• F I L M M A K E R 5 •
~ .... C1l .0 c: a:;, u ro OJ :;, o o
• Bogue (Greg Malone) answers reporter's questions for a dazed President Bidgood (Andy Jones) as they leave the Capitol Theatre l~e AbtJelit oI14U~t"~ '$ibfoob
first feature film has been viewed, re remains of a junk food gorge, and malevolence, he sits behind his desk. by Joan Sullivan viewed, celebrated, dismissed, slotted grunted "If the Christian Brothers could His co-workers Phyliss Meany (Maisie into the cult film category, toasted, see me now ... " He also directed Mary Rillie), Heady Nolan (Mary Walsh), "I f Ingmar Bergman had directed hosted, and seen in several film festivals Walsh in her one-woman show Frank Dollar (Tommy Sexton), Henry Monty Python, he might have in Canada and Europe. Bloomsdays, a tribute to the female Harry (Beni Malone), and Margaret come up with something like The And what is The Adventure of characters of James Joyce. Mary Stackdeck (Cathy Jones) ignore or Adventure of Faustus Bidgood," Faustus Bidgood? What is Total Edu Michael helped form the II-year old torment him. Unable to respond in any
I (Robert Joy, The JournaL.) To expand cation' Where is the poet Premier? Who Newfoundland Independent Film Co normal manner, he wrecks bloody on that, if Ingmar Bergman had read a has Billy's boots? Who are Michael and operative (NIFCO). As a high school havoc on them in his mind. His Mephis lot of James Joyce, asked Monty Python Andy Jones, and what are they doing to teacher in the early '70s, he made sev topheles, Bogue (Greg Malone) visible to work with him, and then involved Canadian cinema? eral films with his English students, in only to Faustus, urges him to catch hold one of CODCO's mentors, Andy Jones, cluding The Bullies and Grand lar of reality in his swirling fantasies, before he might have come up with something "There is no luck, there is only grid ceny. By the mid-'70s he had combined he is swept into the Dark Ward. like Faustus. He might. But Michael reality_" (Fred-Bonia Coombs) forces with CODCO on several short But Bogue is helpless against the de and Andy Jones got there first. films. signs of Faustus' boss, Fred Bonia It took a while, ten years to be exact. Michael and Andy Jones are brothers As for what they are doing to Cana Coombs. This raving lunatic is deter Their determination to make an inde from St. John's, Newfoundland with two dian cinema, they have created an inde mined to inflict a system of Total Educa pendent fIlm made it even harder. And decades of involvement in fIlm and pendent feature film which charges the tion on the province, and involves Faus whether alI the intensive work and theatre. They have written, acted and rear guard of mass-produced, processed tus in a black-mail plot to this end. Total dynamic energy that was poured into directed in a myriad of plays and fIlms. cheese film stories, and challenges any Education is based on grid reality, a keeping Faustus independent came Andy, acting since university, toured one's idea that Newfoundlanders exist concept that bloomed in Bonia from a need "not to be taken over by Europe with Ken Campbell's solely to provide some joke's punch Coombs' mind after witnessing the other forces," or as a "rebellion against Madhouse Company before returning line. death of a close friend, accidently the formulaes that pervade American home and joining CODCO, Newfound Faustus Peebles Bidgood, "closet beaned on the head by a bag of frozen media," Newfoundland's long-awaited land's premiere comedy group. He human being" and ex-patient of The soup thrown from a window during a wrote and performed a one-man show, Mental, has found a niche in the New lovers' quarrel. Faustus' oOIy escape Joan Sullivan is a freelance writer ~nd Out of the Bin, alternately shocking foundland Government's Department of from this violent and demented man is the editor of Arts In formatIOn and hypnotising audiences as he lay on Education Special Curriculum Develop to fantasize that he is President of a free magazine in St.john's, Newfoundland. an unmade bed, surrounded by the gory ment Branch. Brimming with quiet Newfoundland.
