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National Cinema on Vacation

It's been very slow lately so National Cinema is on hiatus throughout August. We will return for coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival on September 6.

Enjoy the summer.

Michelangelo Antonioni, 94

Two cinema greats are gone in one day.

Italian film director Michelangelo Antonioni has died at the age of 94. He passed away at his home in Rome Monday night.

While Antonioni has been pretty much non-functional since a 1985 stroke - and his recent films have been beyond dreadful - his work from L'Avventura to The Passenger are part of the canon of modern film art. He defined modern existentialist alienation with his bleak visual beauty in a tetraology of films with Monica Vitti (L'Avventuara (1960), La Notte (1961), L'Eclisse (1962) and Il Deserto Rosso (1964)).

Even in Antonioni's English language pictures, he still had his finger firmly on what it was to be living at that exact time in history. A three picture deal with producer Carlo Ponti (providing the films be in colour) feel like a culture time capsule of their given year - the David Bailey, English mod inspired, Blow-Up in 1966, with scenes of an awakaning sexual revolution, and even the Yard Birds; 1970's Zabriskie Point, a commercial flop, had the Grateful Dead, an orgy in the California desert, Pink Floyd playing to a magnificent exploding house, and a fleeting glimpse of a young Harrison Ford, cast as a baggage handler. Finally, in 1975's the The Passenger (1975) Antonioni explored identity, dopplegangers and politics, with Jack Nicholson as an assumed gun-runner in North Africa and Spain.

His last film, "Il filo pericoloso delle cose,"a segment in Eros, a collaboration with Steven Soderbergh and Wong Kar Wai, was largely embarrassing. Antonioni's sequences felt more like soft core porn than erotica, clumsily executed and ill advised, a sad foot note to a once brilliant career.

Jack Nicholson said about Antonioni at the 1975 Academy Awards -

"In the empty, silent spaces of the world, he has found metaphors that illuminate the silent places our hearts, and found in them, too, a strange and terrible beauty: austere, elegant, enigmatic, haunting."

The New York Times Obituary

Canadian Box Office, weekend of July 27

1 The Simpsons Movie $5.64 mil $5.64 mil
2 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $1.89 mil $25.31 mil
3 Hairspray $1.33 mil $5.17 mil
4 I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry $1.26 mil $5.19 mil
5 Transformers $1.04 mil $24.99 mil
6 No Reservations $633,698 $633,698
7 Ratatouille $562,136 $12.24 mil
8 Live Free or Die Hard $425,476 $10.86 mil
9 I Know Who Killed Me $272,888 $272,888
10 Sunshine $108,157 $143,805

In Québec, Ma Tanta Aline came in 5th for the week at $361,496 and Nitro came in at 8th with another $242,318 for a gross of $3,210,868.

No other Canadian films are represented in the North American charts.

[via Tribute and Cineac]

Ingmar Bergman has passed away.

We are shocked, and truly saddened by the death of Ingmar Bergman, who was without equal, and simply the finest film director and screenwriter of the twentieth century.
He died today on Faro Island off the coast of Sweden at 89.

The New York Times has a fitting obituary here.

21 87

UBU web has posted an excellent quality Quicktime of Arthur Lipsett's amazing short NFB film 21 87. Released in 1963, at the height of the NFB's Cinema Verite, or Direct Cinema, movement, Lipsett's film was a radical departure. Having more in common with Man with a Movie Camera than Lonely Boy, in 21 87, Lipsett juxtaposed seemingly unrelated events to create a poetic statement on society and technology. George Lucas cites Lipsett's film as an influence, a fact that is most eveident in his first film THX 1138, but don't let that stop you from watching Lipsett's film.

Watch the film here.

If you are unfamiliar with UBUWEB, it is worth investigating. It hosts a huge collection of music, films and essays.

It also hosts David Rimmer's experimental classic Surfacing the Thames.

t

More on YPF

The beginning of the media-hype and schadenfreude for first-time-director Martin Gero's Young People Fucking, or YPF as I'm going to quickly abbreviate the title to has begun. The whole thing seems just a little too calculated, but judge for yourself in this article written by the Globe.

What is positive about YPF is that it has distribution deals already in place with ThinkFilm and Christal Films. The negative being, is that ThinkFilm has not successfully marketed a Canadian film yet, and seem to be quite ambivalent about them once they actually have them under their belt. After a string of Canadian failures one wonders if they only take Canadian films to fulfill CANCON guidelines for their company - and until they demonstrate that they do care, they will be nothing more than an American company with an office in Toronto.

YPF will open at TIFF to roaring audiences like every other Canadian film at any major Canadian film festival. It will probably win the audience award. Tickets will be sold out and the lines long. Unfortunately, that's the core audience right there - festival watchers. Those initial packed screenings do not translate to packed audiences in multiplexes as the word "Canadian" in front of "movie" evokes widespread cultural cringe.

At every Canadian film festival, Canadian films are always sold out. It makes no difference whether the film is good or bad.

So, can YPF be marketed properly to the general populace? Well, they struck out with the name, but are hoping to capitalize on the rich history of films with "fuck" in the title. Certainly from the Globe interview Gero would like to think of his film in Knocked-Up romantic-comedy terms - but that's a $30 million dollar film, with a large Hollywood marketing budget (I saw building-sized posters six months before the film opened on Yonge Street). YPF was made for $1.5 million - well below the $5 million average American indie film, but probably still way to high given the risk of selling a Canadian film. To do well, the film probably needs 3 times that budget, and that's something I don't expect to see - certainly not from ThinkFilm, and not with an expletive in the title.

Am I saying the film is doomed before anyone even has a chance to see it? I hope not. I hope it's damn good and worth seeing. I hope it breaks even. Even if it doesn't, Martin Gero will be making more pictures in Canada. Failure is the norm.

Canadian Box Office - Away From Her RIP

Sarah Polley's reign of terror officially ended July 19, after 77 days of release. At its peak Away From Her was in 275 theatres.

Total US and Canada: $4,571,521

Total Foreign: $1,371,638 (this could be Canadian figures but the Canadian box office is usually lumped in with the states).

Total world: $5,943,159

The only other [English] Canadian film to make the North American top 100 was Manufactured Landscapes which is picking up steam in limited release south of the border.

#58 Manufactured Landscapes; $14,871 ; +112.6% ; 7 theatres (+4 ); $2,124 average total US domestic: -$113,549 in 5 weeks.

The Canadian top ten is here.

[via Box Office Mojo]

László Kovács

Noted cinematographer of such films as Easy Rider, Paper Moon, What's Up Doc?; Five Easy Pieces, Shampoo, That Cold Day In The Park, Ghostbusters and New York, New York; has died at the age of 74.

American Society of Cinematographers - obituary.

Box Office Québec: Semaine du 13 Jui au 19 Jui 2007

Nitro holds its own in Québec in the summer onslaught with nearly $3 million in three weeks.

1 HARRY POTTER AND THE... $3,122,731 (weekend) $4,183,623 (gross)
2 TRANSFORMERS $8,27,234 $3,174,079
3 NITRO $490,256 $2,968 551 up 8%
4 RATATOUILLE $446,982 $1,773,599
5 LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD $436,254 $2,282,850
6 LICENSE TO WED $152,516 $358,170
7 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT ... $93,671 $5,197,712
8 1408 $70,489 $893,601
9 FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SI... $68,347 $ 2,127,300
10 ENSEMBLE, C'EST TOUT $51,124 $542,572

[via Cineac]

YOUNG PEOPLE F*CKING, and other new Canadian films to look forward to at TIFF

Yep, TIFF announced its Canadian line-up today, and it's mostly more of the same. The festival opens with Jeremy Podeswa's FUGITIVE PIECES and has the expected Gala presentations of Denys Arcand's L’ÂGE DES TÉNÈBRES (DAYS OF DARKNESS) and David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES. New films by Bruce Sweeney, master filmmaker Carl Bessai, Clement Virgo and Guy Maddin. Ah hell, read the press release.


