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ral (1954, Colin Low), Hunger (1973, Peter Foldes), 1.A. Martin, Photographe (1977, lean Beaudin), Memorandum (1965, 10hn Spotton and Donald Brittain), On est au coton (1970, Denys Arcand), The Railrodder (1965, Gerald Potterton), Rouli-roulant, or The Devil's Toy (1966, Claude lutra), Sad Song of Yellow Skin (1970, Michael Rubbo), Street Musique (1972, Ryan Larkin) and Alexis Tremblay, Habitant. The survey was interesting for those fIlms mentioned and for those fIlms noticeable by their absence (for whate­ ver reasons). Award-winning fIlms which failed to gamer any votes at all were: Evolution, High Steel, Paddle to the Sea, Tchou-tchou, Whistling Smith, and Wrestling. Only one vote was cast for Neighbors, Universe, Volcano: an Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry, and Walking. Are these fIlms victims of that perennial Canadian malady of works of art being recognized elsewhere but not by their countrymen? Mclaren's fIlms" and "all of Pierre ballet and special effects piece; Nobody The survey was not a large one and Perrault's fIlms." Waved Goodbye, Don Owen's 1964 perhaps not a representative sampling. Over one hundred fIlms were men­ documentary-turned-fiction-feature; But it was not insignificant in that tioned at least once on one list or Wake Up, mes bons amis or Un pays those surveyed are responsible for much another. This in itself is quite a testi­ sans bon sens, Pierre Perrault's inves­ of the post-secondary training fIlm mony to the general quality of NFB tigation of nationalism; City of Gold, studies in Canada. More importantly productions and also, I would think, Pierre Berton's nostalgic recollection it was meant not as a defmitive list to its range. Of these one hundred of Dawson City made by Wolf Koening but as a beginning. The NFB's interna­ fIlms, the one mentioned more often and Colin Low ; Waiting for Fidel, tional reputation deserves more sys­ than any other was Lonely Boy, the Michael Rubbo's fIlm about trying tematic investigation here in Canada. twenty-six and one-half minute ironic to fIlm Fidel Castro in 1974; and The More surveys should be made - broader documentary of pop singer Paul Anka Merry World of Leopold Z, an enter­ ones, even narrower ones. Booking made in 1961 by Roman Kroitor for taining fIlm about a snowplow operator patterns of NFB fIlms in schools, the famed "B unit." on Christmas eve made in 1965 by community groups, and on TV should Second on the survey was Mon Gilles Carle. be fully computed. Perhaps then the Onele Antoine, the 1971 feature fIlm Other fIlms singled out were: Le chat impact and the importance of the NFB directed by Claude lutra. dans Ie sac (1964, Gilles Groulx), Cor- can be registered. Third was Les Raquetteurs; the amusing twenty-eight minute documen­ tary on winter festivities in Quebec 'mOD ODele' revisited fIlmed by Michel Brault and Gilles Groulx in 1958. by Paul G. Socken In fourth position, rather surpris­ ingly, was Back-Breaking Leaf, a half­ A viewer of Claude Jutra's "Mon town encireled by mountains of as­ hour documentary about the south­ Onele Antoine" comes away from the bestos? What is the significance of the constant preoccupation with death and ern Ontario tobacco industry made in film reflecting on two difficult ques­ why does the action take place at 1959 by Terence Macartney-Filgate. tions: if the film is about the youth and maturing of young Benoit, why is it Christmas time? How is the social After this came Grierson, the 57 titled "Mon Onele Ant9ine"? And what, reality portrayed? And what is the townspeoples' attitude toward religious minute documentary tribute to the first then, is the importance of Benoit's pres­ ence? institutions and rites of the church? head of the NFB, produced and directed Let us first examine the personage by Roger BlaiS; Paul Tornkowicz: Street Attempting to answer those central of Antoine. He is a man who, as under­ Railway Switchman, a nine minute hom­ questions whose concerns lie at the taker for the village, lives with death age to a hardy old Polish emigre made very heart of the film, one grapples and yet is repulsed by it; he has no by Roman Kroitor in 1954; Pas de with a host of others: What is the rea­ children of his own but is the guardian Deux, the stunning Norman Mclaren son for the setting - a small mining of two; he dreams of owning a hotel 26jCinema Canada But for all the tears in the socia! fabric, there are moments when it seems remarkably resilient. After Be­ noit throws the snowball that fright­ ens the company representative's horse, Carmen shows her