You know that thing we do in Canadian film circles, where the same movies are cited as national treasures over and over again?
Goin’ Down The Road, Mon Oncle Antoine, The Silent Partner, The Decline Of The American Empire, Dead Ringers, Jesus Of Montreal, The Sweet Hereafter … maybe someone will throw in Un Zoo La Nuit or Léolo if they’re feeling brave, but that’s about it.
It’s frustrating, because it means nobody ever gets around to talking about the newer stuff – the Hard Core Logos, the Last Nights, the Maelströms – or the less reputable but just as important genre cinema we turn out on a regular basis.
Well, the Revue Cinema is doing something about that.
The rep house launches Canadian Cinema in Revue, curated and hosted by critic Alan Bacchus, with the intention of celebrating Canadian productions that have found success beyond our borders – movies like Vincenzo Natali’s Cube, which serves as the series kickoff this Monday (June 8) at 7 pm. The film will be preceded by Natali’s short film, Elevated, and followed by a Q&A with co-writer André Bijelic, with Natali Skyping in from Los Angeles.
I’m still not entirely sure that I like Cube all that much – it gets pretty repetitive in the second half – but I certainly acknowledge the skill with which it’s put together, and its cinematic importance: for good or ill, Cube set the stage for life-or-death puzzle movies like Saw.
Full disclosure: I attended York University’s film school with Bijelic, who introduced me to Natali we’ve known one another for two decades. They’re both swell guys, and you could do a lot worse than hang out with them on a Monday night.
And if you need something to do Tuesday or Wednesday, stop in at the Toronto NFB Mediatheque – formerly the John Spotton Cinema – and check out the latest event in the National Film Board of Canada’s ongoing 70th anniversary celebration, a free screening of Pepita Ferrari’s Capturing Reality: The Art Of The Documentary.
Ferrari interviewed more than 30 documentary filmmakers – from veteran masters Errol Morris, Albert Maysles, Werner Herzog and Nick Broomfield to relative up-and-comers like Jennifer Baichwal, Kevin Macdonald and Alanis Obomsawin – for her ambitious overview of the non-fiction genre, which runs 97 minutes but could have gone on much longer. And it does, on DVD the two-disc special edition released last month contains a second disc of extended interviews.
But the DVD doesn’t offer you the opportunity to interact with the filmmaker Ferrari will be present at both Tuesday and Wednesday night’s screenings for panel discussions with producer Michelle Van Beusekom, subject Velcrow Ripper and a nightly guest. On Tuesday, it’s Jennifer Baichwal, with Manfred Becker stepping in on Wednesday.
What else are you going to watch this week? Will Ferrell yelling at dinosaurs?
