Established after the tumults of Paris in May ’68 spread to the Cannes film festival, the Directors’ Fortnight was envisioned as a progressive-minded parallel section for the starrier, stodgier main event. Over the next four decades, it would expose many newcomers whose talents might have otherwise gone neglected, programmer Pierre-Henri Deleau being especially kind those who toiled far from the film world’s usual centres of activity.
Running to Dec. 9 at Cinematheque (317 Dundas W.), “A Fortnight at Cannes: Forty Years of the Quinzaine” showcases films from the series’ ’70s heyday, with an emphasis on Canadian movies that gained international recognition. Canonic titles like Don Shebib’s Goin’ Down the Road (****; Nov. 22, 7pm) and Allan King’s A Married Couple (****; Nov. 24, 7pm) are screened alongside key early works by Denys Arcand, Don Owen and Joyce Wieland. Always welcome is the chance to see Entre La Mer et L’Eau Douce (****; Nov. 21, 7pm), Michel Brault’s achingly tender film about a singer’s struggle to reconcile his ambitions with the pressures of his love life. It’s easy to see why the Europeans were so smitten with Genevieve Bujold, the young Montrealer who played the singer’s object of desire.
The Fortnight was also where cinephiles first fell for Werner Herzog and Martin Scorsese, represented here by their breakthroughs, Fata Morgana (*****; Dec. 1, 8:45pm) and Mean Streets (****; Nov. 22, 8:45pm). Yet one Fortnight fave who never got the international stature he was due was Otar Iosseliani. The Georgian director brooked the displeasure of Soviet censors with works such as 1970’s Lived Once Was a Song Thrush, a.k.a. There Once Was a Singing Blackbird (****; Nov. 21, 8:45pm), a droll update of a Georgian fable the covers a day or so in the life of a young man whose position as timpani player in a Tbilissi orchestra leaves him with plenty of time for wine, women and song. The film’s fluid and seemingly nonchalant style suits the fellow to a T. It also belies Iosseliani’s craftiness as a satirist and as a director whose balletic visual gags often earned him comparisons with Jacques Tati. The Fortnight proved to be a haven for mavericks like him.