Canadian Film Digest (Mar 1974)

Page eighteen The Canadian Film Digest Canadian Box Office Statistics March 1974 _ Oe ad DISTRIBUTOR FILM CITY OF RUN GROSS Alien Thunder Saskatoon Paramount lweek 10,762 oo Regina Metropolitan 1 week 7,662 Prince Albert Strand lweek 11,161 Run Stranger Run Halifax Capitol (1980) 4weeks 25,729 Walking Tall Regina Broadway (685) 9weeks 49,571 Not Now Darlin Vancouver Lougheed lweek 13,278 bah Edmonton Towne (525) Xweeks 119,000 Saskatoon Towne 4 weeks 45,519 ASTRAL L’Emmerduer Quebec City Dauphin (623) 1 week 8,000 Papillon Toronto Four Theatres 10 weeks 405,000 SED ARTIS 3 Vancouver Orpheum (2,872) 10 weeks 281,000 Montreal Palace (2,037) 10 weeks 291,000 Dorval Red Room (822) 10 weeks 96,000 . Ottawa Capitol Sq. (499) 10 weeks 135,000 Calgary Palliser (569) 10 weeks 137,000 Edmonton Westmount (838) 10 weeks 98,000 Kitchener Lyric (1132) 6days 11,000 Winnipeg Metropolitan (1803) Sdays 16,000 SuperDad Calgary Two Theatres 2weeks 21,772 BELLEVUE E Edmonton Two Theatres lweek 20,102 CINEPIX Kung Fu’s Hero Toronto Coronet (748) 2weeks 15,000 and The Angry ; Dragon True Nature of Vancouver Dunbar (639) 2weeks — 6,500 Bernadette (French) Kamouraska Toronto Fairlawn (1164) 3 weeks 14,000 OLUMBIA The Way We Ottawa St. Laurent (770) 15 weeks 109,000 3 Were : Peterborough Odeon (974) 2weeks 18,000 Burlington Odeon (424) 9weeks 28,000 Moncton Capitol (828) 3weeks 22,000 Winnipeg Garrick 1 (618) 9weeks 99,000 Regina Roxy (771) 9weeks 56,000 Calgary Odeon (663) 9weeks 35,000 Vancouver Odeon'(680) 9 weeks 150,000 Hamilton Centre 17 weeks 93,000 Montreal Cote Des Neiges (721) 9weeks 47,000 Edmonton. Meadowland (788) 9weeks 88,000 Toronto York (758) 17 weeks 310,000 The Last Toronto York (758) lweek 27,000 Detail IFD Crepudcule Des Montreal Arlequin (1296) 3weeks 21,814 Crapules and : L’ Invincible Dragon Noir Guess What We Victoria Fox (447) 3weeks 9,417 Leamed In School Today and The Hamilton Eve 2weeks 9,653 School Girls El Topo descends u pon us By Lloyd Chesley From time fo time a film emerges from nowhere, it would seem, and takes the public and industry by storm and Surprise. They call it a ‘‘sleepér’’, although it takes more work than any standard production to get the film to the public, and the Establishment ofproduction can never figure out why a dark horse should suddenly be a hit out of nowhere. El Topo is one of the most recent and foremost examples. “=~ I first came across the film some three years ago at the Elgin Cinema in New York, an Underground and Revival House then showing Raymond Rohauer’s Buster Keaton Collection. El Topo was the midnight show and, being from Toronto, I had never heard of it. But the lobby photos were shocking enough, heralding a surreal: Western fantasy that smacked of the metaphysical: freaks and blood, Hinduism and John Fordism, Clint Eastwood and Jesus Christ. While in that run, El Topo was seen by John Lennon who convinced promoter Allen Klein that the film merited proper distribution. Klein took him up on it and put it into regular release in the U.S. and Europe. Then it came to Toronto for midnight shows at Cinecity where demand there brought it into a regular run here in Canada. And in Canada, where the industry is still new and determined to find its identity, we can look at the great success from the relatively unheard-of Mexican industry and ask ourselves “Have they found the clue to success we have been looking for?”’ We can start to examine the film by looking at its maker. The film was, if we are to listen to the man who made it, totally the product of Alexandro Jadorowsky. This very un-Mexican name actually belongs to a Chilean of Russian lineage. When he was twenty, Jadorowsky went THEATRE (seats) LENGTH TOTAL to Paris where he delved in many arts including mime with Marceau, street theatre and even designed a show for Maurice Chevalier. Then he went to Mexico where he spent ten years in the theatre, directing over 100 plays in which he participated in all facets of production. Then he made a short film which he more or less considers an exercise in the art. His first film was, therefore, El Topo. Like all Latin American countries, Mexico suffers from a highly restrictive government that loves to practice censorship. This was one of the reasons Jadorowsky took on the classic Western form for his film, knowing that the popularity of the violent genre would convince the government they had little more to expect than a standard horse opera. The powers that be were a little flustered when they heard the film would contain quite a lot of nudity, but they knew they could cut-anything they wanted (indeed a full half hour was out of the Mexican version). But would Jadorowsky treat the genre as an’ exploration of the Mexican psyche or would he, as many Latins do, use it as a political platform to attack the injustices over-running the people there? In fact he does neither, but, like the South’s greatest artists, rare men like Jorge Luis Borges, he creates a highly religious, metaphysical document. Jadorowsky, in fact, does not regard the film as Mexican at all. Aman who has lived in many lands, he says all countries eventually become like a jail. He