When Night is Falling, Ararat, Parsley Days, Phil The Alien, Away From Her, Roadkill, Last Night, Red Violin, Hathi
I remember quite liking The Hanging Garden when I saw it a long time ago (my opinion might have changed), but other than that, I’m not a fan of Thom Fitzgerald’s work.
Mon Oncle Antoine
I really loved Away From Her (Sarah Polley). It felt like a Canadian movie without FEELING like a Canadian movie (you CBC viewers know what I’m talking about). I really liked Last Night (Don McKellar) and Road Kill (Bruce McDonald). The Tracey Fragments (another Bruce McDonald) was good as well.
Ha! Adam P., too funny! Red Violin was really beautiful. I forgot about that one!
Leolo is an amazing film—funny, sad, depressing, and utterly unique. In The Saddest Music in the World, Guy Madden creates a dark and previously unseen world. The Barbarian Invasions is the sweetest fairy tale about dying with grace ever. It’s extraordinary how much more sympathetic the same characters have become since they first came to life in Denys Arcand’s 1986 The Decline of American Civilization The Sweet Hereafter and Away From Her are as bleak and moving as anything out of Italian social realism. Like Leolo, C.R.A.Z.Y. is on my top ten list of favorite films. On the other hand, I watched the Criterion edition of Mon Oncle Antoine for the first time last night and found it beautifully done but a bit too heavy handed and self-conscious of its desire to be an “important” film. The director doesn’t quite trust us to get the point so he used a hammer where a thumb tack would do. For young boy comes of age, you still have to go with The 400 Blows and My Life as a Dog.
VIDEODROME
BRAND UPON THE BRAIN
SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD
!!!
Hard Core Logo, seconded.
Maddin, Cronenberg, Jutra are greats filmmakers without a doubt, but i personally think that Robert Morin is as important as Maddin and you definitely have to look out for the Gilles Groulx films, espacially “Le chat dans le sac”, “Où êtes-vous donc?” and “24 heures ou plus”.
At last, if “Le chat dans le sac” does the top 3 of the best Canadian films among “Mon oncle Antoine”, the number one is most certainly Pierre Perrault’s “POUR LA SUITE DU MONDE”. Not unlike the French “New Wave” and the Italian “Neo-Realism” we, mostly in Quebec, had a “Cinema direct (vérité)” legacy witch later had a impact in France on Jean Rouch and in Brazil on Glauber Rocha.
Also agreed on Guy Maddin. That guy is so subversively retro. Watching CAREFUL or many of his shorts is like watching newly discovered German Expressionist films, companion pieces to CABINET OF DR. CALIAGARI or METROPOLIS, except that the tone is pitched to be awkwardly hilarious instead of dreamily earnest.
I’ll second ‘GINGER SNAPS’, Tros.
And on the other end of the scale, ‘AWAY FROM HER’… I got an actual headache from crying silent tears of heartbreak watching Christie and Pinsent’s pitch perfect performances ( Sorry, I tried to reword that last phrase, it’s too sing songy and cliched, but it works).
“In Canada we do not have a film history like italian neorealism, the french new wave, german expressionism and the american classic cinema… so what are the best films that have come out of Canada?”
I disagree. I think our great legacy is our documentaries. Starting with the NFB and continuing through to Cinema direct and Cinema vérité. After watching “Warrendale” Jean Renoir wrote “Allan King is a great artist. His remarkable work exposes one of the most suspenseful action I have ever seen on a screen.”
Our great directors are:
Allan King
Claude Jutra
Michel Brault
Don Owen
Donald Shebib
Roman Kroitor
Wolf Koenig
FUBAR!!!
Please check out ‘The Falls’, (1991), Directed by Kevin McMahon.
Technically a documentary but with beautiful photography and brilliantly told.
Available from the National Film Board collection (www3.nfb.ca/collection/films/fiche/?id=28514)
BON COP, BAD COP. Oh, and VIDEODROME.
