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Anne Trister and Dancing in the Dark All by young filmmakers. more commercial work on Ovide No matter what else you want to say Plouffe and Empire (without losing about Simoneau's work, he can sure the sharp sense of social satire of his string his shots together. You can watch earlier work). Taking great pains to his movies twice, they are so taut. On true that most of the Quebec mms had avoid parochialisms, and meticulously the other hand, there's a kind of image already had successful runs downtown. staging the talky dialogue, he now has grid-lock that tends to imprison the Besides, these are only screenings. The the craft to meet the challenge of his characters rather than letting them social gathering of the tribe takes place writing. Confident, original mmmaking, generate the action. Les Fous is impre­ at the Genie Awards ceremony, where the buoyant Handel opening has no ssive, carefully set up and beautifully by Daniel Hausmann the assuaging of guilt and the concom­ equal in the other 22 mms. shot to recreate Anne Hebert's claus­ mitant ego buildup under the limelight Which is not to say there weren't at trophobiC vision, but it stands in frozen don't know. I just sat through the allows one a fresh start on next year's least two other interesting and original poses, while the simpler, more com­ Genie Award mms; all 2-± of them, round. works. Bach et Bottine and Loyalties. mercial premise of Pouvoir intime I and I am feeling slightly optimistic. The fact is that if you judge by past The remarkable thing about Bach et brings out a warmth and humanity ab­ It's a strange feeling. nominations and awards, they consis­ Bottine is the emotional punch it packs sent from the more 'artitistic' work. One usually approaches these screen­ tently reflect a profound desire to ac­ within its children's mm label. (Re­ Still, the achievement is considerable ings with a mixture of curiosity and tre­ knowledge Canadian mms and craft miniscent of Les Bons debarras, ex­ and there is some surprisingly fine act­ pidation. What have people actually achievements. Notwithstanding the cept of course without its echoes). It is ing. been doing' What are the movies really Academy's call to duty, insiders' ac­ told so simply it couldn't be plainer - Anne Trister is that rarity, the suc­ like;> After a year's worth of major an­ cumulated knowledge, word-of mouth okay, perhaps a little too plain - letting cessful second feature. More ambitious nouncements, deals, starts, shoots, and intuition, seem as good a system as the two main characters build up tre­ and with a bigger budget this time, Lea prizes, and general blowing of trumpets any. mendous believability. By far the most Pool proves she can cut it. Beautifully or, alternately, delays, cuts, changes, in­ What you can get out of these human and affecting of all mms - in­ shot, with a melancholy undertone and stitutional obituaries and general moan­ screenings - aside from a free pass to cluding Le Declin, okay which seems a an almost European light, the film is a ing and groaning, one is curious to see the Triaminicol DM auditions - is a bit dry, a shade· schematic, in compari­ little thin (like nouvelle cuisine, it's what it's all about. To gauge the dis­ sense of the type and range of the mms son. A classic Hollywood theme, yet good, but is it enough'). Still, our tance between the hoopla and the real being made. (See lists*) Also a good handled in its very own, very simple, heroine makes it. That in itself is re­ thing. morning-after look at the year's produc­ Quebec way. And a big hit, though I freshing. Then there's the fear. Fear of last tion. The nitty gritty. As you will have don't know if it is slick enough to do as Finally, the quietly smashing Danc­ year's (and the previous year's) mind­ already voted by the time this article well outside the province. ing in the Dark, where our pro­ ~umbing defeats. Fear of embarrass­ appears, and as I know you haven't Loyalties is interesting for its ease, tagonist breaks through, if not in the ment. Of one's participation, however seen all 24 pictures, let me fill you in its sense of self, of space. This picture is, real world, at least into a clear-sighted small, in the collective guilt. Of our pe­ before you go, God forbid, not fully in­ as they say, centered. It knows its one of her own. Small-screen in our rennial creative deficit. formed on to next year's production. theme, builds up to it, and is not afraid context, it nevertheless sneaks up on Perhaps this is one of the reasons why of humour. You can enjoy it. And the you. What's interesting here is the cool attendance is so minimal, at least in • landscape means something, it's not just direction by Leon Marr and Martha Montreal. I counted only two other there as scenic backdrop. A little slow Henry's- remarkably restrained and diehard viewers, oddly enough both ac­ Coulibiac anyone? Needless to say, the and a little coy as it pulls back at the last gutsy performance combining to de­ tors. (Will they ever suffer enough?). To picture of the year. (Le Declin de minute from a head-on confrontation liver powerfully on Joan Barfoot's story. be fair, at least 1 5- 20 people showed for l'empire americain, for the unin­ with our heroine. Nevertheless, there's It's slow all right, but at least it doesn't the better-known pictures. And it is itiated). Stylish, self-assured, biting and a confidence and an openness not often pull its punches. This picture earns its also gentle. It had something to say and seen in Canadian films. (So often en­ screen space. did so in a clever and carefully struc­ closed, no matter how big the space.) Well, there you have it. Whether they Daniel Hausmann has been a cast­ tured mise-en-scene. Sly Denys Arcand Four other films managed to score in took the low road (Dancing), the high ing director in Montreal and is pre­ has been around for some time and he our consciousness (and the public's). road (Le Declin, Loyalties, Anne tris­ sently working on a screenplay. has picked up a few things from his Les Fous de Bassan, Pouvoir intime, ter, Les Fous), or the commercial road • o v E R • v I E w •

