Objectivity was not a striking characteristic of this period. Although both The Drylanders and A tout prendre had been made in 1963, as had Pour la suite du monde, one enthusiastic commentator — me — implied that everything began in 1964! But these were exciting times. They were times of celebration. There was so much that had to be done, so many films that had to be written about. And what we wrote about often had to do with what we were able to see. In those days, the National Film Board was a source of inspiration. There was nothing like it in either Great Britain or the United States; and other film boards as had been established in such settler societies as Australia and New Zealand hadn't produced nearly the same range or quality of films. In the 1970s, for those of us who were beginning to champion the Canadian cause, the Film Board was understand- ably a source of immense pride. It was also a source of free films. At least for anglophone films! The francophone films, on the other hand — even the most presti- gious — tended not to be versioned or were deformed in the process. The thoroughly canon- ized Le chat clans le sac could not have become so celebrated in English Canada had it not been for the foresight of Guy Cote, the director of what was then the Cinematheque canadienne. He had prepared a subtitled copy of this film as part of a touring package for our centennial cele- brations in 1967. But Pour la suite du monde still exists in the general cata- logue only in a version called Moon- trap, shortened by 20 minutes with its authenticity destroyed by the chirpy voice of Stanley Jackson imposed over all the quebecois voices of the island inhabitants. To be fair to the Film Board, this was the first title that they so versioned and they made a lot of mistakes. Subse- quently, by using an older voice more sparingly, they did a much better job with Un pays sans bon sens! (1970). It is worth not- ing, however, that when we watch the English versions of classic docu- mentaries such as La lutte (1961) or Bfi- cherons de la Manou- ane (1962), these films are to a degree deformed by the English commen- GENEVIEVE BUJOLD AND DIRECTOR PAUL tary that is far more ALMOND ON LOCATION FOR ISABEL: HIS FILMS POSSESS A prominent than in SPIRITUAL INTIMACY the francophone AND A SERIOUSNESS original and that OF PURPOSE THAT HAS "steps in" all the BEEN BANISHED FROM time to "explain" VIRTUALLY ALL OF NORTH AMERICAN what the French CINEMA — IF NOT "peasants" are say- FROM NORTH ing, thereby com- AMERICAN LIFE pounding the po-

2 1 litical ironies of a film like Biicherons! By now, the cliches are well established. Neverthe- less, in spite of the real problems of cost and avail- ability, in his already classic discussion of canon forma- tion, "In Our Own Eyes," Peter Morris is right in detecting a political agenda among many commenta- tors of that period. Morris devises three categories that he claims served to estab- lish our cultural priorities: the recognition of familiar places within our nation; a realist style; and a recurring thematic concern — espe- cially with failure and with the depiction of Canadian males. I agree with Morris that this journey of self-discov- ery must once again be undertaken. Not only do we need to be more con- scious of the ideological assumptions that informed our early priorities but we need now to approach the task in more analytical ways. While the academic community in this country remains small, especially that concerned with Cana- dian culture, it is now in place and is already devel- oping traditions of com- ment far removed from the often boosterist declama- tions of the early years. As an agenda for this task I would suggest that, along with Morris's three cate- MICHELINE LANCTOT IN S LA VRAIE NATURE DE BERNADETTE: THE INDIS- gories that are useful in PUTABLE MASTERPIECE OF HIS EARLY PERIOD analyzing the critical priori- ties of the past, we might think of three additional categories as we discover that were not then taken, what for celebration, there is a lot of re-think- begin to re-write this period for the avenues within the Canadian cinematic ing that needs to be done. Even the most future. Schematically we might call them landscape have been left unexplored? outstanding documentaries need to be the Documentary Tradition, the re-examined with more clearly focused, Dramatic Tradition, and the Experi- post-colonial eyes. mental Tradition. These categories cor- Whatever the possible exaggerations of respond to Bruce Elder's theoretical pre- the book as a whole, The Colonized Eye