CINEMA CAN A D A •

Donald Brittain's The King chronicle

t first glance, the life of Mackenzie King might seem to offer a wealth of material for a fascinating, if quirky, story - 22 years as prime minister of while, at various times, consortingA with prostitutes, parleying with Hitler, getting regular advice from the dead, and having a dog for closest confidant. But Donald Brittain's six-hour, three-part docu-drama, The Killg Chronicle (co-produced by the National Film Board and the CBC), lies steadfastly two-dimensional on the TV screen and refuses to come alive. Brittain's recounting is based on King's 12-million-word diary, but the diary, instead of revealing the inner life of an eminent public figure, is, according to Brittain's own descrip- " tion, "stuffed with sanctimonious self-importan- ! ceo "King's contemporaries called him" dull and ~ devious'''; in Parliament he was known as a ~ bone-crushing bore. (Alliteration, you can tell, ~ is one of Brittain's favorite stylistic devices.) f To make a dull subject interesting is a Forsaking his dog, MacKenzie King (Sean McCann) consults with spiritualist Emma Wreidt (Kay Tremblay) tempting but dangerous challenge for any artist. that he could rise above the wishy-washy when King snug and respectable in his three-piece suit commenting and insulting. His punchy prose Dullness cannot be simply represented, but inspired. For him as an individual and for that his sweaty flesh is somehow an affront. and newsreel narration style are intrinsically must be somehow transformed, through Canada as a country the conference was pivotal Granted that King led a double life, too often the contrary to the fictional mode. At the end of the contrast or context, into something of dramatic - but even so, a conference is a conference, and Chronicle does not succeed in making it Chronicle, the viewer will certainly know more import. Valuable as The Killg Chronicle is as a Brittain's extended attention to the proceedings psychologically or dramatically probable, so about the facts and quirks of King's life but will record of people and events that shaped is far too much for all but the most avid of some of the transitions just don't work. have none of the satisfaction that comes of being Canada 's destiny in the 20 th century, it is Canadian history buffs. This is also the problem with the other aspect involved in compelling fiction. Brittain refuses ultimately defeated by its pudgy, implacable King lost the 1930 election, having "reduced of King's private ~e, that is, his faith in to embellish the known. So why didn't he make subject. the crash of '29 to a tedious debate over mediums. Ironically, these scenes don't seem a straight-on documentary? King, it seems, was a Dale Carnegie-style federal-provincial jurisdictions. " He sat shocking enough. To an audience jaded by Ralph Friesen • opportunist, who, except for his guilt about sex opposite R. B. Bennett in Parliament and saw Poltergeist, Witchboard and the like, King's THE KING CHRONICLE d. I w. I narr. Donald Brittain. p. . and his lack of "image," might have been quite numerological significance in the Conservatives' mediums seem like harmless, dotty old ladies AdamSymansky. d.o.p. Savas Kalogeras. cam. Susan Trow. at home in our own decade. As a young man he seating arrangement; a visit to an and the spirits themselves so faint and vague pic. ed. Rita Roy, Roger Hart. asst. Rene Pothier. p.dcs. flirted briefly with ideals of social justice, visiting medium meanwhile, assured him that he would that it's impossible to imagine that King Robert Hackborn. art. d. Denis Boucher. orig. treatment the slums of Chicago, recording his pity for the be restored to power. And so he was in 1935, seriously believed in them. Ronald Blumer, Donald Brittain. cast. Marsha Chesley. sd. rec. Hans Oomes. sd. cd. Les Halman, Bill Graziadei, poor. But this was a brief dalliance on his way to with the catchy slogan, "King or Chaos. " There is a level on which The King Chronicle is Raymond Vermette. re-rec. Jean-Pierre Joutel, Adrian Croll. apolitical career, for it was politics - perhaps not Equivocal as ever, he committed Canada to a success - and that is, as a chronicle. M. Eldon Rathburn, Milan Kymlicka . t1I. rec. Louis Hone. so much the exercise of power as the maneuve­ the war effort in 1939, but was vague on the most Painstakingly, Brittain takes us through the m.ed. Julian Olson. p.man. MarceIMalacket.loc.nUlIl. (eline ring required to reach such a position - that volatile domestic issue, declaring; "ConScription events of King's life and times, intercutting the Daignault. cont. Gaudette Messier. gaffer Fran~ois Warot. gripFran <;ois Dupere. nUlkeup Geralyn Wraith. tecl!. coor. enchanted him. if necessary, but not necessarily conscription. " dramatized re-creation with actual footage of Richard Bujold. a. d. Joanne