16/Cinema Canada - November 1986 • F I L M M A K E R 5 •
President Bidgood is also a troubled Michael Jones: There's a big rebellion man. It is his last day in office, and the against the formulae and sameness that masses are agitating for him to stay. En pervades American popular media. The route to the office he is disturbed by a popular culture that dominates t~e dream that he is actually a clerk in the country is based on control, on provId Newfoundland Government Depart ing limited acccess to ideas. Change ment of Education Special Curriculum comes at a very slow pace. I've always Development branch. Vasily Bog resisted that. We made this film for donavitch Shagoff, the philosopher/con Newfoundlanders, in the belief that sciencelbrain behind the revolution, Newfoundlanders have a good sense of wants him to resign and preserve the judgement as to what is funny. spirit of the new regime. The President wants to finish his dream before he de Andy Jones: There was a feeling of not cides. explai ning things, of leaving the refer As both men are drawn toward their ences as they are, as if there were personal catharsis, Newfoundland "0 thousands of movies made in New- ~ searches for her poet Premier, Jonathan Q) foundland and this was just one more. Moon (Nelson Porter). The Find the §' Like we all know New York from Poet Premier Crisis Centre has been u:: movies, that gets shoved down our reactivated by the Minister of Culture, £ throats all the time, we all know Fifth Claud Squires (Bas Jamieson). Viewers o Avenue . So that was a consistent theme can write or phone in their suggestions 2 from Day One, and that's the most on the premier's location. The right i-====---...::....------=====::==-::::=-:::-..:..------"1 a. chancy thing we've ever done. guess could win you ... a waffle iron from West Brook! The local paper gives daily Michael Jones: The whole film turns coverage of the search, along with a on Eddie Peddle having rejected his series of child murders. The killer has ing began on Faustus. It was mainly a (The following interview took place in homeland and posing as a flamenco completely stumped the police and hand-held shoot - collective, impro St. John's.) dancer in Toronto. That's the most claims to be the famed child educator, vised and exhausting. Writing and film dicey scene in the film because it really Uncle Henny Penny. Meanwhile, gov ing Faustus left both Michael and Andy Michael Jones: There is a satirical ele gets local at that pOint. ernment employees prepare for their impoverished and exhausted so Andy ment in the film. I delight in hearing "A annual Crippled Childrens Benefit, returned to the theatre while Michael Great Big Sea Hove in Long Beach" "I'm a Spaniard. I'm a real Spaniard. while the cabinet ministers rehearse had a "pseudo mid-life crisis." 50,000 sung on the stage (during the annual I'm from Spaniard's Bay!" their traditional roles in Billy's Boots, "a feet of negative was not developed until Government Benefit for Crippled Chil (Eddie Peddle) great epic that spanned generations." At 1980 dren). That sort of prim and proper ar one pOint, Faustus imagines President It was 1982 before they started edit rangement and presentation (of folk Andy Jones: It seemed to be a real Bidgood viewing a movie that contains ing Faustus. After a year editing to music) has always annoyed me a lot. It fl aw, but I think people will just say 'Oh, scenes of an earlier documentary and gether Andy returned to the theatre pleases me to have that there, with the that must be something to do with that glimpses of a childhood birthday party, again, and Michael spent two more jazz dancers dancing to it. That's a place.' You do that all the time, watcn which Faustus has flashbacked to sev years in the NIFCO (Newfoundland In minor one. There's certainly a very ing films. It doesn't seem to be that im eral times earlier. dependent Film Co-op) editing room in black view of politicians. portant. St. John's editing, re-writing and shoot People talk about it being very sur Interpreting and structuring this net ing new material. Finally in March, realistic too, but the film seems very Michael Jones: I think in the end we work of plot lines took many years of 1985, Barry Cowling and Les Halman normal to me. It gets very strange at the work. Michael and Andy started work see the whole film as one connected came to St. John's from the NFB's Atlan end, the way the whole crowd ignores piece. There's an energy running ing together in 1975, after both had ti c Studio in Halifa..-x. After a day of Faustus when the premier comes out of spent years away from Newfoundland. through it that I hope makes that unim watching Faustus they invited Michael the piano. It's a very odd thing, we're portant. There's S.o much more to the Andy studied at universities in Halifax, to Halifa..