sentation, "Modes of Representation in The by Joyce Nelson offers an astute exami- the Cinema," which he defines as the nation of the wartime work in Canada of Cinema of Presentation, of Illustration, the mighty John Grierson. She is con- and of Construction. Documentary cerned with the issue of voice. She This different map might encourage a argues that the Canadian films lacked a different set of priorities. If we now look Tradition Although this distinct voice of their own. Whereas the back over the past, what roads might we tradition has remained the privileged site wartime documentaries in Great Britain 22 TAKE ONE GENEVIEVE BUJOLD IN PAUL ALMOND'S THE ACT OF THE HEART: IT PRESENTS THE TENSIONS INVOLVED IN THE SWITCH-OVER FROM A SACRED TO A SECULAR SOCIETY JUDY WELCH IN WILLIAM DAVIDSON'S NOW THAT APRIL'S HERE: THE DRAMATIC TRADITION WAS ALMOST TOTALLY DISREGARDED BY THE IMPASSIONED CANONIZERS OF THE 19705. showed people going about their work that are permissible within cultural situa- related to this tradition, from Nobody and speaking to one another, the docu- tions somewhat removed from a full Waved Good-bye (1964) to Goin' Down mentaries made in Canada showed peo- political engagement in the actualities of the Road (1970). By re-reading these ple going about their work and being the historical world. This is an aspect of films more in terms of the actuality of talked about by a great white father with their work that Elder was on to years particular social situations than in the- the stentorian voice of the ubiquitous ago, although he failed to put it in terms matic terms concerning the "essence" of Lorne Greene. that many people could readily under- Canada, a more precise understanding Similarly, in the work of the much cel- stand. can be achieved regarding the reason ebrated Unit B, distinguished though This feeling of disentitlement in the that these films have been so consistently those films are, they also embody, face of experience, leading to what Elder acclaimed. arguably, a colonized sensibility. The called "a form of consciousness that is so Even within the documentary tradi- very qualities that have been so alienated from the world that its sole tion, moreover, there have been films acclaimed — their sense of detachment activity is passive observation," informs that have been substantially overlooked. and their reflective tone — are qualities many of the feature films that can be While Piers Handling made an attempt

SUMMER 1995 23 to re-establish the worth of the films of growing self-awareness in Quebec. celebrated for what it now most certainly Larry Kent in a key article published in Although reference could also be made is: a courageous and most original Cinema Canada, no one has yet re-exam- to Trouble-flte (1964), directed by Pierre attempt to achieve an imaginative cine- ined David Secter's Winter Kept Us Parry from a script he wrote with Jean- ma in Canada that might have some of Warm (1965). Along with Sydney Claude Lord, it belongs more securely the troubling psychological resonance of Furie's A Dangerous Age (1958) and within the dramatic tradition than with the films of Ingmar Bergman. William Davidson's Now That April's any style of filmmaking that derives The three films that he made in the Here (1958) — two films cited by Morris from the direct. Similarly, as I shall dis- 1960s all intersect with the French- — perhaps these films have been ignored cuss below, A tout prendre (1963) is a Canadian situation in interesting and largely because of print unavailability hybrid film that belongs in part within challenging ways. Isabel (1968) is set in but also because they belong more to the the experimental tradition, as do the the Shigawake region of the Gaspe dramatic than to the documentary tradi- films of Jean Pierre Lefebvre. peninsula; The Act of the Heart (1970), tion — a tradition that was almost totally takes place largely in Montreal and pro- disregarded by the impassioned canoniz- vides cameo roles for well-known quebe- ers of the 1970s. cois figures such as Gilles Vigneault and More serious omissions, however, ; and Journey (1972) was occur within the quebecois scene, almost The Dramatic filmed near Tadoussac and features both all of which have to do with the lack of actually and symbolically the mighty versioning. While reviewing a number of Tradition If the docu Saguenay river. early Quebec features for my article, mentary tradition derives largely from The Act of the Heart presents the ten- "Naissance du direct: 1960-1970," in the National Film Board, in English sions involved in