Fagstein » Movies

Let’s give Tierney’s comments some thought

Fagstein — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:25:40 +0000

In case you haven't been keeping up with Quebec movie news (or haven't been around Brendan Kelly for the past two weeks), there's been a bit of a media dust-up over comments made by director Jacob Tierney to La Presse's Nicolas Bérubé, complaining that Quebec cinema is too francophone and too white:

«La société québécoise est extrêmement tournée sur elle-même, dit Tierney. Notre art et notre culture ne présentent que des Blancs francophones. Les anglophones et les immigrants sont ignorés. Ils n’ont aucune place dans le rêve québécois. C’est honteux.»

Since Tierney, who's behind that new movie The Trotsky, decided to touch on that Two Solitudes button, you can imagine there was a lot of reaction (they're even talking about it on those social media things). And most of the reaction takes one of three predictable sides:

Agreeing with Tierney: Quebec cinema is too white, too francophone, and needs to better reflect its multicultural reality - and those who battle Tierney's arguments are intolerant
Lashing out at Tierney, putting together a list of black Quebec actors (Normand Brathwaite, Gregory Charles, Boucar Diouf and Dany Laferrière will feature prominently in such lists) and Quebec films that have languages other than French (those lists tend to include Bon Cop Bad Cop, their makers apparently unaware that the box-office smash was made by Tierney's father), and saying that because there are black people or anglos in Quebec cinema Tierney must be wrong and hate Quebec
Defend the whiteness and Frenchness of Quebec cinema, because Quebec is a small island in a sea of English, because Canadian films don't feature francophones and because Quebec culture needs to assert itself

The problem with each of these responses is that it takes a black or white view on an issue that is hardly so clear-cut, and only serves to further divide the two solitudes.

Reality isn't quite so simple.

Argue now, think later

I'm not a film buff, nor am I an expert in Quebec culture. In fact, I'm probably the most uncultured person I know. The last anglo film I saw in an actual movie theatre was, I think, Star Trek. The last franco film? Dans une galaxie près de chez vous 2. This means I haven't seen J'ai tué ma mère or Avatar or De père en flic or The Hurt Locker or Polytechnique or any of the Twilight movies or ... well, you get the picture. I want to see them eventually (well, not the Twilight movies), but I don't have much free time and it's rare I'll find something so interesting I'll want to pay $12 to watch it in a theatre rather than wait a couple of years and see it on cable.

Anyway, so I'm no expert, and I have no figures to point to in my analysis. If you want an expert's opinion, I'd read this piece by Marc Cassivi, who takes a detached view of the matter.

But reading the comments, particularly at Cyberpresse but also elsewhere, it's as if we're still battling for the Plains of Abraham, only this time the army on both sides is comprised of Internet trolls.

Some people have suggested that Tierney doesn't know what he's talking about because, like all anglophones, he's never actually seen a Quebec-made movie and hates French - both suggestions are preposterous. Some have said he's a hypocrite for taking advantage of tax credits and other government financial incentives for creating home-grown movies, as if taking money from the government (which every filmmaker does here) somehow removes him of his right to criticize Quebec cinema. Many have accused him of outright Quebec-bashing.

And there are those who argue that Quebec films shouldn't be more multicultural or include more anglophones, because those people are not true Quebecers.

He's right...

Speaking strictly from the perspective of an uncultured consumer, I think Tierney has a point. There are a lot of white faces out there, even when you include Brathwaite, Charles, Diouf and others. And while there are examples of bits of English in Quebec cinema, it's not at the kind of level one would find during a normal day in Montreal.

The other day, I watched Bon Cop Bad Cop on TV. It was on an English-language Canadian movie channel, so the French bits were subtitled (when Patrick Huard says "En tout cas, y'a un bon coup de patin!" - a pun that doesn't translate into English - you see the value in knowing the language instead of relying on those subtitles). Seeing people interact in two languages at the same time - even switching between the two in mid-sentence - just seems so rare these days on screen, even though it happens so often in real life.

I'll let one of the Cyberpresse commenters explain:

Le problème, c'est qu'il n'y a jamais de mélange. Les deux solitudes comme on dit. La télé francophone d'un côté, la télé anglophone de l'autre. Et jamais on invite un anglophone dans une émission sur la télé francophone, et inversement. C'est pareil dans le cinéma. En plus de ça, les gens sont allergiques aux sous-titres dans les films, il faut dire qu'on ne leur donne pas trop le choix, vu la programmation 100% doublé de la plupart des cinémas, quel que soit le film.

