Queuing with the Québecois
by Andrew O. Thompson
Though the constant cloud of separatism looms large over the Canadian province of Québec, this localized threat does little to dampen the Montréal World Film Festival's reputation as a bastion of global cinema. The fest's 22nd incarnation (which ran from August 27 to September 7), opened with French-Canadian director Robert Lepage's Nô, a period piece set at the 1970 World's Fair in Japan and a Montréal under military occupation, while Gallic director Claude Lelouch's bitter love story Hazards and Consequences closed out the revelries. Also featured were focus series on Korean and Latin American cinema, as well as the well-attended, open-air Screenings Under the Stars, which included showings of Les Misérables, Ma Vie en Rose, Ridicule, Microcosmos, Secrets and Lies and Intervista. Special tributes included a retrospective of short films surveying the Canadian Film Center's 10-year history, as well as screenings of Hiroshima Mon Amour and In the Realm of the Senses in recognition of late European film producer Anatole Dauman. Also honored was Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, with screenings of Winter Light, The Silence, a candid conversational documentary, and the 1997 TV film In the Presence of a Clown, a project which the octogenarian professes to be his final small-screen film as a director.
Of the movies viewed by this reporter, Affliction and Hold You Tight stood out for their interesting cinematography. Another notable entry was Passion, a retelling of the James Cain novel The Postman Always Rings Twice by Hungarian director György Fehér. Shot in black-and-white by cameraman Miklós Gurbán, HSC, this tale of a love triangle set in 1930s Hungary will be covered in an upcoming installment of Production Slate.