FESTIVAL CELEBRATES THE FINEST IN CANADIAN FILMMAKING
Toronto – Canadian programming at the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival highlights the best of our national cinema, bringing the country's finest films and filmmakers to the attention of local, national and international audiences. This year, Canada First! opens with Martin Gero's funny, sexy comedy YOUNG PEOPLE F*CKING, and continues its celebration of emerging talent with eight feature films. Ticket Passes and Packages now on sale. For more information, please visit tiff07.ca or call 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM.

The Festival announces Denys Arcand's L’ÂGE DES TÉNÈBRES (DAYS OF DARKNESS) starring Marc Labrèche, and David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES starring Viggo Mortensen and Naomi Watts. These titles join the previously announced Opening Night film, FUGITIVE PIECES by Jeremy Podeswa, as Canadian Gala Presentations to date.

Special Presentations include HERE IS WHAT IS from Adam Vollick, Daniel Lanois, Adam Samuels; Guy Maddin's MY WINNIPEG; Clement Virgo's POOR BOY'S GAME, winner of the Telefilm Canada Pitch This! competition in 2001; SILK by François Girard, and Roger Spottiswoode's SHAKE HANDS WITH THE DEVIL [Spottiswoode is born in Canada, but raised in Britain, thus the James Bond film in his credits.]

Canada First! titles include Martin Gero's YOUNG PEOPLE F*CKING; AMAL by 2005 Telefilm Canada Pitch This! winner Richie Mehta; Rafaël Ouellet's LE CÈDRE PENCHÉ; Stéphane Lafleur's CONTINENTAL, UN FILM SANS FUSIL; Chaz Thorne's JUST BURIED; Ernie Barbarash's THEY WAIT; Ed Gass-Donnelly's THIS BEAUTIFUL CITY, and Robert Cuffley's WALK ALL OVER ME.

Contemporary World Cinema includes Leonard Farlinger's ALL HAT, Bruce Sweeney's AMERICAN VENUS, Laurie Lynd's BREAKFAST WITH SCOT, Bernard Émond's CONTRE TOUTE ESPÉRANCE, Carl Bessai's NORMAL, Denis Côté's NOS VIES PRIVÉES, Kari Skogland's THE STONE ANGEL, and Allan Moyle's WEIRDSVILLE.

Real to Reel includes: Peter Raymont's A PROMISE TO THE DEAD: THE EXILE JOURNEY OF ARIEL DORFMAN, Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti's HEAVY METAL IN BAGDHAD, and John Zaritsky's THE WILD HORSE REDEMPTION.

Tiff07 passes now on sale. 51 day wait.

Tickets for public and industry passes are now on sale for the 32nd Toronto International Film Festival via the tiff07 website. Public Ticket pass and packages information. Industry site. On Monday, July 23 the film programme and schedule will be released.

Canadian Box Office - Weekend of July 13, 2007

1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix $7.18 mil (weekend) $12.17 mil (gross)
2. Transformers $3.15 mil (weekend) $18.46 mil (gross)
   
3. Ratatouille $1.31 mil (weekend) $8.94 mil (gross)
   
4. Live Free or Die Hard $959,153 (weekend) $8.57 mil (gross)
5. License to Wed $517,676 (weekend) $1.73 mil (gross)
6. Knocked Up $353,086 (weekend) $12.81 mil (gross)
7. Pirates of the Caribbean $248,871 (weekend) $26.41 mil (gross)
8. Sicko $245,323 (weekend) $1.64 mil (gross)
9. 1408 $236,744 (weekend) $4.39 mil (gross)
10. Evan Almighty $202,423 (weekend) $4.98 mil (gross)

We don't have the figures for Nitro yet, but from July 6-12 Cineac is reporting that it made $804,659 for a total of domestic total of $2,478,295 in 2 weeks. If that held through the weekend, it would be in the top twenty in North America.

North American box office:

#43, Away from Her. $26,637 , +13.0% from last week, 31 theatres, lost 7. $859 average for a total US domestic take of $4,548,331 in 11 weeks. Total worldwide: $5,906,836

#58 Manufactured Landscapes. $6,994, dropped 43.7% from last week. 3 theatres for an average of $2,331 per theatre. $92,069 total in 4 weeks.

#97 Brand Upon the Brain! $1,051 in 3 theatres, for $350 average per theatre. Total box office: $222,718 in 10 weeks.

107 Everything's Gone Green. $239. 1 theatre. $19,373 worldwide gross in 13 weeks!

Nice to see Brand Upon The Brain! and Everything's Gone Green back on the list, but really at this point they are finished. Everything's Gone Green is dead with $19,373 in 13 weeks of release - the budget is estimated at $2 million. It's official, people just hate Douglas Coupland.

Fido is at the pound. Poor Fido.

[via Tribute and Box Office Mojo

Egoyan does teen drama. Telefilm thinks long and hard.

According to Playback Magazine, Atom Egoyan is gearing up to shoot a new film called Adoration about teens "redefining themselves through the internet." Casting is wrapping up for a September shoot.

The film has a scaled back budget of 5 million significantly lower than the reported $25million of his last dramatic outing Where The Truth Lies. Telefilm has financed the screenplay but has not committed to production funding.

I would think carefully on this too if I were Telefilm. The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan's most critically acclaimed film (he was nominated for an Academy Award as best director) and of a comparable budget to Adoration only made just over $3,000,000 at the box office.

Atom Egoyan - selected box office and budgets.

Where The Truth Lies (2005) $3,477,678 (worldwide). Budget=$25,000,000

Ararat (2002) 2,743,336 (worldwide). Budget= $15.5 million

Felicia's Journey (1999) $819,852 USA (domestic). Budget: unknown

The Sweet Hereafter (1997) $3,252,652 USA (domestic). Budget= $5,000,000

Exotica (1994) $5,132,222 USA (domestic). Budget= $2,000,000

The Adjuster (1991) $396,573 USA (domestic). Budget=$1,500,000

Putting Canadian "Piracy" in Perspective

Someone named "jackdeath" commented on You Tube for this Micheal Geist produced video: "I want my 8 minutes and 51 seconds back!"

Watch at your own peril. On the other hand, he may not have been the intended audience.

The Power of Lobbying: How Hollywood Got A Movie Piracy Bill

Michael Geist and Daniel Albahary put this together. The music may not be to your taste, but the message is clear and worth watching.

Briefly: news, links

Summer. It's been a little slow lately, but here is what has been happening.

Nitro races to $2,000,000 in Québec. Toronto Film Festival started announcing its line-up with George Clooney's Michael Clayton. Canuck Ryan Gosling will make an appearance in TO with Lars and the Real Girl. American cable companies want their grubby hands all over our Canadian TVs, and, Michael Geist doesn't think Canadians will be watching clips of Porky's on YouTube on their Apple iPhone anytime soon with the absurdly high cost of Rogers data plans.

Updated: Canadian Box Office - Not that "explosive"

Nitro fell to bottom of the top ten in Canada and is the only Canadian film (French Canadian to boot) to break the top ten. In other news, Michael Bay used his cinematic powers for pure evil and coughed out Transformers the no.1 film in North America, Seth Rogen is still playing a Canadian in Knocked Up, Michael Moore just wished he was a Canadian, and Fido is still twitching.

1 Transformers $5.75 mil $11.52 mil
2 Ratatouille $1.82 mil $6.27 mil
3 Live Free or Die Hard $1.37 mil $6.66 mil
4 License to Wed $686,125 $686,125
5 Knocked Up $481,854 $12.13 mil
6 Evan Almighty $478,970 $4.46 mil
7 1408 $416,889 $3.87 mil
8 Pirates of Caribbean: $399,880 $25.88 mil
9 Sicko $331,805 $1.15 mil
10 Nitro $307,633 $1.44 mil

These are estimates, actual figures will be out this evening:

FIDO: $10,100 on 4 screens, $2,525 per screen average, for a whopping $298,000 gross over it's entire run.

Away from Her: $21,700 dropped-43.3% from the weekend before, is on 38 screens, -14 less screens, and had a theatre average of $571 for a US box office total of $4,499,000 and a worldwide total of $5,838,790 over 66 days on an estimated $4,000,000 budget. This may be the first film that Telefilm has ever financed that made back its money - I don't think that's much of an exaggeration either (if there is another one, let us know).

