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Mahomet and the MOUNTAIN
BY BRUCE MARTIN Publicity Chairman, Toronto & District Film Council
Almost every reel of motion picture film exhibited in the theatres of. this city bears a stamp indicating that it has been deemed suitable for public consump. tion. The film may be by Jerry Lewis or Ingmar Bergman, but each and every reel has this stamp imprinted on the picture area, as those with acute vision can testify. Whether this brand is seen or not by the majority of moviegoers, it is surely a trenchant indication of the terms in which film is thought of by officialdom in Canada.
Film has always been the poor cousin among the arts in Toronto. It has several disadvantages. Unlike ballet or painting, it has little of the chi-chi glamour of opening nights. Unlike opera, music and, to a lesser extent, theatre, it frequently demands that the viewer make up his own mind about the merits of a movie. And it lacks in this fair city one mass-readership critic who is competent and conscientious and who might advance its stature and its cause.
This situation is not continent wide, not even nation wide. Last year’s New York film festival was a resounding success and serious film has reached a degree of general interest where “Time”, “Saturday Evening Post” and “Life” have devoted cover stories and even special editions to the international movie scene. Montreal has established its annual unreeling ritual as one of world significance.
In Toronto, the situation is less euphoric. The Metropolitan Film Library serves the needs of many educational and documentary films users on a shoe string budget, aided by a city grant. Though ensnared by rising costs, the Toronto Film Society (described by a leading New York distributor as America’s most advanced film society) continues to present an almost suicidally adventurous programme, which places it ahead of probably any other cultural organization in the city. If it were to cease operating or even curtail to any extent its activities, the city (and the city’s film distributors and theatres) would suffer a considerable loss, for it was this very society that weaned Toronto’s public on to international and foreign language films and which continues to do the groundwork for the commercial cinema of the future.
Recently it was announced that preparatory work would shortly commence on the Centennial-celebrating St. Lawrence Arts Centre. Needless to say, in the admitedly rather arbitrary list of buildings, there was no mention of a cinema, though a well-equipped movie theatre, available at reasonable cost to the several film societies and other film users in the city, represents a critical need.
However, a voice from Ottawa has boldly suggested that that city will be the site of the National Film Theatre, surely a massive case of moving the mountain to Mahomet.
It would have been reassuring had there been any noticeable reaction in Toronto to this decision. There was virtually none. It is this kind of apathy that we, who are interested in film in our various ways, must combat together.
Film does not exist in a vacuum; it has been noted repeatedly that countries and cities with an active and eager interest in the cinema invariably enjoy a full
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WEST GERMANY’S SEXIEST EXPORT ITEM ARE THE KESSLER TWINS, KNOWN HEREABOUTS FROM LATE MOVIES AND FROM ‘INSTANT TELEVISION’ (CHANNEL 6).