Thread of Canadian cinema.

I searched and didn't any thread on this subject. So let's discuss Michel Brault, Pierre Perreault, FUBAR, Zach Kunuk, the NFB, Denis Villeneuve, Guy Maddin, Patricia Rozema and let's ask ourselves countless questions like: when was the last time Egoyan made a good film? Is Porky's really the highest grossing canadian film of all time? or have I ever actually seen a canadian film? Perrault made a lot of great documentaries, which one should I watch?

Yeah, what happened to Egoyan? Last one I saw was "Where the Truth Lies," which was pretty good, iirc.

as good a place as any to plug my fave obscure QC film of all time, Vie d'Ange
http://elephantcinema.quebec/video/recherche/paule%20baillargeon/vie-dange/1241772353001

re: Egoyan, I actually liked Adoration for some reason

Egoyan's The Captive? More like The Craptive

Last few Canadian films I've liked has been Etienne Desrosiers documentary about Roger d'Astous, which, I know, is niche, but it's really really good. And he was great to do a Q&A with, smart guy. Also, the GYBE visual guy, Karl Lemieux, had his debut feature Shambles in competition at CPH:PIX, and it looked quite a lot like a GYBE video, but with an added crime plot that was kinda superfluous. Great visuals, though.

I too would love a guide to Perreault, btw.

re: Perrault, I've only seen La bête lumineuse but it rules

https://thewalrus.ca/how-indigenous-filmmakers-are-changing-contemporary-cinema/

I wish it discussed Searches a little more but it's a nice primer on the subject of First Nation and Canadian cinema.

I went to find out when this was released (a friend e-mailed me about it today), and it turned to be last night! You can watch it on YouTube already, though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OMDsOTdJ3o

Like a lot of the people interviewed, Saturday Night at the Movies was an early influence on me. It debuted before VCRs hit the market (and years before TCM), so that was where I first saw a bunch of old movies. His Girl Friday sticks out in my mind, for some reason. I'm pretty sure Elwy came to speak to one of my film classes once...very informal, sitting around a table. I watched Magic Shadows, too, for a time, but didn't like the way films were chopped up over four or five nights. I wonder what TVO plans to do with all those interviews.

My brother watched this documentary; aside from growing up with Elwy Yost on the TV, we're both curious about him being born and raised here in Weston.

I never met him, but one of my professors did some kind of film review show with him in the 70s and was very dismissive about his critical acumen: "if a film had pictures moving on a screen, Elwy liked it".

I don't think he ever tried to pretend he was anything other than an unabashed fan--he embraced the term "movie buff." It was so genuine with him, he had a deep connection with his viewers. But there's a clip of him in the film, him being interviewed, where he defends the violence in The Wild Bunch, and the first three films shown on Saturday Night was the Bergman Trilogy; his enthusiasms led you to you interesting places.

Sure, he was an ideal host and interviewer for a show like Saturday Night at the Movies, which is why it's incongruous that he worked as a proto-Siskel/Ebert.

I just thought I'd drop in a plug for Before Tomorrow, the last film of the trilogy that began with The Fast Runner. We watched it a month ago and unlike most films we watch, this one stuck with me.

Atanarjuat...didn't know there was follow-up.

(xpost) I guess what I'm saying is that, while he wasn't a critic--and, no, didn't belong on a show that purported to evaluate films--I don't think he deserved a dismissal of any kind; he was better that that.

"than that"

Finally watched a Canadian film I would have first read about almost 50 years ago: Don Owen's The Ernie Game, his 1967 follow-up to Nobody Waved Goodbye (with some shorter NFB work between). There's a beautiful print on YouTube posted by the NFB:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5G9pQ-1vCU

Two great musical bits: Leonard Cohen performing "The Stranger" at a party (17:30), four years before McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and, at 31:40, Judith Gault dancing around her apartment to a Kensington Market song I'm trying hard to identify. The film is completely of its moment: aimless wandering, frolicking in the snow, Godard-like detours, downbeat ending. Jackie Burroughs, the other woman, played Christopher Walken's mother in The Dead Zone. (There are a bunch of Owen films on YouTube: just started Notes for a Film About Donna & Gail from '66.)

There’s also this thread: Canadian Film in the house

I guess Van Horn Street missed that. I don't know if can bear the burden of two threads...

That Kensington Market song wasn't on either of their albums. Aardvark is quite a bit stronger than their debut, it's a well above-average psychedelic pop record with a bunch of memorable melodies.

I know, I checked...I ended up e-mailing some site called Cult Montreal earlier--they had a piece on the film--to see if they could help me. There's actually supposed to be a soundtrack LP, but it's not listed on Discogs.

This never works, but I did find one of the band's founders on Facebook--still living in Toronto--and messaged him directly. Said message will sit in an unread hidden folder for eternity.

That's why the Kensington Market never took off - too rude to their fans on social media.
The master tape of the songs for the film is undoubtedly sitting in the back of some NFB vault somewhere, to be released in 2067.

Found the Blu-ray that pairs Goin' Down the Road with Down the Road Again at a library sale today. I've never owned Goin' Down the Road on anything except a home-taped VHS. I'm not sure that I can bring myself to watch the sequel; I've studiously avoided it for years.

I was looking up Claude Jutra's À tout prendre because of the 1963 poll that's up (I think I've seen it but I'm not sure) and came across this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top_10_Canadian_Films_of_All_Time

Had no idea they've been doing this every decade, S&S style, for 40 years. Next one should be a year or two from now. I'd be surprised if Atanarjuat held on to #1. Claude Jutra's personal issues probably rule out Mon oncle Antoine returning to the top, and I think regard for Goin' Down the Road has faded a bit (not with me). Has anything really prominent come out in the last decade? Could Stories We Tell make a Jeanne Dielman-type leap to #1?

I actually kept the results of this list on paper for years, but I can't say I've been living in anticipation for the next instalment.

I don't know if any Canadian film or filmmaker has really impressed themselves on the cognoscenti. Xavier Dolan (none of whose films I've seen) seems to be too divisive. Stories We Tell could have been a 20 minute segment on a CBC radio show and no worse for it. The top rated Canadian film on They Shoot Pictures, Don't They website is Wavelength, which frankly isn't going to draw much traffic into the Lightbox. There's an obvious disincentive to go back in film history and load the list with the works of dead or old white men. Is something like Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance likely to garner much support?

Sad to see Patricia Rozema's I've Heard the Mermaids Singing drop off the list since '93. Perhaps the recent exhibition of it on the Criterion Channel will give it a boost (I think it also got a bit of a theatrical redistribution last year?).

I really gotta see Les Bons débarras.

Forgot about Michael Snow--longshot, yeah, even with his recent death, although there are affinities between Wavelength and Jeanne Dielman. Cronenberg would seem like an obvious candidate, but Dead Ringers went down a notch last time.

kinda related but not really, but MDFF has absolutely been killing it with their latest releases. Queens of the Qing Dynasty and The Maiden both have a good chance of placing in my top 10, even top 5 depending on how things go, this year

I only watched I've Heard the Mermaids Singing last year; it's difficult for me to imagine that people who weren't there at the time will see its charms as more than modest.

I remember one of my film professors getting exasperated at Rozema squandering her industry goodwill with White Room.