Updated:

Away From Her: # 45, (down from #37) $23,576, $620 average, and $4,501,383 US domestic.

Manufactured Landscapes #52, $12,412, +16.0% from previous weekend, 3 theatres (+1) $4,137 average per theatre, for a total of $72,153 US in 3 weeks of release.

Fido: #56, $10,343, 4 theaters, $2,585 average (not too shaby) for a total of $298,110

[via Tribute and Box Office Mojo]

For a historical comparisson of Canadian box office grosses, take a look at The Numbers.

Just a note on "The Numbers" - that site has many films that were distributed by Canadian companies such as LG or AA that are not TECHNICALLY Canadian films - that is they may partly have been financed here, or distributed or shot here, but are NOT by Canadian directors.

Example - Heist was shot in Montréal, that does not make it Canadian.

Owning Mahowney is a Canadian UK co-production, shot here, but with US actors and a UK director - where as David Cronenberg is a Canadian director who often makes UK/France/Canada co-productions (Spider, eXistenZ, Eastern Promises etc.) but, his films are classified as Canadian (as he is Canadian).

Box Office Québec - Nitro is "explosive"

Yep, Nitro is No. 1, and beats the crap out of John McClane.

• 1 NITRO $1,1,663 552
• 2 LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD $1,011,944
• 3 TRANSFORMERS $829,390
• 4 RATATOUILLE $736, 822
• 5 FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER $329,249
• 6 EVAN ALMIGHTY $259,899
• 7 1408 - $228,277
• 8 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLDS END $208,121
• 9 OCEAN'S THIRTEEN $169,451
• 10 SHREK THE THIRD $106,361

The Toronto Star also had a little article on Nitro's "unthinkable" success which is interesting reading.

[via Cineac]

$1.2 million in Québec since Friday?

Nitro, the French Fast and the Furious (with a twist!), has made $1.2 million in Québec since opening this Friday. While that doesn't seem much, it is on par with what large Hollywood blockbusters make in an opening weekend in Canada (in comparison the No.1 and No.2 films - Live Free or Die Hard made $2.43 million, and Ratatouille made $2.2 million).

TV director (who in Canada isn't a TV director?) Alain DesRochers and producer Pierre Even (C.R.A.Z.Y.) made the racing flick with a budget of $7.2 million last year.

If it does well, maybe we'll finally start seeing more commercial genre films in this country, that would be a good thing - maybe some of them will even be in English.

(genre films = audience = $$$$ for investors = trickle down effect = even more no-budget-no-profit-art films funded by Telefilm)

Perhaps Fido should be dubbed in French and promoted heavily in Québec as a sort of biter-sweet, somber Zombie comedy that reflects on the horror and tragedy of the FLQ crisis. Of course Fido will also have to be changed to be set in Montréal in 1970, but a subtitle and a bunch of stock footage of Trudeau invoking the War Measures Act should change this easily enough. Then the tagline could be "Just Watch Me."

[via Playback]

Canadian Box Office - Weekend of June 29

A Québécois Fast and The Furious? Who knew?

1 Live Free or Die Hard 20th Century Fox $2.43 mil $3.45 mil
2 Ratatouille Walt Disney $2.18 mil $2.18 mil
3 Evan Almighty Universal $787,939 $3.24 mil
4 Fantastic Four: Rise.... 20th Century Fox $692,914 $7.47 mil
5 1408 Alliance Atlantis $662,779 $2.81 mil
6 Knocked Up Universal $652,199 $11.06 mil
7 Nitro Alliance Atlantis Vivafilm $648,138 $648,138
8 Pirates of the Caribbean Walt Disney $624,791 $25.00 mil
9 Ocean's Thirteen Warner Bros. $572,225 $9.22 mil
10 Sicko Alliance Atlantis $451,726 $451,726

37 Away From Her, $38,287, 52 theatres (and starting to drop fast), worldwide gross $5,772,724.

51 Manufactured Landscapes, $10,697, 2 theatres (limited release) $36,409 US domestic

Fido and Brand Upon The Brain! fell off the charts.

[via Tribute and Box Office Mojo]

Edward Yang, 59

I was truly saddened to read this on the CBC news wire.

The brilliant Taiwanese director, Edward Yang, died of cancer on Friday, June 29, at his home in L.A.

I first saw Yang's Yi Yi (A One and a Two) at the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival, and thought it was a wonderful family drama: it's heartwarming (bordering on sentimental), and portrays a delicate view of contemporary life - a feat accomplished by many Asian filmmakers, and something that we North Americans never get quite right.

Anyone interested in seeing his work should seek out Yi Yi, as well as A Brighter Summer Day, which was included on many critics' "Best Of" lists during the 1990s, and Taipei Story, which Tony Rayns (Sight and Sound's East Asian film critic) lists as one of the top films of all time.

Yi Yi is available from Criterion DVD.

[Edward Yang obituary - CBC ]

Trailer for new Cronenberg thriller.

The film opens in limited release on September 14, and will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Quicktime Trailer,

Not so fast, says Oda to Alliance MPD sale

The takeover of Alliance Atlantis Motion Picture Distribution by U.S. investment bank Goldman Sachs will come under review, says Heritage Minister Bev Oda.

She goes on to say that the distribution policy, as it exists currently, will not be changing: only the deal's foreign purchase components will pass under her radar, and only to ensure the existing requirement for Canadian control is met.

If you would like to tell the Honourable Minister that our Canadian content is sacred, and that foreign investment companies should keep their "stinking paws off our culture" (my words, paraphrasing Chuck Heston's - feel free to use your own polite words), please email her at Oda.B@parl.gc.ca

[via the Globe]

Updated: 6AM EST.

The Globe has a follow-up, which includes the responses of several directors and producers:

"If [Heritage] really does it, that will be good. It's easy to say these things, but they can also say they reviewed the MPD-Goldman Sachs deal, and still don't see anything wrong with it. We'll see what happens," David Cronenberg said.

The article notes that the deal "will also be subject to the Investment Canada Act."

Let's hope rational minds will prevail on this one.

Don't forget to send your concerns to the Minister; our thanks to the majors (especially Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, Robert Lantos, Denise Robert, and Paul Gross) for bringing this matter to the attention of Heritage Canada.

[via the Globe: "Oda's words welcomed by film at TV players"]

MPD sold for $193 million

Movie Distribution Income Fund is selling its 49 percent stake in Motion Picture Distribution LP to Edgestone, a private Canadian equity firm affiliated with U.S. equity giant, Goldman Sachs & Company. MPD's collection of over 1200 titles spans nearly half a century, making it the single largest library of Canadian film and television content.

The remaining 51 percent of MPD is controlled by Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc., which is being sold for $2.3 billion to CanWest Global Communications Corp. and Goldman Sachs; both sales provide ample opportunity for MPD to be controlled by a foreign company.

The deal still needs to be approved by Heritage Canada, but, according to Lloyd Wiggins, the chief financial officer of Movie Distribution Income Fund, there is "no suggestion of concern at this point".

Last week, a number of outraged filmmakers and producers (including Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, and Robert Lantos) expressed dire proclamations about what would happen to the Canadian film industry, should MPD be controlled by a U.S. company.


[via the Globe and Mail]

Updated: Canadian box office, weekend of June 22, 2007

1 Evan Almighty - Universal - $1.51 mil - $1.51 mil
2 Fantastic Four: Rise... - Fox - $1.44 mil - $5.92 mil
3 1408 - Alliance Atlantis - $1.23 mil - $1.23 mil
4 Knocked - Up Universal - $1.06 mil - $9.70 mil
5 Ocean's Thirteen Warner Bros. - $1.01 mil - $7.99 mil
6 Pirates of the Caribbean: AWE - Disney- $868,911 - $23.83 mil
7 Shrek the Third - DreamWorks - $527,857 - $26.41 mil
8 Surf's Up - Columbia - $470,748 - $2.77 mil
9 A Mighty Heart - Paramount Vantage - $352,659 - $352,659
10 Nancy Drew - Warner Bros. $321,533 - $870,657

These are still studio estimates. Actuals are updated later in the evening.

