Cinema Canada (Dec 1975 - Jan 1976)

International Index to Film Periodicals 1974 Sponsored by Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF). CollierMacmillan Canada, Ltd. 1975. Edited by Karen Jones. 517 pp. $27.50. Ten years ago film researchers were starved for film _ periodicals. Libraries, film societies, and film buffs scrambled for each issue of every new publication before it went under. Then the film course baby boom rolled over college campuses everywhere and produced a great title wave of film periodicals that managed to survive beyond their first birthday. A second wave of publications, indexing these magazines, was inevitable. Seven guides to film periodical literature have arrived in the last four years. The International Index to Film Periodicals, one of the first, is by far the most prestigious. Sponsored by FIAF, the international organization of film archives, it is compiled by 26 members throughout the world, including the Canadian Film Archives* 1974 is the third year to be indexed. Currently, 80 film magazines are referenced, up from 63 in the 1973 edition. Periodicals added include Jump Cut, Monthly Film Bulletin, and Variety (film reviews only). The International Index to Film Periodicals is the only publication to index four Canadian film magazines, including Cinema Canada and Cinéma Québec. Each article, review, or interview in the periodicals covered has at least one entry in the guide. There are 50 subject headings (Individual. Films, Production, Distribution, History Of The Cinema, etc.). In addition, there are three cross reference listings, by subject, author, and film director. In the subject crossreference, for instance, under Canada, there are references to animated films, associations, conferences, distribution, film companies, film education, film history, film industry, government involvement, the Canadian Film Development Corporation, and the Canadian Filmmaker’s Distribution Centre. Casual browsing through the cross-references can turn up interesting trivia. Gene Moskowitz, Variety’s prolific film reviewer, wrote more reviews (112) than any other writer. John Ford had more articles written about his films than any other director. ‘sea of film The International Index to Film Periodicals attempts to catalogue only major references to a subject or film. Thus small but valuable references have been omitted. Users of film guides will regret these omissions, but as one who has had a hand in producing a film index, I appreciate how one must define an area to be covered in light of available resources. An index of any kind will always be greeted with “‘if only it included...’’. The biggest competition to this FIAF volume is the file card service offered by FIAF. The index is really an annual cumulation of what FIAF has been putting out throughout the year on cards. The file card service has several advantages: they are mailed shortly after the periodical appears, sometimes arriving before the magazine if the air mail option is selected; they can be _ interfiled with previous years’ cards; you can elect to receive only references to English language publications, about 32 of the 80 periodicals. Advantages of the annual volume over the cards are space savings (about 9000 cards a year), and price — full card service for a year is about $350, the English language set is $190, and the air mail option adds about $40 to these prices. On the other hand, buyers of the card service could benefit from the purchase of the annual volume since it includes additional indexes and crossreferences. The International Index to Film Periodicals is an invaluable research tool to help you keep abreast of the information that has emerged in the last decade. Of course, once you have found where the article you want is located, there is still the problem of how to lay your hands on, say, volume 28, issue 12 of Kinoizkustvo and of where to get it translated. If only we had an index Cire by Austin Whitten *Note: In May 1975 this task was transfer red to the National Film Archives. Austin Whitten is Vice President of the Toronto Film Society, a member of the executive committee of the Canadian Federation of Film Societies (CFFS) and Chairman of the Index Committee responsible for the CFFS Index of 16mm and: 35mm Feature Length Films Available in Canada. HISTORICAL NOTES (continued from p. 20) business world and her consequent estrangement from her husband, but ended of course with their eventual reconciliation and her return to domesticity. The title reflected the mood of the period with its jazz babies, flappers and sundry emancipated women. Since 1919 at least ten films had been blessed with titles of this ilk: Why Change Your Wife? (by the legendary Cecil B. DcMille), Why Leave Your Husband?, Why Announce Your Marriage?, Why Not Marry? etc. Cazeneuve had already written the story for Why Trust Your Husband? and Ouimet knew a tried and true formula when he saw one. The entire cast and crew were Hollywood veterans with the exception of Cazeneuve and Andrée Lafayette. From Quebec? Not at all. She was from France. Miss Lafayette had been brought to Hollywood earlier in 1923 to play the title role in what turned out to be a successful version of Trilby. Production began in the fall and Ouimet was back in Montreal with the finished film before Christmas. Why Get Married? opened at the Loews on Sunday, February 10, 1924, and the premiére was held the following night. The publicity did not hesitate to describe Miss Lafayette as ‘“‘the most beautiful woman in all France” but it was more likely the name of Ouimet behind the production that ensured the Loews one of its best weeks. However, in wider release the film was less successful and it remained Laval Photoplays’ only production. A curious footnote: Scenes in which the hero is involved in some fisticuffs — fighting off robbers in a railroad depot, and thrashing the sender of an anonymous letter — came in for a little trimming at the hands of Quebec’s already cautious | censors. Ouimet then moved to Toronto where he remained for three years as the representative of the Van Buren Film Company of New York. Then around 1930 he returned to Hollywood for two years, but his activities were not connected with the cinema. Finally in 1936, after an unsuccessful attempt to turn the Imperial in Montreal into an exclusively French house, Ouimet left the film business just thirty years after the opening of the first Ouimetoscope. O december-january 1976/43