-x for final editing. obviously in another world by then, Alberta - and Toronto while Michael film than those particular plot details, When the Atlantic Studio ran out of we're swept away by reality." because the fact that there are so many spent nine years with the Christian money they sent Michael to Montreal to Brothers in New York and Vancouver. plots details is a factor. and the fact that seek further funding and services. After Andy Jones: An idea I had for another there are so many levels is a factor, and They returned at the time of Newfound several screenings at the NFB in Mont script had again that love for New land's "cultural renaissance," which was the ideas in the film are a factor. The real, the NFB agreed to provide post foundland and the beauty of Newfound grid, for example, is a large idea on especially evident in theatre. Alongside production services, sound edit, mix, land, but the underlying theme was that a renewed interest in folk music, and an which the system of total education is prints and blow-up to 35mm. someone was using that theme as a based. explosion in the visual arts where It takes 10 months and in August seduction. I'd like to have all these emerging artists challenged traditional 1986 the first print is ready and 10 beautiful shots of landscapes, and un boundaries; groups like CODCO, The Andy Jones: It's also a very foolish years of work heads for the world pre derlying it, the seduction and the vio idea. Mummer's Troupe, and Rising Tide miere in St. John's, Newfoundland. lence. That juxtaposition appeals to me. were born. While Andy, as a member of You want to be totally romantic, but at CODCO, was presenting audacious and Scene: Fred Bonia-Coombs explains Scene: The Find the Poet Premier Crisis the same time you want to be totally his system of Total Education. As the riveting shows, Michael was helping to Centre. Squires, assisted by Claude unromantic. light from his slide projector flashes on . build NIFCO, along with filmmmakers Hickman (GfmJl Curnew), notifies the his face, he explains how the sky is di like John Doyle, Michael Riggio and public that the Premier has gone miss MichaelJones: I have felt disappointed uided into even squares, fonning a Derek Norman. In 1975, CODCO and ing again. They invite responses from that we were part of Canada and so grid. People are killed by things falling Michael started working together. The people. Suggestions will be checked out closely associated with Canadians. But through the grid, like his friend who result was three short films, Codpieces, by the Newfoundland Constabulary or now I feel angry that we haven't been was killed by a bag offrozen soup. His Sisters of the Silver Scalpel, and the RCMp, depending on the locatioll given a chance. It's so difficult to make system would "unlock the mysteries of Dolly Cake. of the suspected hiding place. They a point when you're speaking from the grid," allowing advocates to "cheat Then in 1977 Andy began writing show the Premier's uideotaped message Newfoundland. So much of the re the grid" and escape these falling Faustus. After a test shoot in late 1977, prOViding clues to his whereabouts. sources for idea development go into pieces offate . "Total Education, gentle the Faustus Bidgood writers workshop "Well Newfoundland and Labrador, the big cities, and so little to what they began in the spring of 1978. Improvisa men, is eternal hfe." he's gone again, n says Moon. In part call 'the regions.' tional writing and acting workshops his clues, revealed in bad p oetry, ru n "I Michael Jones: "It's a very large and were held creating and assembling the am fun at parties/though I do not Andy Jones: And there's an attempt to foolish idea, which is played seriously, cast. Once the cast was created shoot- drink/I have no brain/and yet I tink. n homogenize everything. so that is a style and an approach.
November 1986 - Cinema Canada/17 • F I L M M A K E R 5 •
nefy and I opted from the start to. spent tWo months looking at .the share the final artistic say 50-50. footage - it took a whole week Just AWe figlJred one plus one would to watch it once through. equal more than two. When I see the We spent many days trying to fig film now and ask: myself whose film ure out what it all meant, what the, this is I arrive at the same percentage film was about. It was a 24-hour - 50-50. The script was mainly his, story like the Greek tragedies, with with help from me, and my edit with the office staff being the cho~s. ; his heIp. But the other person who There were two films, a blackJwhite' put a great deal into the film was one about the President of New a chipped tooth and Andy had one and although we had many more Robert Joy. Although he WaS in N.Y. foundland and a color one abotit the lens missing out of his glasses. We scenes scripted, we knew it was all a lot of the time, he was. there for the sante man who was a clerk in the de made no reference to' the incident. over. We had a little meeting and scrIpt and almost all the shooting partment of Education. It was a F~ The whole approach to the script Andy said, ." This is it, then, OK? Let's and he did everything and anything . story - a Memorial