Canadian Film Digest (Jun 1973)

The Canadian Film Digest June 1973 : Page3 Domestic Notes People, Places and Events from Across Canada Anthony Hopkins arrived in Toronto for the World Premiere of Hillard Elkins’ A Doll’s House. Bursting with energy, both physical and mental, he offers these In the wake of the Last Tango Seizure, word has filtered across the country that Alberta has decided to wait until at least the end of the year before making a decision as to whether to adopt a classification system instead of censorship. Fifteen films were banned in Alberta last year. The province has been urged to change for some time now, but the government has decided to postpone making the decision. Festival News and Results: The Fourth Canadian International Amateur Film Festival will be held July 27 to 29 in Ottawa. For the first time this year it will be a part of Festival Canada and thus adds federal sponsorship to its provincial sponsorship. The Secretary of State is sponsoring it and is offering a trophy for the best film. Molson’s offers a trophy for the best Canadian film, and other trophy givers include the Ontario Arts Council, G.A.F. Canada, Noranda Mines, and the Society of Canadian Cine Amateurs. To date about half the entries are Canadian.... At the United States Industrial Film Festival, the top prize was earned by a Canadian Effort. Out of 500 films from sixteen countries, the Special Award for Outstanding Creativity was won by On the North Side, produced for the Alberta Government by Vancouver’s Canawest Film Productions .... And the National Film Board has picked up another few. At Cannes the NFB received the award for the Best Short. Balablok, made by Czech animator Bretislav Pojar, is ‘‘a cute look at the problems of human conflict”... and at the American Film Festival, the NFB received two awards: First prize Blue Ribbons were won by Richard Todd’s social documentary Nell and Fred and by Tony Ianzelo’s public service film Here is Canada... But the NFB also gave at the festival. Sydney Newman presented the John Grierson Award to Martha Coolidge for a film on drug. addiction. The award is sponsored by the NFB, Films Incorporated, and Visual Education Centre of Toronto... . The NFB also has announced that it will make a $300,000 feature financed by the Secretary of State to promote learning a second language. Doug Jackson will direct the cops and robbers thriller. It will end up in classrooms, on TV, and possibly in theatres. It will be made in Montreal. Other production: Cinepix plans a documentary on Stompin’ Tom Connors ... Angus Dalrymple’s recently produced play will be made into a film. Called Quiet Day in Belfast, it has the necessary $400,000 cost from Bellevue-Pathe and the CFDC. Director is Miland Bessada, screenwriter is Jack Gray, and the film will be shot in Toronto. A name star is being sought.... Child Under a Leaf, scripted and directed by George Bloomfield, will roll in Montreal June 18. A Potterton/ Mutual production, it will star Dyan Cannon and Daniel Pilon. Producer is Murray Shostak, assistant producer is Robert Baylis, and the backing is from the CFDC and Famous Players, among others .... Dary! Duke will make The Midas Compulsion in September. It’s a co-production between Duke’s Galanty Films and Euro America Cinematografica with Leone films ... John Vidette has taken an option on Harold Horwood’s White Eskimo ... Ted Kotcheff will film Mordecai Richler’s The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz for Minotaur films in Montreal .... Patman will be produced by Terry Dene and directed by Philip Hersch.... Now shooting on Baffin Island is White Dawn, a Paramount effort from James Houston’s book. Pie stars Timothy Bottoms. A Canadian had an option on the book but gave it up. It is the first pic to be lensed in the Arctic since Eskimo in 1933. People: Actress Doris Petrie won kudos from New York erities Vincent Canby and Judith Crist for her performance in Wedding in White And her agency, Phoenix Artists Management, reports two additions to its staff of managers: Ms. Kathy Leslie, specializing in writers and directors, and Ms. Julia Madonik .. . Harold Bell has left Prima Films and now calls Danton Films his movie home.... _ Genevieve Bujold declared herself officially a separatist at a huge Parti Quebecois rally in Quebec City. She says she feels neither American nor English nor Canadian nor French from France. That leaves Quebecois. In 1971 theatre attendance dropped everywhere in Canada except in Quebec. It rose by 11 per cent there ... Ron Tiboni of Canadian Theatres Group in Calgary has an idea to help. During the winter he offered special prices to hockey widows, and attendance rose somewhat. He’s going to try the same in football season. . . The Odeon Carlton, scheduled to go under the wrecker’s hammer June 30, will gain a reprieve until the fall. That is unless the final attraction plays out: the new James Bond movie. . . Meanwhile the Vaughn Cinema, a Famous Players house in Toronto, is scheduled to become a bingo palace. Famous Players and Odeon Theatres have agreed to discuss quotas in their houses. A Canadian film would have at least two weeks in many of their theatres. And Canadian-owned distribs have agreed to spend more advertising dollars on Canadian pics. No details are available yet, but discussions are under way with the CFDC. Companies: Irving Kott’s Cinevision has been forbidden to trade its stock on the Montreal