Stars, Genres, and the Question of Constructing a Popular Anglophone Canadian Cinema in the Twenty First Century
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Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 8-20-2012 12:00 AM Fighting, Screaming, and Laughing for an Audience: Stars, Genres, and the Question of Constructing a Popular Anglophone Canadian Cinema in the Twenty First Century Sean C. Fitzpatrick The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Christopher E. Gittings The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Film Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Sean C. Fitzpatrick 2012 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Fitzpatrick, Sean C., "Fighting, Screaming, and Laughing for an Audience: Stars, Genres, and the Question of Constructing a Popular Anglophone Canadian Cinema in the Twenty First Century" (2012). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 784. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/784 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FIGHTING, SCREAMING, AND LAUGHING FOR AN AUDIENCE: STARS, GENRE, AND THE QUESTION OF CONSTRUCTING A POPULAR ANGLOPHONE CANADIAN CINEMA IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (Spine title: Fighting, Screaming, and Laughing for an Audience) (Thesis format: Monograph OR Integrated-Article) by Sean Fitzpatrick Graduate Program in Film Studies A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Sean Fitzpatrick 2012 THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION Supervisor Examiners ______________________________ ______________________________ Dr. Christopher E. Gittings Dr. Joseph Wlodarz ______________________________ Dr. Constanza Burucua ______________________________ Dr. Manina Jones The thesis by Sean Carl Brett Fitzpatrick entitled: Fighting, Screaming, and Laughing for an Audience: Stars, Genres, and the Question of Constructing a Popular Anglophone Canadian Cinema in the Twenty First Century is accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts ______________________ _______________________________ Date Chair of the Thesis Examination Board ii Abstract This thesis addresses English-Canadian cinema’s attempt to establish and maintain a popular cinema during the first decade of the twenty-first century, specifically analyzing the relationship between Canadian genre filmmaking traditions and the complexities of attracting popular Canadian audiences to homegrown films. This extended study examines a variety of films and people in contemporary English-language Canadian cinema, from Anglophone Canadian star Paul Gross and his films Men with Brooms (2002) and Passchendaele, to horror films Splice (Vincenzo Natali 2010) and Pontypool (Bruce McDonald 2009), and finally the action-comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop (Érik Canuel 2006). Discussing the respective political economies, marketing, critical receptions, and production histories of a diverse selection of contemporary English-language Canadian films in case-study format, this thesis finds that, while troubled, it is undoubtedly possible to create a popular contemporary English-language Canadian cinema that exists, at least geographically and politically, apart from the dominant Hollywood filmmaking. Keywords Twenty-First Century, Contemporary, English-language Canadian Cinema, Anglophone Canadian Filmmaking, Anglophone Canadian Films, Popular, Entertainment, Genre, Genre Cinema, Genre Filmmaking, Paul Gross, Men with Brooms, Passchendaele, Splice, Pontypool, Bon Cop Bad Cop iii Acknowledgments This project would not have been completed without the patient help and guidance from my supervisor, Dr. Christopher Gittings, who assisted me in making coherent arguments out of my many incoherent ideas. Also, without all of the great educators and helpful administrators of the entire professorial and administrative staff in Western’s department of film studies, neither this thesis nor this degree could have been completed. I would also like to thank Em, who encouraged, listened, commiserated, edited, and watched The Simpsons with me, all of which was indispensable. Andrew, for always wanting to talk about and play music when I didn’t want to talk about or watch films. Cait, who lived above me, and gave up precious time between shifts to talk and eat frozen yogurt. And, last but not least, Mom and Dad for always encouraging and helping me when I felt most overwhelmed. iv Table of Contents Certificate of Examination………………………………………………………………….ii Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………iii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………..iv Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………..v List of Plates………………………………………………………………………………….vi Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………...1 Anglophone Canada’s Homeless Popular Cinema……………………………………1 Chapter 1……………………………………………………………………………………..17 A Seeker of the Elusive Grail of Canadian Popular Taste: Paul Gross……………...17 1.1 Playing for Canada: Men with Brooms…………………………………………..24 1.2 Fighting for Canada: Passchendaele…………………………………………….35 1.