Malo. I.p. Sean McCann, Gary At 26, he was a deputy minister; by 33 an When he visited Canadian troops in 1941 they events. Canada moved decisively toward Reineke, Marion Gilsenan, Robert Benson, Richard Farrell, M. P., and minister of Labour in Laurier's refused to listen to his address, shouting him nationhood while King was prime minister; The Patrioa Collins, Michael Kirby, Jason Dean, Albert Millaire, down with an assortment of four-letter insults. faithfully records the political John W. Carroll, Doris Petrie, David Hughes, Christopher government the following year. He became King Chronicle Newton, Stephanie Morgenstern, Trevor John, Harry Hill, prime minister in 1921, beginning a career of While this is certainly based on historical fact, machinations and backroom business that went Arthur Grosser, Barrie Baldaro, John Bayliss, Christina Kaya, leadership that depended on offending as few the dramatic rendering is shocking and almost on. It also deals with some of Canada's moral James Bradford, Les Lye, John Friesen, Jean Belcourt, Donna Canadians as possible while cautiously pulling incredible, perhaps because the viewer has not failures during this time, such as the internment Farran, Terrence La Brosse, Damir Andrei, Gordon Jocelyn, been prepared, and much of what has gone on George Merner, Tom Harvey, Marion Gilsenan, R. H. away from British dominance. King actually of the west coast Japanese-Canadians (touched Thomson, Kay Trembla y, Daved Gardner, Sandy Webster, took the British on in fierce debate at the before is dry and passionless. What had King on rather lightly) and the refusal to aid Jews John Friesen, Shawn Lawrence, Robin Bowditch, Robert little-known Imperial Conference in London in done to evoke such a display of naked fleeing from the Nazi oppression. Welch, Doris Petrie, Jim McNabb, John W. Carroll, John 1923, and set Canada on an independent course animosity ? The advantage of using drama in the telling of Koensgon, Henry Ramer, Nicolas Hrtschan, Helga Schmitz, Babs Gadbois, Jack Rider, Henry Ramer, Len Watt, Gordon in {vl;:!gn policy. He would not allow the It calls to mind an earlier scene in which King, history ought to be that we can get inside events Jocelyn, , Robert Higden, Philip Pretten, Dean Canadian press to report on these events, then leader of the opposition, visits the Byward and characters in a way that a simple piecing Hagopian, Terry Haig, Norris Domigue, Tom Harvey, Barr)' however, because he was afraid of annoying Market and beds a prostitute. Lunging and together of the facts would not allow. But Edward Blake, Doris Petrie, Mark Brennan, Yves Dubreuil, diehard imperialists at home. grunting, he climaxes; wincing and cringing, the Brittain is an inveterate editorialist; he cannot Chuck Collins, James Rae, Bob Girolami, Aline Vandine, Steve Michael?, Richard Zeman, Bernie McManus, Teddy King's success at the conference was proof viewer averts his gaze. You get so used to seeing restrain himself from interpreting and Lee Dillon.

CINEMA CANADA PAGI g6 MAY19U CINEMA CAN A D A •

Jacques Leduc's an anima ted sequence by Pierre Hebert which basically illustrates Ie passagedu temps, the flow of Charade chinoise time. These mechanisms of self-reflexion are integrated into the film to convey the idea Leduc assigns to a coincidental reality that is" stronger ooking bac~ at the past always contains than cinema itself. " some traps. Reminiscence is a mode Leduc makes clear near the end of Cha rade where nostalgia rna\' overrun the chi110ise that one of his preoccupations in making necessary objective analysis of the facts , the film was "failing to change the world, how and may sometimes bea \I'd\' to obscure far can we go on filming?" (A defaut de pouvoir Lthe present. changer Ie monde, jusql/ 'O// peut-oll filmer?). He 's latest documentary feature sees the failure of political causes through the Charad echi noise promotes itself as an assessment participants of Charade chillo/se, but he also of 's militanc:' during the ' 60s and the makes this judgement on a filmic practice which 70s. As Leduc puts it, in a voice-over is no longer the carrier of these political causes: commentary on his film , it tries to "strike the "I miss this way of seeing, the way of seeing right hour" and to convey an "assessment of possible change, " delusion. " The occasion for this assessment is If Charade chilloise incorporates some devices an organized St-Jean Baptiste's weekend in the from '70s militant films, namely the conscious­ Eastern Townships Leduc brings together a Conforming to nostalgia for the pOlitics of the '70s, director Jacques Leduc ness-raising group encounter and the attitude of dozen old militants, men and women who have self-reflexiveness, it does not use them to elevate just turned 40 and are trying to make sense of personalized than those