Cinematheque Ontario presents - Robin Woods Tribute

ROBIN WOODS TRIBUTE

Toronto’s own and late film critic Robin Wood made famous from his talks and books on Alfred Hitchcock gets a tribute by the Cinematheque Ontario.  Wood also wrote books on other directors like Howard Harks, Ingmar Bergman and Arthur Penn.  His best films of all time bear the common thread of films with a solid story line and strong characterizations.  The films picked are as varied as the different languages (Japanese, French, Indian) they come in.

The films include
CODE INCONNU
DAY OF THE DEAD DAYS AND NIGHTS IN THE FOREST
LETTER FROM AN UNKNOWN WOMAN
LIFE CLASSES
LOYALTIES
MARNIE
RIO BRAVO
SANSHO THE BAILIFF
THE CHASE
WRONG AGAIN

For complete information, ticket pricing, showtimes and venue, check the cinematheque website at:
http://www.cinemathequeontario.ca

Cinematheque Ontario is gracious enough to provide screeners for 4 of the films selected.  Capsule reviews of the 4 films are written below:

CODE INCONNU (France/Germany/Romania 2000) ***
Directed by Michael Haneke

CODE INCONNU or as the English subtitle INCOMPLETE TALES OF SEVERAL JOURNEYS tells, is writer/director Michael Haneke’s film of several intersecting stories involving several characters centred in Paris.  The film is comprised of vignettes faded to black as they switch to another.  There are 4 main characters.  The main lead is an actress played by Juliette Binoche living with her righteous journalist boyfriend (Thierry Neuvic) working in Bosnia.  At the film’s start, she is visited by his younger brother who has left his father.  When he dumps trash into the pan handler’s hat, a fight ensues with an African, Amadou (Ona Lu Yenke) which leads to the deportation of the pan handler.  Hanake’s film is compelling but gets a bit tiring as a few (like the metro harassment segment) has nothing to do with the story though it may be argued that it has to do with the film’s theme.  Haneke has fared better with a more focused story (an example here of the bits being better than its sum) with these same filming techniques (as in his latter films like THE WHITE RIBBON and LA PIANISTE).

(Screening June 24, 8.45 pm)

LIFE CLASSES (Canada 1987) ****
Directed by William MacGillivray

LIFE CLASSES has been selected by critic Woods as one of the best Canadian films.  This is an assured piece of filmmaking do doubt, and one that is immensely likeable for the fact that writer/director MacGillivray has sympathy for all his characters and sees the element of goodness in each one of them.  Even Earl (Leon Dubinsky), the man who impregnates and abandons the heroine of the story says at one point in the film to protect the reputation of Mary (Jacinta Cormier) that she is an ok person.  The film begins oddly enough with a shot closing up on a television in a mall.  The subject is an interview with an actress playing the part of Mary saying that it is a difficult part as the character being played is going through a difficult time.  The film moves slowly into the life of Mary, the girl who leaves her hometown of Cape Bretton with her child.  Mary has problems getting a job but always manages to survive as she is good-hearted, humble and has pride.  One of the best parts of the film has her telling her job interviewer that she is a better painter than the one who has an art painting hanging up in the room.  MacGillivray’s film is about change and how it effects people like Mary.  Mary survives through art, through her art classes that began when she models for LIFE CLASSES.  (A life class is one in which the students paint a live model).  LIFE CLASSES is one of the best paced films I have seen and top marks for MacGillivray for telling his story through incidents through the life of Mary.  The director will be present to introduce his film during the special screening.
(Screening July 2nd 9.15 pm)

LOYALTIES (Canada/UK 1985) ****
Directed by Anne Wheeler

Albertan director Anne Wheeler’s best film and it is a pity she has not maintained the success of this moving woman’s film.  LOYALTIES refer to the state the upper class English wife of a doctor, Lily (Susan Wooldridge) is supposed to uphold for her husband, the good doctor (Kenneth Welsh) after he has done an awful deed.  What this deed is, is hinted at, in shadows at the film’s start with the audience guessing what really happened.  The story concerns Lily moving with her children to join her husband doctor in a small Albertan town. Lily has no friends and has trouble associating with the local folk.  When native Rosanne (Tantoo Cardinal) is hired as help, the two women forge a bond because of the troubles they have with men.  LOYALTIES is a woman’s film, from the writer/director being a female, down to its theme and even to the film’s most important line uttered by Rosanne at the film’s climax: “What kind of woman are you?  Director Wheeler tells her story, and a rather good one at that, well keeping the family secret at bay, to arouse the audience anticipation.  She uses classic filming tactics as holding audience interest throughout (showing only a bit of what happens at the film’s start), to use of silhouettes (party dancing in the sunset) to the building of a good climax.  LOYALTIES is one of the best woman’s film made for a long while.
(Screening July 1st 9.30 pm)

RIO BRAVO (USA 1059) ****
Directed by Howard Hawks

Howards Hawks’ best movie has sheriff Chance (John Wayne) and deputies (Dean Martin, Walter Brennan) holed up in a town as the brother (John Russell) of a prisoner seeks to free him.  The theme is similar to the western HIGH NOON that was a hit years earlier, the climax of which is the showdown where the hero faces all the bad guys.  The two films are similar in the way the sheriff awaits for the villains to make the move as well as the girl (Angie Dickinson) who stays for him.  One difference is that in RIO BRAVO, Chance dispenses with help offered as opposed to the marshal in HIGH NOON standing alone.  But both films are scored by Dimitri Tiomkin.  As RIO BRAVO stars two crooners, Dean Martin and teen idol Ricky Nelson, there is a ballad sung by the two written by Tiomkin.  Hawks draws excellent performances all round (even from Dean Martin as the drunk made good) but it is the old cripple played by Brennan who clearly steals the show.  Thoroughly entertaining fare!

(Screening June 18th 7pm)