Cinema Canada (Apr-May 1974)

Bob Clark (see later item for details) and Les Beaux Dimanches, a script based on a Québec television series, to be produced in the summer or late fall by Montreal’s Les Productions Mutuelles. No other details are as yet available, since this project is still in the planning stage. With only two major pictures in sight (Rouse said that Harold Greenberg hasn’t yet approached the CFDC for money on his previously announced projects for this year) one would expect the Corporation to be pessimistic about 1974’s prospects. “I’m not one to admit that everything is rosy, but on the other hand I think we have to look at it from an arm’s length point of view, and find that there are some possibilities for the right kinds of pictures. Not everybody’s going to make a movie this year, but I think we’ll make a few,” concluded Ted Rouse. Production news is hard to come by At press time, only two major-budget features are actually being photographed in Canada: Black Christmas, directed by Bob Clark (who has reportedly acquired landed immigrant status here) and Gina, being shot in Québec by director Denys Arcand (Réjeanne Padovani). For full details on the latter, please turn to the Québec production news later in this issue. As for Roy Moore’s script Stop Me, it is now being turned into a feature movie called Black Christmas, mainly at two Toronto loca tions. Dick Shouten of Vision IV Productions, the picture’s co-producers with August Films, said that at first they thought no CFDC money was going to be required for the $600,000 feature, but then they changed their minds. Now $200,000 is definitely coming from the Corporation, with the rest from private sources (August Films is a group of investors headed by Findlay Quinn and Gerry Arbeid). Clark is directing, Arbeid producing, and Shouten is associate producer. Black Christmas is described as ‘‘a suspense thriller a la early Hitchcock, a very tight, beautiful script,’ according to Shouten. The story takes place at a university during the Christmas break, and University of Toronto locations will be utilised, as well as a private house in the city, where most of the interiors will be shot during the six week production. An all-star cast includes Edmond O’Brien, Olivia Hussey (Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet), Keir Dullea (Paperback Hero, 2001), and Canadians Margot Kidder and Marian Waldman. Altogether, nearly sixty actors and technicians are working on this one, an ACTRA cast and an IATSE crew. Reginald Morris CSC is director of photography. He worked on “Paper Chase’”’ and “Class of ’44” most recently, as well as many other features. Tony Thatcher is first assistant director, John Eckert is second AD, Dave Robertson is Production Manager, Bob Milligan is head gaffer, Bill Morgan is doing makeup, and Debbie Walden the wardrobe. Art director on Black Christmas is Ernest Borgnine teaching Michael J. Pollard a lesson in revenge in Sunday in the Country, due to be released this May. George Csaba Koller Karen Bromley, and Carl Zittrer is composing the music for this, the first major English-language feature shot here in 1974. Here means Toronto of course, and ‘major’ somehow always means the private sector. At the National Film Board, William Weintraub is producing his own critically-acclaimed comic novel, Why Rock The Boat?, into a motion picture, with John Howe (A Star Is Lost) directing. Cameras started to roll February 19th on this picture, which is about the adventures and romances of a young newspaperman, set against the background of Montréal during the mid-forties. Hero Harry Barnes is played by Stuart Gillard (Neptune Factor, The Rowdyman), and his foils are Henry Beckman (Between Friends) as the Fourth Estate’s most vicious managing editor and Tiiu Leek (A Star Is Lost) as a beautiful activist who’s more interested in fighting for the underdog than becoming personally involved with the love-struck young reporter. Ken James, who also starred in the NFB’s A Star Is Lost, a musical comedy now being edited, plays the staff photographer who guides Harry along his confusing path. James de B. Domville is the executive producer on Why Rock The Boat?, which was adapted for the screen by author/producer Weintraub. Malca Gillson is associate producer, Ashley Murray is assistant director, Savas Kalogeras is director of photography; Earl Preston, production designer; Jean Savard, business manager; and Philippa Wingfield, costume designer. Internationally renowed Canadian artist Michael Snow is still shooting his second feature in Toronto, having done segments of it in New York previously. The title is Rameau’s Nephew by Diderot (Thanx to Dennis Young) by Wilma Schoen, although it might still be changed somewhat. Snow once described this particular project as a ‘‘musical comedy.”’ When asked recently whether that description is still apt, he replied, “I don’t know. There isn’t too much music and it isn’t very funny either.” Experimentation is the keynote, including such thespian tricks as memorizing lines backwards, reciting them that way in front of the camera, then reversing the sound tape to see how much of it is coherent. Wouldn’t like to syne rushes on that one, but don’t be surprised to see yours truly as Cinema Canada 7