Away From Her : $94,200, 121 theatres, total worldwide: $5,647,671
Fido: $3300, 2 theatres, $105,382 total worldwide
Brand Upon The Brain!, no estimate yet - total worldwide (June 21) $219,203


Updated:

Brand Upon The Brain! #121 in North America. It made just $117, had a -97.7% drop in interest, and is down to 1 theatre. Box office total: $219,347. Next week, it will have dropped off the charts.

FIDO #81 in North America. $3,810, 2 theatres, a -62.7% drop from the following week. Worldwide box office total is now $284,977.

So a bit better, well shy of the 8 or 11 million budget we've heard it has.

Away From Her #27 in North America. $98,348 in 121 theatres, had a -54.3% drop in attendance, and a worldwide box office of $5,672,581.

Go, Polley Go.

[via Tribute and Box Office Mojo ]

For every $10 of culture goods the United States bought from Canada...

On D.B. Scott's and Jon Spencer's wonderful Canadian Magazines blog, they have compiled some nice statistics about the magazine and newspaper trade deficits with the United States.

They also have found some little tid bits from Stats Canada about the trade in culture with the U.S. and the U.K. specific to the film industry .

• For every $10 of culture goods Canadians imported from the United States, $7.61 were spent on writing and published works, $0.85 on film and video, and $0.58 on advertising. The remainder was spread among sound recordings, photography and original art.


• Canada's exports to the United States were more diversified. For every $10 of culture goods the United States bought from Canada, $3.80 were spent on books, newspapers and periodicals and other printed material, $2.68 on film and video, and $1.67 on advertising. Photography, sound recordings and visual arts accounted for the rest.


• In 2006, exports to the United Kingdom dropped by almost $31 million from 2005. The value of exports of video, other printed material, newspapers and periodicals, and photography recorded the largest decline. Exports of culture goods to the United Kingdom nevertheless remained the second largest for the seventh consecutive year. Canada exported mainly books and videos to the United Kingdom.
  
  

[via Canadianmags.blogspot.com]

More on MPD sale

Globe and Mail: Film library at centre of sale.

Fido, Sunday estimates

I wanted to hold out some hope for Fido, the estimated $11,000,0000? (according to Wiki) zombie-comedy made Andrew Currie at Anagram Pictures in Vancouver, but I think like Ted's earlier post, the film is now walking dead theatrically.

Sunday estimates from Fido's two US theatres(ers) (NuArt in L.A. and the Angelika in Soho NYC ) show a 67.7% drop over the weekend with a $3,300 estimate for a $18,500 US total in two weeks.

My understanding is that Lionsgate is handling the US distribution of Fido.

The film is expected to expand with 4 more screens July 6th in San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, and Boston, but I would be surprised at all if the film gets much more attention stateside. Such as it is from a Canadian distribution company who's execs are all in L.A. In August the picture opens in France, Japan, and Singapore (hopefully with much success).

$11,000,000 really isn't that much. Besides, there are ways to pay off that debt, cable, DVD special editions, foreign sales, organ harvesting...

MPD sale, Directors, Producers urge Harper to pay attention

Must read Saturday morning news.

From The Globe:

"On the brink of closing one of the biggest deals in the history of Canadian entertainment – the sale of Alliance Atlantis's Motion Picture Distribution arm, also known as MPD, to Manhattan-based investment house Goldman Sachs – many of the most powerful names in Canadian film and TV are claiming that the sale of such a heavyweight distributor to a foreign company could decimate the industry here. And they're demanding Ottawa do something about it.

Directors David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan, actor Paul Gross, producers Robert Lantos, Denise Robert and Kevin Tierney – as well as English and French associations across the industry – are calling on Stephen Harper's government to closely monitor the transaction, in which a U.S. financial player is buying a 51-per-cent stake in MPD, Canada's most powerful distributor."

Not only is this very disturbing, but the article notes "just 20 years ago, movie distributors had a market share in Canada so small that it barely existed. Two decades later, Canadian distributors have carved out a share of the domestic box office that hovers between 25 and 30 per cent."

Atom Egoyan notes in the article: "not upholding the policy [the 1988 foreign distribution policy, which limits foreign ownership of Canadian distributors to 30 per cent.] will reduce Canadian distribution to essentially a handful of boutique companies again. We'll end up with a bunch of new American companies who do nothing but distribute and send money back home, who don't get involved with Canadian films, or do so rarely."

We should all be up in arms. If it gets any worse, Canadian filmmakers should just relocate below the border and hope for the best.

Read the article linked below, it's informative and frightening.

[Globe and Mail - Crisis for Canadian Film]

Review: Brand Upon The Brain! Death By Interlocution

updated 9pm EST, June 22


It is not often I find myself alone in a empty theatre in a city of two-million people, but that’s exactly what happened to me the other night at the Carlton when I saw Brand Upon The Brain! This phenomena had occured to me only once before in my movie going experiences – my wife and I spotted a showing of Monty Python and The Holy Grail at the Rainbow cinemas here in Toronto, and sure enough, we were the only ones their. I think in the case of Python, it wasn’t advertised well, and in the case of Brand Upon The Brain! it was the fact that it was a Canadian film by Guy Maddin that kept the people away.

With good reason too. The film is extremely inaccessible to the general audience. A revisionist silent art film about Guy’s revisionist youth, the film is told in almost entirely in a flash back consisting of grainy, flickering, 8mm step-printed footage, inter-titles, book like chapters, and cutting so rapid the climax of Requiem For A Dream seems slow in comparison. In short, it's pure Guy Maddin on speed.

Coming off the success of 2003s The Saddest Music in the World, Brand Upon The Brain! is somewhat of a leap backward for Guy Maddin in many different ways. Working with longtime writing partner George Toles, Maddin harkens back to his fictional youth. A house painter named “Guy Maddin,” (Erik Steffan Maahs) is called back to Black Notch island, where his mother and father once ran an orphanage in a lighthouse.

Home again, “Guy” remembers his past, a bizarre, unsettling, horrific youth in an orphanage, under the confines of his oppressive, sexually suspicous mother who obsesses about being an infant.

Mother runs a tight ship, constantly punishing Guy's sister for her femininty, and romantic trysts. Mother is always watchful and ever present, from high above, she using the light house search light to spy on her children. Always beckoning though the use of an “aerophone,” a phallic musical horn that carries sound like a telephone, invented by the mad scientist in the basement – Guy’s Father.

Father labours away at the fountain of youth all night, with midnight conjugal visits resulting in his wife becoming a young woman, until “Raging! Aging!” at her children, specifically Sis, she becomes a withered old woman again.

The orphans are imprisoned below in cages, and they have strange holes bored into their heads, holes that match the family ring that Father wears.

“Young Guy” played by Sulivan Brown is to Maddin, what Jean-Pierre Léaud’s Antoine Doinel was to François Truffaut. That’s saying a lot, but I think it is an apt comparison. Sullivan Brown even looks like young Antoine Doinel, and closely resembles Guy Maddin himself.

The strength of the film is from the performances of the youngest actors, primarily Maya Lawson who plays Sis, and Katherine E. Scharhon playing a gender bending Nancy Drew named Wendy Hale. Wendy Hale becomes Chance Hale, her famous detective brother when she falls in love with Sis. She has to solve the mystery of the crimes that Mother and Father are commiting within the orphanage.

So as not to reveal her true identity, Wendy/Chance wears “kissing gloves” and the naughty “undressing gloves,” as Wendy/Chance takes a dominant role in the sexual relationship. It doesn’t hurt that the young women create a sense of tense erotica each time they pick up the “kissing gloves” and “undressing gloves,” standard equipment it seems for a detective.

Young Guy, pinning for Wendy who has suddenly disappeared, becomes enamored in a “Boy Crush” on Chase, but he’s spurned by Chance's love for his sister. The crush will haunt him into manhood.

The young women, who had to disrobe several times (almost everyone in at one point naked – lot’s of full frontal male nudity), come off as deeply charismatic, sensual, graceful and ethereal in their stylized theatric body movements. Their roles could not have been easy without dialogue, but they both carry it with ease.