Even with the huge numbers of bilingual people in Montreal, Quebec and places near Quebec borders, there's a resistance to bilingualism in our culture. Television, radio, newspapers, even most websites have to choose one or the other. Anything said or written in the other language has to be subtitled, dubbed or translated so that the audience can understand. There are no bilingual television stations or cable channels (besides CPAC), no bilingual radio stations (at least no commercial ones), and only a single bilingual newspaper.

Some angry online commenters will say that the problem isn't Quebec, it's the Rest of Canada that doesn't feature francophones. In fact, it's both. Which is odd because Bon Cop Bad Cop was one of the highest-grossing films in both Canadian and Quebec history (even though it was much more popular in Quebec than in the rest of Canada). You'd think both sides would catch on to that and start taking advantage of the power of language unity.

One movie in production seems to be. Funkytown also stars Patrick Huard, and is slated for release in December:

... but he's also wrong

Where Tierney is off the mark is in making it seem (whether intentionally or not) that this is all Quebec's fault. The tone of the criticism has forced people to become defensive about the Quebec film industry instead of giving his two cents some thought.

It's funny because this industry needs so little defence. It's incredible how successful home-grown cinema is here, particularly when compared to English Canada. A modest showing in Quebec would be considered a mega hit if it made the same amount at the box office in English Canada.

Some of the other points Tierney brings up also don't convince me. I don't think Quebec is too concerned with the past or with its own majority culture (these themes are strong here, but shouldn't they be?). I don't think cinema here is racist. I don't think the Jutras are unrepresentative of Quebec society, which outside of Montreal is very francophone and very white. And while I think there's room for more multiculturalism and more languages in Quebec cinema, I don't say so with nearly the same accusatory style as Tierney's comments.

And there are a lot of things he's missing, too. For one thing, Tierney seems to be arguing that Quebec cinema isn't Montreal-centric enough, which might cause those living in small towns to laugh out loud. Quebec culture is far too Montreal-centric, even if about half of Quebecers live within 50km of the city's centre. The clique du Plateau should be replaced with more of a focus on Gaspé, Trois-Rivières, Baie-Comeau, Alma, Nunavik, Kahnawake and, yes, the West Island.

If that happens, Canadian cinema would be embarrassed, not having nearly the same kind of regional diversity as Quebec cinema would have.

But unlike some online commenters, I don't believe that the failures of others should give us justification to drag our feet. It's time for more Tierneys to enter the scene and create a cultural landscape that everyone in Quebec can feel they're a part of.

UPDATE (Aug. 9): Though a few weeks late to the table, the Gazette's Don Macpherson shares some thoughts about Tierney's comments and how anglo Quebecers are still not considered true Quebecers.

Pour toujours? Not so much

Fagstein — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:21:30 +0000

TVA Films has released the trailer for "Pour toujours... les Canadiens", a kinda-fictional movie about the team's 100th anniversary that will be released this Christmas. It stars Saku Koivu, which means it's already out of date.

You had me at “Good Morning Vietnam”

Fagstein — Sat, 30 May 2009 06:05:44 +0000

(via Lagacé). Though I really have to disagree for their selection from Die Hard.

Dollar Cinema is dead. Long live Dollar Cinema

But I want interstellar diplomacy to be debated in endless detail

Fagstein — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:40:02 +0000

Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

You know, as funny as this is, it's also kind of why I'm not crazy about this Star Trek movie. If I wanted to watch Armageddon, I'd ... well, that wouldn't happen.

I'm just not crazy about some hot shot coming into a universe and rewriting its history for a couple of hours of entertainment.

Kind of like in 24, where by Hour 18 they just assume you've forgotten everything that happened at the beginning of the day and why the actions of Good-Guy-Suddenly-Gone-Bad make absolutely no sense.

Still, I'm willing to look past that in 24, let's hope I can do the same for Star Trek.

Slacker

Fagstein — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:00:21 +0000

I just finished watching Michael Moore's free-to-web (but only in the U.S. and Canada, wink wink) documentary "Slacker Uprising," about his tour of swing states just before the 2004 presidential election.