of the men in No tes de her remarks to threaten the rampant nostalgia the discourse. They are - in fact the discourse their previous commitments in the face of t arriere-saisoll. Whereas the men rely on the which pervades the film. itself is - infested with, and handicapped by today's pervasive individualism. : ~eneral and international political climate to In fact, this nostalgia is never better illustrated disenchantment. The impossibility of change Leduc incorporates two of his earlier films , dssert their withdra wal from militancy, the than in the barbecue scene where the filmmaker felt by the director; the dead-end of political Notes des /'arnere-saiSOIl and Le Temps des cigales, ',vomen, because of the very nature of their has requested the participants to bring objects causes and of a certain kind of documentary film into Charadechilloise ; they provide the focal poin t (eminist and socialist awareness, are less with them that portray their posture vis-it- vis the practice, bring the film itself toa dead-end. This of the film because they embody the most j ll-at-ease lvith those commi tments. This "question nationale. " If the fetishization of idea is best summarized at the very end of the precise statements about the participants' earlier Kcounts for , as one of them says, "the Quebec's independan ce is made obvious by film in an exchange between the director and commitments. The two films are screened by the iifference between theory and practice. " standing here in symbolic forms, it is also a one participant when the latter says: "[this participants on a Saturday morning as the rain Ultima tely , it is the difference between the men pretext in which the nostalgia is foregrounded. experience 1was both intimate and eccentric falls. The weather is an occasion for Leduc to and the women as they appear in Charade It is eviden t in a discussion between one of the (fiyee) but of no use to anyone ... This is perhaps quote George Bernard Shaw : "Everybody's chinoise. Countering these deeply personal old militants who speaks about the FLQ (Front the NFB's vocation "; Leduc responds: talking about the weather but nobody's doing portrayals is a young stock broker. Leduc makes de liberation du Quebec) to the astonished "Perhaps. " anything about it," and to comment on current him the antithesis of the women and their young stock broker, learning about these events The title, which refers to a riddle, finally documentary film practice: "documentaries are politicization in his concern with stock broking from the past. Once more, as a supposedly becomes a pretext to the apparent and not fashionable anymore ; they imitated life and and holidays at the Club Med. representative character of the you th , Marc inescapable helplessness of a previously became as unpredictable as life itself. " Somewhere between the two-Sylvie the NOP ostensibly illustrates the ignorance and lack of idealistic and militant generation. It is not that Notes de ['arriere-saisoll is structured around a militant and Marc the stock broker - Leduc concern of his generation. In Charade chi/wise the topic in itself is withou t relevance. It is group of men discussing their political suggests a conception of today 's you th as the empowerment seems like the privileged area of mainly the attitude of the filmmaker towards it commitments and the concurrent provincial conformist stratum of our society. The a previous generation. One participant in the where the predominant sentiment is one of election which brought Robert Bourassa back to sympathetic and sometimes tender portrayals of film states that militancy is a way" to create vexa tion and a blase facade is the result. It is sad power. Providing a counterpoint to these the men and the women who have put their identities through revolt. " An affirmation which to see a director like Jacques Leduc who has elements, Leduc directs his attention towards youth to serving political cause are counter Led uc seems to believe, to the point of denying always shown a progressive attitude in dealing Sylvie, a young student and militant in the NDP balanced by a mocking representation of today' s the possibility of revolt in any succeeding with historical subjects simply falling into a trap campaign. The men play down their involve­ youth. The choice of these two figures is a genera tion. It is a strange vision of history that of conformism. It is a conformism of nostalgia ment in socialist or "independantistes" questionable one. It seems guided bya desire to one gets from Charade chilloise, as if everything which seems the dominant mood these days movements by describing them in terms of criticize an apparent contemporary political void was bound within the past and never to occur with the NFB's French production unit. In their utopian and illusive endorsements. They also by