Canadian Film Forum

Grand_Shaman · Administrator Data inscrierii: 26/Oct/2007 Mesaje: 112

Here's the list of films that you might choose from (organized by directors):

CLAUDE JUTRA
"Mon oncle Antoine" - dir. Claude Jutra (1971) FR

ATOM EGOYAN
"The Sweet Hereafter" (1997) - with Ian Holm & Sarah Polley
"Chloe" (2009) - with Julianne moore, Liam Neeson
"Adoration" (2008)
"Exotica" (1994)

DAVID CRONENBERG
(mostly dark science fiction films)
"Crash" (1996) - James Spader, Elias Koteas, Holly Hunter
"eXistenZ" (1999) - Jude Law, Ian Holm
"The Fly" (1986) - Jeff Goldbloom, Geena Davis
"Videodromme" (1983) - James Woods
"Dead Ringers" (1988) - Jeremy Irons, Geneviève Bujold

DENYS ARCAND
(witty, ironic, intellectual Quebec films)
"Les Invasions Barbares" (Barbarian Invasions) (2003) - Oscar
"Jesus de Montréal" (1989)
"Le déclin de l'empire américain" (1986) - Oscar nomination
"Le règne de la beauté" (2014) -
"L'age des ténèbres" (2007)

PHILIPPE FALARDEAU
"C'est pas moi je le jure" (2008)

FRANCOIS GIRARD
"32 Films about John Gould" (1993)
"The Red Violin" (1998)

DENNIS VILLENEUVE
"Incendies" (2010)
"Polytechnique" (2009)

SARAH POLLEY
"Stories We Tell" (2012)

JEAN MARC VALLEE
"Café de Flore" (2011)

GUY MADDIN
(avantgarde)
"My Winnipeg"

KIM NGUYEN
"Rebelle" ("War Witch") (located in Africa)

DEEPA MEHTA
"Water" (located in India)

RUBA NADDA
"Sabbah" (2005)

JEAN-FRANCOIS POUILOT
"La grande séduction" ("Seducing Dr Lewis") (2003)

JEAN CLAUDE LAUZON
"Léolo" (1992)

ALLAN MOYLE
"The New Waterford Girl" (1999)

LEA POOL
"Emporte-moi!" ("Set Me Free!) (1999)

felicia pop · Trimis: 30/01/2015 21:20 Titlul subiectului: "The Sweet Hereafter"

„The Sweet Hereafter” is a drama produced in 1997 by Atom Egoyan that was very well received by the public and critics, having received many awards and nominations, such as The Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix, and Best Canadian Film over 60 minutes. The film was based on the novel by Russel Banks, and it presents two great Canadian actors, Ian Holm (the lawyer) and Sarah Polley(Nicole).

On the film poster we can see a sort of a slogan: „There is no such thing as the simple truth” which makes us understand that the film is profound and complicated.

The film begins by presenting a family image of two parents and their child, resting on a mattress, as an idyllic, static portrait of unspoiled peacefulness. Next, we see an elderly man staying in his car while it is being washed, who receives a phone call from his daughter, asking for money. We can easily deduce that she is a drug addict and that they have a tensionate relationship. In the following moment, we see this man entering a motel and presenting himself to the owners as being a lawyer who has come to help them get justice for the loss of their child, who died in a bus accident along with the other children who were going to school. This is the moment we find out that the lawyer is trying to convince all the families to pursuit a law suit against those responsible for their tragic loss.

As the story unfolds, we understand a great deal more of every family involved, with their personal drama and secrets. Thus, we see the first family, the Walkers, who lost their son Sean, and we discover that the wife Risa has an affair with another dad, Billy Ansel. He is a widower and has also lost his two children, a boy and a girl, in the accident.

Another family is represented by the Burnells, who have two daughters, and their eldest Nicole is one of the few kids who survived the accident, unfortunately at a great cost – she is crippled. She has become the lame child left behind in “The Pied Piper of Hamlin”, a book that she read to Billy’s children the night before the accident.

The Ottos are other parents who lost their son, Bear, an adopted Indian boy, and they are also visited by the tenacious lawyer named Mitchell Stevens. They are described as hippies by the driver of the bus, Dolores Driscoll, who is also convinced by the lawyer to press charges. Dolores is in a great amount of suffering, as she feels responsible for the tragedy; in 15 years, she never would have imagined to endure such a tragedy. She says that the only thing that was different that day was the fact that she hit a patch of ice and lost control of the bus, rolling over the side of the road and crashing into a frozen lake. Billy, who was always following the bus in his car to wave at his kids, was the only witness to what happened.