(Pouvoir intime, Bach et Bottine), Cinematographer Rene Verzier. It's so through. At least Jean-Claude Lord's not quite have the energy to live on its these films make it on their own. They well done that one regrets Lynch has work seems honest, not the token bow own - whether stilled by too much ear­ did it their way. And that's probably at stayed so much within the genre. It toward Mecca that you often see in nestness, or too much refusal to com­ the root of their success. lacks just a little of that extra reach, that these circumstances. promise with what it perceives as HoI­ Two other films popped out. Al­ something that can open up a picture, And now we move into that familiar Iywoodisms, or by its own inability to though throughly commercial, a la take it beyond the strictly B category. territory - the good-but-no-cigar cate­ rise above its surrounding conditions branch plant Canadian, they neverthe­ (Like Cronenberg, Lynch expands the gory. Pictures not without their prom­ (the movie itself being a failed attempt less showed a certain mastery of the genre). ises and sometimes numerous qualities, to break through). And on the other, medium: Bullies and Toby McTeague. Toby McTeague - a teen market pic­ but not quite cutting it either. On the another long-standing tradition - the In Bullies, Paul Lynch really outdoes ture - suffers from wooden dialogue one hand the long standing and truly Hollywood North picture, either himself with three unshaven guys and a and a zero love interest, but it's well Canadian tradition of the small, sincere, naively or knowingly hooking onto the messy front yard. Great work out of made, the action scenes carry you honourable Canadian film that does Hollywood gravy train without its craft,

English Canada Quebec

HONOURABLE-SMALL COMMERCIAL HIGH ROAD HONOURABLE-SMALL COMMERCIAL HIGHROAD ® = fringe Worked Didn't work ® = fringe Worked Didn't work 1986 1986 DanCing in the Dark' Bullies The Blue Man Loyalties' Le Dernier Havre Pouvoir inti me' The Morning Man Anne Trister' Sitting in Limbo' Toby McTeague Keeping Track Equinoxe Bach et Bottine' La Guepe Les Fous de Bassan' John and the Missus Abdu cted Exit Le Declin de I'empire The Adventure of Faustus Lost l Claire, cette nuit et demain americain ' Bidgood' ® 1985 1985 90 Days' One Magic Christmas Night Magic The Boy in Blue Jacques et Novembre ' Elvis Gratton Le Matou' My American Cousin ' Separate Vacations Joshua Then and Now Visage pale The Peanut Butter Solution Overnight Samuel Lount Storm ® Timing ® 1984 1984 My Kind of Town ® Bedroom Eyes The Bay Boy' Les Annees de re ve La Guerre des tuques' Le Crime d'Ovi de Plouffe' Next of Kin ® Draw La Femme de I'hOte l' Mario' I LeJour S I That's My Baby Heavenly Bodies I Unfinished Business Hey Babe l Sonatine' Walls Isaac Littlefeather Ki ller Instinct Reno and the Doc The Surrogate Thrillkill 1983 1983 Deserters A Christmas Story Tell Me that You Love Me The Terry Fox Story' Au Clair de la lune Bonheur d'occasion' A 20th Century Strange Brew Ups and Downs The Wars Lucien Brouillard Maria Chapdelaine I Chocolate Cake ® Videodrome' Dead Wrong Rien qu 'un jeu ! 1982 · 1982 Big Meat Eater ® Hard Feelings By Design The Grey Fox' Dou x Aveu x Les Yeux rouges Lat~ude 55 Porky 's' Harry Tracy Quest for Fire' Les Fleurs sauvages HotTouch Une Journee en taxi If You Could See What Larose , Pierrot et la Luce I Hear La Quarantaine Melanie Sneakers Threshold Visiting Hours 1981 1981 Alligator Shoes' Hank Williams: The Bells Amateur Les Beaux Souvenirs' Les Plouffe' Surfacing Show He Never Gave Cries in the Night Ticket to Heaven' Happy Birthday to Me Finishing Touch Heavy Metal Head On Scanners Heartaches Silence of the North' Improper Channels . *To give you an idea of the overall p ictu.re in the past f ew years, here's a quick - 1 - glance handy gu ide to the films. All categories are strictly subjective. To those who would take umbrage, my apOlogies in advance_ 'Fringe' films are one-ol-a- kind efforts, usually by young filmmakers and not in tbe race. 'Commercial' films are tbose in which I f elt a p roven formula or genre at work. A certain slickness of handling stock situations. 'Worked 'or 'Didn't work' is merely my own percep tion of how well they did in their own terms - either craftsmanship or straight box-office. 'Honourable small' f ilms are distingu.ished by tbe mod- esty of their ambitions, f inancial and creative. Tbe bigb road are those pictures whose ambition to make a big impact on a wide audience are reflected in their budget and of ten, tbe scop e ofa film. * denotes films of special in terest - either creative or proctuctionwise.