investing it in stereo typic versions, In fact, again. apparent or seeming preoccupations with the assess the failure of communism in the world between a softened socialism (Sylvie) and a Charade chinoise develops its arguments passing of time and the loss of youth, perhaps and some of them, by their very professional and rapacious capitalism (Marc), Leduc leaves us through many formal devices which echo the they could use some new blood. institutional involvements, acknowledge the with the impression that there is no hope for true '70s militant films, The director's voice-over Alain-N. Moffat - necessity of displacing the energy they put into radical change and that youth is no longer the becomes the unifying point of these devices, struggling for radical reform within a "rich carrier of the will for change. commenting as he does on documentary CHARADE CHINOISE d. Jacques Leduc, Jean-Marc The discussion that follows the screening of practice and on filmic representation. The best Piotte p. Eric Michel cam .Jean-Pi erre Lachapelle, Jacques society" to helping Third World countries, Leduc, Pierre Letarte, Roger Rochat, assl. cam. Fran~ois Leduc caricatures a conception of any actual those two films is symptomatic of this examples of that self-reflexive attitude are found Vincelette, Na thalie Moliavko-Vizo tski, Michel youth militancy in the use of Sylvie's character flattening-out of the present. Sylvie is in verbal connections continuously made Bissonnette, Michel Bernier, light Fran~ois Warot, sd. and the playing down of her commitment to the astonished by the way she has been portrayed between the weather conditions and the Richard Besse, Claude Beaugrand, Esther Auger ed. Pierre shooting conditions. We are made aware that Bernier nssl. d. France Dube animation Pierre Hebert 111115. NOP electoral meeting where the greatest and talks of herself as seen in LeTemp sdes ciga/es Rene Lussier, Jean Derome, , Bernard concern seems to be problems with a micropho­ as a "prefabricated picture of herself," as an the presentation of the two films to the Buisson stlldio fec. Louis Hone mix . Hans Peter Strobl, ne, "accessory-image to a generation. " Indeed, if participants are only possible because of the use jean-Pierre joutel mall . Michel Dandavino ndmill. joanne In Le Temps des cigales which follows, emphasis of a generator. Once more, when the exterior Ga llant, Monique Lavoie I. p. Diane jutra, Pierre Renaud, this is true, and if we acknowledge that Leduc jean-Yves vezi na, Gaetan Tremblay, Jean-Serge Baribeau, is put on several women's portrayal of contains Sylvie's astonishment, we must face barbecue scene is scattered by an electrical Jean-Marc Piotte, Marc Rivet, Sylvie Roche, Lina TrudeL themselves as militants. Their testimonies and Leduc's overall strategy which ultimately breakdown, Leduc has chosen to replace the Micheline Toupin, Nicole Therien p. c. National Film Board the assessment of their militancy are more denigrates Sylvie'S testimony, He never permits missing images, those impossible-to-shoot, with of Canada cololl l' 16nun flIllllillg time 90 min.

MAY 1." CINIMA CANADA PA•• U Gilles Carle's film that had been run through every high-school projector from Hull to Bonaventure. ViveQuebec The distributors and screening houses should be a little more careful. One doesn't market a record with a scratch in it, nor display a painting here was reason for the trepidation which with a tear in the canvas. filled the room. The curtains parted and Gilles Carle has come back to the screens with Tthe lights went down at the screening for flying colors - mostly blue and white. Vive Gilles Carle's latest, Vive Quevec, a film about the Quevec is something for the people of Quebec, history of Quebec City. something for all of Canada, and for the world. Over the past yearcinephiles have been biting And, as the film comes to an end, one has to their lips in anticipation of Carle's follow -up to agree with the men 's choir that proudly sings, La Guepe, a very disappointing film which "Qu~vec es t merveilleux!" It is. featured a lacklustre Cloe Sainte-Marie. Vive Kirk Finken - Quevec was well covered by the French media while it was in production. Pictures of, again, VIVE QUEBEC d.lsc. Gilles Carle p. Claude Sylvestre Sainte-Marie dressed as an Iroquois-priestess­ composer Fran~ois Guy d. o. p. Fran\ois Brault light Maurice de Ernsted art. d. jocelyn joly, sound Serge Beauchemin ed. punk were splashed across the newspaper Christian Marcotte, Dominique Sicotte p. m. Louis Ricard pages. What was this duo going to do with the asst. d. Louis Ricard, Carle Delaroche-Vemet CO ilt. Stella history of Quebec City? Dressed like that? Goulet docu . Danielle Pigeon cost. Nicole Pelletier Michele One-third into the film, and we still haven't Pelletier dresser Catherine Gelinas myth·makeup Mikie Hamilton