@ BEN
“bon cop bad cop”? really? Come on man!!
Bon Cop Bad Cop made me throw up in my mouth
but we’re all entitled to out opinions
I think Daniel Macivor’s work is wonderful (Marion Bridge, Wilby Wonderful etc) along with the work of the aformentioned directors. I’m not however, that fond of Don McKellar. Last Night was good … Sandra Oh was the best part.
I honestly believe, we as Canadians, are coming into our own in regards to film-making. There is a desire in the air to hear and tell out own stories. And not be afraid to listen the success of My Winnipeg is a prime example of that. Due to the arts debacle involving those horribly asinine comments made by Stephen Harper (aka the biggest douche bag of all time) about ordinary people not supporting the arts. People are really becoming more vocal and articulate when it comes to actualizing our national cinematic vision. I think it’s an exciting time for Canadian film-making and only good will come of it.
It might be sappy but I was pretty fond of Kari Skogland’s “The Stone Angel” that came out this summer.
Okay, sorry. I should remember that forums aren’t a space for sarcasm. I was in fact sorely disappointed by BON COP, BAD COP, though the premise seemed promising enough…
However, I do stick behind VIDEODROME.
Having just recently seen Leolo for the first time, thanks, in part, to Roger Ebert’s perceptive review, I believe it to be a great Canadian film. It was disturbing, visually arresting, graphic, and as emotionally honest as anything I have ever seen. It was tragic that the director, Jean-Claude Lauzon, died so early in his career. Otherwise, I am an enthusiastic supporter of the National Film Board and the genius who was Norman McClaren. Although I have liked some of the work of Egoyan, Maddin, and Cronenberg; I think Lauzon pointed the way to a truly artistic and international style of Canadian film making through his Leolo. The Quebecois filmmakers rule the day, from Claude Jutra for Mon Oncle Antoine to Lauzon.
Brought to my attention by critic Robin Wood, the “minor” masterpiece ROLLERCOASTER (Scott Smith) deserves more exposure and recognition.
Adam: Parsley Days? PARSLEY DAYS!!??!?
There’s good Canadian films aside from Cronenberg?
Atom Egoyan’s films bore me to death, maybe I should read up on that.
WHEN NIGHT IS FALLING is a wonderful film by Patricia Rozema. Here is a director who’s talent is pretty much ignored sadly to say.
Mon Oncle Antoine
Warrendale (Reportedly one of Jean Renoir’s favorite films. After viewing it, he referred to Allan King as a “great artist”)
Picture of Light
Vinyl
Strangers in Good Company
The Saddest Music in the World
Whale Music
Leolo
Night Zoo
Jesus de Montreal
Crash (Cronenberg)
Every Norman McLaren film ever made
The Cat Came Back & The Big Snit (Classic NFB animated shorts. Both on YouTube, check them out)
Corral (A beautiful, wordless short film from Colin Low. It won the best documentary award at the Venice Film Festival.Watch it here: http://beta.nfb.ca/film/corral/)
The Changeling (Great horror film starring George C. Scott)
Black Robe
32 Short Films About Glenn Gould
Maelstrom
Lots more…
Guy Maddin is very interesting, I love watching his movies, but I wouldnt call him a great auteur by any means. I would also say most early Cronenberg movies count, Videodrome was probably my favorite.
I watched Passchendale a few months ago, and while it was perhaps the biggest Canadian movie to date, it seemed to lack alot of key elements. It didn’t flow very well, and it was full of cliches and lacked potency. Any other opinions on this one?
Of the ones i’ve seen, My Winnipeg by Guy Maddin
It’s all gone pete tong is one of my fav’s
has nobody mentioned Michael Snow? Wavelength?
Another shout out for C.R.A.Z.Y.
This movie is so good, it actually makes me wish I was Canadian. And that’s really saying something!
(I kid ’cuz I love)
Tom Wilson
I, too, forgot “The Barbarian Invasions.” And I should add “The Grey Fox” because Farnsworth is just so damned good.