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or more importantly, its convictions. any real heat. An otherwise well-made (The cinematic language is the same, truly major production, this film could but it often has an all too evident 'ac­ have used a little yoga: you know, cent' - like Quebec films in France - in breathe in, out, center, character, then terms of pacing, rhythm, motivation.) action. In the first grouP,John and the Mis· The Blue Man is not quite up to par. sus, Sitting in Limbo, Le Dernier A supernatural thriller, it has some very havre and Equinoxe. John and the fine scary work. Unfortunately, the real Missus should really have been among killer here is the expository dialogue, the successes and I certainly hope it aided and abtted by several key will be. But as much as it is a real plea­ cardboard characterizations. Lost is ... sure to watch Gordon Pinsent's fine well, lost at sea. A heavy-going dramati­ dry-point work on screen, and the many zation of a true-story - three people other true-ringing characterizations capsizing in a small boat and awaiting (most notably Roland Hewgill's), some­ rescue - we die with our characters. where along the line the plot gets fines­ They talk their theme out, and we sed out. We lose the thread, and the shrivel in the heat. (I guess there is a final pointed understatement comes certain type of Canadian that just won't much too late. Where does he go with make for a great conversationalist). Ab· his horse at the end? ducted is also lost... in the woods. Fine Sitting in Limbo is truthful, work for a young filmmaker, but you courageous, humourous, but precisely don't want to spend too much time sitting in a limbo between docu and with these guys either. A one-note pic­ drama. It induces restlessness - you ture, they don't tjlk and the pretty girl keep waiting for this picture to get up runs. and go. John Smith has a fine touch with And one almost forgets, Faustus Bid· young actors, and the picture is well good. Impossible not to like this piC­ crafted. But we are still watching from ture. A brilliant script - it's a kind of the outside as in a docu, not identifying Newfoundland Brazil, but funnier. Un­ as in a drama. I am skeptical about 'al­ fortunately, it is an amateur production ternative' drama - either it is or it isn't. craft-wise, and out of its depth in this competition. One can only imagine the Le Dernier havre, like its hero, shuf­ kind of inspired madness that Andy and fles all too discreetly towards its own Michael Jones could commit with a lit­ demise. Redolent of a certain Quebec tle budget and craft support behind nostalgia, its only possible audience did them. They deserve it. not flock to it. Otherwise a fine first ef­ And here we come to yet a third and fort and a very beautiful last image. perhaps inevitable group - at least the Equinoxe, despite outstanding photo­ numbers are bearable - the major loss graphy and Jacques Godin's presence, is category. Disastersville. The common dramatically disappointing. We are • Pierre Curzi, Marie Tifo - Intimate Power denominator here is terminal script/di­ elaborately set up for a very small the number of films whose titles sub­ that we soon run out of breath, and can rector trouble. Exit, The Morning payoff. consciously describe their dilemmas) only watch helplessly as the story ca­ Man, Claire cette nuit et demain, La In the second group - a dwindling is, natch, more like losing track. A con­ reens off on its own. And the love in­ Guepe, Exit, another story with the species - and not without their qual­ temporary action-thriller, it is awkward terest that should have been like a lit supernatural touch, is a ludicrous ities, Keeping Track, Lost and Ab· and rushed Robin Spry packs in so flame throughout, turns out to be more melodrama even Louise Marleau can't ducted Keeping Track (it's amazing many unconvincingly set-up plot twists of a pilot light - it that never develops save, You want to stay away from your

