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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1979-01-10, Page 2 AFINSOMMAINSIBM WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 10, 1979 Serving Brussels and the surrounding community. Published each Wednesday afternoon at Brussels, Ontario By McLean Bros. Publishers Limited Evelyn Kennedy - Editor Pat Langlois - Advertising Member Canadian Community Newspaper Association and Ontario. Weekly Newspaper Association Subscriptions (in advance) Canada $9.00 a Year. Others $17.00 a Year. Single Copies 20 cents each. SAVOIE LS ONTAII 114 Brussels Post Behind the scenes by Keith Roulston What's wrong with Canadian? Down in Toronto these days they're busy making a movie. It's based on the murder mystery Sin Sniper, written by one of Canada's best known authors, Hugh Garner and set in Toronto's Cabbagetown area. Except it's not called Sin Sniper, but Stone Cold Dead. And it won't look like it's in Toronto but instead in some faceless American city. The locations are being chosen to look like those one might see in an American city and all mention of Canada is being downplayed even though the movie is being made in Canada by Canadians from a Canadian book by a Canadian author about a Canadian city. Down in Montreal they're making a movie in the streets of the city but are covering over all the street names that sound like they're in Montreal in favour of names that might show up in any typical American city. And so it goes. A while back Pierre Berton wrote a book called Hollywood's Canada dealing with the hilarious ways the American movie industry used toportray Canada. It seems there's an even greater opportunity for a book today called Canada's Hollywood about the ridicu- lous way Canadians are treating themselves in movies. In the right hands, such a book ought to be hilarious. There are more movies being made in Canada today than ever before. There are- fewer movies being made about Canada today than just about any time in the last decade. It used to be that Canadians film makers made self-conscious little films on shoestring budgets that nobody ever got to see, sometimes because the movie theatres were controlled by the big U.S. distribution companies which wanted to push their own products, good or bad; and sometimes because the Canadian movies were just gosh awful bad. But now and then there was a diamond in the rough, a charming little movie that would make people say: gee, if only that writer had a little more money and better talent so he could do a really good job. Well the Canadian government decided to do its part by bringing in tax incentives to get people to invest their money in movies made in Canada. For short while we had moderately budgeted films like Why Shoot the Teacher and Who Has Seen the Wind and Lies My Father Told Me, Which were both enjoyable and Canadian. But then people began to think they had to break the U.S. market to get the really big money and they were afraid Americans would only go to see movies that looked like they Were American. Thus, while they stayed in Canada to take advantage of the tax break) Canadians arid foreigners began to make Movies here that looked like they took place American cities and had American stars. Now there are very few "Canadian" Canadian movies being made at all and when they cld get made they're likely to star foreigners. The most riditulous stage was reached when Two Solitudes, a movie that couldn't be more Canadian, based as it was on a book dealing with the English-French rift in Canada starred an American as the English Canadian and a Frenchman as the French Canadian. The movies, of course, though being the most realistic of art forms have always dwelt in fantasy, making something look like something else. They make a movie about the Sahara in a Nevada Desert and a movie about Nevada in the Sahara. In the movie Superman they shot portions in Alberta which were supposed to take place in Kansas. I don't really object to that (as long as our tax money isn't involved). What I object to is the present paranoia that makes film makers sell their national birthright in the hope they'll get the pot of gold in the U.S. market. I realise that we can't make every movie so platantly Canadian that people in other parts of the world won't be interested but if you've got a good story don't think a few Canadian touches will drive people away from the picture in other countries. We don't stay home from Ameri- can or British pictures here. I find it ironic that at a time when Canadians still feel they've got to bring in some American "stars" to win box office for films made here, Americans picked a Canadian actress Margo Kidder for the female lead in the most expensive picture ever made, Superman. A Canadian ballerina was chosen for the lead in another American picture, Slow Dancing in the Big City, And another Canadian actress Genieve Bujold is one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood. Yet we continue to bring in Americans who very few film goers know much about to head our own films. Geroge Mendelik, the man who's making Toronto look like an American city in Stone Cold Dead says "I'm not hooked