La Cinémathèque québécoise honorée au Festival du film d’animation d’Annecy

À l’occasion d’un hommage au Canada, le prestigieux Festival international du film d’animation d’Annecy (France), qui se tiendra cette année du 6 au 11 juin prochains, offrira une carte blanche à la Cinémathèque québécoise. L’organisation du festival veut ainsi souligner le rôle immense qu’a joué (et continue de jouer) la Cinémathèque dans la sauvegarde du patrimoine mondial du film d’animation.

Vingt-cinq films d’archives puisés dans la collection internationale de la Cinémathèque seront présentés à Annecy. Les festivaliers pourront ainsi parcourir l’histoire du cinéma d’animation et découvrir un pan de l’inestimable corpus conservé par la Cinémathèque. La programmation comprend des chefs-d’œuvre de Winsor McCay, Jiri Trnka, Len Lye, Robert Breer, Tex Avery, Jan Svankmajer, Jan Lenica, Norman McLaren et de plusieurs autres. Ces films rares, fragiles et précieux sont très rarement montrés à l’extérieur des salles de projection de la Cinémathèque.

De plus, l’exposition Co Hoedeman, Les Jardins de l’enfance, qui avait ravi le public montréalais à l’été 2003, sera présentée au Musée-Château d’Annecy pendant le festival. Cette merveilleuse exposition réalisée par l’Office national du film du Canada et la Cinémathèque québécoise propose un parcours parmi les spectaculaires décors qu’a élaborés le cinéaste Co Hoedeman pour ses films d’animation.

If I were going to the movies during the 24hrs ou plus that I’ll be visiting this fair city from the wilds of Edmonton, I’d go see the new Kim Ki-duk film 3 Iron. I read Tony Rayns bilious deconstruction of Kim‘s oeuvre in the last Film Comment, and was shocked to find that he felt that western critics had been suckered in by Kim’s last offering Spring Summer Fall Winter … and Spring and that this was evidence of their collective propensity towards romantic views of the orient and, you know, their general lame-ness. I found Spring etc. genuinely moving and genuinely connected to films like Why Has Bodi Dharma Left for the East or even Ozu pics, just as moving as I found The Isle, with its fishhooks in vaginas and middle aged men behaving nihilistically, utterly appalling. So I’m genuinely curious. And while I’m ready to risk the status of Tony Rayns thinking I’m not one of world cinema’s cool kids (if he had any idea at all who I was, that is), I must confess I’m not sure I’m willing to risk finding out that this is a nasty, isn’t-transgressive-misogyny-fun exploitation-style romp. So I’m gonna go for a nice dinner with the friends who are letting me crash with them instead. Let me know how it turns out.

Excentris
June 4-10
5:10 pm

From an anonymous cinephile:

“They make me feel guilty, cheap and dirty. I don’t know if I even like them, but eventually I think I will end up seeing every movie Todd Solondz ever makes if only cuz it takes too much commitment to avoid them. So it will be with his latest, PALINDROMES, which runs at Cinema du Parc from Friday May 27th to Sunday June 9th. This one looks like it could be pretty inventively sleazy—-8 different actresses, one character. In any event, this film could prove to be definitive: it will reveal Solondz as either the authentic anti-american-values idiot savant of his generation; or, conversely, as a lottery-lucky talentless skeeze.”

TIME magazine recently published a list of the 100 best films ever made. While the list is mainly populated by already canonized movies (“Citizen Kane”, “Star Wars”, “Dr. Strangelove” and my personal favourite “The 400 Blows”), it also features a film by the late montréal director Jean-Claude Lauzon. Léolo (1992) which got a very positive review in the magazine back in 1993 made its way to the top 100.