approval and we know the others are delighted. And when Carmen's father comes to pick up her wages without a single caring glance toward her, the people in the store are galvanized in their antipathy for him. In addition, the announce­ ment of the marriage of a young girl gives rise to a spontaneous outburst of joy by all. These moments portray a sense of community and solidarity among the poorer French-Canadians that is as much a part of the film as is their desperate economic situation, but they do not constitute its major focal point. The action takes place at Christmas time - the celebration of a birth - and Smothered in furs and cut-off from the world by mountains of asbestos in Jutra's Mon OncIe yet death is omnipresent. It is as if the Antoine characters' lives were defined by the constant presence of death since life in the United States but does not act offered to Benoit so many times on the can be emphasized in this way to be on that dream, and, finally, he is a man way there and just as often refuspd, fragile and man as vulnerable. The cuckolded. To put the preceding in sym­ is consumed by him on the way back. scene in which Benoit chases Carmen, bolic terms, Antoine must confront the Benoft too, then, must fortify himself who is wearing a wedding veil, around past and yet he is terrified by it; he is against bitter reality just as Antoine the coffins is an eloquent dramatiza­ a man without a future for himself did before him. That Benoit's lot will tion of this idea. Life and death are and yet responsible for that of others, not be any better than Antoine's is boldly juxtaposed to portray the char- a man desperate to escape his plight suggested at such moments. acters' helplessness not only in a social but who does not do so, and in the An examination of the setting and but in a metaphysical sense as well. final analysis he is deceived by the one other contributing effects and tech­ The attitude toward religion shows nearest and dearest to him. niques will reinforce this interpreta­ these Quebeckers as casting aside their Antoine is Quebec. Quebec's future tion. Jutra sets his film in a mining historically close ties with the Church. is uncertain and its past places demands town whose mountains of asbestos cut Although the church building is geo­ on the present. Quebec is the victim of it off from the rest of the world and graphically at the centre of the town, escapism as so many have forsaken her symbolize the limited horizons for the the rites of the church are treated if not by physically leaving, then by townspeople and thus their entrapment. flippantly and often with disdain. abandoning their cultural heritage. And Even though they may leave tempor­ Benoit and the priest snack on the host Quebec too has been deceived by what arily, as does M. Poulin for the woods, and sacramental wine, and the Virgin it thought to be its closest allies - the their departure is not permanent be­ Mary and the Holy Ghost are the ob­ Church and the politicians. cause their minimal education and jects of ridicule. Benoit's presence is crucial to this skills prevent them from succeeding Adrift from the social and economic drama as he represents the youth that in the world beyond the company­ mainstream and no longer reassured will inherit all that he is witness to. He town. by their traditional closeness with the is very much a spectator of the action The portrait of the town as a social Church, the characters are groping for that is unfolding, but he undergoes reality is revealing and poignant. The substance and stability. There is not a profound transformation himself. company that owns the mine is English a great deal of dialogue and there are The trip he takes with Antoine to pick and so are the lower echelons of man­ very few if any sustained conversations. up the corpse at the bereaved family's agement. A representative of the com­ The lives of the men and women seem rural house is literally a voyage from pany throws favours to the children therefore to be contained within them­ innocence to experience. His initial from his horse-drawn carriage - the selves, and the sense of community eagerness at the prospect of accompany­ ultimate gesture of condescension. There mentioned earlier is more potential ing Antoine turns to sober second will be no raise for the workers of the than real. In addition, shadows are thoughts as he helps him put the body mine this year just as there was none everywhere present and often there is in the coffin, and finally to revulsion last year. a lack of sharp definition.

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