makeup Suzan Poisson hllir Constant Natale, seen the Indian Punkarella. And, though she is Martine Baron, wigs Gaetan Noiseux props Ronald Fauteux anticipated, the trepidation seems to have eased scenic painter Gilles Desmarais asst. ca m. Daniel Guy, Rene away. The film is charming, strong, witty, and Daigle, Luc Lussier, Philippe Martel, jacques Bernier, rich, though not necessarily in the images one jocelyn Simard, Seraphin Bouchard light tech . Raymond Lamy 2nd sound crew jean-Guy Bergeron, Esther Auger, would expect from a film about one of this Chloe Sainte-Marie in a role that suits her talents joseph Champagne, Dominique Chartrand, Pierre country's most beautiful cities. It is rich in Bouchard, Claude Beauchemin grip Mart de Ernsted, information and rich in humour, with ebullient hair, and she suggestively sings about the moments. We have the sensation that the film is Aurele Dion, Louis Rouillard, Danis Frechette, Stephane people telling us more about the modem about to lose its footing, and we feel the need for de Ernsted prod. sec. Nicole Des Rosiers, adm in. Gilles beginnings of Canada with a style that would Lenoir sound ed. Roger Boire mixing Alain Rivard props. Quebecois by their manner, than about their make Patsy Kline roll in her grave. The club a rest. Carle does provide this needed moment Louise Bilodeau, Lyne Charlebois p. understudy Francine ancestors through their stories. where she sings is empty except for one man, of pause after the first third of the film with a Borsanyn man. under. Lise Laflamme cJullI{feur jean This is not to say that the images are poorly smoking his cigarette. Finally a role for her shot of three people on an icy sidewalk. They Chouinard del. of Quebec Michele Allard asst. dir. gen . of city hall, Quebec jacques Alrneras (omm . of intern. reI. done. The photography is clean and appropriate talents! She is very good at being bad, being fight their way with determination against the Claude Bedard cam. ill Paris Sepp Thoma, j. B. DuliscQuet, for the film that Carle has made. It is a film full qlletene . powerful blowing snow and wind. This comic Marcel Neu makeup Elen Loubeyre teno rs Guy Belanger, of laughter and smiles - a gift to the people of Though Sainte-Marie is billed as the lead bit may only last for all of 30 seconds but it is Leonard Bilodeau, Roland Blouin, Benoit Boutet, Pierre Quebec. actress in this film, she is relegated to something a good break. Boutet, Rene Boutet, Yves Cantin,Reginal Cote, Claude Dugua y, Richard Duguay, Claude Gosselin, Michel There is a woman who talks about "les folies dll of a punctuation mark in the sentences and There should have been a little more of this, Laflamme, Claude Robin Pelletier, pinna Rachel Martel roi", and the prospects for these 777 women sent stanzas that are the interviewees, the real because as the film bolts towards the end, where music cons. Renee Maheu music arrnng. Gaetan Essiambre to the New World to even out the number of men people. Amidst documentary sequences where Carle presents the Quebec-born opera tenors, mlisiciailS Fran ~o i s Guy, Gaetan Essiambre, Gerard Masse, and women. Lots of unattached men in a foreign the French / English struggle is put into our optic nerves begin to feel a little worn. Denis Letourneau, Yvon Sarrazin funds TIC, SGCQ.La Sodete d'Edition des Programmes de Tele\~sion(France) , land. She smiles. The nun from the Couvent des perspective, our actress - wearing a peasant And, speaking of worn. It was a little La Radio Television Suisse Romande ill assoc. Sodete Ursulines, her severe face breaking into a smile, dress now - belts out "Chama/lie , chamaille! La surprising when the film started to roll out onto Radio·Canada. p. c. Les Productions dix-huitlLes Film explains that "it's easier to turn a Frenchman mauditec hama/lie/" (the godammed squabble). the screen. The sound was crackling, and the Fran ~ois Brault I. p. Chloe Ste·Marie, Marie·Therese Fortin, into a 'sauvage', than a 'sauvage' into a We begin to see a detailed picture of the arrivals image was all scratched for about two minutes Pierre Labrie, joanne Doucet. Anne Lauren ce, Oaude Talbot,Frank Fontaine, Gill Champagne, Orania Frenchman. " of Champlain, Cartier, and the battle between into the film. I thought that we were about to see Gros-Louis, Ozalick Sioui, james Rock, Luden Jourdain. Agroup of Indian children giggle in a vignette Montcalm and Wolfe. the work print, or some old footage from an NFB CO/aliI' 16mm, I'III1Ilillg time 89 min. dist. Cinema Plus . where a nun encourages them to sit up straight We learn those old schoolbook stories, but, while they eat their pea-soup. refreshingly, through the oral tradition it LeD irecteur of Snow Removal for the city, from becomes alive. There is a historian, a nun, a behind his desk, has a hard time stopping specialist in marine