DVD Releases for the Week of Aug. 18, 2009
Hot off the heels of the Cassavetes retrospective at Cinema du Parc comes a new transfer of Husbands about three married men who go off on a personal journey together after the death of a friend. This is the first time Husbands will be available on DVD. Along with Peter Falk it also stars Cassavetes … Continue reading
Fantasia’09 Advance Review: My Dear Enemy
Playing this Friday, July 24th and Monday, July 27th, the Canadian premiere of My Dear Enemy (Meotjin haru) is not likely to strike a chord with the usual Fantasia audience member. The reason is not because it is a lousy film – far from it: Lee Yoon-ki’s fourth feature is a slow-paced but surprisingly heart-warming little … Continue reading
DVD Releases for the Week of Jul. 21, 2009
Canadian productions often have to rely on smart scripting if they are to find success as films. So when Bruce McDonald set out to make a zombie film, the usual budgetary constraints meant there was no way he could pull of a gorefest on the same scale as Dawn of the Dead. Instead, Pontypool has been … Continue reading
Fantasia’09 Review: The Clone Returns Home
Like the various incarnations of clones that follow the death of the film’s protagonist, Kanji Nakajima’s The Clone Returns Home feels soulless, an empty shell where ideas thrive but without enough substance to impact the genre. Nakajima, like Asimov or Tarkovsky, is interested in questions of ethics and philosophy: do clones contain but the resonance of … Continue reading
Fantasia Film Festival 2009 Preview Part 2
The genre film festival enters its second week. With strong ticket sales, great audience feedback and an increasing number of potentially hot films, Fantasia 2009 keeps the throttle at full. Check out some recommended screenings from Wednesday to Sunday on my Midnight Poutine preview post. The fine specimen on the right is Fantasia stage technician, … Continue reading
Fantasia Film Festival 2009 Preview
Starting tonight and running until July 29th, the Fantasia film festival returns with buckets of blood, Asian oddities and local films off kilter from the mainstream. Keep checking back here over the next few weeks for reviews, including tonight’s premiere of Yatterman. You can read my preview at Midnight Poutine along with that of fellow … Continue reading
Three Lynch Films at Cinéma du Parc
Surrealist director David Lynch may be busy on his current online webisode interview series and absent from feature filmmaking, but his work lives on starting this week at the Cinéma du Parc with Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me.
All-Night Film for Insomniacs
Starting tonight and running 24 hours at the Cinémathèque québecoise is an ode to film sponsored by local movie magazine, 24 Images. Films include Reservoir Dogs, Modern Times and Un chien andalou. For more information check out my post on Midnight Poutine.
Do you speak Yiddish?
I certainly don’t, which is why the Montréal International Yiddish Theatre Festival may not be your top choice, unless you can understand the language. Centered at the recently revitalized Segal Centre, the festival is usually all about Yiddish-language stage productions, but this year incorporates some English-subtitled films that will draw out Yiddish-language dunces – making … Continue reading
Substratum Cinema Revisited #2
“Dance she did, and dance she must – between her two loves” goes the motto of The Red Shoes (1948). British directors’ Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger (a.k.a The Archers) most commercially successful film is engaging due as much to its luscious techicolour visuals as well as its leading triumvirate of characters.
andrescanella 