• F I L M R E v I E w 5 • simply perfect for the roles of the high­ role of Gilbert and altered the relation­ whole concept of a bank folding and Kevin Sullivan's spirited, imaginative orphan girl and the ship between him and Anne so that it Matthew having a heart attack just elderly sister and brother who adopt veers off in the direction of romantic seemed too conventional, too trite," Anne of her into their Prince Edward Island soap-opera. says Sullivan. "We tried to make it a lit­ home. The entire production depends Where Montgomery maintains, just tle bit more peaceful and beautiful than on the chemistry among these three pages from the book's end, that "There that." Yet surely Montgomery intended Green Gables principals, and they carry it off beauti­ was no silly sentiment in Anne's ideas the economic dimension which runs fully. In fact, all the actors in this film concerning Gilbert. Boys were to her, throughout the book and is especially seem exactly right for their parts, and when she tought about them at all, noticeable in its fmal scenes. It is part of Sullivan gets fine performances from merely possible good comrades," Sulli­ the thematic opposition between prac­ n 1908, Lucy Maude Montgomery beginning to end. In particular, as a di­ van shifts the story significantly: making tical, factual realism and Anne's imagi­ could have had litde foreknowledge rector he is sensitive to the nuances Anne a rather modern, flirtatious teen­ native flights of fancy: an opposition that her novel, Anne of Green Gables, I conveyed by the lift of an eyebrow, the ager angling for Gilbert's attentions, if which structures the entire book and would ultimately become a "hot prop­ tum of a head, the blink of an eye. In re­ somewhat ambigious about her own de­ gives Anne depth of character through erty" in the era of voracious media hype vealing the landscape of the human sires. her struggle to maintain her fiercely and entertainment. The book has in­ face, Sullivan shows himself to be espe­ This decision to romanticize the re­ imaginative spirit. The economic cause spired two Hollywood feature ftlms (in cially suited to direction for television, lationship between Anne and Gilbert of Matthew's death is a particularly 1919 and 1934), a CBC-TV musical in which depends upon close-ups and somewhat subverts the spirit of feminist painful way for Montgomery to under­ 1956, the perenially popular stage mus­ medium-shots for its effectiveness. independence running through line the societal factors that cruelly ical at the Charlottetown Festival since Ironically, however, this very Montgomery's text and shifts the focus limit one's dreams and circumscribe 1965, a BBC musical mini-series in strength becomes a weakness in dealing to an underlying sexual subtext that is one's aspirations. While no one would 1972, and now the two-part made-for­ with a book like Anne of Green Gables, not present in the book, but which argue that Montgomery's novel is a TV movie Anne of Green Gables, di­ which has, as one of its primary literary probably is thought to make for good political tract, it does have certain di­ rected by Kevin Sullivan and aired on elements, a strong evocation of place. television. Thus, Sullivan and Wiesen­ mensions of SOCiopolitical awareness. CBC prime-time Dec. 1-2. The vividly described landscape of Pr­ field add scenes in which Marilla (Col­ By diminishing such dimensions, Anne In a sense, Montgomery's classic ince Edward Island so thoroughly in­ leen Dewhurst) expresses concern over of Green Gables loses more than it story has become a kind of political forms the book that it has inspired hun-. Anne's having been seen holding hands gains. cipher passing back and forth among dreds of thousands of tourists to visit with Gilbert, and pointedly tells the lat­ There are other problems in the pro­ countries and interests 'eager to exploit P.E.I. to experience first-hand the sense ter that Anne is still quite young. These duction, including an omnipresent mus­ the popularity of a book, now translated of place so fully created by L.M. scenes, more in keeping with current ical track, the occasionally awkward into 30 languages, with passionate fans Montgomery. And yet, the television sc­ familial concerns than with anything in contlation of scenes from the original, around the world. This time, the Cana­ reen is inadequate for conveying this di­ the novel, are undoubtedly an attempt some obvious editing errors (in the trip dians have scored the coup, taking the mension; it is best suited to interiors to 'modernize' a storty that is in no need from the train station and the tea-party dramatic story back from the Hol­ and close-ups. The handful of exterior of