the switchover from a Les cinemas du Canada, I was struck by Canada the dramatic tradition derives sacred to a secular society with more the originality of some of the work. In so many ways the seminal quebe- cois feature is Seul ou avec d'autres (1962), a work jointly conceived and directed by three people who were at that time students at the Universite de Montreal. The names of these students were to resound to the present day with- in the cultural life of Quebec — Stephane Venne in music, and Denis Heroux and in film. Furthermore, other names, soon to become important for quebecois cinema appeared in the credits of this film: as cin- ematographer; Gilles Groulx as editor; Marcel Carriere on sound; and Marie- Jose Raymond, soon to become an important producer, appears as an actress in this film. Financed by the students' association with a budget of $24,000, Seul ou avec d'autres was as sophomoric in its basic attitudes as other student films made elsewhere in Canada at about the same time. Yet Seul ou avec d'autres is interest- ing not only for the roll call of names from the Canadian Broadcasting Cor- force and sensitivity than any French- about to become important in quebecois poration. This is a tradition nurtured language film of that period would have cinema but also for the stylish way in throughout the glory days of television dared to do. But even Isabel, with splen- which it adapted the techniques of le drama, in which new Canadian works did cinematography by Georges Dufaux, cinema direct to feature filmmaking. would alternate with the best of world presents some of the same tensions with- Although no one in Quebec much theatre, allowing young Canadian televi- in the landscape of the Gaspe Peninsula liked it at the time, seen today, this film sion directors to hone their craft. and it does so with enormous sensitivity devised by three men seems exceptional The most distinguished embodiment and evocative effect. in its decision to establish a young of this tradition is the thoroughly uncan- All three films are concerned with rites woman (Nicole Braun) as the central onized Paul Almond; but it is important of passage — more particularly with a protagonist in the story and to allow her to recognize that prodigious talents like change of consciousness centred on the voice-off almost as much time within the Norman Jewison and Ted Kotcheff got character of a young woman, in each commentary as the voice-off of her their start at the CBC, as did film played by Genevieve Bujold. young lover (Pierre Letourneau). Seul ou whose Waiting for Caroline (1967) also These films of Paul Almond now seem avec d'autres thus provides a gentle and needs to be dusted off and re-examined. extraordinary. Their sense of the symbol- partly female beginning to fiction feature But it is Paul Almond's "fantastic tril- ic resonance of landscape, of nature, of filmmaking during this new period of ogy" that most desperately needs to be psychological inwardness, and of season- 24 TAKE ONE al change make them peculiarly Quebe- remains unknown in English Canada. cois. They all aspire to a metaphysical But the locus classicus of neglect is dimension, which is the reason that the Claude Jutra. His work has been both anglophone press always found them The overrated and undervalued. His two pretentious. Looked at today, however, most accomplished films (and the least even if not totally successful, these films Experimental experimental), Mon oncle Antoine (1971) possess a spiritual intimacy and a seri- and Kamouraska (1973), are adaptations ousness of purpose that has been ban- and were shot by Michel Brault — a cine- ished from virtually all of North Tradition If the drama- matographer who detectably co-directs American cinema — if not from North matic tradition has been undervalued, everything he shoots. Jutra's most per- American life. Certainly, they register a the experimental tradition has been sonal and "experimental" films, on the talent and an intelligence that was never ignored. This category is complex. It other hand, A tout prendre (1963) and allowed to develop. They were too much encompasses quite different practices in Pour le meilleur et le Aire (1975) have ahead of their time. Quebec and in English Canada. only been intermittently available with It is now hard to realize that some of Indeed, within quebecois production, subtitled copies. the major literary work of Anne Hebert, such experimental work as did occur If Mon oncle Antoine is perhaps the that Isabel so resembles, actually follows took place within narrative. With the most beloved of all quebecois films, it is the production of that film! Especially singular exception of Vincent Grenier, perhaps because it reconfirms, at least on given the stylistic distortions of Yves who quickly moved to the United States, one level, English Canada's notion of the Simenon's version of Les fous de bassan, the experimental tradition, or the Quebecois as happy peasants, locked any reconsideration of the prophetic Cinema of Construction, has always away in their Catholic village of asbestos value of Isabel could see it as anticipating been a mixed mode in Quebec. and snow. The film is more than this,