Kellan Larson, Guy’s twitching, spastic best friend – the poor Neddie, who is almost sacrificed by the insane and naked Savage Tom (who is also locked away) also put in a delightful performance.

I shall not ruin the plot for those who care, but it contains everything that should make this an exciting cult film – satanic rituals, lesbianism, re-animation, science fiction, gothic horror, zombiesm, cannibalism, mystery, musical, Oedipal lust. Brand Upon The Brain! has it all.

What it doesn’t have, is an easily accessible story. Guy Maddin’s insistence of style over substance ensures that the audience is kept at arms length at all times and the film has fleeting dramatic weight. It comes across as a hyper stylized music video, or worse, an amateur experimental German expressionist silent film.

The film is at times can also be exceedingly beautiful. The string score by Jason Staczek is as good as any I’ve heard. The black and white imagery is gorgeous, base ball sized grain bouncing away on the screen. It is also extremely frustrating.

Sound is a major issue in Brand Upon The Brain! The only dialogue non-diagetic presented in way of “interlocuter,” Isabella Rossellini, who’s heavy accent seems out of place here. The folly work too can be grating. Every time Mother beckons through the “aerophon” it reminded me of “Kommienezuspadt” by Tom Waits, without the melody. Just German gibberish for effect.

The poetic inter-titles - “Secrets! Secrets! Secrets!”, “Aging! Raging!!” when ever his young mother played by three actresses Grethen Krich/Cathleen O’Malley/Susan Corzette, turned back into a middle aged woman - are often amusing, “Boy Crush!” for example, when Guy displays homoerotic lust for Chance - but are often lost within the staccato cutting.

Epileptics be aware, this film may make you seize. The images rush past you, and so does the story in haste to keep the running time down. Something that Guy could have learned from the silent era he so loves.

Guy Maddin practically invented the pastische silent cinema style (although I remember in Jules and Jim, Truffaut giving it a go), certainly it made him who he is – a cult Canadian filmmaker. When Emily Haines and the Soft Skeletons went on tour this past year to promote her Knives Don’t Have Your Back, Maddin’s silent era images played prominently in the background.

But in an age when even the Red Hot Chili Peppers can create a convincing silent film – Guy Maddin should be able to do it a thousand time better. Certainly something that adds to the genre, and escalates it to another level.

I have to say that I expected more from Guy Maddin after 2003’s The Saddest Music In The World. Instead we are presented with a regressive step backward in the filmmakers development, not because it is a clever journey into his fictional past, or because it is shot on 8mm, or completely without the hope of commercial success, but because Maddin has failed to be able to tell a story with the mastery as a filmmaker that his experience dictates. Had Madden preserved moments like the last breath of Mother tucked safely away in a bottle, the film would have allowed the viewer to engage in the inventive story.

Perhaps, had I seen the film with the touring orchestra, on stage folly artists, Crispin Glover filling in as interlocuter, a singing “castrato” I would have been immersed in the of event, as opposed to sitting alone with and being assaulted by the film as it is.

All in all, Guy Maddin's originality ensures that you won't seen anything else like it in cinemas this summer, but that also, you would be be hard pressed to find the film playing in your local theatres.


Executive Producers: Jody Shapiro, Philip Wohlstetter, A.J. Epstein.
Producers: Amy Jacobson, Gregg Lachow
Director: Guy Maddin
Writers: Guy Maddin & George Toles
Cast: Gretchen Kritch, Sulivan Brown, Maya Lawson, Katherine E. Scharhon, Todd Moore, Andy Loviska, Kellen Larson, Erik Steffan Maahs, Cathleen O’Malley. Interlocuter: Isabella Rosselini.
Musical score: Jason Staczek.
Cinematography: Benjamin Kasulke
Editor: John Gurdebeke
95 minutes.

*New Canadian Film: The Right Way

Mark Penney, makes his indie debut with The Right Way, shot in around Brampton for $10,000 on digital video.

From The Globe:

Enter twentysomething Canadian director Mark Penney with an old-fashioned, grim Canadian movie that, frame by frame and line by line, has no shot at the box office or even the sparsely attended but de rigueur week at the Carlton cinema. It is screening tonight and tomorrow at Camera Bar in Toronto's west end, which should just about cover the courier cost of sending DVD copies to the press.

It's a shame because, despite its paramount flows, The Right Way marks the birth of a promising young director who can sustain enough darkness and despair for 80 minutes to make early Atom Egoyan look like a lost Wayne and Shuster special. Penney's tale of woe has it all: drugs, suicide, abortion, suburban alienation and abusive parents who tell their children they're too lazy to wipe their own asses.

Mark, send us a copy. We'll review it and send the copy back to you so you can get the word out.

Camera Bar

[Review via The Globe and Mail]

Box Office Quebéc: Semaine du 15 Jui au 21 Jui 2007

1 FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SI... Fox $988, 546 $988,546
2 OCEAN'S THIRTEEN Warner $547,503 $1,377,731
3 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT ... Buena Vista $333,144 $4,408,454
4 SHREK THE THIRD Paramount $243,199 $5,153,240
5 SURF'S UP Sony $206,970 $430,608
6 ENSEMBLE, C'EST TOUT Christal Films $179,411 $179,411
7 KNOCKED UP Universal $121,166 $660,640
8 NANCY DREW Warner $73,264 $73,264
9 SPIDER-MAN 3 Sony $72,558 $6,903,568
10 HOSTEL 2 Films Seville $66,184 $184,344

ROC

[via Box Office Québec]

New OMDC head, old Toronto Film Commish

Karen Thorne-Stone is moving from the city of Toronto's film board, to the provincial Ontario Media Development Corporation. Previously she was executive director of economic development for the city of Toronto. She starts at the end of July.

[via Playback Magazine]

RIP Fido

From yahoo...

67

-

Fido

Roadside Attractions, Lionsgate

$10,203

$10,203

1

2

Yikes.

Fido deserves better, no matter what I thought of it. 2 screens? Limited promotion? Separate release in Canada? Why did Lionsgate buy it in the first place if they were not going to try and sell it? What a waste...

t

Broadcast Rights? WTF?

I just read this on BoingBoing. You'll have to scroll down a bit. Anyways, they link to this article. Go read both.

From Cory Doctorow's BoingBoing post.

"This week, the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization is holding a critical debate on the "Broadcast Treaty." This treaty would establish a new copyright-like right, but whereas copyright goes to people who make creative works, Broadcast Rights go to companies that broadcast other people's copyrighted works. The Broadcast Right isn't subject to the same fair use limits as copyright, which means that even if copyright lets you record a broadcast for criticism or parody, you will need to separately get an exemption under the Broadcast Right. More gravely, if means that if you license your work under Creative Commons, the people who distribute the files or air the program can overrule your generosity and insist that your fans not copy your work."

Broadcast Rights? Are they serious? The fact that they are scares the crap out of me. We live in dangerous times...

t

Canada is Hollywood's fastest growing market.

Reading Ted's post below led to me Michael Geist's site, where I found this disturbing tid bit -

"According to the Hollywood Reporter, the annual MPA report on all-media sales shows Canada as having the biggest growth of the top 25 countries tracked by the association."

It's a wonder why the MPAA wants Canada to clamp down so hard. We're their only hope of increasing profits.

Read the rest at the link above.

Copyright: I'm Not Sure What to Make of This

I just read this on Slashdot.

As someone who creates Intellectual Property, this should be good news. Right? I'm not so sure. (you can find a link at Slashdot to the published report.)

Only a few days ago I discovered this...

http://www.goodcopybadcopy.net/

A great little documentary. I enthusiastically suggest everyone give it a look see.

In the context of this film, this new Canadian report feel like an iron fist solution.

t

Can we still call him a Canadian?

The Globe and Mail stated that "Canadian screenwriter-director [Paul Haggis] is set to take on his latest project - the screenplay for the next James Bond movie, Variety reported yesterday." Variety, on the other hand reported, and predictably this - "He [director Marc Forster] will soon begin working with scribe Paul Haggis on a draft of the screenplay by Neil Purvis and Robert Wade." They omitted "Canadian." Certainly it doesn't matter to them, but why does it matter to us?

