Pretty Good Year
On the train ride home from a weekend spent in Montreal, I
ran into Liane Balaban (of New Waterford Girl fame) who was coming home for the
week to visit her family and check out the Genies. She was charming as always,
and looking splendid if I may say so. Anyways She rides the
train, right? And
she’s on her way to the Genies… I am glad and sad about this. Glad for
Liane who is a good ol neighbourhood girl and hasn’t a spec of superiority complex, and sad that in a year where
Canadian filmmakers have produced some of the most superb movies of this decade, CBC
has had to opt to cover only 1 hour of the after party for it’s telecast.
This is to say, Canadians who, gladly sat through what seemed to me like 6 of
the most boring hours on television to see if a bunch of kissing cowboys would have
a golden toy to add to the collection, probably couldn’t surmise the most basic
plot-lines from any given 2 of Genies nominated films and are keeping Liane crammed into the ailes seat on an econoimy fare train. I also was shocked that neither Water nor
C.R.A.Z.Y. was reppin for the true north at the OSCARS.
O.k. so really I
probably would have preferred that the Oscars had been trimmed down to a 1 hour
show with highlights from the red carpet and maybe some of the interesting
speeches (although I don’t remember anything interesting this year, barring
Resse busting a "I’m a real woman goddamnit!" and George Clooney
busting a "I’d like to thank the academy for single handily resolving the
civil rights movement", thank god blacks can sit in a movie theatre and
pay to watch period pieces about a time when they couldn’t.) I guess what’s got me
irked is that without a proper (and by proper I just mean well oiled machine)
celebrity system, where even Liane would be flown around first class and have a
lap dog, it’s really hard to generate sufficient interest in Canadian films to
convince the majority of Canadians not to watch C.S.I. New Jersey or whatever
crime show starts at 9:00pm.
C.R.A.Z.Y. is an
acronym for the names of the five boys (Christian, Raymond, Antoine, Zachary,
and Yves) born to a Quebequois couple during the 60’s. Jean Marc Valee’s
film is rad, and despite its feel good moments, it’s loaded with self-reflection
and dark humour. It’s set up like many Quebequois films as an allegory between
Quebecs adolescence and identity formation, and the struggles of a sensitive
brother with special powers who doesn’t quite fit in perfectly with his family.
As a rule I’m never too thrilled when homosexuality stands in as a metaphor for
cultural difference however in this film the metaphor seems to play second
fiddle to the actual narrative and I was amused. And as is true of Mehta’s
Water, the high gloss production value of the film makes an already good story
amazing.
Water, Deepa Mehta’s final film in the
trilogy that began with Fire and Earth (both of which generally screen a couple
times a year as CBC’s late night movie) is a beautifully shot melodrama set
against a 1930’s India in flux. Ghandi is oft quoted by the films supporting
cast for whom his radical ideas are no less than an incitement into existential
crises. The film offers different perspectives of what living means for those
who are born into privilege, those who loose all they have had, those who had
nothing to begin with, For women, for men, for those who are neither. It has
some ‘did we need to go there?’ moments but overall I didn’t feel taken advantage
of as I sometimes do after sad movies. What’s more, the lead actor is so hot I
could watch him read a grocery list for days on end.
Vanessa and I watched Water this weekend after seeing Brokeback Mountain.
Brokeback was sweet and there were like 2 or 3 scenes I really liked (asleep
standing up, how cute… and every scene with Ms. Anne Princess Diaries
Hathaway, who in my opinion blew Michelle Duckface (over-actor) Williams
out of the water in terms of both performance and tity show) but I didn’t think
it was better than Crash and I certainly didn’t think Crash was better than
either Water or C.R.A.Z.Y. So my point is; Munich had better be a good movie,
or it’s officially time for the world to loose all respect with Oscars. And I
know I’m totally preaching to choir as anyone who reads this blog probably
already saw both Water and C.R.A.Z.Y. and many other wonderful Canadian
productions like the loophole overlooked History Of Violence, but can we
spread the word and do our best to make people like Liane bona fide first Class
flying celebrity, so I can start dropping her name and talking shit about her
when she’s not around!
BGA, loves telefilm Canada
Corrections,
I watched the genies last night, On City TV and not CBC as I had erroneously mentioned yesterday.
There are Canadian celebrities, they’re francophones from Quebec and they travel by plane… but still in economy and on frequent flyer miles.
C.R.A.Z.Y took em all, it won everything best actor supporting actress, director, origional screenplay and best picture, not to mention it made more than 6.2 million dollars at the domestic box office, the highest grossing Canadian film in 2005.
Water won fewer awards, but is still a wicked film. If you haven’t seen C.R.A.Z.Y. or Water do yourself a favour and rent em.
