Canadian Film Digest (May 1974)

April-May 1974 CANNES: The Canadian Film Digest Duddy isn't going, but the show must go on The Secretary of State, through the Film Festivals Bureau, with a strong assist from the National Film Board, is again mounting an expedition to the Cannes Film market. And, again this year, controversy has arisen over Canadian participation. Not in the marketplace, though. The quarter of a million dollar budget is being used to push Canada fully. A full staff will man the various booths, the Vox will screen fifteen to twenty Canadian features, and elaborate full-colour brochures on thirty-one films have been prepared for distribution. Head of the delegation is Robert Desjardins and director is Jean Lefebvre. Claudie Delahaie from the Paris office of the NFB will be administrator; Marie Larabie, from the Secretary of State’s office in Ottawa will act as a secretary. Messengers, hired in Cannes, are Alain Legras and Thierry Dindin, the same as last year. The rest of the contingent is divided into two groups: Promotion and Press, headed by the NFB’s David Novek, and Public Relations, headed by Helene Webster from Secretary of State. Under Novek will be two press attaches: Jacqueline Brodie for Canadian media and Lise Fayolle for international media. Raymonde Sicotte acts as secretary. Vox cinema manager is Gaston Proulx. Information officers are Connie Tadros and Marcia Couelle. Webster’s group includes Hugette Parent and Michele Bishoff from the NFB as public relations officers; Michelle Guay as secretary; and freelancers Claire Dubuc and Linda Shapiro as reception attaches. , Canadian official representationat the festival this year will be Il Etait une Fois dans l’Est, by Andre Brassard and written by Michel Tremblay, in the main competition; JeanPierre Lefebvre’s Les Dernieres Fiancailles in in the Directors’ Fortnight; and the NFB film by Peter Foldes, called Hunger, in the short competition (The NFB has represented Canada in the short category for three years in a row.) Tremblay and Lefebvre will be going to Cannes for their openings, as well as Andre Brassard and Denise Filiatrault, star of the _ Brassard film. At press time no other production people were definitely set to attend, although other Canadians had plans to attend the fest, among them David Perlmutter, Rock Demers, Charles Chaplin, Len Herberman, and” Pierre David. The trouble began with the main Canadian choice. To put it bluntly, an eleven person committee, which chooses Canadian festival entries, chose The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz to be Canada’s official entry. Or rather, they ‘recommended’ it as such. But ultimate approval comes from Maurice Bessy, Cannes film Jord, and he decided he wanted the Brassard effort. Canada can do nothing about _ this insult. Producers have called for a con crete reply to Cannes, and Duddy won’t even be shown there. In fact, Bessy doesn’t speak English, so his appreciation of an English-language Canadian effort is automatically lessened. Plus the fact that he believes, as one filmmaker put it, that _ Canada isa cultural backwater. The main point is that Canadian officials went along with Cannes orders, without so much as a major protest. John Kemeny, Duddy producer, withdrew the film from any showings, even at the Vox. The reason behind Canadian ease of acceptance of Cannes choices is that there is real fear of upsetting Cannes too much; then none’of your films are shown. And among Canadian officials Cannes is regarded as too important a marketplace to chance a possible exclusion. Not to mention the worth of an award, even if not much domestic box office results from it. It makes two years in a row; last year four films were presented to Bessy as committee choices. Bessy chose none of them and returned with Gilles Carle’s La Mort d’un Bucheron. Canada will be there, though, and with plenty of films, and Canadian buyers of foreign films, looking around. Here are the films going this year, some of which won’t be shown, but just promoted. The director and Cannes contact follow the pic title respectively. Alien Thunder (Claude Fournier, Anne Feinberg), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (Ted Kotcheff); Au Boutt (Roger Laliberte), Bingo (Jean-Claude Lord, Pierre