on making Canadian films. If you talk to the common Joe, he doesn't give a damn about Canadian identify in films." Well George) 1 think you're wrong. I think that, give good, enjoyable films, Canadians would choose those that show them something at least about the scenery of their own country rather than one that looks like it's made in some drab, faceless, nowhere land. I make that judgement after watching people flock to theatre for several years because they can identify with the Canadian characters and situations portrayed on stage, something they could never do before. People are starved • for the sight of something of themselves on stage, On television, at ,the movies. They just want entertaining, quality production along with their Canadiad identity. What's happening because of people like Mr. Meriden k is a tragedy. After all these years we finally have many films being made in Canada but for all the good it's doing us, they might as well be made in Hollywood, At least there they might try to juice things up by making Pasadena look like Vanconvet. CROSS COUNTRY SKIERS — Sunday was a nice sunny winter day and Lisa and Mark Pennington took advantage of it by getting out an their cross-country skiis. , (Brussels Post Photo) Stay safe at home January, not March, came in like a lion. Snow squalls, high winds and drifting snow caused buses to stay off the roads and schools to be closed. The buses stay off the roads during storms so that no accidents will happen to the load of children the bus carries, Motorists should be so wise. • The message to stay off the roads during storms is repeated every year but storm fever tempts too many people to think that when the weather is clear for ab out five minutes they will be able to reach their destination. If the O.P.P. say the roads are bad and that motorists should stay off the highway, then don't tempt fate. Of course, there is now a lot of advice about what storm provisions you should keep in the car in case you should get stranded along the side of the road someplace. But the biggest favor you can do yourself is to stay off the road in the first place. No business is so urgent that it demands you give your life up for it. So next time that big storm hits, stay home and stay alive. Short Shots by Evelyn Kennedy (Continued from Page 1) down a bit. How long it will last one never knows. By the time you read this we may be in the midst of another wintery blast. ****** The 1978 Skate Canada Exhibition pro- gram on TV was a pleasure to watch. There was no Toiler Cranston among the skaters. None, exhibited his imaginative, artistic interpretation and dramatic flare, but it was, nevertheless, an hour of "ballett on ice". The figure skaters performed with grace, agility and competence. They made it look so natural and easy that one tends to forget not only the long hours, but years, of dedication and practice it took to attain the expertise they demonstrated. Brussels Figure Skating Club has produced some promising young figure skatersiPerhaps, in the not too distant future we may have the excitement of seeing them in such 'an exhibition. ****** The Road Safety Unit of Transport Canada employs sortie strange tests to make out travelling safer from drunk drivers. Some drivers are paid for driving while intoxicated The purpose is to develop a devise which will detect impaired drivers on the road and help reduce the toll of alcohol-related accidents, Selected persons ate given air alcholie beverage to make them legally impaired--a .08 per cent blood alcohol content. They are then aSked to perform typical driving tasks on the telatiVe safety of a long runway on the Downsview base. The car is equipped with dual controls and the tests conducted by a dedicated human-factor engineer with the Road Safety Unit of Transport Canda. The reports that no matter how hard the drivers concentrate or practise they do not perform very well. The scary part, he said, is that they usually think they are doing well. Analysis of the video tape records of all driving performances show a distinctive pattern of driving-behaviour, characteristic of drivers who are legally impaired. In spite of the claims of many that they drive better after a few drinks, Attwood, who conducts the tests, has said that he has yet to encounter anyone who actually does. * Among the lovely and useful gifts I received at Christma: was a smoke detector. My family worries about my safety. It is something every home should have. The one I have is certainly sensitive and efficient, too much so in its present location. It has scared the life out of me twice since it was installed. Once When a few kernels of popped corn vvas accidently dropped on the stove element creating a few tiny flames and wisps of smoke, Off went the detector with its shrill insistent alarm, The same thing again when I was carefully poaching an egg for my breafast with nothing but heat and a little Stearn to alarm the beastie. The only way to shut the thing up was to open the door and let in the cold attic air to cool off my cosy kitchen, It definitely has to be moved, In spite of all this I certainly appreciate the protection and Sense of security it gives tne.