary entries, is all there. w ith TVOntario and the partic ipation of Te le­ as a bit too good to be true. dropped from the Follies line-up. film Canada and co-ope ration of Assn. of Cana­ Alas, the handsome Martin ditches Fed up with her klutzy reputation, dian Film Crafts people. Elizabeth for the hateful Mary Bishop d. Bruce Piltman, p. Seaton McLean, Michael she accuses her parents of given up with whom he stars in a school play. :\lacMilla n, Janice Plalt, sc. Joe Wiesenfeld, on her. After a little heart-to-heart The painful let-down leads Elizabeth cam. Mark IJ'W'in c s~ , muse Bruce Ley. l.p. Fiona . talk with Mom and Dad, she feels McGillibray, Simon Craig, Nadie ne Gibney, Diana from crying jags, to the wry contem­ Barrington, David Main. In assn. with n 'Ontario, better and decides to join the au­ CAROLINE plation of a bottle of pills, and the with participation of C.F.D.C. and co-operation dience for the Fall Follies. Lisa gamely downing of a tumbler of booze while of Assn. of Canadian Film Craftspeople. Caroline, part-Indian, part-white, re­ p lays and sings, and then makes a babysitting. This final folly leaves her turns to the Indian reserve that her graceful acknowledgement of Jo's somewhat wiser, and with a new Non-commercial availability/ 16mm mother left to marry a white man. lyrics, and they are together in the understanding of life's inanities. & video: Magic Lantern Film Distri­ Ben, the grandfather, cannot forgive spotlight. This little goodie is given life and butors, Toronto. (416) 844-7216, or fOl-get, and is unrelenting towards A sort of ordinary little story, quiet­ charm by a superior screenplay (from and Vancouver (604) 271-3311. Caroline's friendly advances. "My ly presented and easy-going, that Alice Munro's short story) by John grandfather and my mother didn't makes its point abundantly clear. Frizzell, who does his auteur bit by get along because my Dad wasn't Some Ontario film' folk may be slight­ using his own name for a character. Indian ... He felt that anger every time ly unnerved by the fact that Jo's Mom And Martha Cronyn is so heartwarm­ he looked at me that summer." SONS AND DAUGHTERS (Julie Wild) bears a remarkable re­ ing as the hapless Elizabeth, hope At the general store operated by semblance to Mary Brown, the well­ and eagerness flickering across her CBC TELECAST SCHEDULE the grandparents, Silas, the young known provincial censor! face, dying to find out about love and helper, befriends Caroline, takes her going through a small hell in the Dec. 2/84 in the truck on deliveries and gives Cornet At Night d . Seaton McLe an, p. Janice Plalt. Michael process. A nice period recreation of Dec. 9/84 her a yo-yo from long-forgetten, unsold Jo's Song MacMill an. Seaton McLean, se. Janice Plalt, the '50s, replete With saddle shoes, Dec. 16/84 I Know A Secret Seaton McLean, (based on novel " Miss P. and stock. Caroline gradually sells all the crinolines, and Connie Francis. Dec. 23/84 Olden Days Coat Me" bv Florence McNeill cam. Rene Ohashi, yo-yos to the local kids, spurring on mus. Louis Natale, lp. Rebecca Fleming, Lisa Dec. 30/84 White Lies sales with lessons. Ben won't admit Ann Turina, Allan Royal, JulieWild. Produced in d. Don McBrearty, p. Janice Platt, Michael Jan. 6/85 RW that he's proud of her business sense, Association with TVOntario, and with the parti­ MacMillan, Seaton McLean, se. John Frizzell Jan. 13/85 Caroline cipation of Telefilm Canada. and he lashes out, "Don't ever feel (based on short story by Alice Munro), cam. Jan. 20/85 Pick Me VpAt Peggy's Cove that you have to do anything for me." Mark Irwin, esc mus. Bruce Ley lp. Martha ' Crol)yn, Cathy Bums, Greg Spottishwood, Jan. 27/84 An Ounce of Cure Urged on by Mary, his wife, old Ben Winner of Best Overall Production, 1984 WHITE LIES admits to Caroline that she reminds Feb. 3/84 Bamboo Brush Canlldian Film & Television Assn. Awards. Feb. 10/85 Home From Far The irritating Emma and the equable him of his daughter. He talks about Feb. 17/84 David Marie-Anne are best friends, even her leaving and how ashamed and HOME FROM FAR Feb. 24/84 Boys and Girls thQugh Marie-Ange always seems to hurt he felt. A few tears fall and they beat Emma at most sporting things. take a walk together - the first step in In an opening tragedy, Jennie's twin Selections are about to be made for the healing process. brother Michael dies in a car accident. Pat Thompson •

24/Cinema Canada - January 1985