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Francont Film to 48 Stewart Street has moved Toronto, Onto M5V 1H6 (416) 360-6400

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piano on this one. The Morning Man, Marleau, Paul Hebert, Jacques Godin, a big disappointment, is so stagy I swear Gordon Pinsent - but also very fine per­ I could hear an echo all through the formances by Roland Hewgill and soundtrack. Claire ... has an interesting Randy Follett in John and the Missus, premise - life as an instant's dream - Lothaire Bluteau and Angele Coutu in unfortunately it's so irredeemably smug Les Fous, Marie Tifo the entire cast of you can relive your own life many times Le Dielin and, in particular, Dorothee before this picture is over. And La Berryman, Tantoo Cardinal in Loyal­ Guepe. What can one say' Gilles Carle's ties, Allan Scarfe and Kenneth Welsh fine sense of the perverse really comes gleefully playing the JR parts, and at through in this excruciatingly bad film. least two kids - Mahee Paiement in For sure there's a thesis in it for some­ Bach et Bottine and Andrew Bed­ body. narsky in Toby McTeague. Two other films entered in this year's Directors of photography: Pierre Mig­ competition - Recruits and The Pink not, Paul van der Linden, Vic Sarin, Guy CWquitas - are really beneath com­ Dufaux, Alain Dostie, Frank Tidy, Rene ment. We are talking here about 5<1: ad­ Verzier, to mention only those whose mission and basement projection on old • Dancing in the Dark • Loyalties work is seen this year. bedsheets. What these pictures are Music tracks are with notable excep­ doing at any awards show is a total mys­ tions still largely blah. Everywhere tery. (Minor note to Academy program­ there are these endemic lush orchestral mers: it would be better to go back to opening arrangements that unsup­ putting the shorts in a separate screen­ ported by the visuals just spell s-t-a-l-e. ing of their own, otherwise some good Without a doubt, the thrust of this efforts are likely to be sunk by the qual­ year's films reflect (dare one say it?) a iry of the features they may have the new-found maturiry in Quebec. Not misfortune to be coupled with - mainly, only from the point of view of the indi­ nobody's going to see them.) vidual directors, but also and most im­ Well, there you have it. Now you portant, in the collaboration of produc­ know. I think the production angle er/distributors, private producers, the seems under control Peter, now if we Societe Generale, the ONF, Telefilm and could only get the creative part right... Radio-Canada. While in English Canada Actually it's really not bad at all if you one still senses the heavy hand of L.A. compare with previous years. No Mon and the twisting in the wind of the inde­ Onele Antoine or even Goin' Down pendent Canadian producer. The tre­ the Road, but a very classy sex comedy mendous success of TV production has and more than a handful (count'em) of so far failed to translate into the riskier successful ftlms carving out their own mm side. And of course, it is much territory. A growing sense of confi­ tougher to develop that sense of audi­ dence and creative will ready to impose • John and the Misses go on a trip ence, which regardless of its size, must itself, backed by production. Most im­ start here. Nevertheless, there's hope, portant, something to lookforward to. look - either through natural (rural or Another thing this year is the sense of if only there was a truly concerted ef­ There's a breath of fresh air in some of wilderness) settings (9 of 22 fums) or talent out there. Not just the directors, fort on the part of the powers that be. these films (and boy does it feel good!) through the intimate drama aspect (13 but performers and performances (al­ The talent seems to be there. Always as they begin to unravel in their own of 22). It's just that what we've come to ways so dependent on the script/direc­ has. way the dilemma of the Canadian mm. expect of them, perhaps their biggest tor factor). Not only those who can As I say, it's a strange feeling, this op­ Most ftlms retain a distinctly Canadian burden, may be changing. carry a picture - Martha Henry, Louise timism. One can only begin to worry. _ •

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