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Film REI/IEUJS Donald Briiiain \ Volcano d: Donald Brittain, sc: Donald Brittain, narr: Brittain, words of Malcolm Lowry spoken by Richard Burton, ph: Douglas Kiefer, ed: John Kramer, sd. ed.: Les Hal- man, sd. rec.: James McCarthy, m: Alain Clavier, jazz arrang: Arts Phillips, exec, p: James de B. Domville, p.c: National Film Board of Canada, 1976, 16mm, color, running time: 100 minutes, dist: N.F.B. Every couple of years, the Na tional Film Board turns out a film of such magnitude that it makes one believe that despite the waste and ineptitude, the place is worth it. Every couple of years, Donald Brit tain gets his considerable talent or ganized behind a project he can relate desolation not without its hope. He literature which goes well beyond the to and produces a film of outstanding begins the book with a quote from cops and robbers level which film power. Such a film is Volcano, the Sophocles, "Wonders are many, and handles so well. How do you find vis flesh-and-blood portrait of a man none is more wonderful than man..." ual analogies for the words of Ulys-. possessed. At the age of 27, Lowry had settled ses or Finnegans Wake? How do you "I sometimes think of myself as a in Cuernavaca, Mexico. He had come take something whose power lies in great explorer who has discovered out of a restrictive, upper-class one medium and translate it into some extraordinary land from which British background, somewhat of a something as intransigent as film? he can never return to give his playboy. He and his family had a A rose is not a book is not a movie. knowledge to the world. But the mutual hatred for each other but his Brittain uses the author's own life as name of this land is Hell - not father faithfully supported him through the key to his work. The film weaves Mexico, of course, but in the all his ukulele-toting, alcoholic mis back and forth from the world and heart." adventures. Everyone who met him images of his life, to that of his novel. Malcolm Lowry was one of the knew he was a genius, but a genius What results is a Picasso-like great literary geniuses of our age, bent on self-destruction. Three years multi-perspective truth, a truth about but ours is an age hard on genius. He earlier, he had written a witty little Lowry and a truth about the human wrote only one book worth reading; it novel whose only virtue was that it condition. took him eight years and in the pro got published. "His passport called The film draws much of its con cess, it destroyed him. Haunted by him a writer, but he considered his siderable power from its source. homosexuality, guilt and paranoia, his only book an embarrassment; his Like any standard documentary, it life was a downward spiral of im entire life an embarrassment." consists largely of interviews and potence, alcoholism and - ultimately In this squalid and beautiful Mexican narrated sequences with pictures of - insanity. The book, his legacy, is village, Lowry seemed to have at Lowry's life. But the similarity ends the intense and seering personal ac last found a home, his own private there. The subject of this film be count of his odyssey. But the black hell. At the foot of the two mountains comes its object, the book becomes ness is not without its humor, the Popocatepepl and Ixtaccihuatl he be the words becomes the images be gan his life's work, an alcoholic col comes the people with such a fluidity lage of evil, suffering, squalor and that you are no longer seeing a movie Film Credit Abbreviations: d.: Director. as.st. d.: Assis tant Director, sc: Script, adapt.: Adaptation, dial: Dialo humor unfolding amidst the terrifying, about something or someone, you are gue, ph.: Photography, sp. ph. eff.: Special Photographic pathetic images of Mexico's Day of. not outside looking in at someone's Effects, ed.: Editor, sup. ed.: Supervising Editor, sd life, you have become part of his life, Sound, sd. ed.: Sound Editor, sd. rec.: Sound Recording, the Dead. He lived in this village less p. des.: Production Designer, a.d.: Art Director, set dec than two years, but it would haunt part of his vision and part of his Set Decorator, m.: Music, m.d.: Music Director, cost suffering. In a way which up till now Costumes, choreo.: Choreography, l.p.: Leading Players, him for the rest of his life. exec, p.: Executive Producer, p.: Producer, assoc. p Most attempts to convert great has been reserved for only the Associate Producer, p. sup.: Production Supervisor, p greatest of literature. Volcano goes man : Production Manager, p.c: Production Company, col literature into film are bleak failures. Colour Process, dist.: Distributors, narr.: Narration. This is particularly true of modern beyond conventional documentary, 46/Cinema Canada From Mole Richardson — The 1,800 watt Molequartz Teenie-Weenie-Mole Kit. NEW The complete lighting kit. 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I A complete repertoire of the Quebec film Industry lV\t^^ N^ service houses production companies \v0^ exhibition chains distribution companies professional associations laboratories Including for each company: o A short history o The names of the executives 0 A description of the company's activities 0 Address and telephone ^*.:*o^ Complete information on all government agencies Editions Cinema/Quebec 406 JARVIS ST. TORONTO. ONTARIO M4Y 2G6 Box 309, Outremont Station TEL. (416) 921-4121 Montreal H2V4N1 Price: $6.50 (514) 272-1058 Discount for bulk sales May/47 aversion reaction to alcohol. "He was •tvaii t^vivhvrv's a very meticulous man and used to wash the vomit off his hands with the glass of milk we would give him after L^amour blesse wards." An ancient schoolteacher declaiming from the front of a class room remembers that Lowry used to slouch. And finally, his wife/mother Margerie to whom the film is dedicat d: Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, asst. d: Robert ed, describing the heartrending de Faveaur, ph: J.C. Tremblay, ed: Margue tails of their poisoned, blessed life rite Duparc, sd: Jacques Blain, Lp: Louise together. Cuerrier and the voices of Gilles Proulx, Paul Baillargeon, Pierre Curzi, Frede- Lowry struggled with the manu rique Collin, Jean-Guy Moreau, Monique script of Under the Volcano through Mercure, Denise Morelle, p: Marguerite three countries and five drafts for Duparc, p.c: Cinak, 1975, col: 35 mm, beyond fiction into a rarefied world eight tortured years. As Brittain's running time: 78 minutes, dist.: Disci. of its own. It is among the greatest narration succinctly puts it, "It cost movies I have ever seen. him everything, but in the critical Brittain is no newcomer to films judgment of many, it was no waste." Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, Quebec's (see Cinema Canada no. 15 pp. 36- But it was Lowry's literary success most prolific and independent produc 40). Over the years, his films have that proved to be his final undoing. er-filmmaker, has finished his 14th won just about every prize given to "Fame is like a drunk; it consumes feature, a film built on sound. Le- documentaries around the world. They the house of the soul, exposing that febvre's film is as stark visually as it all have the Brittain touch - extreme you have worked for only this." Cut is rich and subtle aurally. It is a film ly well structured with a fine ap to the academics busily at work four which includes the audience and which preciation for the foibles of man, his biographies and 127 doctoral theses counts upon its intelligence and inter contradictions as well as his genius. later. The black frocks and tweed est to fill out the spaces and the si Brittain has a gossip's attention to jackets natter knowingly to each other lences he provides. human detail, his interviews start about how he crosses his Ts in the Wounded Love has only one ac where other documentaries leave off last chapter of the third draft. tress, one lonely woman, home alone - the pauses, the asides, and the But this film does more than just on a Friday night, listening to a "hot revealing little glimmers which go show us how other people have re line" program on the radio. Others beyond the words being spoken. In garded this literary genius. In many are present, but only as sounds. The the narration of Brittain's films you ways. Volcano is by Lowry as well as radio provides the leitmotif of the get still more details feeding the being about him. Brittain and re woman's loneliness when it is not curiosity, with its "scorpion sting" searcher Bob Duncan spent two weeks playing the central role itself.