News for
Polytechnique (2009) More at IMDbPro »

4 items from 2013

11 June 2013 9:35 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

What value does fiction have in the interpretation of a historical event? This question can become central to the reception and understanding of historical films and has taken on important resonance in past years in regards to films like Ben Affleck’s Argo or Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty. These films are not documentaries; however they attempt to portray accurately events as they might have transpired. A similar film that for Canadian’s is perhaps a little closer to home is Denis Villeneuve’s 2009 film Polytechnique. For those unfamiliar with the events of the film, it portrays a 1989 Massacre at the École Polytechnique in Montreal, where Marc Lépine shot 28 people, killing 14 – all of whom were women. He purposefully targeted the women, blaming them for not being accepted into the school. Though on a smaller scale, like the two big Hollywood productions this film portrays an important historical event that »

- Justine

31 May 2013 12:18 AM, PDT | QuietEarth.us | See recent QuietEarth news »

Canadian director Denis Villeneuve first emerged on the Canadian film front with an odd little film titled Maelstrom. The story was interesting but what really stood out was Villeneuve's strong storytelling and visual style which he cemented with the release, a few years later, of Polytechnique. A dramatization of the 1989 Montreal Massacre, Polytechnique was a spectacular achievement in storytelling and direction, a movie which tackled a difficult subject with care. Two years ago Villeneuve adapted Wajdi Mouawad's award winning play and Incendies (review) ushered in the arrival of Villeneuve on the international scene. [Continued ...] »

16 January 2013 2:33 PM, PST | Alt Film Guide | See recent Alt Film Guide news »

Canadian Screen Awards 2013 nominations: War Witch rules The Genie Awards are dead, long live the Canadian Screen Awards! Well, in truth, the Genie Awards aren’t exactly dead; they’ve just been transmogrified, along with Canadian television’s Gemini Awards, into the aforementioned Canadian Screen Awards, organized by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. But Genie or Canadian Screen, once again a Québécois production dominates the nominations roster. (Photo: Rachel Mwanza in Kim Nguyen’s War Witch.) Kim Nguyen’s Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominee Rebelle / War Witch, the story of a (very) young African rebel fighter, received a total of 12 Canadian Screen Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Berlin Film Festival’s Best Actress Rachel Mwanza), Best Supporting Actor (Serge Kanyinda), and Best Original Screenplay (Nguyen). War Witch follows in the heels of recent Quebec-made Genie Award powerhouses and eventual Best Picture winners such »

- Andre Soares

11 January 2013 7:30 AM, PST | ioncinema | See recent ioncinema news »

Tom à la Ferme

Director: Xavier Dolan

Writer(s): Dolan and Michel Marc Bouchard

Producer(s): Mk2′s Charles Gillibert and Nathanaël Karmitz

U.S. Distributor: Rights Available

Cast: Caleb Landry Jones, Xavier Dolan, Evelyne Brochu

Legend has it that Xavier Dolan met with the playwright directly after one of the play’s engagements (see promotional pic above) and asked to bring the film to the big screen. Fast forward a couple of seasons later and Dolan makes it his fourth feature – a departure for him as it’s an adaption for one, and that this source material wasn’t penned by him. It’ll be a nice change of pace to see the director work from material that is somewhat removed from him but yet remains in the confines of the family drama (for which Dolan excelled in with his very first feature, I Killed My Mother). As for now, »

- Eric Lavallee

4 items from 2013