University Ger changed. We immediately began to say principal photography is that needed to be done. He wrote man professor who hadsrudi«l the cut and simplify and devise plot finished. " We were a certified Cana lots of sCript, got props, found loca a Faust myth and also read our script and structure capable of carrying as dian feature film, you see, and the tious, pboned people, was produc outline assured us of that. But 'W'fujt many of the disparate elements of completion of principal photogra~hy tion manager, as well as a principal were we going to do wi.th the Demp· Andy's screenplay as possible, was important. Really we Just actor. Later he directed fue music, ster Peebles footage? It was a vestige • Within weeks we knew enough couldn't shoot any more. composed all the songs and the main of the old screenplay. What was :l? about the rum to begin shooting. musical themes that Paul Steffler Eddy Peddle watching on 'IV? We ~ composed around. • • couldn't remember. We wotfred ~y5 :$ ' We broke the script down into 250 and nights, different shifts dil'ferent The exposed stock sat in the freezer scenes which we listed on huge weeks, and drank at the Skala in the ,~ aU thrOUgh 1979. We processed six sheets of paper and stuck up on the late night. In November I got
18/Cinema Canada - November 1986 • F I L M M A K E R 5 •
Andy Jones: It's a tone, and you've you're in it_ " - (Neu10undland Gr)ll done a lot in terms of the tone of the emment Dept. of Ed. Special Cur film. What you've done in a lot of cases riculum Development Branch Employ is removed the punchline, you don't ees.) give the audience a chance for release. And sometimes it goes on for a long Michael Jones: That to me is the most time before they can say 'ahahahaha.' important thing. I can remember read One example is the line 'I feel so calm,' ing The Magus and being so delighted and the line that's cut is 'Gosh, I feel so that the ground was constantly being calm,' and that's the laugh line. taken from under my feet. I was led to (TJ believe in a world that was not really Michael Jones: That's the laugh line, ~ that world at all. The main character but it was overdone. .t! had a false idea of what was happening. u. ~ Scene: Phyliss (Maisie Rillie) tries to Andy Jones: And you don't want to go a: bring Faustus out of his daydreams by for that.· I would have gone for that, of ~ grabbing him by tbe hair and sbaking course. And the same thing with the l-e, I-a scene. I would have left another l-e I------..::...:=--======~ 7i bis bead. Faustus is suppsed to bring • Faustus and Bogue backstage at the Crippled Children's Benefit Show some papers to the archives for Bonia- in there. Coombs Faustus plays this into his Michael Jones: I had it in there, and I (Mary Walsh) finger, it's done seriously. Michael Jones: There were many fantasy, where Pbylliss is a devoted and loving servant who kisses the cuffS had 'Gosh, I feel so calm' in there, and It's a serious scene, and there's a poig things like that. It was a very well-dis the final level of cutting was to take out nant moment in there, that one shot cussed thing in the 1960s and 1970s. of his trollsers. He comes out of it when the repetitious material, or what I even where Faustus realizes what he's doing. The people who'd been through the Phyliss gives him a final crack and tually came to see as going one step too He's confused and you feel sorry for system were very angry, and the church shouts "Where are you all the time any far. That's the beauty of editing, I went him. It's a gross scene, a wonderful was starting to lose its influence then. I way, when you're not in there kissing through a process of distilling it down. scene for laughs although some people don't know if children going to school Fred's ass?" He retaliates by imagining I think there are a few more cuts I'd like are repulsed by it, but there's a poignant today would understand it. Someone her staggering around with an axe im to do. moment there. We get away with told me that they loved the movie but bedded in her forehead. exaggeration in the school scene be they thought the violence was uneces These fantasies, daydreams, nightmares Andy Jones: But that's your humour, cause that's a dream, although there's sary. and alternating realities added up to you're never sure where the ground is. not much exaggeration there, all those nearly 40 hours of film. You get a chance to decide when you're things could have happened. Andy Jones: In the axe scene, people letting the audience off the hook. That know that's coming and they turn away. Michael Jones: There were well over comes out in the movie really strongly. Andy.Jones: The 'Nine! Nine! Nine! I remember doing that scene, and going scene where the teacher bangs his head down to get the axe carved to fit 30 teacher scenes shot, and there are only nine left. I remember knowing that Michael Jones: The editing was my against the wall, we saw that in Grade Maisie's head. The guys at the foundry way of dealing with a