navigation, a novelist, himself from laughing. He tells us his crews cineaste, and mUSicolOgist. We see how deep have a traditional esprit de corps, just as the city both the bitterness and the pride run. The has a traditional 10 feet of snow annually. Quebecois are proud of their language. These are the Quebecois of today, and the Normand Clermont, historian, overflows with style of Carle 's film reflects this charm. It is excitement as he explains how the Quebecois something of a documentary-cum-variety-show have something that the French don 't. It is their tha t doesn't waste time with what it wants to ability to be imaginative with their language. A say. The pacing is rapid. It is a cacaphony of Quebecois can be speaking to a Frenchman and ideas, stories, and songs. And, if this not be understood at all. He laughs like a little combination of formal documentary style, with boy. songs, and skits may sound a little tacky, it is. Carle uses quick, witty subtitles and title cards C'est quetene. It's a part of the Quebecois to make quips, and to convey information that Act 0 r s, Mod e I s make-up that is not overlooked. might otherwise be lost due to the frenetic SpeCial Talents . and Characters Chloe Sainte-Marie flashes her heavily editing. This is often amusing and suitable, but 509 e 63 ALBERT ST. WINNIPEG eMB (204)943 e 0082 R3B 1 G4 mascaraed eyes from under her wildly punkish the film does become a little too frenetic at FAX 943e5711

CINEMA CANADA PAGI •• MAY 1'" CINEMA CAN A D A •

timed, nicely staged in which one might have The 1988 guessed that one film would bag 75 per cent of the awards. The lesson here is, if you can't entertain us you can't hope to educate us (read: promote your movies). There were, however, one or two bright hat can one say about the Genies moments that made more than a few Canadians this year without sounding sit up and drop their tortillas. The greatest redundant) One can sal' moment came halfway through Rock Demers' congratulations U,I Zoo la Ill/it (13 (Air Canada Award) five-minute tirade against times) and one can say, "Right on Canada's budding military industrial complex RockW!" but Megan Follows said it first. when most Canadians who were not already One can say," Gee! looks watching the Genies tuned into what they great in a lux, " and one can say, "For a brilliant thought would be The National. Demers' actress, Martha Henry sure is a tacky dresser I" televised assault on the Mulroney government One can say, "There's Larry King! He is the King could not have been better timed. Sheila of Kensington! " And one can say, "Who does McCarthy (Best Actress), simply had to stand at think he is ... tonight? " the podium to effuse raw starpower, and I Despite a well-planned production, this particularly liked the historic and auspicious television viewer was left paying more atlen tion denouement of Jean-Claude Lauzon's struggle to his tortilla chip on Genie Night. to be loved by the Toronto media. Thanks for Conceptually, Canada 's premier award show your support, he said, upon receiving Best failed to entertain and educate (read : promote Director, "and that's no bullshit. " Canadian films which can rarely afford other Jean Chantal. effective means of promotion). Like a movie script rewritten one too many times, the show 1988 GENIE AWARDS p. Morgan Earld . Joan Tosoni was desperately predictable, high in style but hd. writer Briane Nasimok writers Charles Lazer, Martha low in creative substance. The direction was Kehoe, John Pellatt, Allan Novak linc p. Bob Gibbons milS. d. technically clean and, inasmuch, impressive - a Paul Hoffert p. SI/p. David N. Rosen tech. p. Raymond Beley I/Ilit mnn. Faith Hanks, Kim Hester p. ncc. Henrie Pal set des. brisk pace, the presentors moving in and out Jim Jones nsst set des. Ken Lamb light. Ross Viner cost through highly polished doors of a cinema lobby Shirley Lisanti cos t nsst Neil Needham, Pam Woodward set set. But these presentors brought very little to dee. D a \~ d Owen se. nsst Dale Turner, Elaine Brown, OJ the podium unless you had just been released by Anderson stnge mnll. Peter Rutherford, Shane Strachan, Mike Brannagan switcher Barry Duller, Tony D'Agostino the terrorists or your name happened to be cnm. Dave Doherty, Tom Farquharson, Mike Gyll, Dave Jean-Claude Lauzon. Hacala, Ross Menzies, Mark Milne, Ross Murray, Don Host Megan Follows and Gordon Pinsent Spence sing. crew. Id. Wally Sinclair stng. coor. George Box nl/dio. Simon Bowers, Dave Ripka p.n. nl/dio Bruce Graham did what they do best. And their scripted grnp/lic John Simons mnkeup Geralyn Wrai th, Beverly spontaneity was nice and cozy. In fact they are Schechtman IllIir Judi Cooper-Sealy, Anita Miles prod. see. the embodiment of nice and cozy. My complaint Jean-Claude Lauzon, Guy Dufaux, Pat Kerr, Betty Orr film res. Ne tonia Brenan