Cinema Canada (Apr-May 1974)

well as our brisk ad man doing a cameo as ventriloquist and dummy in the final version. Other famed filmfolk that will appear in Rameau’s Nephew include Jackie Burroughs (fresh from winning ACTRA’s best actress award for Vicky), Jonas Mekas, Jim Murphy, Annette Michelson, Keith Lock, Kathryne Wing, Bob Cowan, Jim Anderson and Eugene Buia. The credits might be the longest in history: 130 names. Aside from these features and the ones mentioned in the previous item, no other projects are certain yet of financing, which is the biggest hurdle in motion picture production. Peter Pearson, President of the 6,000-member Council of Canadian Filmmakers, blames the government for procrastinating and not caring if our fragile feature industry survives. The Winnipeg manifesto (see elsewhere in this issue) makes it precisely clear that action is needed now, and not when Ottawa and the provinces choose to move at their usual snail’s pace. We join in the outcry against wasting any more time and urge each segment of the industry as well as each level of government to come to grips with the very obvious issues that have kept the wheels of feature production unwillingly idle since the big boom of pre-tax-loophole-closing days. Some tentative projects look better than others, though. George Kaczender’s Micro Blues, from a script he wrote with Doug Bowie, is well into pre-production and looks very promising indeed for the summer, provided the CFDC gives it a chunk of the $3.2 million that Michael Spencer says they’ll have to invest after April 1st. Harold Greenberg has forecast A Devil’s Rain, a multi-million dollar western, for June production in western Canada. Amuse Scene from Il Etait Un Fois Dans L’Est 8 Cinema Canada ment Season in Red, Patrick Loubert’s script and direction, being produced by Don Haig, might start at the end of April (hinging on CFDC money), with local personality Pascal in the leading role. Henri Fiks on camera, Jock Brandeis to do lighting, and Deanne Judson is associate producer on the proposed five week shoot. Ms Judson is also to produce artist Joyce Wieland’s next feature film, entitled The Far Shore, in association with Judy Steed. An August shoot is planned on this $150,000 feature, to be shot in 35mm colour, possibly by Richard Leiterman. Based on historical data concerning artist Tom Thompson, the story takes place in 1919 on a north Ontario lake, and is a tale of love involving three major characters. Stuart Gillard is cast as one of them and Doug Pringle, formerly of Syrinx, is writing the musical score. A distribution deal stipulated by the CFDC is being negotiated right now. Ms Wieland, director of Reason Over Passion and Pierre Valliéres, will be collaborating mainly with other women filmmakers on_ this project. In Québec, Claude Jutra’s Pour le meilleur ou pour le pire (‘‘for better or worse”) has been postponed indefinitely. More financing is being sought by Carle-Lamy. That company is also producing Gilles Carle’s Nothing, which has been postponed as well. It seems that their co-production deal with Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie (Richard Hellman and Michael Costom’s company, along with Mojack Films, and Ciné-Art, which is their distribution outlet) has hit some snags. Richard Hellman explained his side of the story, when contacted by telephone shortly before press time: ‘‘We decided that Mr. Jutra wanted too much money for the risk involved. As far as I know that film is not being done. We asked that he should not direct, write and play the leading role. We suggested that he should replace himself in the leading role with somebody else. With a Québec actor, somebody else almost of his free choice, but not him. We thought that it was just too much for the same man to handle, Chaplin had a hard time sometimes, and we didn’t think the Jutra is box-office enough to warrant that kind of an investment, especially as he had to do everything himself.” Claude Jutra did a tremendous job on Mon Oncle Antoine and A tout prendre doing exactly that, being in front of as well as behind the camera. When this was pointed out to Mr. Hellman, he replied, “I’m sorry to say, we like films, but we’re in the business of making money with them. Even Mon Oncle Antoine, which was very well received and which was what you might call a success, did not pay back its investment. So that’s why we were not too hot to invest that kind of money just to have the honor of having another film. You never know about the risks, but you can certainly try to stack the cards in such a way as to have the best chances on your side. We thought that the amount involved in the production of the film, the amount requested from us, was too high for its box-office potential. Especially as Mr. Carle, whom we had also let do more or less what he wanted, had just done Les Corps Célestes, and it laid a great big ostrich egg for us. So we were much more careful with Il Etait Une Fois Dans L’Est (Once upon a time in the East), and as it turned out it was a very wise move, because that film is doing extremely good.” Hellman’s company had let the option expire on Seymour Blicker’s Schmucks, Topol, the leading actor, having to rush off to the Israeli front was cited as the reason. For more production news from Québec, please turn to Pierre Latour’s column later on in this issue. . Martyn Burke’s Coup d’Etat, being co-produced by the CBC’s Public Affairs Department and Quadrant Films, will probably go ahead in the second half of April, the CFDC still trying to broaden its mandate to include films for television. If Ottawa agrees, then Ron Kelly’s TV features might proceed at CTV as well. Harry Makin CSC, who did such a tremendous job on CBC’s The National Dream, is slated to be cinematographer on Coup d’Etat, which will combine documentary footage of South American governments being overthrown with a live-action drama, depicting one