feels political revolution is purely egotistical; and why delineate political inequality when all people are aware of it through their own personal suffering? A pure mystic, he has no interest in attacking anyone or anything. To him there is no good or bad, only energy that can be used constructively or negatively. DISTRIBUTOR FILM CITY THEATRE(seats) |§ LENGTH TOTAL OF RUN GROSS IFD ‘Commuter Husbands : and Suburban Montreal Snowdon (822) 4weeks 17,992 Wives Last House on Sudbury Empire (516) 3weeks 15,198 The Left & 2 days PARAMOUNT Serpico Toronto ‘ Two Theatres 3 weeks 101,600 Ottawa Place de Ville (771) lweek 10,700 Montreal Two Theatres weeks 74,900 Vancouver Two Theatres 3weeks 76,300 p Winnipeg NorthStar (689) 3weeks 28,100 Calgary Calgary Place (444) 3weeks 31,600 Edmonton Westmount (803) 3weeks 34,200 Hamilton Jackson Sq. (691) 3weeks 29,900 Don’t Look Now Toronto § Two Theatres _ 10 weeks 137,600 Ottawa Place de Ville (457 5 weeks 36,700 Montreal Place Ville Marie (599) iweek 12,700 Edmonton Garneau (631) 4weeks 26,000 Paper Moon and Toronto Multiple lweek 22,800 Save The Tiger Harold and Quebec City Cartier Gweeks 37,450 Maude (English) UNIVERSAL The Sting Toronto Hyland (790) Qweeks 325,395 & 3 days Montreal Atwater (1096) 9weeks 316,141 & 2 days Calgary Uptown (511) 9weeks 113,978 ‘ & 3 days \ . Winnipeg Odeon (1104) 9weeks 130,462’ & 3 days American Toronto | Uptown (605) 21 weeks 491,865 Graffiti Edmonton Varscona (499) 20 weeks 183,469 Vancouver Varsity (501) ~ 21 weeks 267,112 Montreal York (830) 20 weeks 214,213 Regina ~Capitol (1130) 4weeks 63,844 WARNERS The Exorcist Toronto University (1382) 9weeks 824,213 Vancouver Stanley (1042) Q9weeks 379,446 Montreal Loews (2056) 2weeks 238,335 Winnipeg Capitol (1413) 2weeks 97,928 Calgary Palace (1774) 1 day 8,224 Jeremiah Johnson -Chatham Capitol (997) lweek 8,066 (R.R.) Sarnia Capitol (981) lweek 10,440 Windsor Centre (926) lweek 10,884 Leamington Vogue (635) 1 week 2,638 ’ Magnum Force Toronto ‘Imperial (864) 9weeks 117,644 Toronto Towne &Countrye(717)6weeks 41,516 Toronto Mississauga Sq. 1 9weeks 54,783 Toronto Yorkdale (738) 7weeks 49,445 Toronto Cedarbrae (571) 6weeks 29,861 McQ Toronto Imperial (641) lweek 12,758 Bramalea (343) 1 week 4,173 He considers cities and television two of man’s greatest errors, not in that they exist, but in the way they exist. ‘“‘TV can in fact be man’s new Temple, but the men who use and control it only for wealth must be put out, just as Christ put the priest out of the Temple.” , And so the film he makes is totally personal, a statement that comes directly from him, the creator.. ‘I do everything. The director should act in the film. He must be inside and outside, the alpha and the omega. The best part of directing is making love to the actresses. This . is real contact, real life experience.” Jadorowsky tries to practice himself what he shows in the film to:make it a portrayal of himself. In making the film all the people involved participated together, lived together, ate psychedelic mushrooms _ together, meditated together, abstained together and so on and so on. The film was shot completely in sequence. Dealing with the subject of change, the cast and crew must change as the story, the characters, the themes do. Andis he presenting a portrait of a culture or a statement of a theme? Jadorowsky sees art as a key. ‘‘I search to give enlightenment in two hours. I ask of film.what most North Americans ask of psychedelic drugs, the difference being that when one creates a psychedelic film he need not make a film that shows the visions of a person who has taken the pill; rather he needs. to manufacture the pill.” This mystical film using the scenery of Mexico as its decor is a fantastic hit, the midnight shows at Cinecity sold out hours in advance. The audience is a complete crossspectrum of the public. Jadorowsky’s symbolic work does indeed seem ‘‘made for humanity, for a symbol has many levels and each person can react in their own way.”’ “‘The influences on me are international. My nationality is planetary.” York U. hosts Cdn symposium York University’s Vanier College in Toronto was the site of a three-evening gathering on Canadian film, complete with guest speakers, screenings and discussions, during February. Organized by film student Vincent Dorval, the conference, held February 2628 in Vanier College facilities, began with the opening of a display from the Canadian Film Institute of stills from the years 19001973. The same evening saw screenings of NFB shorts, 1930 talkies, and the features Back to God’s Country and The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar. At the discussion period were Richard Lieterman, Gerald Pratley and moderator Stan Fox. ; } The next evening saw screenings of Between Friends and La Mort d’Un Bucheron. The panel consisted of Friends producer Chalmers Adams and Doug Davidson. Thursday evening began with a selection of shorts made by the students at York, and then to two films by Gilles Groulx. Final screenings were August and July and Dr. Frankenstein on Campus. The panel consisted of Gilles Groulx, Jacques Leduc, Bon Fothergill, and York Film Program Head James Beveridge ‘>