mass of incredibly Two. And the strapping was all true, and were watching me fit the axe to her it would be at most an eight minute funny and interesting material. the 'Did I push you?' thing, that was nor- head, and were quite intrigued by that. scene but we went ahead and shot an .mal. . It seems like nothing to me now, but hour of material anyway. The amount of Andy Jones: From an analytical point people get taken aback by it. The reason cutting there was vast. The lunchtime of view it goes beyond that, it has to do Michael Jones: The chemistry lab for the violence in the film is that the walk through the city had 45 minutes of with what you wanted to see in the monster is a bit exaggerated. main character can't deal with anything, usable footage. If we stretched all the movie. he can't carry on a conversation. His material together it would probably last Andy Jones: That's a metaphor. only way out is to kill the person that is about sL'\: hours. After screening it with Michael Jones: Someone asked me the in the way. Rather than being in any outsiders, I found we were repeating other day if the original vision of the Michael Jones: It saves the l-e, I-e way noble, he fantasizes about someone ourselves a lot. movie was fulfilled in the final creation, scene. I spent three weeks cutting that who is extremely noble. and I said yes. sequence, and it's only a minute long. I Andy Jones: The lines from Billy's picked the low-key take. But the school Michael Jones: Which is himself, of Boots are repeated several times. Andy Jones: The vision was, yes. scene is an accurate reflection of the course, Catholic School system in St. John's in Michael Jones: By the time Billy's Scene: A Christian Brother, teaching a the 1950s. We were prone to exagger Andy Jones: That is the seed of a prob Boots is performed on stage, you've ;U French class, asks a student' to spell ate the effect that the Brothers had on lem I have, you know when the person ready seen the cabinet ministers re 'bicycle.' The student begins 'I-e-b-i-c' us. But I did see a Brother slap a boy you're living with doesn't do the dishes hearSing it, and the people in the office when the teacher stops him. 'I -e? Did right down against the back wall, slap, for six months, and you don't say any fooling around. Several lines are familiar you say I-e' 'Yes, sir.' 'Good, very good. slap, slap, backhand, forehand, back thing. You hold back. And one day they to you. Perfect. Gerard, I went to school, I went hand, forehand. drop a Cigarette ash on the floor and to university on the mainland for five you're shrieking at them. That's where Andy Jones: Billy's Boots is satire on years... the archiespiscopal board built Andy Jones: There were other things I the violence came from, but I don't the traditional thing done every year. this schoo~ built that staircase out saw too. I saw a boy get strapped right know why it's in the film . I forgot there We actually wanted to shoot scen~s of there, so we could come up here and be across the face. And there's Dad's story was so much of it. There's a lot in there Frank Moores, Joey Smallwood and Sir here tOday in this classroom, to hear about when he was boarding at St. about murdering children. I don't think Richard Squires performing it. you tell me I-e? I-e!" Bon's. He went to complain about the it's in there because I want to kill chil In the corridor, another teacher re butter because the butter was rancid. dren, but probably because, when I was Michael Jones: Billy's Boots was a peatedly pushes a student while asking They went up to the house, and the a child, I was afraid I was going to be kil great epic that spanned generations. 'Did I push you? Did I? Did I push principal opened the door. He said led. I know I was constantly afraid as a you?' Until the student says no, she 'We've come to complain,' and the child. I was so relieved to get out of Andy Jones: It was just that we had too hasn't, although she has and is still Brother said 'What, you've come to school. I thought university was won many scenes to tell the story and each pushing him. what?' And he said 'to complain about derful, no one was going to beat me. At scene within that was in itself too long. the butter, the butter was .. .' and slap, school, everything I did was based on MichaeIJones: We established that we slap, slap, they were allover the floor. I guilt and fear. Of course, the film is Michael Jones: In 1982 we spent a lot were going to play everything straight, don't think they ever got the word 'ran about more than that. It brings people of time trying to figure out what was that we would never, never, not once cid' out of their mouths. It was a very down a lot of different roads. going on. We discovered clues in the exaggerate or fool around. Even when brave thing for them to have done, to material, and reasoned our way back to Faustus is picking his nose with Heady's consider making a protest at that time. "There's a show going on, and what it must have been we ~ntended .
