CineAction articles from March 2006

CineAction archives from March 2006

Images of the rural: the cinema of Quebec.
March 22, 2006... In 1964 when Gilles Groulx made Le Chat dans le sac, he defined for Quebec the sensibility of a generation. Although Pierre Perrault's Pour la suite du monde and Claude Jutra's A tout prendre appeared at about the same time, it was Groulx's...

Anxieties of fundamentalism and the dynamics of modernist resistance: Youssef Chahine's Al Maseer (The Destiny).(Critical essay)
March 22, 2006... Introduction In this article I provide an assessment of Youssef Chahine's 1997 film Al Maseer (The Destiny). (1) The film was awarded the 50th Palme D'or Anniversary Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in the same year, and eventually became...

On William D. MacGillivray.
March 22, 2006... The following article was commissioned for a book on Canadian cinema, or more specifically on a number (I believe it was well over twenty) of 'great' Canadian film directors, many of whom I had never heard of. When I was asked what directors I...

The days of frozen dreams: an interview with Wang Xiaoshuai.(Interview)
March 22, 2006... I first met Wang Xiaoshuai, one of the emerging sixth generation Chinese directors, at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999, where he was promoting his 1998 film So Close to Paradise. At that time he was relatively unknown in North...

The Brig: the paradox of resistance and recuperation.(Critical essay)
March 22, 2006... If anyone still wants to make a "real" movie out of Brown's play, to "adapt" it to cinema--he may well do it. Brown once told me he had an idea for a million dollar production of The Brig, with thousands of prisoners. It should be done. The...

Sexual Dependency: the split image of globalisation.(Critical essay)
March 22, 2006... Sexual Dependency, the debut film of Bolivian director Rodrigo Bellot, presents the viewer with a series of teenagers whose empty existences are relieved only by bouts of random violence and sex. At first sight, it seems to retrace ground...

Bruce McDonald on the west coast: The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess (Canada 2004).(Critical essay)
March 22, 2006... What a pleasure to finally see a new feature from Bruce McDonald! After the aborted Claire's Hat (2001) McDonald again takes on a female hero in his exploration of the dangerous contradictions that inform public consciousness. The Love Crimes...

C.R.A.Z.Y.(Movie review)
March 22, 2006... C.R.A.Z.Y. by auteur director Jean-Marc Vallee was the sleeper Quebec hit of 2005. It was selected as Canada's official entry at the 2006 Oscars for Best Foreign Film, but it wasn't nominated. Therein lies the rub. While Quebec was embracing...

Reading, regarding, and waiting: three new documentaries from Nova Scotia.(Regarding: Cohen)(After Frank)(Reading Alistair MacLeod)(Movie review)
March 22, 2006... Three new documentaries screened at the 2005 Atlantic Film Festival in Halifax evoke the saliency of place amidst the global flow of culture in distinct and compelling ways. Regarding: Cohen (Dir: Lesley Ann Patten) begins with images of the...

Some directions in world cinema: AFI FEST 2005; 54th International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg 7th Scandinavian Film Festival L.A.(Los Angeles)(Cover story)
March 22, 2006... New Windows One of the most pervasive tendencies in filmmaking observable in the festival circuit this year has also been one of the most important ones, and one hardly likely to disappear. With globalization has come an...

Two films by Amnon Buchbinder: some questions about the future of Canadian cinema.
March 22, 2006... Whole New Thing, the new movie by Amnon Buchbinder, appears (unlike the majority of Canadian films) to be achieving a considerable success, at least in Toronto, after its screening in the last Toronto Film Festival. It is deservedly attracting...