David), Bulldozer (Pierre Harel, Rene Malo), Le Chant de la Foret (Bill Mason, Roland Ladouceur), A Child Like Any Other (Denis Heroux, Rock Demers), Child Under a Leaf (George Bloomfield, Anne Feinberg), Les Corps Celestes (Gilles Carle, Mme Irene Klautke Vogt). Dead of Night (Bob Clark, Anne Feinberg), Les Dernieres Fiancailles (Jean-Pierre Lefebvre), Eliza’s Horoscope (Gordon Shepherd), Exploding Dreams (Morley Markson, Len Herberman), La Gammick (Jacques Godbout, Roland Ladouceur), Guitare (Richard Lavoie), Hamlet (Rene Bonniere), Il Etait Une Fois dans l’Est (Andre Brassard, Mme Irene Klautke Vogt), Images de Chine (Marcel Carriere, Roland Ladouceur), The Inbreaker (George McCowan), L’Infonie Inachevee (Roger Frappier, Rock Demers), Je ~ T’Aime (Pierre Duceppe, Pierre David), Lies My Father Told Me (Jan Kadar), Montreal Main (Frank Vitale), Noel et Juliette (Michel Bouchard), Une Nuit en Amerique (Jean Chabot), On N’Engraisse Pas les Cochons a l’Eau Claire (Jean Pierre Lefebvre), A Quiet Day in Belfast (Milad Bessada, Len Her berman), Red (Gilles Carle, Rock Demers English version), Sunday in the Country (John Trent, Anne Feinberg), Sweet Movie (Dusan Makavejev, Alain Vannier), Tendresse Or dinaire (Jacques Leduc, Roland Ladouceur), © Valse a Trois Temps (Fernand Rivard, Fernand Rivard), The Visitor (John Wright), Wolfpen Principle (Jack Darcus), Y a Toujours Moyen de Moyenner (Denis Heroux, Rubert Andre). Wish them all luck. Alberta producers to hold festival Alberta film producers will sponsor this province’s first Film Festival at Red Deer at the end of May, it was announced by Eric Jensen, President of Chinook Film Productions Ltd. and a director of the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association. Mr. Jensen, the Association’s publicity director, says the Film Festival will be held in the theatre of the Red Deer Community College, in cooperation with the Department of Culture, Youth and Recreation. It will be part of the Department’s province-wide Arts Festival and Workshop being conducted May 30 through June 2. The Film Festival itself will be held on Thursday and Friday, May 30-31, with the Awards Presentations being made on the evening of the 31st. The 1974 Canadian Television Commercials Festival drew a capacity crowd to Toronto’s Four Seasons-Sheraton Hotel on April 25. Winner of the Gold Bessy for top commercial in the entire Festival went to the London Life Insurance Company for their commercial ‘Birth’, which also placed first in the Financial category. The second place Silver Bessy was awarded to TMX Watches of Canada Ltd. for their commercial “Ladies Electric’, which also won the Clothing and Accessories category. Commercials fest held in Toronto Chairman of the event is Association Member Fil Fraser of Edmonton. Mr. Fraser says the Chief Adjudicator will be Ted Kotcheff, director of the feature film,, The Apprenticeship of Duffy Kravetz. Assisting Kotcheff will be Colin Low, former Albertan who is now a Producer-Director with the National Film Board in Montreal. Entries for the Festival will be works done in Alberta, and will range from short television commercials and industrial promotion films'to documentaries and experimental works. Emphasis will be placed on excellence in camera work, editing, directing, sound and writing. Screenings for the awards will be open to the public. President of the Alberta Motion Picture Industries Association is Nick Zubko of Cine Audio Ltd. in Edmonton. . Canadian Motor Industries Ltd. won a Bronze Bessy for their ‘What Kind Of Car’ commercial, which also placed first in the Automotive category. The three Bessy trophies were presented to the winners by the Guest Speaker, Barry Day. Co-chairmen of the 1974 Festival Committee were Len Moore, President of the Television Bureau of Canada and Jim” Inch, President of the Broadcast Executives Society. 29000990 69 A Se ee °° 23 bad Page 11 x f ve _éJ 2 “fae Fee * : | for you six times faster Bill O'Neill — President of Mirrophonic Sound, adivision of Quinn Labs—is not the hottest song and dance man on this continent! He's a man with the most advanced computerized sound recording systems and equipmentat his fingertips and the most talented experts to operate them. 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