modernization. But whatever the scene), and a predilection for tableaux lywood studioS, back from the British, scenes in Anne of Green Gables ac­ motivation behind them, such changes in which characters are arranged with ane! shaping it to the dictates of Cana­ knowledges this inadequacy of the are in line with other liberties taken no blacks to the camera - regardless of dian television - with an eye, of course, medium. with Montgomery's text, especially the how stiff and awkward that may make to the worldwide television market. And so, Sullivan has had to focus his death of Matthew. the seating arrangements. A predomin- . If this seems a cynical way to begin television adaptation along other lines, In the original, Matthew's weak heart antly stationary camera and a reliance . this review, it appears necessary: given sacrifiCing the evocation of the sense of is ultimately undermined by the failure primarily on dialogue to carry scenes the fact that director Kevin Sullivan is place to the elaboration of character. of the bank in which he has placed his make the production visually less in­ already hinting in interviews about "talk This, in itself, could be a justifiable deci­ life's savings. He dies of a heart attack teresting than it might have ' been. of a half-hour series as a sort of sequel" sion, given a book rich in character and upon hearing the news - a scene which Moreover, the sense of time passing to his 198-minute-Iong production. As human interaction. But Sullivan seems has been replaced in Anne of Green Ga­ seems somewhat scrambled, largely by the Anne of Green Gables phenomenon to mistake emerging <;:haracter for Ro­ bles by his lyrical demise while bringing being hinged upon a confusing series of heats up again in this latest round of mance, especially in Part II. He and home the cows. No bank failure, no exams confronting Anne. hoopla, one is moved to return to Wiesenfield have greatly expanded the shock of economic destitution."The And yet, Anne Of Green Gables, the Montgomery's original text, finding there not only a wisdom and peaceful­ ness that goes beyond all the sub­ sequent media incarnations, but also a literary flavour that puts those reincar­ nations into perspective. Inevitably, a television production based on a well-known novel invites such comparisons. Kevin Sullivan's two­ part made-for-TV movie of Anne of Green Gables is strangely uneven in its two-part division. Part I, which closely follows the book in both spirit and plot­ ting, has an energy and exuberance and emotional depth that somehow out­ shine Part II, where Sullivan and co­ screenwriter Joe Wiesenfield have taken greater liberties with L.M. Montgomery's novel. Arguably, the places where Anne ofGreen Gables, the TV series, veers away from Anne of Green Gables, the book, reveal more about the realities of TV marketing and packaging than about the particular flavour of Montgomery's work My hunch is that Sullivan did not quite know what to make of the character of Anne once she has emerged from her delightful, irrepressible pre-adolescent stage (Part I), into the dreamy, but am­ bitious scholar fully intent on her studies. In other words, Sullivan did not know how to handle the emerging character of Montgomery's indepen­ dent woman. The best thing about Anne of Green Gables is its casting, and therefore, its superb acting. Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth are

January 1986 - Cinema Canada/35 • F I L M R E v I E w 5 • series, manages to transcend these moments possess an added significance site of the imagination itself; in the film, problems. There is a certain ineffable Claude Grenier's that calls for a particular attentiveness; "great Lake Winnipeg," or one of quality surrounding the production even more so in a cinema like that in Canada's inland, continental seas. Le which makes one feel mean· spirited to Canada which is barely out of its in· vieillard et I'enfant, then, is a fable have noticed its faults. No doubt, this is Le Vieillard fancy. about the quest for - and confrontation mainly the result of the superb acting M. St-Hilaire, the character played with - the Canadian imagination. by Megan Follows, and the truly touch· et I'enfant with the usual excellence that has made It is after Christine and M. St· Hilaire's ing scenes involving Follows, Dewhurst Duceppe one of Quebec's outstanding arrival at the shores of great Lake Win· and Farnsworth, who bring to life the s the first (and, for demographic transmitters of the classical theatrical nipeg - about three· quarters into the complexity of emotional undercurrent reasons, very likely the last) tradition, is himself a man with no past, film - that the fable reaches its