POUR LA SUITE DU MONDE (LEFT) AND THE DRYLANDERS: IF WE NOW LOOK BACK OVER THE PAST, WHAT ROADS MIGHT WE DISCOVER THAT WERE NOT THEN TAKEN, WHAT AVENUES WITHIN THE CANADIAN CINEMATIC LANDSCAPE HAVE BEEN LEFT UNEXPLORED? certainly; but its popularity in English Canada may well be related to the stereotypes that it so lovingly recreates. Nevertheless, it is true, as Morris has suggested, that A tout prendre was under- valued because it didn't embody the kind of politics that English Canadians wanted to find in quebecois cinema at that time. A facetious film, perhaps a narcissistic film, it didn't seem to speak for the collectivity of Quebec. In English Canada throughout the seventies, many of us were envious of what appeared to be the greater certain- ties of Quebec. Unlike many English Canadians, the Quebecois seemed to know who they were. A tout prendre was within Quebec what we might describe For instance, all the films of Jean a challenge to us because it was so much as Gaspesie Gothic. Pierre Lefebvre are informed by this about uncertainty. This part of our film history, Quebe- practice, as are the films of Gilles Carle. Unlike Claude in Le chat dans le sac, cois but largely anglophone, most des- In terms of the canon, Carle's work is Claude in this film doesn't know perately needs to be thoroughly re-evalu- peculiar. Although it has been the recipi- whether he is straight or gay. He may ated, as do some of the early "maple ent of two English language auteur stud- also not know whether he is English or syrup" porn films. If not great works of ies, Carle's work remains outside the French. The film begins with him art, they can surely be reread as sympto- canon because, like so much of extolling the pleasures of Life magazine; matic cultural texts. Valerie (1968) is Lefebvre's, it has not been properly ver- and at the end, he flies away to London. especially important, in the way that it sioned. Finally, does the closing freeze-frame on presents a young woman who escapes The indisputable masterpiece of his the Haitian sugar cutters, their machetes the religion of the Catholic church only early period, La vraie nature de Ber- raised as if in anger, register a revolution to espouse the religion of quebecois con- nadette (1972) — the film that, inciden- to come or simply an escape into a fanta- sumer capitalism, re-enforced by a whole tally, first launched the magnificent sy world, as perhaps his entire relation- battery of quebecois flags. Valerie is an Micheline Lanctot — remains unsubtitled ship with Johanne had been? extraordinarily symptomatic if not for general distribution. Thus like It is because these moral dilemmas prophetic cultural text! LanctOt's own Sonatine (1984), it remain unresolved in the film that A tout SUMMER 1995 25 prendre seemed confusing when it first certainly a number of betrayals occur in tradition of documentary and of the pre- came out. It is now in desperate need of this film, to claim that it is "about" sentational strategies of the direct. a thorough revaluation — whether for betrayal is a bit like suggesting that better or worse! Wavelength (1967) is "about" a murder. As much as anything, Egoyan's films are In English Canada, the true experi- "about" the deployment of their own Conclusion None of mental tradition — Elder's Cinema of formal strategies, even though these of these three traditions, like none of Construction — has operated outside of strategies are operating within the narra- Elder's modes, is complete onto itself. If narrative, constructing works that might tive mode. the most complex works by Bruce Elder be said to constitute the poetry if not At the moment, Egoyan's case is very much embody the Cinema of (indeed) the philosophy of cinema. It is exceptional. He has been thoroughly Construction, since they too take place important to situate the work of Nor- canonized before he has been under- over time — over often an extended peri- man McLaren within