As the drama continues, we see most of the families accepting to work with the lawyer, while one man opposes: Billy. He doesn’t succeed in convincing the others that they make a mistake, but his plead is heard by Nicole who tells a lie in court, thus managing to end the suit. The idea is that anger has no justification whatsoever, and the only person who understands that revenge is useless is Nicole.

In the end, we see the lawyer flying back to the city, disappointed by his lack of success and having a great shock at seeing Dolores working as a bus driver. This way, he understands that life goes on, even if he remains stuck in the past, commemorating his lost daughter whom he could not save.
Critics agree that the film is very good, outstanding; Owen Gleiberman, declares in Entertainment Weekly that “<it> Leaves you shaken and ecstatic at the same time, transported by the vision of a major film artist.” And I couldn’t agree more. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120255/criticreviews?ref_=ttmd_ql_op_6
I also agree with Edward Guthmann, who declares in San Francisco Chronicle that the film “is a lament for families and communities -- whether lost to drugs, to road accidents or, more often, to the empty distractions of modern life (…)And yet "The Sweet Hereafter" is more consoling than mournful, more optimistic than despairing. Egoyan's voice is so clear and loving, his vision so forgiving and his film so intelligent that you come away refreshed.”(http://www.sfgate.com/movies/article/FILM-REVIEW-Egoyan-s-Sweet-Take-on-Suffering-2815069.php)
All in all, I could add that the movie impressed me in a way that I would not have thought possible, as I am used to watching American films, and they are not as profound as I expected them to be. I could even argue that this Canadian film is artistic as opposed to American films, which are very shallow lately. The actors are very well selected, the imagery serves the film at its best, the music is relaxing and peaceful, preserving the essence of the film. I appreciated the closed circle of the film, as it begins with the same image, sugesting the unity of the family that prevails in time, and ends with the same image, so as to suggest continuity even in times of change. Thus, it gives you the general idea, that is the fact that family remains the essence of humanity, no matter the consequences of humans’ mistakes.
The film is 100% Canadian, as everything shows us that the action takes place in a small town in the province of British Columbia, from the scenery, to the music and traditions; then there is the presence of the adopted Indian child, which makes it even clearer. I personally enjoyed the landscape, the presence of snow everywhere, the magnificent mountains and the great white. We also learn that in even in the most remote locations of Canada, family is the essence of life, and people try to stay as connected as possible, trying to help each other. Unity and affection are common traits among the inhabitants, and even when tragedy takes place, they can still fiind the resources to be kind to one another.

Time also has a different flow in the vast immensity of nature, everything seems simpler and calmer. Even if the big city lawyer tries to stirr anger, eventually the good nature of simple people prevails, even if only one person(Nicole) manages to put an end to the madness created.

To conclude, I would say that the meaning of the film is that when change occurs, nothing stays the same; life goes on of course, but anger is not the solution to the problem. As routine resets its course, people learn to relive their lives, even if in a different manner than before…