dramatic at work in their characters. One gets the AFrench·language dramatic fic tion or, more accurately, a severed past. He climax. unmistakeable sense of a cast and crew fil m to emerge from Franco· Manitoba, comes most likely from France - the As M, 5t- Hilaire tells Christine: "The who cared deeply about this produc· Claude Grenier's one· hour Ie Vie liard' film only refers to the photo of a sailing water is eternal, as is life. At!d it knows tion and gave to it fully. et I'enfant merits greater attention than ship on which he says he crossed the - because it will still be there after all Certainly; Kevin Sullivan emerges as a it has so far received. Especially from sea, He has lived, since then, in Man· our descendents have gone. It will be director capable of eliciting excellent Quebec where there's a long-standing itoba - the film is set at the height of the our witness, for the lake waits for all of performances and able to meet the de· concern with the linguistic and cultural Depression in the summer of 1935 - for us, one after the other." And, then, he mands of doing a period piece that ac· future of the Francophones of the other some years; was once married; had chilo breaks down and weeps. curately evokes the look of the distant provinces, and perhaps even more so in dren, the exact number he can't recall, Similarly, the film - or more exactly past. He also seems sensitively in touch the Quebecois cinematic milieux among them a favorite daughter about the realist tradition in Canadian cinema with the pains and joys of childhood, a where such, no doubt now forgotten, whom he also says nothing, other than - too breaks down. For other than rare quality in any case, but especially films as I 'Acadie I'Acadie, once played that she was beautiful, and whose memo showing a body of water, the film is un· necessary for a director working in the an important role in politicizing ory viSibly occasions him some pain. able to show the water as an imagina· realm of family entertainment. Quebec' filmmakers who saw, in the fate Christine, the child, is aged between tive substance; only as wet matter. What Finally, however, it is the quality and of the Francophone minorities, a grim seven and nine, and lives with her causes M. St· Hilaire to cry when his spent of the original story itself that prediction of the Quebecois future it· mother (Patricia Nolin), who is fading imaginative vision is confronted with shines through here, despite the twists self. wearily into the bitterness of a bleak the uninspiring materiality of a mere and shifts and alterations and problems Not that I e Vieillard et I'enfant is a and penny· pinching middle· age. There lake is structurally paralled by the Cana· encountered in Sullivan's production. political film; far from it. But the all·too· is no father, nor reference to one, dian realist film's inability to get beyond One wishes, somehow, that L.M. rapid dismissal of this film during its though there are references to family in the brute facticity of Canadian nature. Montgomery herself could reap the reo brief passage on two Montreal screens rural Quebec, where mother and For the only way beyond it is death: M. wards. in late·November·early December by daughter in previous summers would St· Hilaire's realization of his own immi· the daily newspaper, radio and TV crit· visit, but cannot this year for lack of nent death, and, again, parallel to it, the Joyce Nelson. ics, on the grounds of not enough jolts money. death of the realist tradition itself. per minute, indicates an imaginative Christine, a lonely child, wanders However, the imaginative vision dullness that is grossly unjust to Ie among the prairie sea, brooding over breaks down to the extent of being Anne of Green Gables d.Jexec.p. Kevin vieillard et I'enfant which is nothing if Sullivan p. Kcvin Sullivan, Ian McDougall the recent death of a grandmother, and grounded in naturalism. De· naturalized, assoc.p. Trudy Grant p.man. Nick Gray sc. not a film about the imagination. grappling with the meanings of life. In it can continue on its way, for it is from Kevin Sullivan, Joe Wiscnfeld do.p. Rene Ie vieillard is a cinematic fable about this context she encounters M. St· de· naturalization that cinema is born. Ohashi art d Carol Spier ward des. Martha a child (Lucie Laurier) and an old man Hilaire. M. St· Hilaire takes Christine back to Mann unltlloe.man. lin Gibson p . coord Oean Duceppe) who meet at the Aside from the natural affinity of the her mother. He bids them good·night Fran Solomon 1st a. dOna Hanus 2nd a. d priviledged interstices of the beginning very young and the very old, what he and walks off down the street into the Kim Winther t.a.d Jeff Wilkinson, Ron