Well, you get what you pay for, I guess.

I've always had mixed feelings about Michael Moore's work. I liked Sicko, The Awful Truth and Bowling for Columbine, and I was ok with Fahrenheit 9/11.

But Slacker Uprising doesn't explain any issue. It doesn't argue any point. It doesn't actually try to change anything, despite Moore's pleas that the film be screened before the election. It's just a bunch of videos of stump speeches pieced together with a bunch of videos of artists performing protest songs. This review from the Ann Arbor News explains it pretty well.

There are some interesting parts, about how Republicans attempted to stop the speeches, offered money to get student unions to cancel them, and even showed up, chanted and prayed out loud while Moore was speaking, but there's already a documentary about that.

For those used to Moore's passionate, personal arguments about political issues, you'll be disappointed. He doesn't even narrate the movie. Instead, you just hear him speaking to the converted, to the point where the hyperpartisanship of those audiences might turn you off from voting for Democrats.

Michael Moore chanting "one more day" isn't entertaining, moving, inspiring or educational. And it's not worth watching.

Canadiens need extras

Fagstein — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 01:44:31 +0000

TVA Films is doing a movie about the Canadiens for their 100th anniversary, and are filming at the Bell Centre this week. They're looking for extras who want to be a tiny blip on a screen for a split-second without receiving any compensation.

For those who want to show their Habs pride, catch a glimpse of players, and have entire afternoons to blow off, they're filming Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

Le Cas Roberge: Failure

Fagstein — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 03:22:23 +0000

Want to see the feature film based on the online hit Le Cas Roberge? Well, tough. It's been pulled from theatres after a disastrous $40,000 over two weeks in cinemas. The problem, apparently, is that it sucks and the few people watching it fall asleep halfway through. They're keeping their chins up, saying it's "not a disaster," but it's hard to quantify it as much else.

Maybe you can catch it in a few weeks at Dollar Cinema, where screening in front of three people isn't considered strange.

This is how to bring the two solitudes together

Fagstein — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:36:06 +0000

Something you don't see that often: A Quebec film screening at Dollar Cinema.

Sci-fi parody flick Dans une galaxie près de chez vous 2 (not to be confused with Kung Fu Creatures on the Rampage 2) is playing there twice a day until Thursday. Here's a review from when it first came out in April from The Gazette's Brendan Kelly.

Let’s make fun of Indian people

Fagstein — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:22:33 +0000

This is a joke, right? I mean, they're not actually making a movie about the Maple Leafs, with Justin Timberlake playing a Québécois hockey player?

And one whose jokes are so racist that they end up making us look bad?

On the improtance of copy editing

Fagstein — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:23:37 +0000

From the website for an awesome-sounding new movie:

Dear Newline Cinema,

I'm available to proofread your websites in the future.

Just give us the disk and we’ll give you your life back

Fagstein — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 07:57:26 +0000

Builders of the CHUM mega-hospital (that's the French one) were showing off a prototype of their state-of-the-art patient rooms last week. They include the latest in accessibility and technology:

It will also feature an electronic gadget to read the bar code on a patient's identification bracelet and automatically dispense appropriate medication.

"The bar code is to distinguish among three people (for example) all named Claude Gagnon on the same floor," Leclerc said.

"The medicine dose will be prepared by a robot. The patient's charts will be filed electronically in the computer."

The electronic gadget will be connected to the hospital's mainframe, which will be connected to the Net, but both will be protected from unwanted intrusions by Gatekeeper security software by Gregg Microsystems. So your medicine dispensing will be perfectly secure and 100% accurate, unless you're friends with Angela Bennett.

(In case you don't get the obscure movie reference, the previous paragraph is fiction.)

Montreal Geography Trivia No. 3

Fagstein — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 17:00:19 +0000

Name the metro stations featured in this short film (YouTube version, QuickTime version).

No more no more late fees

Fagstein — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 05:53:57 +0000

Hey, remember No Late Fees? Yeah, not so much anymore. Turns out economic reality still requires a financial incentive for a high turnover of new releases, otherwise video rental outlets would have to have huge stocks of these films and then get rid of them after a couple of weeks.

It makes sense. How many people really need to rent a movie for seven days? It's better to pay a set price per day (or even per hour) and leave it at that.

Personally, I don't remember the last time I rented a movie.