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….50 Chapter 2……………………………………………………………………………………..53 Welcome Back to Our Developing Horror Story: Pontypool and Splice……………53 2.1 The Talking Dead: Pontypool…………………………………………………....59 2.2 A Test-Tube Seductress: Splice………………………………………………….64 2.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….72 Chapter 3……………………………………………………………………………………..73 Copping a Laugh: Bon Cop, Bad Cop……………………………………………….73 v 3.1 “Shoot First, Translate Later”……………………………………………………77 3.2 Bon Critics, Bad Critics………………………………………………………….86 3.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….91 Conclusion: Toward a Home and the Holy Grail……………………………………………92 Works Cited and Referenced………………………………………………………………..97 Curriculum Vitae…...............................................................................................................110 vi List of Plates Due to restrictive copyright laws, the images in this thesis have been removed. Below are the page numbers where the listed images would have appeared. 1. Men with Brooms Poster (2002)……………………………………………………..30 2. Title Card from Passchendaele Trailer (2008)………………………………………43 3. Passchendaele Poster (2008)………………………………………………………...44 4. Passchendaele Website, “Canada in the Great War” Page………………………….45 5. Pontypool Trailer (2009), Sin Waves………………………………………………..61 6. Pontypool Poster (2009)……………………………………………………………..62 7. Splice Poster (2010), “Meet Dren”…………………………………………………..67 8. Splice Poster (2010), “She’s Not Human”…………………………………………..68 9. Splice Trailer (2010), Distorted Stars………………………………………………..69 10. Bon Cop, Bad Cop Poster (2006)……………………………………………………84 11. Bon Cop, Bad Cop Trailer, Friendly Antagonism…………………………………...87 vii 1 Introduction Anglophone Canada’s Homeless Popular Cinema In early 2011, an English-language Canadian genre film called Hobo with a Shotgun was released into North-American theatres. The film, which was directed by the young Nova Scotian filmmaker Jason Eisener, had many attributes that seemed to herald its success in North American multiplexes. Hobo with a Shotgun was originally a “fake trailer” in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s gritty double-bill homage to exploitation cinema, Grindhouse (2007). Hobo’s connection to these two superstar American auteurs not only contributed significantly to its salacious advertising campaign1, but also added to the film’s mostly-positive critical reception from both Canadian and American film reviewers. American critics immediately and consistently draw upon the relationship between Hobo and Grindhouse. Reviewers such as Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers argue that the “B-movie energy that pulses through this grindhouse wallow is not to be denied,” while Variety’s Andrew Barker maintains that the film is “a grindhouse homage seemingly made for people who've never actually seen a vintage grindhouse movie.” Canadian critics, contrastingly, concentrate upon Hobo’s Canadian qualities, in terms of both its representation of Canada’s geographical and cultural specificity and the nation’s filmmaking traditions. The Toronto Star’s Peter Howell asserts that the film “takes on genre filmmaking with a vengeance and a toque,” while The Globe and Mail’s Liam Lacey describes it as “almost worthy of Guy Maddin, an affectionate re-creation of the kind of film that never actually existed, except in the fevered imagination of a devoted fan.” Hobo with a Shotgun is a violent, low-budget genre film that stars the famous Dutch actor Rutger Hauer as the eponymous Hobo and follows the simple narrative of an urban vigilante film in which the protagonist attempts to improve the conditions of his urban surroundings by any destructive means necessary. Hobo’s attractions seemed to signal a 1 The film’s poster is deliberately shopworn and features the tagline, “delivering justice one shell at a time.” Also, the theatrical and television trailers highlighted the film’s most violent scenes. 2 rare moment of Canadian box office success prior to its release, but the film’s genre conventions, positive critical reception, prominent advertising campaign, and thematic and stylistic connections with Tarantino and Rodriguez