French, of life and the end of life. In other has to give to her is, in one word, a vi· d's observer Bronwen Hughes office p.a. light - into, that is, the diffused back· Paula Needham craftlservJp.a. Martha Bean words, at that critical cultural moment sion. For one, the very ancient French· lighting of the cinematic apparatus itself con. Nancy Eagles p . acct. Dorothy PreCious when the past articulates and transmits Canadian linguistic and cultural claim as it recasts the surrounding trees and asst. acct. Carol Jurchison asst. art d Alta its vision to the present that will be· to the continent. For another (orwhat's lawns in the re-naturalization that fol· louise Doyle art. dept. trainee Katherine come the future and, in turn, a past, and the same), a vision of the imagination lows the successful, if painful, transition Mathewson set dressers Martin Weinryb, Gary so on. And in cinema especially - be· which specifically takes the form of his to the realm of the cinematic imagina· Jack, asst. set dresser Danielle Fleury asst. cause of the medium's youth - such taking her to see with her own eyes the tion. propslFloor props Vic Rigler asst. props What Claude Grenier has illuminated Gina Hamilton const. sup. Kirk Cheney hd • La Vleillard at I'enfant's Jean Duceppe and Lucie Laurier on the shores of the imagination carp. Ian Fraser asst. hd carp Myles Roth with Ie vieillard et I'enfant could be scenic artists James McAteer, Nick Kosonlck described as a 'fictional documentary' asst. cost. des. Derek Baskerville key that reveals with stunning clarity the ward620? Delphine White asst. ward Mau· transition beyond realism. Ie vieillard reen Gurney, Kat Moyer, Sherry McMorran make-up Shonagh Jabour asst. make-up Jane is slow· paced and basically uneventful, Meade hair. Ivan lynch asst. hair. Jocelyn like much in Canadian cinema, but also MacDonald 1st asst. cam. John Hobson 2nd asst. cam. David Perkins stills Rob McEwan sdrec. Stuart French boom Michael laCroix LE VIEILLARD ET L 'ENFANT d ' key grip Christopher Dean 2nd grip Gordon Claude Grenier sc. Clement Perron, with Gre- . Forbes best boy grip Dan Narduzzi gaffer nier based/on the story by Gabrielle Roy, "le Marls Jansons best boy David Owen elect. Vieillard et l'Enfant" I.p. Jean Duccppc, lucie Frank Foster geonle op. Cacrus Simser trans. Laurier, Patricia Nolin, Michele Magny; d.o.p. coord Michael Curran dr. capt. Jerome Thomas Vamos ed Michele Groleau mus. Nor­ McCann drivers John Bray, Ron Coles, Robert mand Roger arc. Normand Roger, Denis l. Bartman, Dave Brown eds. Moe Wilkinson, Chartrand; sd Martin Fossum art d. Aaron James lahti sd. ed. Steven Cole cast. Diane Johnston cost.con. Fran~ois Laplante narc. Pollcy extras cast. Faces & Places animal Yvon Rivard sd.ed Alain Sauve, Danuta Klis; wrangler Uonel's Pony' Farm p.c. Sullivan mus.rec. louis Hone mixer Hans Peter Strobl Films Inc., CBC, PBSlWonderworks, TV-60 1st a.d lise Abastado 2nd a.d Denis Lavoie MunichlZDF, with the participation of TelcfiJm cont. France Boudreau make-uplhair Diane Canada running time: 198 mins, 16mm. Col. Simard pre-prod Laurence Pare cast. Usc l.p. Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, Richard Abastado loe.man. Ginette Hardy gaffer Frank Farnsworth, Patricia Hamilton, Schuyler Grant, Raven key grip Michel Chohin cam.asst. Jonathan Crombie, Charmion King, Jackie Bur­ Charles lavack boom Richard Dupas props.? roughs. Rosemary Radcliffe, Marilyn Ughstone, Avelin Gautron cost.asst. Marie-Marthe Paul Brown, Miranda Dcponcier, Jayne Guenette asst.elec. Mike Fones grip Bryan Eastwood, Dawn Greenhalgh, Vivian Reis, Sanders gen.op. Rod Mcrrells set.des. Avelin Samantha langevin, Cedric Smith, Christiane Gautron addcam. Charles Lavack stills Robert Krueger, Joanchim Hansen, Jennifer Inch, Trish Bartow p.assts. Dennis Connelly, lucille Four­ Nettleton, Mag Ruffinan, Scan McCann. Robert nier, Sylvain l 'Archevcque, Raymond lemieux, Haley, Michael Tait, Robert Collins, Dave Don Sharpe, Marie Laurier; loe.scouts. Aaron Roberts, Nancy Beanie, David Hughes, Fiona Johnston, Dennis Connelly; post.p. Edouard McGillivray, Wendy l yon, Zack Ward, Sharon Davidovlci tides Scrge Bouthillier post.synch. Dyer, Rex Southgate, Juliana Saxton, Molly Clnelume p.sec. Marie Fournier admin. Carol Thorn, Jennifer Irwin, Sandra Scott, Jack Smith p. Rene Piche exec.p: Raymond Gauth· Mather, Peter Sturgess, Ray Ireland, Dawn ier. Coweur, 16mm and videocassette; run­ Taylor, Patrick Allard, Adrian Dorval, Martha ning time: 51 min 17s p.c. Production fran· Cronyn, Martha Maloney, Morgan Chapman, ~aJscIOuest Office National du film du Canada John Conway. with Ia Societe Radio·Canada; dist. NFB/ONF.

36/Cinema Canada - January 1986