Patricia Achim · Junior Data inscrierii: 28/Ian/2015 Mesaje: 2

The Young Victoria

Jean-Marc Vallée was born in 1963 in Montreal, Canada. He is the director of: Black List (1995), Los Locos (1997), Loser Love (1999), C.R.A.Z.Y. (2005), The Young Victoria (2009), Café de Flore (2011), Dallas Buyers Club (2013), Wild (2014). He is also a writer, editor, actor and co-producer. He introduces a new way of filming and he uses several special effects, from fade in-fade out and focus shift to slow motion, telepathy and contrapoint music. The Young Victoria, C.R.A.Z.Y. and Café de Flore have in common the fact that they focus on discovering one's identity.
Emily Blunt, Rupert Friend, Paul Bettany, Miranda Richardson, and Jim Broadbent play the main characters in The Young Victoria. The movie received the following awards:
Oscar for Best Achievement in Costume Design;
BAFTA Film Award for Best Costume Design and also for Best Make up and Hair;
CinEuphoria for Best Costume Estetică – International Competition;
CDG Award for Excellence in Period Film;
Jupiter Award for Best International Actress (Emily Blunt);
PFCS Award for Best Costume Design;
Santa Barbara International Film Festival – Virtuoso Award (Emily Blunt);
Sudbury Cinefest – Audience Award (Jean-Marc Vallée).
(source of awards imbd)
The film presents the story of Queen Victoria, from her childhood to her first years of reign. She is presented as a child growing up in a castle, apparently living the life of a princess. But in fact she lives a life full of rules and everything is controlled by her mother, the Duchess Victoria, and her lover, Sir John Conroy. They want her to sign a Regency Act, which would give all the power to the Duchess Victoria (in fact to Sir John Conroy who controlled her) if the King died before Victoria was eighteen years old. But even when she was very ill, the young Victoria refused to sign it.
The Duchess wanted her daughter to marry her borther's son so she invites him to visit them at the castle. Albert arrives, and the two seem to get along very well and even after his departure, they still keep in touch. The young Victoria has another wooer, Lord Melbourne, a candidate for Prime Minister.
The King dies, and the young Victoria becomes the Queen Victoria. She no longer has to obey to her mother's rules and also she finally obtains the freedom she always wanted, or at least that's what she believes. Now that she has all the power, everyone tries to manipulate her, even the closest men in her life: Albert and Lord Melbourne (now the Prime Minister).
Even though she has to dedicate all of her time in order to learn how to properly rule, her heart remains with Albert and after a few years they get married. They are a happy couple, but as everyone in her life, Albert wants to have a say in what is happening and he wants to get involved, so they get into a fight. Soon after, someone tries to shoot the Queen, but Albert protects her and he ends up getting shot. This convinces the Queen Victoria that he truly loves her and that he didn't marry her because of the power.
There are some well developed themes in the movie like:
- family: the relationship between parents and children, especially between the young Victoria and the Duchess Victoria;
- loneliness: she couldn't play with other children and she couldn't visit her relatives;
- lost childhood: at the beginning of the movie, the young Victoria asks herself "What little girl does not dream of being a princess?". But she lived under the Kensington system, created by her mother and Sir John Conroy, which implied that she always had to sleep in the same room as her mother, someone had to hold her hand when she went up or down the stairs and her food was always tasted by someone else before she could eat it. And then we get our answer to the question asked before: "Some dreams are not what they seem";
- failure: everyone expected her to fail, not only because of the fact that she was young, but also because she was a woman;
- independence versus manipulation: she wanted to become the Queen so she could be independent from her mother. She got that independence, but this lead to her being manipulated by the Prime Minister, by the politicians and even by her husband;
- mirror: before having an important meeting or when having conversations with her mother, we see her reflection in the mirror and she appears to gain confidence by doing this.
Regarding the film's reviews, they were good but not outstanding: "More than anything, «The Young Victoria» deserves kudos for dispelling the common image of Queen Victoria -- that rather plump, matronly widow with the dour hankie on her head -- and presenting viewers with a beguiling young woman imbued with spirit, intelligence and observant wit. «The Young Victoria» may impart copious amounts of detail about its fascinating protagonists, but it's not a mere tutorial: It's a heady, thoroughly transporting plunge" (The Washington Post). The New York Daily News says that "The film does look beautiful, and there's enough intrigue to inspire anyone to learn more about such a complex, fascinating life. It just would have been nice to see a little more of that complexity onscreen", while Time mentions that "Lord Melbourne, the 58-year-old Prime Minister who coached Victoria in politics and queenly affairs, is played here by the dashing and quite youthful Paul Bettany, excising 20 years and at least as many pounds from Lord M.'s real person".
In my opinion, the movie portays the young Victoria as a role model for all the young women, both then and now, because she fought for what she wanted and didn't give up no matter the obstacles. Also, it presents the early life of Queen Victoria in an unexpected way, that hasn't been shown before.
We notice the use of the article the in the title. Why not just call it Young Victoria? The article the is usually used in order to indicate uniqueness, but here, I believe that they used it in order to emphasize the difference between the Victoria who refused to be what everyone expected her to be only to get what she wanted and the Victoria who ended up becoming a mother who chose a husband for each one of her daughters.
What is common to all Canadian films is the relationship between the parents and their children. And not just the relationship, but especially the conflicts that appear between two different generations. Here we have the Duchess constantly trying to control her daughter and the result is favorable to the young Victoria, who doesn't only get independence and power, but she choses to push her mother away. The differences between two generations are also well shown in Jean-Marc Vallée's movie C.R.A.Z.Y. where the father tries to understand but cannot accept the fact that his son is gay. Here, the sexual orientation is seen from the perspective of the father (something that can't happen) and from the child's perspective (besides the fact that he has to accept himself as not being like the others -especially like his father- he has to deal with his father's disapproval of that fact even existing).
In the case of Café de Flore, we are shown the difficulties and the obstacles that a mother and a child have to deal with in order to have relationship as close as possible to a normal one, when the child has a mental disorder (down syndrome).
The sequence I chose is significant for the movie, because that's the ocazie in which Victoria knows who she wants to be with for the rest of her life: her cousin Albert. They are playing a chess game and she tells him that she feels just like a pawn in the game, played by everyone else. What is different about Albert is the fact that he doesn't want to rule her, he wants to rule with her.
The scene uses various camera movements: shot-reverse shot, focus shif and rough pan. The emotional effect that we get is that it makes us believe that we are right there, in the same room where the action takes place. [url=http://www.girlshare.ro/34393803.4]screenshots.odt[/url]

