Montreal 1996
The city of Montreal loves films, especially those made by local directors. Consequently the latest offering by Gilles Carle, Pudding Chomeur, was eagerly awaited by spectators queuing at the Imperial Cinema. The title means 'bread pudding' and is a reference to people who are literally on the bread-line. Those who could make sense of the impenetrable Quebecois accent and dialect were not disappointed. It was a black comedy set in a poor district of Montreal, whose inhabitants seek 'miracles' in order to survive. A grim film for a grim reality.
The first World Film Festival took place in 1977. It opened with Padre Padrone by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani. Fittingly, on its twentieth anniversary, the 1996 Festival closed with the Italian brothers' latest film, Le affinità elettive (The Elective Affinities). Based on Die Wahlverwandtschaften, a novel by Goethe, the story describes a ménage a quatre and the abandonment of moral responsibility. Exquisitely beautiful, the film's subject matter is sensational to the point of improbability.
Serge Losique, director of the Montreal film Festival since its inception, is well aware of the slow asphyxiation of so-called 'national cinemas' and the cinema d'auteur. In part he puts this down to the globalisation of markets, which tends to homogenise viewers' tastes. Montreal deliberately offers, therefore, films from 'unknown' countries. Some sixty notions participate every year, and inevitably some films are never again seen internationally. This year the first film from Albania, Kolonel Bunker, directed by Kutjim Cashku, was on view.
The Ecumenical Jury saw 21 feature films in the official competition. In addition, there were 44 films hors concours, films from Russia today, cinema of today (reflections of our time), cinema of tomorrow (new trends), Latin American cinema and Panorama Canada.
The International Jury, presided over by French actress Jeanne Moreau, gave the Grand Prix des Americas to Different for Girls, by Richard Spence (Great Britain, 1996). The film portrays the relationship between Karl and Paul, two boys attending the same English public school. When they meet again ten years later, Karl has had a sex-change operation and is now Kim. The film explores the themes of bigotry and loyality in a surprisingly touching and sensitive manner.
The International Jury also gave special prizes to Un air de famille, directed by Cédric Klapisch (France, 1996) and to Nemuru otoko (Sleeping Man), directed by Kohei Oguri (Japan, 1996). Un air de famille is a modern comedy of manners. Set in a café, it reveals the tensions and misunderstandings in 'a typical French family'. In complete contrast, the Japanese film is a mystical depiction of the symbiosis between human beings and nature, life and death. A young man lies in a coma and people's routines and perceptions are affected in different ways.
The Ecumenical Jury took an altogether different route from the International Jury, awarding its Prize to Hamsun, directed by Jan Troell (Denmark, Norway, Germany, Sweden, 1996). The subject of the film is the last few years of the life of Norway's celebrated author Knut Hamsun, played brilliantly by Max von Sydow.
The story covers Hamsun's war-time complicity and sympathy with the National Socialist Party in Norway and with Hitler's Germany. At a deeper level, it explores his failure to relate to his wife and children, and perhaps also to come to terms with the withering of his creative powers.
The Jury awarded its Prize to the film 'for its compelling examination of a famous writer's incapacity to act morally. The complexity of personal guilt is revealed in the ways Hamsun fails both family and society. While the actions of the man are reprehensible, the film invites serious reflectionon the nature of individual and political responsibility.'
The Ecumenical Jury gave a Special Mention to Gentle Into the Night, directed by Antonio Baiocco (Italy, 1995). Jaded private detective Renato meets Martha, an elderly American lady whose memory is beginning to go. In the course of their journey together, human sympathy is explored in ways that are sometimes sentimental but always revealing. The Jury commended the director for 'throwing a warm light on the relationship between an elderly lady who has lost her way and a Good Samaritan who takes her to the place of her childhood.' The film's title comes from a poem by Dylan Thomas, 'Do not go gentle into that good night'. Written for his father, it is a reaction against encroaching old age. The next two lines read: 'Old age should burn and rave at close of day;/Rage, rage against the dying of the light.'
In a festival the size of Montreal, there is always something for everyone. Disappointments cannot be avoided, however, and this year some felt that the overall standard of the 21 competition films was not as high as in previous years. It all depends on what you are looking for. The fact remains that Montreal offers a panorama of world cinema that is eagerly anticipated every year and just as eagerly debated.
(INTERFILM Jury Chronik 1996, p. 19)