pub . Tamara is not that the entire production-variety aspect , Sheila McCarthy Pipa, Elayne Mock VTR ed. Pat Hamilton VTR op. Brian Nemmett, Rick Urbanski, Mike Weir chor. gel1. Angela consisted of a trite (frighteningly lifelike) Brian Paquette trnn s. (oar. David Stetson hosts Gordon Pinsent, and Ronnie puppet routine intended to floor me errors, scandal, (I'll take ) dramatic irony. THIS least one must do is create the illusion that Megan Follows presellters , Brigitte Berman, wi th la ugh ter. IS ENTERTAINMENT I anything can happen. This is the spirit of live Genevieve Bujold, Nicholas Campbell, Kim Cattrall, My complaint is that while Chevy Chase I missed the embarrassing freelance Marie-Josee Caya, , G,uy Chiasson, Matt showbiz isn't it ? - President Reagan 's televised Craven, Johnathan Crombie, Jennifer Dale, Karen Elkin, casually picks his nose in front of a galaxy of stars dancers, this year, the overweight matinee press conferences are more exciting than this Denis Filiatrault, Megan Follows, Martha Henry, Leo lllial, on a stage representing rnegadollars, we can't singer, the odd prop failure. There was not one year's Genies. , Jean Leclerc, Carl Marotte, Hollis Maclaren, seem to get it together. We are far too serious, drunken presentor or award-winner. .. well Christine Pak, Gordon Pinsent, Kate Reid, Jackie Richardson, Craig Russell, Linda Sorensen, Jessica Steen, too formal with our no-nonsense production. maybe one. We are not interested in a predictable Donald Sutherland, Alan Thicke. John Vernon, Al Waxman, Give me back the outrageous, the glitches, the In putting together a show like the Genies, the Canadian awards show nicely blocked, nicely Kenneth Welsh, .

MAY1", CINIMA CANADA PAGI •• CINEMA CAN A D A •

Guy Maddin's Tales from the Gimli Hospital

ohn Paizs can now measure his successes by the number of disciples and competitors he has spawned. The Manitoba film scene is currently in a Paizs-phase. JTales from the Gimli Hospital by Guy Maddin is one of several recent independent films that share Paizs' offbeat sense of humor, his go-it-alone prowess, and his "prairie postmo­ dern" sensibility. But Guy Maddin is no Paizs-clone. Tales from the Gimli Hospital is darker, more disturbing, and often funnier than anything John Paizs has yet done. Regional cinema is often a hotbed of ethnic eccentricity. John Paizs is a Hungarian-Canadian glutted on '50s American popculture. In contrast, Guy Maddin is an Icelandic-Canadian, and his absorptions are more international. Tales is like something you might get if you crossed Snjofridur (Angela Heck) and Gunnar (Mike Gottli) admire a fish fashioned from birch bark Ingmar BerE,man with Luis Bunue!, leavened it with dollops of von Stroheim, von Sternberg, we no longer know." It's a place where women Amma has been telling this story to her two inseparable young sisters disappear, only to and Monty von Python, and tossed in a pinch of sleep on briar-patch beds, where men clean grandchildren in the Gimli Hospital while their show up floating down a river in three small Hans Christian Andersen, Esther Williams and themselves with dirt and help each other to mother lies dying, unable to drink, unable to caskets, dead, the moment is as touching and AI Jolson. It's a wild farrago of a movie, a first shave their eyebrows, and where people drink her 7-11 Big Gulp. As she finishes this tale reflective as any in recent memory. feature, done in black and white for a mere sweeten their coffee by holding sugarcubes about the strange consequences of jealousy and This is not a flawless movie, however, nor am $200,000, with all of the beauty marks and between their teeth when they sip. His hero is storytelling, Amma realiies that her daughter I convinced that, overall, it really works. The blemishes you 'd expect from this sort of an archetypal Icelandic fisherman, Einar the has died. She assures her grandchildren that frame-story, for instance, could be better venture. And many surprises and provocations Lonely (Kyle McCulloch). Einar shares his their mother is now in heaven watching over integrated. Amagenta-tinted dance fantasy is you most definitely would not expect. ramshackle smokehouse with a cat, vainly trying them. Sure enough, as the camera cranes up almost totally wrongheaded, This and several Maddin took his initial inspiration from abook to make himself attractive to some frolicking from the hospital and through the clouds, it other scenes in the second half of the movie look called The Gimli Saga, a kitschy, self-promotional women by squeezing fish goo onto his hair. discovers their mother in a white cassock, halo like the filmmaker was more concerned with bit of oral history. GimIi, Manitoba, is the largest Then amysterious pox puts him in the hospital. and angel wings, smiling down solicitously. simply amassing bizarre