Cinema Canada (Oct 1973-Jan 1974)

what tailored for mass appeal. ‘‘Paperback” outgrossed The Godfather in five Saskatchewan locations, while ‘“Pyx’’ made $43,000 in three weeks in Toronto alone. Their totals to date amount to at least $250,000 for the Pearson film (although $400,000 was another figure mentioned) and more than $200,000 for the Samuels production. Furthermore, Claude Jutra’s Kamouraska, produced by Pierre Lamy, is well on its way to outgrossing his Mon Oncle Antoine, which played the same theatre some time back for a thenunprecedented ten-week run. George Kaczender’s U-Turn and Larry Kent’s Keep It in the Family both held their own for the duration of their Montreal and Toronto runs, racking up some nice figures for their distributor, Cinepix. That Canadian-owned company also handles Slipstream, The Pyx, Kamouraska, and Death of a Lumberjack, and John Dunning and Andre Link, the men who run it as President and VicePresident, must be very happy right now. Dunning and Link also have production interests in a number of Canadian features, such as Kent’s and Kaczender’s, through their two companies, DAL and KIT Productions. Left out in the cold is Don Shebib’s Between Friends, and we still have to see about David Acomba’s Slipstream, which opened this week to two bad reviews in Toronto. Ironically enough, Shebib’s film was thought by many (not the jury, unfortunately) to be the best film entered into this year’s Canadian Film Awards, while Acomba’s was actually named best film with the best direction and best sound at those morose non-festivities. Produced by Chalmers Adams, and also distributed by his company, Clearwater Films, Between Friends opened to excellent reviews in a disastrous location in Toronto. The publicity campaign for it was marred by serious mistakes, no doubt arising from a lack of adequate funds. Adams indicated at one point that he did not receive the touted CFDC promotion money. However, the picture then moved uptown to a smaller but better location, and it’s still hanging in there. It should be rushed to the New York art circuit as soon as possible to re-establish its justly deserved reputation as one of Canada’s best so far (Rex Reed raved about it after having seen it at Cannes). Slipstream was produced by James Margellos (executive producer, Harold Greenberg of Bellevue-Pathé), who also co-produced Paperback Hero with Bassett. Cinépix couldn’t find a theatre for it, until the CFA’s three Etrogs. It stars Luke Askew, Patti Oatman and Eli Rill and is playing at the Uptown 3 in Toronto. Between Friends, starring Michael Parks, Bonnie Bedelia and Chuck Shamata is at the Uptown, Backstage 1; Kamouraska, starring Canada’s best actress for 1973, Genevieve Bujold, Philippe Leotard, and Richard Jordan is at Cinecity; Paperback Hero, starring Keir Dullea, Elizabeth Ashley, John Back, Dayle Haddon and Franz Russell is at the New Yorker; and The Pyx, starring Karen Black, Christopher Plummer and Donald Pilon is at Cinema | in the new hotel across Queen Street from City Hall, and also at the Square 1 at that new shopping centre in Mississauga, on Highway 10. In other cities, please check your own listings. New NFB feature opens in and around Montreal “O.K.... LALIBERTE”’, a new Frenchlanguage feature film produced by the National Film Board and directed by Marcel Carriére opened in seven theatres across the province of Quebec. They are: Cinema Saint-Denis in Montreal; Cinema Salaberry in Valleyfield; Cinema de Paris in St. Hyacinthe; Cinema de Paris in Sherbrooke; Cinema Magog in Magog; Cinema Victoria in Victoriaville and the Cinema Capitol in Drummondville. Jacques Godin, who won the Canadian Film award for best actor of the year stars with Luce Guilbeault and Jean Lapointe in the leading roles. Others featured are Lucile Papineau, René Caron, Denise Proux, Yvon Leroux, Madeleine Pageau, Denis Drouin, Angéle Coutu, Claudette Delormier, Don Arrés, Rita Lafontaine, Sophie Clément and Aline Caron. Set in Montreal’s colorful East End, KK. Laliberté”’ is the amusing story of one man’s search for happiness. For Paul Laliberté (Jacques Godin), the search seemed hopeless. Rejected by his long-suffering wife, he was on the street, homeless and jobless. Fortunately he found friends, Ti-Louis (Jean Lapointe), a corrupted old drinking buddy and Yvonne (Luce Guilbeault), an understanding woman, who together tried the best they could to make Paul’s new life a success. Written by Jean P. Morin and Marcel Carriére, “O.K. ... Laliberté” was produced by Marc Beaudet with music composed by Francois Dompierre. Committee is formed to intervene in CBC license renewal A group of professionals in broadcasting, film education and publishing has formed the Committee on Television to challenge the present operation of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s English-language television network. The CBC’s network license runs out March 31, 1974, and sometime before that date it will apply for a renewal. The Committee on Television — all of whose members are supporters of public broadcasting in Canada — will appear before the Canadian Radio-Television Commission to intervene. The Committee will argue that a license renewal should not be granted to the CBC in its present form and will propose that reorganization of the Corporation be made a condition of renewal. In its brief to the CRTC the Committee will challenge the CBC on the quality of its programming. The Committee expects to conduct research and examine the evidence for and against the following hypotheses: i) that public affairs programming has declined in quality during the last several years to the point where it has become irrelevant to the country; ii) that CBC drama has similarly declined and has reached a new level of inconsequence in the last few years; iii) that the regions of Canada have been seriously ignored on the CBC and as a result CBC television has presented Canadians with an unbalanced picture of Canadian life; iv) that while great progress has been made in the film industry in Canada in recent years almost none of this Cinema Canada 9