It made me think two things - 1) Can Paul Haggis still be called Canadian?

2) When does someone stop being Canadian?

Is it something to do with how much success in the US of A you get? Take George Strombo, he goes down to L.A. with the "The One," a glitzty US reality show and we hated him, and it failed after four episodes, and he came back, and now we love him.

James Cameron was born in Kapuskasing, Ontario, and he moved to the United States in 1971, but he's still called a Canadian by our media, yet I don't know anyone who would actually call him that - remember Titanic? Biggest movie - ever? Still, Celine Dion wrote that awful music for it. Can we, and do we want to call him a Canadian? Is that too much success?

Wayne Gretzky is the greatest hockey player EVER ( it can't be debated anymore), and when was traded to L.A., we hated him for it. We called him names. Now that he's retired, (but still living in southward) we've come around again. We love him, he's Gretzky. He's the best - ever.

In Gretzky's case, I think it's a matter of raw talent and unmatched skill. We can respect that. Cameron made a sappy love story that made a billion dollars. You can respect that, but, it doesn't sit well with you.

Look at Norman Jewison. He came back after a successful and respected career in Hollywood. He's Canadian. He is also very much the definition of a Hollywood studio director. But, he directed Steve McQueen - the coolest guy ever, not once, but twice. How can we not love him? How can we not say he's Canadian? I might add I went to the Canadian Film Centre, which he founded. I'm biased.

Still, he directed McQueen. Steve McQueen. Twice. You have to respect that.

Back to Paul Haggis. Born in London, Ontario. He's had the most enviably movie streak by anyone in film in a long, long time. He's won two Academy awards, one for best picture, one for best screenplay. Back to back.

He's worked closely with Clint Eastwood, an icon, and a filmmaker that is producing the best work of his entire life during Haggis' watch.

Again, that's Clint Eastwood. The Man Without a Name. Dirty Harry.

And Haggis too, he revitalized James Bond, adapting a classic novel, into something, well, pretty good (it would of been superior had not the service hacks Purvis and Wade touched it - and again? Why?).

But still, James Bond.

In terms of definition of success, that's it.

So, does he have to come back to be Canadian and before will give him the respect he deserves? Try to give it a go here, in our miserable little industry. Or do we just have to hope he suffers down in L.A. so we can bask in schadenfreude.

After all, it's what Canadians do best.

Lantos does distribution

Über Canadian producer Robert Lantos, will now once again have his own in-house distribution platform under his own production company, Serendipity Point Films.

Serendipity Releasing, according to Playback Magazine, will distribute all Serendipity titles (Where The Truth Lies), which previously were distributed by ThinkFilm.

The last time he was in distribution was in 1998, when he merged Alliance Communications, a company he co-founded with rival Atlantis Communications.

[Via Playback Magazine]

Is the format war finally over?

Blockbuster Inc. chose Blu-ray over HD-DVD to stock in it's 1450 stores.

Sony must be jumping up and down. Too bad about that little Wii thorn in their side. I bet that hurts.

[via the Globe]

Updated: Canadian Box Office - Weekend of June 15, 2007

• 1 Fantastic Four... 20th Century Fox $3.10 mil $3.10 mil
• 2 Ocean's Thirteen Warner Bros. $1.71 mil $5.99 mil
• 3 Pirates of the Caribbean... Walt Disney $1.38 mil $22.35 mil
• 4 Knocked Up Universal $1.26 mil $7.71 mil
• 5 Shrek the Third Paramount $833,837 $25.51 mil
• 6 Surf's Up Columbia $682,128 $1.96 mil
• 7 Nancy Drew Warner Bros. $376,974 $376,974
• 8 Spider-Man 3 Columbia $203,812 $30.57 mil
• 9 Eli Roth's Hostel Part II Maple $171,456 $782,212
• 10 Mr. Brooks Odeon $120,396 $1.47 mil

That's it, no more Canadian films in the top ten. Away From Her slipped to No.17 in North America, but it made another $200,000 this weekend, which is really unbelievable when you consider that is what Spider-Man 3 took in Canada over the weekend.

Numbers are not in for Fido yet, but it doesn't appear to be within the top 50 - but it may still have a strong seat count in NY and LA .

We should have numbers for Fido and Brand Upon The Brain by this evening.

UPDATE: 10:30pm EST

Away From Her, actual - dropped to #20. $215,158 this weekend, in 203 theatres. $5,393,043 total.

Fido #65 in North America. $10,203 US in 2 theatres (save average as Oceans 13) $102, 100 total.

Brand Upon The Brain! $5,473 in 7 theatres, dropped from #50 to #76. $213,961 total.


[Via Tribute & Box Office Mojo]

Under the radar: Unesco treaty. What does this mean exactly to the domestic film industry in Canada?

On 18 March 2007, a United Nation Education Scientific and Cultural (Unesco) treaty entered into force, and may effect all cultural industries in Canada, primarily, the film and magazine industries. This may very well be the most important legislation to effect the health of Canada's domestic film industry since NAFTA was signed in January 1994. It might also have no teeth, and be completely ineffective.


We found these segments that are of interest:

"In particular, the Convention aims to:

1. reaffirm the sovereign right of States to draw up cultural policies
2. recognize the specific nature of cultural goods and services as vehicles of identity, values and meaning
3. strengthen international cooperation and solidarity so as to favour the cultural expressions of all countries

"What are the rights and obligations of the Parties to the Convention?

One of the fundamental objectives of the Convention is “to reaffirm the sovereign rights of States to maintain, adopt and implement policies and measures that they deem appropriate for the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions on their territory.”

but we also found something that may invalidate it,

In all cases, the Convention specifically states that nothing in the Convention shall be interpreted as modifying rights and obligations of the Parties under any other treaties to which they are parties."

We think that means, it doesn't have the power to change NAFTA. We're examing the treaty, it's complicated, and will have a more in depth post soon.

You can find the treaty information package in a Pdf here, and decide for yourself. If you have a better understanding of this treaty than we do, we would love to hear your opinion.

UNESCO

Fido opens in U.S. on 2 screens and crossing fingers for more; Away From Her expands

Alright, everybody put a prayer in for FIDO, Andrew Currie's $8-million dollar, 50's-comedy-horror-Carrie Moss-zombie film, does really, really well in New York and Los Angeles this weekend.

TVA Film had helped Anagram Pictures open the film in Canada earlier this year on 67 screens and 2-million dollars in P&A. It tanked horribly, bringing in a paltry $91,879 domestically.

"They opened it broadly in Canada without much success...so we're taking it slowly over here," said a Lionsgate spokesperson.

Slowly, is two screens in L.A. and N.Y.C., but the right two places to be to build momentum.

Lionsgate are "cautiously optimistic," hoping to expand Fido to Chicago, Boston and San Fransisco if all goes well.

At this rate though, Fido has to do twice as well in the United States than Away From Her has during its release, if it wants to recoup its budget and pay back investors. Away From Her has preformed way above expectation below the border with a growing box office of $3,856,629, and $1,278,226 here in Canada. It expands to 38 screens from 33 this weekend.

[Via Playback Magazine]

Rudolf Arnheim 1904-2007

From his obituary...

"Rudolf Arnheim, a pathbreaking psychologist of visual experience in
the arts, died at the age of 102 in Ann Arbor, Michigan on June 9
2007."

Read the full text here.

t

Nobel Prize-winning novel, Blindness, adapted by McKellar

City of God director Fernando Meirelles, is directing Blindness, a Nobel Prize winning work, adapted for the screen by Canadian Don McKellar ((Thirty Two Short Stories About Glenn Gould). The Canadian co-production has a cast of a half a dozen Canadian actors including Sandra Oh, Maury Chaykin, Don McKellar and Martha Burns. They will star alongside Hollywood actors Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac), Julianne Moore, Danny Glover, and international rising stars Gael Garcia Bernal (Y tu mamá también) and Yusuke Iseya (Afterlife).

Production starts in Toronto in July.

[via the Globe]

Dan Aykroyd drinks a lot

Dan Aykroyd unveils his new 12 million Niagara region winery and kitchen.