November 1986 - Cinema Canada/19 • F I L M M A K E R 5 •
Andy Jones: Or what information we cinema if there was assistance to de should give the audience at what pOint. velop ideas without interference. We began with a chronological ap Filmmakers are forced to rely heavily proach. Dempster Pee dies started the on the Canada Council, who have a movie off because he would be the first small budget for assisting filmmakers, thing that happened historically. There and the NFB, who have a program for was a lot of time spent on the issue of assisting ftImmakers, although they what was real and what wasn't, when haven't always had it and they may not exactly the fantasy began, what past the always have it. It's very small in com colour Faustus and the black/white parison to the large amount spent by Faustus shared. Eventually we decided Telefilm. the Dempster Peebles scenes would be What we're asking for is that indepen come a movie that was made in 1929 in dent filmmakers be recognized as a Newfoundland. Excerpts of which are legitimate cinema, and that a Significant shown in another movie, a docudrama portion of Telefilm funds be used to about the President which he goes to develop the creative independent sec see on his last day in office and the film tor. And don't account us to death, now exists only in President Bidgood's don't mess with our scripts and don't mind, although they both had a grand force us into standard large-scale pro father named Dempster Peebles. duction structures. Use the money to seed new filmmakers. Michael Jones: The President goes to We maintained complete indepen the film and dreams that he never be dence. It was an awful price to pay but came PreSident, that he remained a if the mm is good enough than it was clerk in the Department of Education worth it. We did have several oppor and got involved in a blackmail plot. tunities for funding from people who The docudrama contains a movie ver , ~ had the money and were interested in sion of the birthday and mother's death :u the CODCO group, but who frankly scene that we've already seen in §' told us they'd like to have a hand in the u: story line. We very quickly and with no flashback. c (t hesitation refused the money. Andy Jones: We were going to do a a Soviet version, where his mother was a :g Andy Jones: We actually started off not forewoman in an ice cream factory in r------1 Cl. wanting to take money from the Canada the Ukraine and she dies when she's • Heady Nolan (Mary Walsh) - the woman of Faustus' fantasies Council. ohit on the head with a tub of ice not sure I like my role in this one," says that again, to avoid being taken over by cream. Michael Jones: We were forced to go Bogue. "Cautious, simpering, intellec other forces. to them to get the film processed. They tual figure." Below, a journalist asks MichaelJones: I remember the day we • eventually gave us the maximum ShagofJ if he has had any particular One way to protect a film from inva- amount available for film, 50,000. were editing and we decided the whole jobs. "Yes," he says, 'Tve had several sion from other forces is to keep the film was a psychological problem, it was There's a lot of things that really bug me particular jobs and many others of a financing independent. There are not a about the Canadian film scene - mainly about Faustus' mind. A certain freedom more general nature. " lot of resources for Canadian filmmmak happened then. Eventually we were the resources being concentrated in ers; the Canada Council, the NFB and central Canada, the failure to see that a able to link the black and white fan While Andy, Greg Malone and the rest Telefilm, which has such a reputation tasies directly to Faustus' mind. vibrant Canadian cinema could already of CODCO had a few years of acting ex for rewriting scripts into mass-digested have been established if the money had perience, many of the important parts formulaes that creative filmmakers steer Andy Jones: There's a man fantasizing been used differently. There's a film co were played by people who had never clear of this Crown Corporation. Many op in every major City. If the money had about another man, and that man is acted before. With some inspired cast cities have a film co-operative. NIFCO, dreaming him. That's the reality of the been shared out to grassroot pro ing, Nelson Porter was given the role of in St. John's, has had a hand in more jects .. .instead money went into films film. But one thing I would never do Jonathan Moon, and Val Ryan played than 50 films, many of them fine pro again is portray mental illness the way that were supposedly marketable, films Faustus' real father. ductions. Its catalogue includes Michael that imitated American products. It was we did. People laugh at the line in the and Andy's work, films by Francine a shame and a terrible waste of money. movie 'Mental illness can be beaten.' Andy Jones: Nelson came to the audi Fleming, Derek Norman, Paul Pope and But that's the TV announcer saying that, tion with his daughter, and we per the famous underground film by John There are so many barriers. To get Faustus would never say that. But it is suaded him to join in on some improvi Doyle - Extraordinary Visitor, where script development money you have to important to the story that we strongly sations. Val Ryan doing the father is John the Baptist is dispatched from the have a track record to begin with. The show his feelings about mental illness beautiful. He's a natural actor, he's not Vatican to St. John's to investigate the people who make these decisions are and that he's very much afraid of going afraid of emotions. meaning of the Message of Fatima: very clean