Views on Canadian Cinema.

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I was just wondering (since we have people on these forums from all over), what , if any views you have on Canadian cinema.

Do you like it?, loath it?, have any remarks about it?

For better or worse, I would like to know the way Canada is viewed by the eyes of the world.

Anyone from Canada with remarks, feel free to share your thoughts as well.
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"I know a man who was born with his heart on the outside. Every man's worst fear, he also had heavy hands. he couldn't touch his lovers face, he couldn't hold a baby." - Buck 65



I'm Canadian and I say our cinema is pure crap. I mean Im sure a lot of it is really good- but through my eyes- any thing Canadian and media related is corny and tacky. Our television shows suck (with the exception of TRAILER PARK BOYS) and from what I have seen- our movies are really bad.



i cant really think of enough canadian films to make a general comment on the country's cinema, but i'm sure i must have seen at least a dozen that i liked.

i like cronenberg, he's canadian, and he's done plenty of movies in canada, of which i likes: rabid, shivers, the brood, etc. + great canada/america coproductions like videodrome. i also saw some crappy canadian horror movie from the 80's a while ago, called 'the brain', but i liked it anyway, on acount of a couple randomly rhyming lines of dialogue.



There's a consistent stream of really good stuff coming out of The Great White North. Unfortunately in The Lower 48 here you have to really seek it out, especially if you hope to see some of this great stuff theatrically.

My two current favorites are Don McKellar and of course Atom Egoyan. Egoyan got some mainstream recognition a few years back when he received Oscar nominations as both Best Director and Best Screenplay (Adapted) for The Sweet Hereafter (1997). But he's been no secret to Canadians, as he's been nominated and won many, many Genie Awards, going back all the way to 1985. For those of you who don't know, The Genie is the Canadian equivalent of The Oscar.

McKellar is a few years younger than Egoyan and is primarily an actor and screenwriter, before fairly recently moving to the director's chair. He still acts quite a bit, and those non-hardcore Candian film fans among you may recognize him from Cronenberg's eXistenZ (1999), Egoyan's Exotica (1994) and The Adjuster (1991) or Fraccois Gerard's fantastic The Red Violin (1998) and 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993). BTW, McKellar co-wrote the screenplays for The Red Violin and 32 Short Films.... My favorite acting gig so far of McKellar's is as the star of the brilliant Canadian TV series "Twitch City" (1998-2000). That show absolutely floors me with laughter. McKellar's only full length feature as writer/director (and also star) thus far is Last Night (1998), a very smart, funny, original and ultimately moving pre-Apocalyptic tale. Definitely put it on your to-see list.

I think two of the finest young actresses working today are Canadians: Sarah Polley and Molly Parker.

Polley may still be best known as the moppet from Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Muchausen (1988), but she's grown up a lot since then, and is now a beautiful and extremely talented young woman. One of the few U.S. features she's appeared in was Doug Liman's indie hit Go (1999), but she chooses to work mostly in Canada. You can see her in some of the movies I've already mentioned - The Sweet Hereafter, Exotica, Last Night, eXistenZ, but also check her out in No Such Thing (2001), Guinevere (1999), The Claim (2000) and White Lies (1998).

Molly Parker has also done little outside of Canada, though you may recognize her from Kieth Gordon's Waking the Dead (2000), Michael Winterbottom's Wonderland (1999), Istavan Szabo's epic Sunshine (1999) and Wayne Wang's controversial The Center of the World (2001). She co-starred with Don McKellar on "Twitch City", and her best role to date may well still be the weird and wonderfully romantic necropheliac love story Kissed (1996). She's also fantastic in The Five Senses (1999), The Intruder (1999), The War Bride (2001) and Rare Birds (2001).


And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, not only are the majority of these movies next to impossible to find during any kind of arthouse theatrical runs in the U.S., they're also not very likely to be stocked at frippin' Blockbuster (if you're relegated to that circle of Hell). If you don't have a good independent video store in your area with an eclectic indie section, you're gonna be S.O.L. in finding so many of these flicks.

Or we could just all move to Canada, that makes it much easier.

Seek out Candian cinema wherever you can, it is definitely worth the effort.


*END SERMON NOW*
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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



Mr Pike has spoken.

Wow, I never knew any Americans had an interest in...

...Canadian Cinema.