this tradition. As stood. This too has to do, in part, with od of time — they also involve a dimen- an innovator who represents one of the print availability. Students wishing to sion of narrative as waves of image and most "modernist" artists who ever sound creation follow each other worked in film, he is also one of our and recapitulate one another. More- artists that has been most thorough- over, even the simplest of observa- ly overlooked. tional films involves elements of But the experimental tradition is construction and therefore (I would established by a roll call of interna- argue) partake to a degree of Elder's tionally celebrated names. Jack Cinema of Illustration. Chambers, Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, David Rimmer, and Bruce Canadian film today, in whatev- Elder comprise the senators of this er language, has never been healthi- tradition; but it also involves intri- er. With the multiplicity of voices cate work by other practitioners represented by people such as such as Rick Hancox, Chris , Srinivas Krishna, Gallagher, Barbara Sternberg, Philip Clement Virgo and, of course, Hoffmann, Richard Kerr, and many , through its own ini- others. That the work of these peo- tiative Canadian film has become ple constitutes an avant garde within more international in appeal. With Canadian cinematic practice which the acclaimed success in the United is valued throughout the world is States of The Boys of St. Vincent and immensely important. But it is also of Thirty-two Short Films About important for the indirect influence Glenn Gould and with the (at the it has had — for the technical con- moment of writing) most encourag- science it represents and for the for- ing statistic that Egoyan's Exotica mal authority it implies. has brought in domestically three The failure of The Far Shore times as much money at the box- (1976) in English Canada, like the CLAUDE JUTRA (ABOVE), ACTOR AND DIRECTOR IN A TOUT office as Woody Allen's Bullets Over failure of Isabel before it, was the PRENDRE: HIS WORK HAS BEEN Broadway, we can all take pride in BOTH OVERRATED AND UNDER- the achievement of the cinema that result of the inability of most critics VALUED to accept such a stylized, "experi- some of us have been a long time mental" treatment of characters and examine his work can go off to their encouraging. theme within what offered itself as a the- local video outlets and hire virtually the No matter how varied the forest, atrical film; and the failure of that film complete works of Atom Egoyan — as however, and how rich the foliage, no to attract much critical attention was the they can the works of Jean-Claude matter how much more nourishing now result of the fact that, until recently, Lauzon or the recent films of Denys the soil in which our cinematic trees can there was no 16mm print available for Arcand. This is not true of the classic grow, a myopic gaggle of idiots in academic study. Looked at today, how- films from our past, as it is not true Ottawa could always close down the sys-

ever — again like Isabel — it seems to today of filmmakers like Bill MacGil- tem and dry up the land. We must anticipate the work of women filmmak- livray who work outside the major distri- never abandon the struggle. For those of ers, like Patricia Rozema, which now bution system. us who care about Canadian culture and enjoys considerable acclaim. If the true experimental films remain Canadian film, we must make sure that If (as I have argued elsewhere) the underknown and undercelebrated, nev- the gains of the last 15 years are not most achieved films of Jean Pierre ertheless in this country that tradition eroded. Lefebvre possess some of the same aus- has lent a rigour to other, more main- Canada is, at least in sentiment, still terity as the works of Michael Snow, so stream films. While not working entirely our own country. We must make sure — arguably — does the work of Atom within Elder's Cinema of Construction, that it goes on producing crops that cul- Egoyan. Wrestling with the perennial from the experimental tradition they turally will nourish future generations, problem (not easy to deal with) concern- have gained both innovation and disci- that it continues to produce works wor- ing what his films might mean, Bart Testa pline which have taken them along a far thy of the Canadian canon • has recently suggested that Speaking more challenging avenue than the classic Peter Harcourt teaches film studies at Parts (1989) is about betrayal. While films of the 1960s that sprang from the CARLETON UNIVERSITY. 26 TAKE ONE