people who eat well. On the back to the hospital. ("Terra Nova exito subito de Con other hand the Canada Council runs on Michael Jones: That's an amazing !ederatione - Newfoundland must a jury system that's relatively fair. You "Mr. Bonia-Coombs, what's the Dark scene, and we had to do it in one take leave Confederation at once.") Faustus get judged by five different filmmakers, Ward?" (Faustus Bidgood) too, because it started to rain. But most is significant not only as Newfound from different parts of the country. major parts were played by people with land's first feature mm, but also as an in It would be a simple matter for the Michael Jones: He's fantasizing that experience. It was a lot of work, but the dependent mm that came out of a government to help the film industry to he's beaten his mental illness, that'S energy we put out at that time was a co-op. flourish. Some of the films you'd get what he's doing. The doubt in his mind mad energy. I can never believe how would be useless of course, but you'd is that he's doing too much fantasizing, much energy it took to keep going Michael Jones: There are a number of also get very good films that would rep and he tempers that through Bogue. against incredible odds. Every day was a independent films being made in resent Canada as a culturally separate Scene: Faustus and Bogue stand in the crisis. No one had that energy before or Canada~ although no one in their right place that has control over its cultural Colonial Building, looking down at since, to keep going in the face of so mind would try to make a film exactly destiny and its soul. Some of them Faustus' fantasy as President Bidgood, much. It seems impossible to do that as we made Faustus. Many filmmakers would be less marketable than others, assisted by Vasily Bogdanovitch again. working with co-ops are making films but there would be an interesting crop Shagoff, gives his first press conference with a minimum of resources. These of films to offer the world. The world and announces Newfoundland's im Andy Jones: I was wondering today if filmmakers are the most creative, they offers stuff to us, especially the Amer minent separation from Canada. 'Tm we would have to do some version of could be part of a very fine national icans with the bags of mindless films
ZO/Cinema Canada - November 1986 • F I L M M A K E R 5 •
which seem calculated to keep people lander; a wheel-barrow (:(TZd two ted Taken Faust by the horns and tossed (rom thinking. bags. Michael and Andy Jones' him into a soup of cod-tongues where I'm very angry abol,lt this. It enrages COOCO's merobers play the main the characters also speak in tongues. me that the sources of creative money roles in Fal,lstus. The flexible art scene The And, Boy, do they speak volumes about in this country have shrunk so much, allows people to cross over disciplines our culture and to the possibilities of especially lately with this government. and frequ~ntIy they do. The structure our future cinema. So many people are going with s.o little, also allows filmmakers to express their Adventure They also wanted to open the film at and we know because We went with so difi.'erent talents. Andy, for example, The Berlin Film Festival because they little for so long. I'll do it again, because acted, wrote, helped with the casting, of Faustus thought Faust himself would be able to I'm not after the bl,lcks. I'd just like to be and penned many of the songs in the afford the airfare. But, instead, they able to keep the production rolling, to film. Michael has written, directed and opted for the Cinema Today and To not have to keep stopping all the time. acted in several films, including acting Bidgood morrow Section of the Montreal Festi in Extraot4iinary VisitOT. Many lWrnes val because Montreal is more like Berlin Andy Jones: I'm not sure I'm willing to in the credits appear two or three or than it realizes, and because the film is go through what's necessary to get the even half a dozen times. more like tomorrow than yesterday. It funding up front To make that kind of .. "To work such wide enchantment - also played at Toronto's Festival of Fes- film is useless anyway. I'd rather make a MichaelJones: The film community in who can doubt it - tivals of Festivities. poverty-stricken film that's got some- Newfoundland is Closely related to the You, Poet, are the man, thing in it. theatre commll1lityi which is the So set about it." mainstay of our artistic environment Faustus Bidgood incarnates all - The Director in the Prelude in classic storytelling techniques, from and our most advanced discipline. Mary Goethe's Faust (Part 1). I ~Michael Jones: Ther-e was a point Walsh says every Newfoundlander is an Shakespeare's prelude, five acts and where there were 50 or more feature actor._.people say that about the Irish epilogue to the Grecian diurnal cycle, films made a year in Canada. The struc too. A man connt;.cted. with the Dublin y last real connection with New all the right mechanisms and struggles, ture: w:JS in place and then it collapsed. Film Festival said something very in foundland was sitting in The New all the right twists in the road, the right : All we reaRy need is an idea, a camera teresting ahQut Faustus. He said it was Mfoundland Bar on the Danforth in cinematic verve and swerve. What has I and some actors. lhat's all we had. Then a pastishe of the Irish Rebellion of 1916. Toronto's Greek neighbourhood, con been served to us should be a huge : yoU need 'to process the film, aod eat That started when a small group of fusing enough in and of itself, discussing popular success, if it could just dawn on I while you're doing it. That's the great