Video

[Print via the Globe and Mail]

Canadian films in Canadian theatres: Showtimes

See a Canadian film if you can find one...




Love is Work Calgary link is now fixed.

A vos marques Party!

Montréal
Gatineau/Ottawa


Away From Her

Vancouver
Victoria
Kelowna

Calgary
Edmonton

Regina
Saskatoon

Burlington
Hamilton
Kingston
London
Oshawa
Ottawa
Toronto
Windsor

Gatineau/Ottawa
Montreal

Charlottetown

Halifax
Sydney

St. John

St. John's

Brand Upon The Brain!

Winnipeg
Toronto

Citizen Lambert: Jeanne d'architecture

Montréal

Love is Work:

Vancouver
Calgary

Sharkwater

Vancouver


If we missed your town and a Canadian film is actually playing there this weekend, please feel free to email us at nationalcinema@gmail.com and we'll update this list.

Fido Gets a Good Scratch Behind the Ears

Head on over to aintitcool.com for a rather complimentary review of Fido.

Their review touches on many of the same points I raised in my review sometime back, but they are much more positive.

So, go read the review, then,if you are in the US of A, check to see if Fido is playing near you. See it for yourself. It begins it's limited release on Friday.

t

Worldwide Short Film Festival on now.

The Worldwide Short Film Festival opened in Toronto yesterday, and it runs to the June 17.

Schedule

Find a time (cont'd)


Wednesday June 13

1:30 pm Laughing at Americans: New Voices of American Comedy Cumberland
2:00 pm Official Selection 1: One Big Crappy Family Innis Town Hall
4:00 pm Official Selection 2: Environ(Mental) Cumberland
4:30 pm Official Selection 3: Love You Like Crazy Innis Town Hall
7:00 pm Official Selection 4: The Political is Personal Cumberland
7:15 pm Accidentally Funny: How the World Was Safe Innis Town Hall
9:15 pm Official Selection 5: Portraits of an Artist Cumberland
9:30 pm Official Selection 6: Scenes of the Crime Innis Town Hall

Thursday June 14

1:30 pm Official Selection 7: I'm With the Band Cumberland
2:00 pm Official Selection 8: Animal Instincts Innis Town Hall
4:00 pm Official Selection 9: Fashion Victims Cumberland
4:30 pm Official Selection 4: The Political is Personal Innis Town Hall
7:00 pm Celebrity Shorts Cumberland
7:15 pm Official Selection 10: Sins, Vice and Everything Nice Innis Town Hall
9:15 pm Official Selection 1: One Big Crappy Family Cumberland
9:30 pm Official Selection 11: How Many Calories in This Film? Innis Town Hall

Friday June 15

1:30 pm Official Selection 6: Scenes of the Crime Cumberland
2:00 pm Official Selection 5: Portraits of an Artist Innis Town Hall
4:00 pm Official Selection 11: How Many Calories in This Film? Cumberland
4:30 pm Irish National Film School Spotlight Innis Town Hall
7:00 pm Trilogy of Trilogies Cumberland
7:15 pm Official Selection 7: I'm With the Band Innis Town Hall
9:15 pm Scene Not Herd: Music Videos Cumberland
9:30 pm Official Selection 3: Love You Like Crazy Innis Town Hall
Midnight Midnight Mania: Creepy Cumberland
Midnight Slap n Tickle Innis Town Hall

Saturday June 16

1:30 pm Shorts for Shorties 1: Ages 6 to 9 Cumberland
2:00 pm Official Selection 10: Sins, Vice and Everything Nice Innis Town Hall
4:00 pm Official Selection 12: Honey, I Screwed up the Kids Cumberland
4:30 pm Sci-Fi: Out There Innis Town Hall
7:00 pm Official Selection 8: Animal Instincts Cumberland
7:15 pm Official Selection 9: Fashion Victims Innis Town Hall
9:15 pm Laughing at Americans: New Voices of American Comedy Cumberland
9:30 pm Official Selection 2: Environ(Mental) Innis Town Hall
Midnight Slap n Tickle Innis Town Hall
Midnight Midnight Mania: Freaky Cumberland


Sunday June 17

1:30 pm Shorts for Shorties 2: Ages 9 to 12 Cumberland
2:00 pm LIFT 25th Anniversary: Film is Dead! Long Live Film! Innis Town Hall
4:00 pm Official Selection 12: Honey, I Screwed up the Kids Cumberland
4:30 pm Nordic Spotlight: The Other Great White Norths1 Innis Town Hall
7:15 pm Nordic Spotlight: The Other Great White Norths2 Innis Town Hall
9:15 pm Opening Gala: Award Winners from Around the World Cumberland
9:30 pm Sci-Fi: Out There Innis Town Hall

Top 5 Canadian Films at box office June 1-7, 2007

Playback was nice enough to compile the top 5 Canadian films at the box office.

1. Away From Her, $125,277, 5 weeks, 34 theatres, $901,726 total.
2. La cité interdite, $17, 488. 1 week, 11 theatres, $17,488 total.
3. A vos marques... Party!, $2,613, 10 weeks, 6 theatres, $2,019,265 total
4. Ma fille, mon ange $2,337, 16 weeks, 1 theater, $2,647,039 total
5. Sharkwater, $1,534, 11 weeks, 2 theatres, $665,853 total

As Ted points out, Brand Upon The Brain! is #50 with 4 theatres (1 in LA according to The Digital Bits) and has made $201,013 in 5 weeks.

Canadian Box Office - Weekend of June 8, 2007

1 Ocean's Thirteen Warner Bros. $2.84 mil $2.84 mil
2 Pirates of the Caribbean... Walt Disney $2.34 mil $20.17 mil
3 Knocked Up Universal $1.76 mil $5.39 mil
4 Shrek the Third DreamWorks $1.37 mil $24.21 mil
5 Surf's Up Columbia $973,180 $973,180
6 Eli Roth's Hostel Part II Maple $398,614 $398,614
7 Spider-Man 3 Columbia $322,147 $30.22 mil
8 Mr. Brooks Odeon $289,442 $1.19 mil
9 Spider-Man 3: The IMAX Experience Columbia $67,705 $2.37 mil
10 Away From Her Mongrel Media $60,103 $827,281

Away From Her holds on to the ten spot, and has made $4,962,327 worldwide since its release on May 4.

The only other Canadian film in the charts, Knocked Up, was made by Americans. I had a chance to view it over the weekend, and I have to say, I recant my earlier boycott. This was truly one of the better Canadian comedies I have seen. I believe I noticed about 12 references to Canada in the film - Canadian, Canada, Vancouver, and British Columbia spoke aloud, a red Canada flag tattoo, a sign that crassly read: "Canadian beaver - Pamela Anderson, Elisha Cuthbert" etc., insurance (as in Canadian), a British Columbia license plate which I adored seeing, and a hundred references to pot, there may have been more.

Really, I think we should give up making Canadian comedies all together as the Americans clearly do it better than us. They have all our actors, and they are not restricted to CAVCO points. When Hollywood makes a Canadian film with a 33 million dollar budget and a good script, why even try anymore?

Canadian films: showtimes Friday June 8th, 2007

Wanna see a Canadian film this weekend...


Away From Her

Vancouver
Victoria
Kelowna

Calgary
Edmonton

Winnipeg

Toronto

London
Burlington

Kitchener
Hamilton
Gatineau/Ottawa
Montreal

Halifax

St. John

St. John's

Brand Upon The Brain!:

Vancouver - Vancity Cinemas show times

Winnipeg - Globe Cinema show times

Toronto - Cumberland show times

Love is Work:

Toronto - Canada Square showtimes

If I missed your town and a Canadian film is actually playing there this weekend, please feel free to email us at nationalcinema@gmail.com and we'll update this list.

Friday: 2 new films; Knocked Up (cont'd), Danny Ocean

Two new Canadian films open up today. Guy Maddin's Brand Upon The Brain! opens up with a limited run, and Toronto writer-director-actor Johnny Kalangis releases his second film Love is Work on one screen in Toronto (BTW did anyone see his first? Jack & Jill? Anyone?)