and Toronto markets. Kott’s holdings are being investigated by the government because of his close relationship with Montreal broker . LJ. Forget and Company. The Canadian Law Reform Commission is expected to tell Ottawa to cease censorship because it’s nobody’s business and it can’t work anyway. We expect to see their report shelved. Kudos and almost-kudos: the NFB received a week-long tribute in San Francisco recently. Shorts were shown along with other features and Mon Oncle Antoine had its West Coast premiere. Site was the San Francisco Museum ef Art and the Surf Theatre, sponsors of the tribute . .. And Max Laemmle wants to have a tribute to Canadian features at his Los Angeles art house, but he can’t get any. Even NFB shorts are tied up with Columbia Pictures. Others aren’t available because. they are playing elsewhere or are being negotiated for. ACTRA secretary Margaret Collier reports that response to the -ACTRA brief from the membership has been overwhelmingly favorable. The board of the writers’ and performers’ union presented a brief calling for major revisions in Canadian content levels in all media. It was sent out to the membership for discussion, and has been discussed in branches across the country. Suggestions for some alteration have been made, but generally there has been approval in principle. The next step is to redraft it in late June and then present it to the board for final approval in October. It will be the blueprint for ACTRA for the next several years. Plans are for wide media and government circulation of the final draft... June 14 will see the Toronto Branch election for ACTRA .... Negotiations: ACTRA has _ concluded negotiations with CBC and CTV and the agreements are being sent for ratification. A new method of negotiation with OECA has been instituted. The first of its kind in the world, a consortium has been formed to negotiate. The group consists of ACTRA, the Ontario Teachers’ Federation, and professors. Called The Association of Artists and Educators, it arose because all three found they had somewhat the same goals. Groups in Britain, Japan and the U.S. are watching ... Negotiations are under way with Global TV, Canada’s new network. CBC airs documentary on Grierson John Grierson was the subject of a one-hour color feature produced by the National Film Board and telecast on the CBC-TV network on Wednesday, May 30 at 10 p.m. under the title “Grierson”’, < The Scottish pioneer of documentary filmmaking brought lasting respect to Canada, resulting from his instigation and organization of the National Film Board in 1939. Grierson’s immense impact on film in mass communication has been recognized by filmmakers in every corner of the world, but it is only since his death last year that the general public has begun to recognize the contribution he made to film. Grierson applied his philosophy of communicating with film in many lands as advisor, filmmaker, lecturer, theoretician, organizer, and a force of inspiration. Grierson believed “‘in the idea that a mirror held up to nature is not so important in a dynamic and fast-changing society as the hammer whichshapes it... itis as a hammer, not a mirror, that I have sought to use the medium that came to my somewhat restive hand”’. For this film, the NFB crew circled the globe to interview a cross-section of leading per sonatities, reflecting the international scope of __ Grierson’s influence. Those who worked on the special production included: Executive producer, David Bairstow; Producer-director, Roger Blais; Film consultant, James Beveridge; Research coordinator, Marjorie Saldanah; Special Consultant & Commentary, Don Brittain; Film editors, Les Halman and John Kramer; Music editor, Don Douglas. comments on various aspects of his life and work. On becoming an actor: I became an actor as an act of vengence, I think. As a kid I loathed boarding school and I was terrible at it. I wanted to prove something to myself but I had no idea how; I didn’t particularly want to act. Then I saw Peter O’Toole with the Bristol Old Vic. It was electrifying. I wanted to do something like that. On A Doll’s House: I had very little rehearsal and I was working on two other projects at the same time. So I was a little overworked and nervous when I walked in. But there is a tension there that seems to come across. I think it’s a very good film. On directors: The director’s task is to stage manage, to set the rhythm, point in certain directions, and be the objective observer. That’s all. If he can’t even do that, then I throw a tantrum. The trouble today is that throwing one is called ‘unprofessional.’ Bullshit. In Macbeth we worked hard for seven weeks to satisfy a director’s whims. We were in costumes and sets we couldn’t work in. The production failed, of course, and all that work was thrown out the window. I threw tantrums. On his attitude: I am_ difficult because I have enough selfassurance to know I’m a bloody good craftsman and a remarkably good actor. I work very hard and I won't be pushed around by some fumbling little amateurs who can’t do their jobs properly and won’t do their homework. Actors should be able to direct themselves in the context of their work. On relaxing: I relax really when I work. I can’t just sit around and do nothing, just lie in front of the telly. If Ido that I become very lethargic. Then I have to be pushed into something else. I do read a lot. I don’t see many films or plays any more.