incidents rather than Icelandic community outside of Iceland. As feathers waft through the air, Einar watches The trailer for Talesfrom tIJe Gimli Hospital has with confronting and developing the full . Founded in the 1870s, Gimli (with a hard /I gil as a sinister doctor (Guy Maddin himself) perform already become a cult classic. Played at midnight implications of the story. In the end I couldn't in gimlet) takes its name from ancient sagas. It surgery with arusty sickle while three nurses try screenings for the past two months, it has help asking: "What is this story all about and means a secure or protected place, or the to distract the patient with a Punch and Judy provided the kind of uninhibitedly interactive why is it being tqld?" promised land, or paradise. Of course, if there is show. Einar passes out when they move the audience response once reserved for The Rocky Tales from the Gimli Hospital is not as complete any hint of this grandiosity in Maddin's movie, puppet stage to the foot of his bed. He soon feels Horror Picture Show, Whether the film itself and coherent as Maddin's equally bizarre short it is there only ironically. His Gimli is a dank as if he is invisible and mute, for the nurses pay achieves this sort of stature remains to be seen, film The Dead Father. But it is lively, different, place wracked by a mysterious pox-like more attention to a blackfaced minstrel and to It has a sensational opening reel- zippy, teasing, personal, serious, and ambitious, Guy Maddin epidemic, where animals and patients share the Gunnar (Mike Gottli), a pudgy storyteller who and outrageous. The sound track is quirky and is already being touted as Canada's answer to same barn-hospital (based loosely, I'm told, on spends his time cutting fish silhouettes out of hummable, including Paul Whiteman's 1929 David Lynch (whose influence he vigorously actual practices in tougher times). The onlyvista birch bark. Finally, Gunnar befriends Einar and classic "I'm a Dreamer, Aren't We All" and IIon denies). What is unusual about them both is is an emp ty, rock-stream beach ; otherwise this is begins telling him about the fair maiden, Massey's "Spring Love is in the Air" anda batch their seeming willingness and ability to put their a "placeless" place of confining darkness and Snjofridur (Angela Heck) who died when he of campy Icelandic songs from scratchy old 78s. psyches on the screen, secret phobias, dark eerie shadows cas t by some unseen light. rejected her on their wedding night, Before And the movie wends its way through a obsessions and all , They both make movies that Icelandic li terature, according to Maddin, is Bunnar can finish, Einar interrupts and veri table thicket of emotions. It is sad, amusing, are exhilarating and disturbing experiences. always about cold and asexual fis hermen who confesses an even more horrendous sin. He tender, disgusting, mys terious, sweet, sick, Gene Walz • spend their time un tangling nets, and being sad once sexually defiled a young woman on an sexy, and insulting. in a stark environment. Maddin long ago Indian burial platform. When Gunnar finishes Tales is fascinating stuff, full of rivetting TALES FROM THE GIMLI HospiTAL decided that there \Vas something comical about his story, Einar discovers lhat the fair maiden on images and delirious sequencing, Several of the d.lsc. ld.o.p .kd. GuyMaddinn . d. Kyle McCullochnrtd. Jeff all this a u s teri ~1 and that the only wai' to treat it the platform was Snjofridur. Gunnar goes scenes are touched bygeniu s: origina!, true, and Solylo stOIY COilS. George Toles mnkcllp Donna Szoke proe. was straightfaced but with no respect - to deal blind with jealous rage (the nurses paint his precisely rendered . A wedding performed Mid Can labs sd. Clive Perry, Wayne Finucan Studios neg. with it the \l'av BUDue] deals \lith Catholicism. glasses black while he is still wearing them ), but across ari ver because the minister is afraid of the Dawna fillall . nid Manitoba Arts Council, Winnipeg Film Grou p markef nid CIDO (Canada-Manitoba Cultural So, through'a frame-story interlocutor named still he tries tokill Einar. . They both stagger into pox is heartbreakingly amusing. A honeymoon Industries Development Office ) I. p. Kyle McCulloch, Amma (played byMa rgaret-AnneMacLeod), an a darkened forest where strange rituals and between two passionate people reluctant to Michael Gottli, Angela Heck, Margaret-Anne Macleod, earth-moth er whol ooks like a nanvhalin a white erotic dances take place . There they engage in a touch each other's sores is breathtaking in its Heather Neale, Caroline Bonner, Don Hewak, Chris deadly kind of buttocks-grappling. Johnson, Donna Szoke, Kyle McCulloch, Ian Handford, pointy bonnet, Maddin takes us back to "a Gimli emotional inflections. And when three Greg K1ymkiw.

PAGI30 CINEMA CANADA MAY 1."