Quite literally polarized by this juncture in the calendar, the citizens of a beleaguered nation find a reason to rejoice as Cinematheque Ontario screens the features (and shorts) that comprise Canada’s Top Ten. Devoted to the Toronto International Film Festival Group’s annual poll of the best in homegrown filmmaking — the panel of judges included My Winnipeg producer Jody Shapiro, Up the Yangtze maker Yung Chang and director Ann Marie Fleming — the series runs Jan. 30 to Feb. 7 at AGO’s Jackman Hall (317 Dundas W.) with many directors in attendance. There are also special panels devoted to the country’s female filmmakers (Jan. 31, 4pm) and aboriginal storytelling for the screen (Feb. 7, 4:15pm).
All but one of the features themselves originally made their local premieres at TIFF in September. The one that passed us by is much-anticipated, especially since it recently made the shortlist for best foreign film Oscar (alas, it didn’t make the final five). Making its Toronto premiere is The Necessities of Life (**** Feb. 6, 8:45pm), a moving drama about an ailing Inuit man (played by Atanarjuat’s Natar Ungalaaq) who ends up stranded far from home in a Quebec sanatorium during the early ’50s. It won three prizes from the Montreal World Film Festival and represents a confident move from documentaries to features by director Benoît Pilon.
The Necessities of Life is one of several Top Ten entries that will hit Toronto screens for regular engagements over the next while — Philippe Falardeau’s hilarious C’est pas moi, je le jure!, Before Tomorrow and Bruce McDonald’s Pontypool are all out in February and March — but seeing them all in the coming week would qualify as a real expression of true patriot love. Indeed, such a pan-Canadian bounty of quality filmmaking inspires us to hit the Trans-Canada and see more of this amazing land.
It’s really too bad that we’re so lazy. Plus, it’s really cold out there, so why leave town when these movies bring these places to us? Besides, some of what they reveal about their (mostly) Canadian settings makes us wonder whether we’re safer staying here… not that the wifebeaters or wannabe suicide bombers in the Top Ten’s two Toronto-set features — Heaven on Earth and Adoration — don’t give us the creeps.
Pontypool ****
Date: Feb 7, 9pm
Setting: Pontypool, Ontario
Reasons to visit: There’s great ice fishing and plenty of opportunities to meet colourful local eccentrics.
Reasons to stay away: Due to language-spawned virus that turns those infected into zombie-like killers, local eccentrics may now be too colourful.
Adoration **
Date: Feb 2, 9pm
Setting: Toronto, Ontario
Reasons to visit: If Atom Egoyan’s latest tale of modern alienation is any indication, terrorist attacks here are still of the entirely imaginary variety.
Reasons to stay away: Contrary to what the film suggests, not every tow-truck driver is as hot as Scott Speedman.
Ghosts And Gravel Roads
Date: included in Shorts Programme 1, Jan 31, 9:15pm
Setting: Various expanses of southwestern Saskatchewan
Reasons to visit: The shots of empty fields and dilapidated farmhouses in Mike Rollo’s much-honoured short (one of the only Top Ten items to represent the west) are eerie enough to make the Prairies a prime destination for adventurous goths.
Reasons to stay away: The ever-present threat of prairie dogs.
Lost Song ****
Date: Feb 1, 5pm
Setting: Lakeside cottage north of Montreal
Reasons to visit: The excellent chance to unwind in picturesque spot far from the distractions of city life.
Reasons to stay away: Isolation in wilds may dangerously precipitate symptoms of
post-partum depression in new mothers.
Maman Est Chez Le Coiffeur ****
Date: Jan 30, 9:30pm
Setting: A sleepy Montreal suburb in the mid-’60s (not to be confused with the sleepy Montreal suburb in 1968 in C’est pas moi, je le jure!)
Reasons to visit: Teens will be kept busy with the various rites of passage on offer — plus the grouchy deaf-mute guy who lives in the trailer is really not so intimidating after all.
Reasons to stay away: Quests to see naked grown-ups may result in deep psychological scars and additional loss of innocence.
Before Tomorrow ****
Date: Feb 5, 7pm
Setting: Areas near Puvirnituq in Nunavut
Reasons to visit: Enjoy the Far North in a village whose name (it translates as “place where there is a smell of rotten meat”) does not, we hope, reflect the quality of its culinary scene.
Reasons to stay away: Encounters between Inuit and duplicitous 19th-century white traders may result in loss of tribe and death of helpless survivors by starvation and hypothermia.
Fifty Dead Men Walking ***
Date: Jan 30, 7pm
Setting: Belfast
Reasons to visit: Discover exciting accents and ales in heretofore under-publicized
11th province of Canada: Northern Ireland. (Actually, the movie’s only on the Top Ten because of Canadian financing and the Ottawa birthplace of writer-director Kari Skogland.)
Reasons to stay away: Guns, IRA hitmen and Ben Kingsley’s hairpiece.