Generally it's regarded as "art house", and bland. A reason for that is Canada itself.
1). Schools up here teach this "Canadian way" of making a film, they shove the idea down your throat that anything commercial is wrong. They like it when the film makes no money, it makes them feel like the film achieved its goal - - to alienate people. The weirder the better, make it as boring as possible. They actual say "Commercial films are wrong".
Trust me, I've given presentations of my films in Universities, and they way they think is sickening.

A reason.

2). A branch of the government which funds Canadian film, a place called Telefilm, this is the usual suspect. They are tight assed, and prissy, and every project that eventually gets funded has to follow these crazy guidelines. They have to score a mark on something called CanCon (Canadian content). which means you have to make a run of the mill Canadian film.

3). Say you made a film with your own money, which means by your own rules. Now you can hit big time right? Wrong.
Try applying to The Toronto International Film Festival with your self produced indie masterpiece. Just try. I will bet my last dollar that even if you have a film as good as the "Godfather", that it wont be accepted.
Why?
Unless you have Telefilm funding, which means unless you make the film that they want you to make, you will fail. They wont just come out and say that, but I've talked to dozen of indie directors, good and bad, and they all agree.
They are scared of independent succes, so they keep it bottled. I've had better support/ response in America.
Every Canadian film is cut from the same cloth, and it will be that way until someone breaks the mold.

Yes okay, some films are alright "I've" seen a pretty good film called "Waydowntown", but does everything have to be a melodrama?

Where's that edge that other countries have? Well as a member of the "Underground film movement" in Canada, I can assure you that a change is coming.

If you put your ear to the floor and listen very hard, you can hear the rumble.



Weirdsville is one of my Favourite movies of all time, it's not rated well on imdb but it's a grate movie and very funny if you like black comedys

i'm not Canadian myself and don't know much about Canadian Cinema so i searched Canadian in hope that i'd find a movie simmiler to Weirdsville but i'm having no luck



I find that most of the Canadian go to Hollywood instead of staying home and producing films. There's a lot of money to be made in Hollywood, but they always seem to come out with the same cheesy stuff. Why don't we keep our stars here and produce better and original films that will blow Hollywood out the door?
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That's okay. Nobody's perfect!
What I've seen I like (that I'm aware of that are Canadian films). Here are four off the top of my head that I really liked and never hesitate to recommend:

The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983)

Never Cry Wolf (1983)

Black Robe (1991)

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)



That's okay. Nobody's perfect!
...Canadian Cinema.

Generally it's regarded as "art house", and bland. A reason for that is Canada itself.
1). Schools up here teach this "Canadian way" of making a film, they shove the idea down your throat that anything commercial is wrong. They like it when the film makes no money, it makes them feel like the film achieved its goal - - to alienate people. The weirder the better, make it as boring as possible. They actual say "Commercial films are wrong".
Trust me, I've given presentations of my films in Universities, and they way they think is sickening.

A reason.

2). A branch of the government which funds Canadian film, a place called Telefilm, this is the usual suspect. They are tight assed, and prissy, and every project that eventually gets funded has to follow these crazy guidelines. They have to score a mark on something called CanCon (Canadian content). which means you have to make a run of the mill Canadian film.

3). Say you made a film with your own money, which means by your own rules. Now you can hit big time right? Wrong.
Try applying to The Toronto International Film Festival with your self produced indie masterpiece. Just try. I will bet my last dollar that even if you have a film as good as the "Godfather", that it wont be accepted.
Why?
Unless you have Telefilm funding, which means unless you make the film that they want you to make, you will fail. They wont just come out and say that, but I've talked to dozen of indie directors, good and bad, and they all agree.
They are scared of independent succes, so they keep it bottled. I've had better support/ response in America.
Every Canadian film is cut from the same cloth, and it will be that way until someone breaks the mold.

Yes okay, some films are alright "I've" seen a pretty good film called "Waydowntown", but does everything have to be a melodrama?

Where's that edge that other countries have? Well as a member of the "Underground film movement" in Canada, I can assure you that a change is coming.

If you put your ear to the floor and listen very hard, you can hear the rumble.
You seem to be answering your own question. Is there any film coming out of Canada that you do like? Is it all dross? What can you recommend to us (other than Waydowntown) that we should search out and watch?

P.S. I just ordered Waydowntown from Netflix and put it at the tiop of my Queue.