foolish people, well, two inteilige~t oceanic cinema-life with friend Robert the hosers in high places to don the I thing abo~t NIFCO, it provided the ptO people and Sl:&: foOls, declared them Frank, which helped clear up the confu right support hose apparatus to allow I duction facilities and kept us indepen selves the Irish Republic. Theywere not sion. Beyond that, in my earlier days, I for the proper distribution of this im- J dent_ Although when we started the taken seriously, even by the Irish, until had hitch-hiked to Newfoundland three portant film. People should be forced to i film they had no Steenbeek, or flatbed the British came over and shot them. times. It was always a paradise to me: a watch this film. Tied down into their i editing facilities. But as lOlilg as you The course of Irish history was changed land of good people, hard life and good seats and attached to laugh-o-meters. If' Could survive, you could work. because of the actions of a few people, times. The national motto on its coat of they don't laugh their genetic codes off: and this was echoed in Faustus. arms could very well be 'life's a bitch, then they have no connection to the · ~ou'l'e telling me rm $ane? But and then you die ... laughing.' It is a Founding Fathers of this Confection or YQU~i'e a ligment of my imagina • funny place, (as in humourous). It is to the Floundering Fathers of New tion!" - .(Faustus B4/good to Bogue). While Newfoundland, like Quebec, also a sad place, ruthlessly exploited foundland's own Confederation. Yes, was under the arm of the Mother and culturally colonized before and folks, it's a million dollars of surrealistic : . To date, $100,000 was spent on Faus Church for the better part of this cen since the genocide of the original New mayhem. It's great and transformational , .tus. The artiSts' investment adds up to tury, Newfoundland was ··also in the foundlanders - the Algonkian speaking story-telling. This is what Faustus Bid $1,000,00. MOSt ,Canadian feature shadow of Great Britain when it came native Beothuk Indians, called "Red" be good is. It is a "yarn" as opposed to the 1ilm& cost· at l~ twice this, with to the arts and academiCS. This col cause of their custom of daubing their "yawn" that so characterizes our na Joshua 'rhen and Now ~ng at onialism was expressed in the reviews bodies with red ocher. I've always had tional cinema. Of course I'm un $13,000,000. of Faustus after the premiere in St. it in my head to retire to Newfoundland abashedly biased. I wear my Faustus John's. There are few film critics in St, - to Ochre Pit Cove where the fisher- Bidgood button on my sleeve. The film Michael JOnes: Tbe!,e was $200,000 John's, Qut three of the m{)St prolific man's committee recently sought a mil caught me in a fishnet of intrigue and from the NFB, ea$lly, Tbere's a problem theatre critics are from Great Britain_ lion dollars of foreign aid from the U.S. lingerie. It is a fish story without the with them p'uttiJ1g inoney joto films like , They have never been infatuated with State Department, after a rejection from fish. A fish story where WE are the fish. , this. People in private companies object the local arts scene, aod when Faustus its Canadian counterpart. The people of In keeping with the natural aural/oral very strongly to tihe NFB doing the lab had its world premiere in LSPU Hall, this small community thought that their story-telling traditions of the Eastern work Which they feel they should be they called it 'self-indulgent,' 'a prodigal request was reasonable because New part of this new world, Faustus Bid paid to (lb. But the industry wouldn't waste of talent: One of them predicted foundland is a "Third World Province." good is a film about St. Johnsian dream . look at us, becausewe had nothing and the film would never get anywhere out I want to make personal cinema in theory, the internal workings of the cos we needed a lor, There were a few ex- side of its local audience and advised Newfoundland because of these people mic comic-tragic psyche, fate as "the" oot>tions. but we needed vast resources peOple to just catch the final few min and because the first film I saw in film ultimate fisherperson, and everything jIlld ' w November 1986 - Cinema Canada/21 • F I L M M A K E R 5 • it in minute, a day or week would take films' dexterous montage, its sinuoU$ a lifetime. and comedic plot and the revelatiOns of I knew Faustus was a good film by its making for which there will never be the audience's reaction and fulfilled ex a "Making of the Faustus Bidgood pectation. I knew Faustus Bidgood Film" mm, the most important thing to was a truly great film when the Amer be said about Faustus Bidgood 1$ fIlat ican critic left halfway through the sc it is a serious work It examines reening juSt as the film was starting to psydiological reality and cinematic get really interesting. ~ time as Alain Resnais does. It dismantle.5 OVer and beyond the obviously effu ~media, politics, religion and education sive, yet obfuscating objectivity that has ~ as few others dare to. It turns the characterized this review so far, ifone is ~ "Newfie joke" inside out, replacing self. t{) examine Faustus Bidgood as a , fi depreciation with angry, artistic seJf.as: purely phenomenological experience, E sertion. It tali:es on the "big" questions then it is both a phenomenon and logi 2 and makes them absurdly 'Westionable. to .-~------~ a Faustus Bidn;.()od is a film made on a cal. Tlut is say, it is determinism with • Soundman (Jim Rillie) and cameraman (Michael Jones) with Faustus and Eddy Peddle ""8 a demcoJ:ed face-Jift. And above all, one (Robert Joy). dre 22/Cinema Canada - November 1986