CanadianFilm Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It used to be that Canada was known for its comedy -- from television shows like You Can't Do That On Television and SCTV, to comedy classics like Porky's, the maple leaf was where the laughs were at -- Martin Short, Dan Akroyd, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Leslie Nielson, Catherine O'Hara, Mike Myers, John Candy... Now, not as much, although a new program could change that.

The Canadian Press reports that a Telefilm Canada Features Comedy Lab has been established (that merges Telefilm with Just for Laughs and the Canadian Film Centre) to get give original feature comedies in production over the next few years. As they point out -- there is a gap between the comedy Canada is known for, and the number of comedies that get produced. The idea is to get big names from around the world -- Eugene Levy is already signed on -- and have them work with new talent to create commercially successful films that create work in Canada while, of course, showing the funny.

Will Canadian comedy rise again? One can only hope. Considering the number of Canadians who collaborate with Christopher Guest, the optimist in me would hope that he'd come to "mentor" and, say, make another mockumentary... That would be a good way to kick things off. Looking back over what's already come, which comedies do you remember and love? Porky's? Strange Brew? Meatballs?

And the battle continues. In the beginning of March, I posted about how the Canadian government is looking to increase restrictions on which films get tax credits -- all to keep money from those lowest-of-low sorts of movies -- you know, the ones with "gratuitous violence, significant sexual content that lacks an educational purpose, or denigration of an identifiable group." Under those terms, it would mean any action film or thriller, most films that discuss sex, and any comedy that teases well, anyone.

Now those within the industry are fighting back. The CBC reports that Sarah Polley, the actress and filmmaker behind the Oscar-nominated Away From Her, and others in the industry have descended on Ottawa to have their say. Polley says: "It's the job of artists to provoke and to challenge. Part of the responsibility of being an artist is to create work that will inspire dialogue, suggest that people examine their long-held positions and, yes, occasionally offend in order to do so." Meanwhile, the Conservative Party of Canada issued a press release reportedly attacking Polley's political ties and stating that artists shouldn't tell "hard-working Canadians" how tax dollars should be spent.

Oh, the neverending and never resolved wars with taxation and censorship. Won't we ever learn?

That whole Juno/Genie thing isn't the only film news making waves in Canada, and I must say -- this round of news is worse. The Globe and Mail reports that the government is looking to increase restrictions on film tax credits to help cut graphic sex and violence, while an evangelist takes credit for the whole crackdown. "Canadian Heritage officials confirmed yesterday they will be 'expanding slightly' the criteria used for denying tax credits to include grounds such as gratuitous violence, significant sexual content that lacks an educational purpose, or denigration of an identifiable group. More details are promised next week." Well, that's certainly vague, worrisome, and really ... BS. But why should you care?

Think about the work created by the likes of David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Guy Maddin, and the other filmmakers who have made international names for themselves with their cinematic art -- fare which does tap into the flames the government is looking to extinguish. Cronenberg is dead-on when he says: "The irony is that it is the Canadian films that have given us an international reputation [that] would be most at risk because they are the edgy, relatively low-budget films made by people like me and others that will be targeted by this panel." It already looks like Martin Gero's Young People F*cking, which I reviewed at TIFF, is going to be hit by these changes. Hell, it's title is one of the raciest things about it! It's about sex, but it's not some Shortbus sexfest.

Beyond the toques, hockey, and those ever-rampant igloos, Canada houses a veritable smorgasbord of media talent. Unfortunately, much of it migrates to the States and becomes part of the "They're Canadian!?" contingent -- including game show host Alex Trebek, and actors from Michael J. Fox to Fay Wray. Heck, even Jack Warner, co-founder of Warner Brothers, was born in London, Ontario. Yet on the northern side of the 49th parallel, a lot of talent still thrives. This is the inaugural post of Northern Exposures, a monthly column that will highlight great Canadian films you should check out, and the wider-recognized work they are similar to.

Film: The Saddest Music in the World
Director: Guy Maddin
Year: 2003
Comparable to: David Lynch

The Saddest Music in the World might not be the most accessible film to throw at wide-release audiences, being a grainy, 8mm black and white film blown up for the big screen, but being the indie side of Cinematical, I can't help but start off with my favorite Canadian film. Before he wowed audiences with Brand Upon the Brain!, Guy Maddin concocted the movie he'd been waiting years to make – one with recognizable, real movie stars and a $3.5 million budget. While it sounds like dreary fare, Saddest Music is actually a quirky, almost fantastical satire about love, greed, pain, and the undeniable allure of show.

We've got less than a month left until the Toronto International Film Festival once again makes the T-Dot a walking who's who of big names and celebrities. But one of the nice things about TIFF is that it isn't just a showcase for international talent. You'll also see a lot of Canadian fare -- both good, like David Cronenberg and Sarah Polley, and less-good, like the teen flick These Girls. (Yes, I've mentioned it before, but really, it just isn't a festival flick.) Still, it's one of the only places that Canadian filmmaking can shine, and Canadian film critic and Director of the Toronto Film School, John Foote, touches on that in his new TIFF-sponsored blog.

While I won't go so far as to agree with him that "the greatest films in the world come from the United States," because that automatically makes everything else inferior ("some of the greatest" would work), he brings up some good points. One of the biggest challenges in Canadian cinema is getting the film seen. Heck, I have a friend who is a film studies grad, has lived in Canada her whole life, and has no idea about the industry. If those specializing in the areas don't know, how can we think anyone else will? But really, the country is completely dwarfed when it comes to media. As Foote points out, there are no big studios here to get funding, so filmmakers usually have to get it from the government or go stateside.

Although some breakthroughs have happened over the years, such as Atlantic City, a co-production with France that grabbed rave reviews, awards and Oscar nominations, things still truck along. Maybe a permanent breakthrough will come at some point, but for now, TIFF has got an incredibly solid showing for Canadian film. This year, the festival boasts Denys Arcand's Days of Darkness, David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, Guy Maddin's My Winnpeg (which he'll provide live narration for at the screening!), Roger Spottiswoode's Shake Hands with the Devil, Francois Gerard's Silk and also an adaptation of the Canadian novel The Stone Angel -- directed by Kari Skogland and starring Ellen Burstyn and Ellen Page.