“For a movie that worms inside a child’s hopes and fears, that understands how kids can be both shaped by their family and in righteous rebellion against it, you should see—immediately—Leolo”. —TIME Magazine, Apr. 5, 1993

The complete list and the full review of “Léolo” are available at the following URL;

La mort lente (et planifiée) du Programme français de l’ONF
Par Marie-Claude Loiselle (Rédactrice en chef, revue 24 Images)

Vous pouvez consulter l’article de Marie-Claude Loiselle sur l’abolition du Programme français de l’ONF publié dans le Devoir du 17 mai au lien ci-dessous.

“On n’installe pas sans couvrir un sombre dessein un tel régime de terreur. Il y avait un plan à exécuter, qui n’est rien de moins que de nier la spécificité du Programme français en le noyant dans une vaste structure onéfienne coast to coast, indifférenciée, nivelée. Or, comme cela n’aurait évidemment pas reçu l’assentiment général, il fallait donc faire en sorte de l’imposer… de force. Une atteinte radicale à l’autonomie du Programme français a été décidée et mise en oeuvre sans que personne, à aucun moment, ait été consulté ni même informé de ce qui se préparait !”

Brett Kashmere’s notes for the upcoming short-film programme ORIGINAL COPY are now available. ORIGINAL COPY screens tomorrow night at 8:30 pm at Main Hall, as part of the SYNOPTIQUE BENEFIT show.

ORIGINAL COPY Notes:
http://www.synoptique.ca/archives/edition9/o_copy_notes.htm

Synoptique Benefit:
http://blog.synoptique.ca/lib/blog/unq/198/

From Laurel Wypkema:

“Albert Maysles will be giving a master class and presenting part of his upcoming film, a work-in-progress, “The Jew on Trial” this Sunday, May 15 at 3:30 at the NFB Cinema. Tickets go on sale today, May 11 and are available at the NFB box office for $10 ($7 for students). Maybe we can all take him to lunch and pick his brain after….”

Preparations are still underway for the SYNOPTIQUE BENEFIT: A night of short film screenings, music, indecorum, cinema community. We received this pithy e-mail from Brett Kashmere, the curator of the short film programme he calls Original Copy:

ORIGINAL COPY
Rework, re-edit, reroute. Transform, translate,
disrupt the surface. Speed up, slow down, zoom in,
superimpose. Multiply, magnify, erase. Repeat.
Start over.

Films by Christina Battle, Kara Blake, Stan Brakhage,
Kelly Egan, Rick Hancox, Annie MacDonell, Troy
Rhoades, Daïchi Saïto and more.

Advance tickets are cheap: 5 bucks at CD Esoterik and Cheap Thrills. $7 at the door.

So, this is Montreal’s new cinema events blog. SYNOPTIC CINEMA MONTREAL (or synopticinemontreal as we affectionately prefer to type it) is part-blog-part-events-calendar: it’s designed as a one-stop-shop for a comprehensive view of what’s happening week by week in Montreal’s cinema community. It is currently maintained by staffers of Synoptique, the film journal that hosts the site. But that’s just for starters. We’re looking for blogger-meisters from all over Montreal. We want different perspectives, fresh perspectives. The idea is to provide a synoptic sense of cinema happenings in Montreal.

If you have a cinema event you’d like posted (including casting calls), please e-mail us at events@blog.synoptique.ca

If you’d like to become a blogger on this site, please e-mail a short letter to info@blog.synoptique.ca telling us why cinema is worth sharing.

We publish in both French and English.

Two things happen on this site:

1. Events posting. Those appear in reddish/pinkish. Clicking on any day on the calendar to the right will list events for that day. Above the calendar is a list of all the upcoming events. Events are “posted” to appear on the day they occur.

2. Announcements/Commentary/Everything else. Our cinema related blogging appears in yellow. We’ll be posting extra information on events, commentary on past events, commentary on current films and DVDs, picks of the week, interesting sites to check out, and just about anything that crosses our minds.

And this will also be a forum for long and hard looks. Funding for the arts, government policy, institutional bottlenecks, stagnant scenes, what-were-they-thinking?. Cinema is art, entertainment, politics. This is a place to keep informed. To keep inspired.

Enjoy. And we look forward to reading your comments. (Click here to leave your comments).