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Star: Toronto "film-unfriendly"?

The Australians seem to have developed quite a successful domestic industry which, for a period anyway, translated to a succession of international hits. The Man from Snowy River, Breaker Morant, Year of Living Dangerously, Mad Max series, Dead Calm...probably a bunch of others. I remember reading that there was a program where Canadian filmakers were going to collaborate with Australia on some films. I guess they were hoping to graduate from Porky's and other high-school hi-jinx films which had been Canada's few commercial successes. I'm not sure happened but I guess it fell through.

The last good Canadian film I saw was probably 'A Sunday in Kigali'. Quite a good one.
 
"Water" is my favourite recently. I saw "Bon Cop..." but thought it was a little overated. That said, it was pleasant to see a decent Canadian 'popcorn' flick that isn't so self-consciously 'quirky' or 'deep' in any way (not that I don't enjoy one of those on occassion too!). Sometimes a little Kraft Dinner is a good thing.
 
Snow Cake is the best Canadian movie I've seen recently. An odd set of coincidences finds Alan Rickman in Wawa with a horny Carrie Anne Moss and an autistic Sigorney Weaver.

The interiors were all shot in Toronto, and location shooting was done in Wawa. There's a big goose in Wawa.
 
I enjoyed 'Water', especially when Lisa Ray was onscreen. Yeh "Bon Cop..." worked domestically because of the Canadianisms, and I'm sure a Bon Cop...Deux is in the making :)

'Gallipoli' was nother Aussi film- how could I forget that one. Oz director Baz Luhrman is currently filming a movie actually titled "Australia" starring Nicole Kidman, which is scheduled for '08 release.
 
"The Australians seem to have developed quite a successful domestic industry which, for a period anyway, translated to a succession of international hits."

Like Shine, etc. But Canadian movies are always about hockey, lesbians, and necrophilia - or some combination of these with incest - so their wider box office appeal is kind of questionable.
 
I'd like to see more Canadian films. But I don't. Why? Because most of the Canadian films are shown in the dumps like Cumberland or Carlton! I'm not going to pay $13 to sit in a dump with a screen just a tiny bigger than my tv at home.

Oh, and we can blame the Canadian "super stars" as well. Jim Carrey, Mike Myers etc. They are big stars. But how come they never team up with Canadian directors to make a Canadian films? Lots of Aussies remember where they came from. But not alot of Hollywood-bounded-Canucks ever step foot back to Canada.
 
"But Canadian movies are always about hockey, lesbians, and necrophilia - or some combination of these with incest"

Ever heard of "The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert"? :) It's hard to pin down why Canada has had so few commercial successes. I think sharing the continent with hollywood is a problem. Film makers go to hollywood because that's where the greater money is, thus they became 'Canada-born' American film makers, and of course Canadian filmakers in hollywood certainly aren't encouraged to produce Canadian content films.

Distribution has long been a big problem for Canadian films as well. The Canadian theatre market is crowded out by American movie houses with Los Angeles studios calling the shots. Thus you have to go to Rep places and academic halls to see them, and if you live outside of a major city then good luck! From what I understand this is not as much the case in Australia where domestic films are regularly shown alongside hollywood productions. This is also true in Quebec as well where domestic films get a lot of play regardless of budget.

The Aussie industry got a lot of governemnt funding to export 'Australia' to the world and boost their industry to rival hollywood. I don't see that happening here, especially if Canadians are by and large satisfied with their weekend hollywood fix. Personally I would love to see a fun/entertaining/ thoughtful and well-made commercial movie set in Toronto with Canadians.. but it ain't never coming from hollywood.
 
But Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was a fun movie...Canadian movies are usually less fun. If Priscilla was a Canadian movie, it'd be a French movie, so they'd be touring small Quebec towns populated by quirky characters, including, of course, Remy Girard. Two of the three drag queens would be dead at the end of it and the third would be under interrogation for the entirety of the film, which would be told in surreal flashbacks. And it wouldn't be a comedy.
 
Well yeh, that would be a hard sell to the general public. Perhaps this stems in part from the fact that it's a small and competitive creative market with little money, thus film makers are more experimental with themes and subjects to get attention. Unfortunately when a film that is made that might be more intellectually accessible to the average movie goer, there is little opportunity to find it showing. And when talent does shine through where does a Canadian film maker have to go to further their career?

From a talent perspective the ingredients have been there to produce good, or at least entertaining, mainstream films. There is no reason why a more mainstream movie like say 'Moonstruck', which was filmed in Toronto and directed by a Canadian, couldn't have been set in Toronto with Canadian characters.
 
"But Canadian movies are always about hockey, lesbians, and necrophilia - or some combination of these with incest"
Click to expand...
49777on$-bernardo-homolka.jpg

Don't know about the hockey part...
 
Lelie Nielsen came back home and did "Men with Brooms" with Paul Gross. It was kind of cute for a formulaic movie, showing a small town Ontario (albeit an idealized one) with fairly normal people.

I would love to see more Canadian actors and directors etc. coming home and paying back. Lets face it, Hollywood would be half empty!
 
I think the movie about Karla and Paul Bernardo was made by Americans for an LA studio.

"I would love to see more Canadian actors and directors etc. coming home..."

Coming back home or staying home, especially good directors as they are the ones that can attract the greater talent and star power to Canadian projects. In fairness Jewison, Egoyan and Cronenberg have all done reasonably well at this.
 
I think the movie about Karla and Paul Bernardo was made by Americans for an LA studio.
Click to expand...
Of course, I was also referring to the films Paul + Karla made for themselves...

Karla's son. Anna Nicole's daughter. Cute betrothed-at-birth couple
*ick*
 
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