Those of you who read this blog frequently should know by now that I don't really burn to make movies. I much prefer the TV medium. That being said, like a lot of people who live in what the Quebecois call, "ROC," (Rest of Canada,) I have a somewhat difficult personal relationship with Canadian Film.
There have been some I liked, to be sure. And I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with Art House film (some of my favorite films are Art House, to paraphrase an ancient justification...) but I find the Canadian flavor of Art House frequently enervating, unengaging, precious, and narratively challenged.
I know some of you just popped a clot. That's fine.
Yes, I know the TPB movie was accessible, maybe too much so. Yes, I acknowledge that Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a step in the right direction (only one step though, and only part of the direction -- we don't need an industry of Bon Cop clones, I'm not saying that.)
But I think it's telling that when I try to think of a truly Great Canadian film made in the last few years, the only one I can come up with is actually very, very, very much a Quebec film. In French.
I last wrote about C.R.A.Z..Y. (among other subjects) here. I'm just putting the mention in now because I see that there's finally a decent special edition coming out. With features with English subtitles. I suggest you go get it.
Oh, and I'm not the only one who likes C.R.A.Z.Y. Looks like the Director will soon be partying with Scorsese.
What can English Canadian film learn from C.R.A.Z.Y.? You tell me. In the comments below.
6 comments:
I liked and wrote about C.R.A.Z.Y. too but I’m not as down on English Canadian film as you are. I think it’s a particularly bad year to be down on it, with some recent ones making a splash, like the ones you mentioned, plus Away From Her, Fido, Eve and the Fire Horse. Everything’s Gone Green and Partition aren’t great, but they're not trying to be precious art house films, they’re trying to be entertainment. Water’s not in English, but it did pretty well.
I wouldn’t presume to say what English film can learn from C.R.A.Z.Y., but I think the key to me enjoying a film is heart over cleverness.
Fair enough and nice catch. I concede that my comments were perhaps more trenchant in years past. And I must admit that I have not yet seen "Away From Her," "Eve and the Fire Horse," "Partition," "Everything's Gone Green," or even "Monkey Warfare" yet.
I thought WATER was a little slow at times, but beautiful looking.
But the conclusion you come to, "heart over cleverness" is a good one. Sometimes Canadian filmmakers shortchange heart, I believe, because American film goes so often for unearned heart -- mawkish, sleazy sentimentality.
This is a fantastic blog. Kudos.
Re: Canadian movies. It’s not that I even disagree with you, really. I just find it moderately ironic that for all your thought-provoking, well-argued, and often hilarious missives on how frustrating it is that people keep trotting out the same clichéd takes on what’s wrong with Canadian TV, even when faced with the clear annihilation of those clichés by reality, you’ve repeatedly done the same for Canadian movies. I don’t think any of the following ten or so recent films are enervating, unengaging, precious, or narratively challenged. For the most part, all pursue heart over cleverness. Some are great:
Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner
L’Audition
The Barbarian Invasions
Congorama
Deadend
Fubar
It’s All Gone Pete Tong
Maelstrom
The Nature of Nicholas
On The Corner
Siblings
A Simple Curve
Elan,
Well, your list for me brings up a whole other can of worms -- promotion and the like. I'm in film and tv -- and I actually, sadly, haven't heard of half those films.
Of the others, the French ones I lay aside -- I see plenty of Quebecois films I like. Barbarian esp.
Pete Tong and Fubar were great. I never said I didn't like the occasional Canadian film. But, sorry, no. I don't think, on the whole, theyre executed with the audience in mind. And that includes some of the films that are lauded from "name" Canadian directors.
Your mileage, of course, may vary.
I guess that's in part my point. It's easy to say most Canadian TV sucks when you don't hear about any of the good shows. It's easy to say most Canadian movies suck when you don't hear about any of the good movies. Fundamentally it's the marketing/promotion/publicity that's embarrassingly half-assed in both cases.
TV has the minor advantage of being pumped directly into the audience's home.
Most Canadian filmmakers I know are desperate to connect with audiences. I would say basically none of them want to make films that people aren't interested in seeing.
Now, whether or not they're wired to actually deliver an audience-pleasing movie is a separate issue. But capability and intent are different things. You referred to intent.
Most feature-oriented screenwriters and directors committed to working in Canada get a chance to practice their craft maybe once every four years. It's like the Olympics, but without the interim years of intense rehearsal. Hard to hone in those conditions.
Much like, say, your criticism of the dearth of writer's room positions for up-and-coming aspiring TV writers can make it difficult to get much better at it in an environment geared to delivering under presure - rather than simply writing and rewriting spec scripts at home.
I'm not excusing anyone for boring, pretentious, or sloppy work, regardless of the size of the screen. I'm just attempting to note that their are systemic dysfunctions in both situations that make it challenging for good material to get to people who might enjoy it.
Atom Egoyan and Ken Finkelman and Chris Haddock and Deepa Mehta and various other "name" creatives work consistently on material of varying degrees of audience interest. I don't know any of them well enough to say whether audience-interest is of greater importance to them than personal expression or whatever. But everyone I do know in both movies and TV actively pursues that balance.
Again, capability versus intent being a separate issue. Lots of movies and TV shows out there that seem to aim solely for audience appeal and fail.
Of course, C.R.A.Z.Y. was a fantastic movie. I loved it and agree it's one of the best films to be made in this country in years.
I suppose if all Canadian filmmakers follow its example, we'll be in much better shape as a whole.
So, that would mean honing an autobiographical screenplay for ten years while developing your directorial skills on direct-to-video thrillers for the American market, cobbling together a patch-work budget then deferring your fees to pay for music rights that subsequently make it impossible for your film to screen commercially anywhere outside of Canada. If you're fortunate and talented enough to squeeze through these and other hurdles, you can finally leave Canada to make American films with Martin Scorsese.
Awesome.
By the way, the word that came up when I had to verify to submit this comment was "nimpump".
I really hope those words aren't just randomly generated and there's some poor bastard locked in a cubicle somewhere coming up with them.
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