Guzzo patron caught camera-handed

Fagstein — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 05:31:41 +0000

Jean-Michel Vanasse reports someone has actually been caught allegedly filming a movie at a Guzzo theatre, and arrested for copyright infringement.

I wonder why he wasn't searched for the camera before entering the theatre.

YASTGB: FNC

Fagstein — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 19:55:39 +0000

I'm not a cinema buff, but since I've announced all the other blogs The Gazette has launched recently, I shouldn't ignore this one.

The Festival du nouveau cinéma blog (2007) is getting contributions from Gazette researcher Liz Ferguson, film critic John Griffin, freelancer Al Kratina, columnists Brendan Kelly and Bill Brownstein, and editor Basem Boshra.

YASTGB: World Film Festival

Fagstein — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:36:25 +0000

No posts yet, but the Gazoo is starting a new short-term blog about this year's World Film Festival, with contributions from six different staffers.

The worst of Québécois film and television for your viewing pleasure

Fagstein — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:05:08 +0000

A friend pointed out to me today that he was planning to pop his Fantasia cherry by going to an interesting showing this evening. One mention of the words "Total Crap" and I knew exactly what he was talking about.

For those who don't know, Total Crap is the brainchild of Simon Lacroix, who has for some reason taken it upon himself to collect the worst of Quebec television, from dancing lessons for overweight baby-boomers, to local wrestling previews, cheesy commercials and, every now and then, an appearance by Celine Dion. This is a pretty good example, but there's much better.

Now, you might think "wow, that's a really weird hobby", and you would be wrong. You see, there's someone else in town who's doing the same thing. DJ XL5 (Myspace link, sorry) is also a local practitioner of what they call "zapping" and showing awful clips to eager audiences.

Last fall, someone had the brilliant idea to have them square off against each other. On Halloween at Club Soda, they did battle. The audience couldn't decide between them, and there was no winner declared, but they did agree they wanted more.

So today at 7 p.m. at Concordia's DB Clarke Theatre (Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve W., corner Mackay), comes DJ XL5 versus Total Crap: La revanche. Here's the teaser.

Next Friday afternoon, DJ XL5 returns solo with a showing of some pretty insane shorts with DJ XL5's Kaleidoscopic Zappin' Party (Teaser).

Tickets to both are $7.50, which you can get at Admission or on-site. (Bell Mobility is running a promotion with $5 tickets if you want to play their cellphone games)

What’s the opposite of d’oh?

Fagstein — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:56:01 +0000

Yeah, I know this is stupid PR-driven non-news advertising crap, but go Vermont! And nice video. Maybe I'll come visit someday.

Guzzo is doing searches

Fagstein — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 19:27:06 +0000

The federal government's new law against recording video inside movie theatres has come to its inevitable conclusion: Cinema Guzzo is now searching people who enter its theatres and seizing any type of camera, whether it takes video or not.

As you might expect, some people are not happy about this.

Guzzo can't really be blamed for this. The law makes the cinema owner just as responsible if the law is broken, so they're just looking after their own asses. But the idea that so much is contraband -- food, drink, bags, cameras -- inside a room where all they're doing is projecting an image onto a screen kind of boggles the mind. Even aircraft luggage doesn't get this kind of treatment.

Of course, it goes without saying that, other than proving the U.S. movie industry has our government by the ballsack, this bill doesn't do anything. Michael Geist (whose blog should be on everyone's reading list) has a roundup of its problems (and a cool video about it too), to which I will only add this: Movies recorded in a crowded movie theatre are of such bad quality that I'm surprised anyone actually does it.

Take this badly-camcorded Family Guy / Star Wars bit. It includes a laugh track, viewer commentary, a partially obscured, darkened, oblong screen (that the camera pans away from every now and then) and a barely-discernable original audio track. Is this kind of stuff the world's greatest threat to the movie industry?

Who needs rights when press junkets are at stake?

Fagstein — Fri, 11 May 2007 18:15:56 +0000

Remember that decision by Warner Brothers to cancel advance screenings of its films this summer? Yeah, Ottawa caved. So now it'll be illegal to record films, even if you have no intention of doing anything illegal with it.

Guilty until proven innocent, just because it's so difficult to prove guilt.

Fagstein » Movies

Let’s give Tierney’s comments some thought

Argue now, think later

He's right...

... but he's also wrong

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