On IMDB Love Is Work is said to be a 2005 film, such is the nature of independent cinema in Canada. Playback has an article on Kalangis' unique distribution plan. I read a scathing review of Love Is Work in the NOW,so I don't hold too much hope for this one. See it while you can folks, it won't last long.

In the Knocked Up Vs. Rebecca Eckler saga, D.B. Scott has further news on his site Canadian Magazine.

And in the "you have to love Québec category" in certain cities and towns Ocean's 13 is called Danny Ocean 13 which is such a better title.

Box Office Québec: Semaine du 01 Jui au 07 Jui 2007 (semaine 23)

1 PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT ... Buena Vista 1,213,966 3,516,402
2 SHREK THE THIRD Paramount 743,837 4,608 676
3 KNOCKED UP Universal 357,401 357,401
4 MR. BROOKS Vivafilm 291,979 291,979
5 SPIDER-MAN 3 Sony 260,735 6,716,683
6 FRACTURE Vivafilm 58,211 1,630,698
7 28 WEEKS LATER Fox 33,706 528,680
8 PARIS JE T'AIME Christal Films 31,556 56,810
9 SEVERANCE Christal Films 26,785 26,785
10 APRES LA NOCE Films Seville 24,439 101,640

No more Sarah Polley in Québec, or Lindsay Lohan (thankfully), at least not in the top ten anyway.

[via Box Office Québec]

The Best thing on YouTube: His Girl Friday - Between The Lines Edit

I saw the Guy Maddin event last night as part of Luminato at the Drake Hotel (glad it was free is all I can say). He and Eye Weekly critic Jason Anderson held a "clip off" showing old film clips as representing the "lives they wished to lead." It was rather odd and highly unorganized but interesting none the less. Anyway, I recorded it on audio and will put it up as a podcast shortly once I break it down into something manageable. The event was 90 minutes.

One of the clips Jason Anderson presented was from Howard Hawks His Girl Friday. So as part of reconstructing the talk (I unfortunately couldn't get any video), I was rummaging around and found the above clip, edited by Valentin Spirik.

It's quite amusing since the entire film has had all the dialogue cut out, no mean feat as His Girl Friday is primarily known for having the fastest dialogue sequences in cinema. Clearly it's the best thing I've found on uTube yet (well, other than the entire Beatles Anthology in ten minute segments).

Enjoy.

Radio-Canada gives French language features 12 million; Anglophone filmmakers migrate to Québec

Is this discriminatory?

Can we get the language police to force Radio-Canada to equally dole out the cash to Anglophones ? Can we force Parliament to do something? Can we move to Quebec and establish residency there? How many days do we need? 90? We can use that time to get our screenplays translated into French (we'll dub the film back into English later anyway).

You'd probably have to find someone who could read and write French as well so they can write up a nice proposal to Radio-Canada.

How's this for a plot: Old French grandparents die and leave their grandchildren (3 hot sisters) an old Parisian-style country cottage (if such a thing exists). As a celebration, the sisters have a huge house party. Lots of sex. It turns out to be a haunted house. Lots of gore. Two of the sisters die, and the sole surviving sister turns out to be pregnant with something evil (sequel!).

That would be great in French.

We probably just need an interpreter on set. That's pretty easy especially when most of the dialogue from the script will be replaced with screaming anyway. Clint Eastwood directed a film with an all Japanese cast, we should be able to at least understand a tenth of what we hear from our Québécois actors, given that we've been reading the backs of cereal boxes all these years.

Thanks Mr. Trudeau.

[via Playback]

Parliament set to fast track US lobbyist piracy bill without any debate

That's right, the Conservative government is set to put in motion Bill C-59 without any hearings, or independent study being put forth.

The MPAA snaps it's fingers, and we do anything to quickly please them. It's no wonder that we don't have a thriving domestic film industry, with knee-jerk politicians deciding what is good for us.

Let's be clear, camcording is piracy there is no doubt about that. But without clear studies on the impact of Canadian piracy - especially something that is so short term (camcording effects theatrical runs, as its low-quality-audience-in-frame-people-talking-in-the-background DVD's are quickly abandoned once proper DVD copies can be made from studio replicated copies), we are just blindly accepting what a powerful US lobby group tells us to do without batting an eye, and only putting a Band-Aid on the actual problem.

Dr. Michael Geist (the Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa) has the best overview of the new bill on his site which I urge you to read.

Michael Geist: Canada Anti-Camcording Bill

Canadian journalist sues Knocked Up filmmakers.

This is really great. Rebecca Eckler a Calgary journalist, is suing Universal Studios and writer-director Judd Apatow, over plot similarities to her 2004 memoir with the same title, Knocked Up.

"Both my book and the movie feature one night of passion and the nine months that follow. Fine. Whatever," she wrote."But what got me was the fact that 'Alison' was an up-and-coming television reporter; in my book, I was an up-and-coming newspaper reporter."

Here's hoping that this will stall the DVD release of Knocked Up, and force Seth Rogen to move back to Canada, and live the rest of his life in relative obscurity as a comedian doing wonderful comedic work on hit Canadian television shows like This Hour Has 22 Minutes and The Royal Canadian Air Farce.

Canadian actors deserve the best Canada can give them. Seriously.

[via The CEEB]

C-59, New Piracy Bill; Capital punishment

Well this didn't take very long (I thought a day was forever in politics?).

Bill C-59 was announced on Friday by Industry Minister Maxime Bernie and our esteemed Heritage Minister, Bev Oda. The new bill proposes to change the criminal code to make it illegal to camcord a film without the theatre managers consent, upon penalty of death.

[via Playback Magazine]

Canadian Box Office: Weekend of June 1, 2007

1 Pirates of the Caribbean... Walt Disney $4.40 mil $16.28 mil
2 Shrek the Third Paramount $2.24 mil $22.04 mil
3 Knocked Up Universal $2.11 mil $2.11 mil
4 Spider-Man 3 Columbia $598,826 $29.65 mil
5 Mr. Brooks Odeon $579,454 $579,454
6 28 Weeks Later 20th Century Fox $108,414 $2.62 mil
7 Spider-Man 3: The IMAX Experience Columbia $93,619 $2.26 mil
8 Georgia Rule Universal $82,848 $2.31 mil
9 Away From Her Mongrel Media $72,051 $711,944
10 Fracture Alliance Atlantis $58,989 $4.80 mil

Well, maybe you thought I was joking when I said to boycott Knocked Up. It made $29 million USD and $2.11 million Canadian, and you've all gone and made Seth Rogen a bankable actor, and now he's off to a great career in Hollywood. So, shame on you all for seeing the only new film that was even remotely original. You should feel really, really horrible about that, and even more horrible if you went and saw Georgia Rule this weekend.

Thank God Callum Keith Rennie will never be a star. We'd hate to lose him.

Sarah Polley on the other hand will never be able to escape Canada, and is holding strong in the top ten and lucky #13 stateside. Away From Her has now grossed $4,448,640 (USD) worldwide in one month. That should almost pay for the budget without P&A.

[via Tribute]

[Correction - Away From Her was mispublished as reading $4,444,64 (which looks a lot like $4,444.64). The correct worldwide gross is now posted above as $4,448,640]

Cry Like A Lion

This past Saturday, the Leo Awards were handed out. For those who don't know, the Leo's are the British Columbian film awards. Also, for those who don't know, these awards are the source of many an inside joke in the production community in BC. I'd type out one of those jokes, but none of them are funny.

Hit here for a list of the winners.


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Hollywood steals yet another comedy actor from Canada

Seth Rogen, a Vancouver native is poised to become a new A-List star in Judd Apatow's "Knocked Up", a new comedy from the 40 Year Old Virgin director, which opens today.

Since A.O. Scott, The New York Times critic calls the film "an instant classic", we've for sure lost this Canadian boy forever.

So, my fellow Canadians, I'm urging you to boycott "Knocked Up" to send a message to Hollywood to leave our actors alone!

They belong at home under paid, under appreciated, and on the CBC.

Send your concerns to us and we'll send them to Hollywood.

[via The Globe and Mail]