Internet sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0962736/awards?ref_=tt_awd
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/young-victoria-review-emily-blunt-victoria-secret-article-1.434288
http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1948663,00.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/17/AR2009121701436.html

gabrielamuresan · Junior Data inscrierii: 20/Ian/2015 Mesaje: 1

Le règne de la beauté
Le règne de la beauté est un film québécois réalisé par Denys Arcand, sorti en 2014. Le film raconte l’histoire de Luc, un jeune et brillant architecte, en pleine ascension professionnelle, qui habite dans la région de Charlevoix, au Québec. Il est marié avec une belle femme, Stéphanie, qui est entraineuse sportive. Belle maison, belle femme, des amis fidèles, de nombreuses activités sportives (chasse, pêche, ski, hockey, golf)… une vie parfaite. A l’occasion d’un voyage à Toronto (invité à un colloque d’architecture) Luc passe une nuit avec Lindsay, une fonctionnaire culturelle mariée. De retour chez lui, rongé par la culpabilité, n’ose pas regarder en face son épouse, qu’il a vu embrasser la conjointe de leur ami médecin. Cependant il s’inquiète sur la santé mentale de sa compagne. En effet, Stéphanie vit parfois des épisodes anxieux intenses qui lui font perdre le contact avec la réalité. Pourtant, quelque mois plus tard, Luc la laisse seule à la maison pour se rencontrer une deuxième fois avec Lindsay à Québec, celle-ci étant en instance de divorce maintenant.

Critique
Pour commencer je dirais que ce film c’est assez simple, qui touche des thèmes très rencontres mais qui mise davantage sur l’image que sur les mots. Je l’ai trouvé comme un film décevant, banal, avec des personnages qui n’avaient rien d’intéressant à dire. Cependant je pense que c’est justement ça, ce que le réalisateur Denys Arcand a voulu faire ressortir : le portrait de la génération des trentenaires. En ce qui concerne la construction cinématographique je la voie comme « délicate », avec des plans fixes, sans mouvements de caméra saccades ou brusques.
La vie du personnage principal semble très « parfaite » : il joue au tennis, fait du ski, va à la chasse mais tout ça sans éprouver d’enthousiasme. Même quand ils font l’amour il n’y a pas des émotions dans leurs gestes.
Ce que j’ai aimé a ce film ces sont les paysage et les plans sublimes, la direction photo, la musique aussi que l’architecture (les maisons fabuleuses). Je l’ai vu comme un film sur la beauté de la nature de Charlevoix, de certains aspects des villes de Toronto et de Québec.
Citation préféré : « L’amour ce n’est pas assez… »
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Gabriela Muresan

Grand_Shaman · Administrator Data inscrierii: 26/Oct/2007 Mesaje: 112

Some people like to take the short way.

Unfortunately such was the case of Razvan's so-called presentation of J-M Vallée's film C.R.A.Z.Y. During his oral presentation, it became clear to me that Razvan did not follow at all the structure recommended on this very site (1. Film presentation, 2. Reviews & reception, 3 Canadian elements, 4. Analysis of a sequence). I tried to help him with guiding questions, and the answers were fairly superficial.

Now, upon reading his written account, comes the surprise. The "Resume" is nothing else but gross plagiarism:
- the first paragraph is a word-by-word copy-paste from the website Allocine [url=http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=92604.html#synopsys_details]http://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm_gen_cfilm=92604.html#synopsys_details[/url] .
- the second 15-line paragraph seems to be the only autentic contribution written by Razvan himself.
- the next 6 paragraphs (about 1.5 pages) are all plagiarised without any change from another review from Cinoche [url=http://www.cinoche.com/films/crazy/critiques/index.html]http://www.cinoche.com/films/crazy/critiques/index.html[/url]

Under the circumstances, I simply cannot grant any points for this so-called review.