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THE DETAILS

Montreal Stop Motion Film Festival, October 19-21, 2012

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Café de Flore, an uncommon love story that spans decades, is told in a cross-cut back-and-forth style that showcases two very different landscapes—1960s Montmartre, where Vanessa Paradis’ character is a single mom of a young boy with Down syndrome, and present-day Montreal, where hometown actor Kevin Parent is navigating a thorny midlife crisis. The movie talks about that but what comes out is love, the power of love, the goodness of love and the destruction of love in all its forms.

“The script had me captivated and I lived very beautiful moments on set,” says Paradis. “I saw the film for the first time yesterday, and it was very clear to me that it’s about love, in all its forms—there is a bit of each character in all of us. It’s a movie that makes you think, and feel, and dialogue—while we were shooting, I felt inspired and full of oxygen and I relived that a bit last night while seeing the movie.”

Paradis says that she was attracted to the project by the script, as well as the prospect of working with Vallée, who also wrote the script. She says he’s a director who’s “all heart, as good at the emotional side of a story and the technical aspects of shooting a film,” and that she is looking forward to premiering the film in Montreal, a city she loves.

“The movie was born here, and it comes out in France a lot later,” she says. “The premiere in Montreal is the first time we’ll all be together with the Canadian cast and crew, it’ll be great.”

Vallée, for his part, says that though he adores shooting in Paris, he was happy to film half of his story at home in Montreal, where he was delighted to be able to ride a Bixi to work on-set—a rare privilege, he says.

“I had to shoot in Plateau Mont-Royal because it was a perfect setting for this story,” says Vallée. “My characters live near Parc Lafontaine and I shot in the park with all the chairs on Roy and St. André. Ultimately, the Plateau Mont-Royal was perfect to establish these characters and to setup a landscape that was totally different from the scenes in France. I still live there, I love it there, and it’s where my characters can flourish. The other place I’d like to live and work, is in the Mile-End, because you have Café Olympico and Genevieve Grandbois with her caramels a fleur de sel. Oh yes.”

The Café de Flore premiere and red carpet is on September 14 at the Cinéma Impérial. The film opens in theatres on September 23.

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As one might imagine, the films shown at Film Pop tend to be music-related—last year, they premiered Look at What the Light Did Now, a splendid documentary about TO rock femme fatale Leslie Feist. This year, they’re continuing their swath of top-shelf rock docs with another filmic tribute to a goddess of modern sound: PJ Harvey, whose new album, Let England Shake, is accompanied by a series of 12 videos shot by war photographer Seamus Murphy.

Vancouver’s punk scene is historically very loud, and also important—seminal bands like D.O.A. and S.N.F.U. have come out of British Columbia, as does Bloodied and Unbowed, a doc by Suzanne Tabata. Tabata and Randy Rampage of the band D.O.A. will be there for a post-screening Q&(D.O.)A. Another music-industry doc not to be missed is Upside Down: The Creation Records Story, about the definitive indie U.K. label. As interesting an A-list attracton is Freaks in Love, which puports to be “25 years in the world of underground rock, as seen through the eyes of freakshow psych-punk band Alice Donut.”

For fans of doomed folk-singers, the Phil Ochs doc will be a big draw. The legendary singer/songwriter from the ‘60s and ‘70s finally has a doc to tell his life story, and how his creative energy and eventual demise were tied into the zeitgeist of a generation. The screening will be attended by Phil’s brother Michael Ochs, curator of the Michael Ochs Archive, the world’s most extensive collection of rock-show stills.

Also, do make sure to check out a screening of American photo/video artist Laurel Nakadate’s The Wolf Knife, an experimental feature film about the bored horniness of teenage girls, among other riveting topics. Nakadate best-known for her controversial 9/11 Girl Scout video, recently had her first solo show at Long Island’s storied MOMA PS1 and has been the focus of profiles in heavy-hitting pubs like The Economist.

Best of all, Film Pop is this year curated by Montreal’s own Kier-la Janisse, co-founder and owner of Blue Sunshine Psychotronic Film Space an amazing wonderland of movies where many of the Film Pop offerings will be shown, as well as slideshows by artists specially commissioned for the festival and an interesting double feature about outsider video artist R. Stevie Moore and a documentary about somebody throwing a beer bottle at Burton Cummings’ head in Winnipeg in the 1980s.

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THE DETAILS

Film Pop, September 21-25, 2011

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Montreal is a major maritime port, and both our access to the open water (the magnificent St-Lawrence River) and our very own canal provide historical waterways perfect for a festival celebrating all sorts of classic boats.

Sperry Top-Siders (who else?) will sponsor a stage down in the Old Port that will feature local acts such as celtic ensemble The Paddingtons, goofy girl group Les Gourmandes, Senegalese-Quebecoise singer Marième and more. Possibly the coolest thing about the festival is the roster of speakers they’ll have on hand: From Billy Rioux, who will recreate a 2000 km voyage from Baie-St-Paul to Niagara Falls on a Square-sailed raft, to Alain Boucher, who will detail the history of schooners on the St. Lawrence, to Michele Dagenais from the University of Montreal who’ll be talking about Montreal’s link to the river, to Michel Leboeuf, the St. Lawrence’s ambassador at the David Suzuki foundation, who’ll be describing the ecosystem of the river. There will also be practical talks about how to buy and restore a classic boat, and the Blue Route, a kayak route around the island of Montreal.

The fest offers a series of movies in their Ciné-Maritime programme, most of them documentaries about various maritime feats, including Boxed In Under The Stars, about two French brothers who cross the ocean without any directional instruments, and Ice Water in the Veins, about a famly who crosses the St. Lawrence in an ice canoe.

And last but not least, the most inventive attraction of the festival: A guided “catastrophe walk” around the Old Port, in which many Montreal-centric maritime disasters will be examined. Kind of like a ghost walk, only better because it’s real.

THE DETAILS

Montreal Classic Boat Festival August 19-21, 2011

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The truth is, nothing is for sure at Fantasia, and that’s the whole point. Montreal’s genre film festival, now in its 15^th year, has been giving the people what they want for a decade and a half…

Seriously, Fantasia is a festival that has been fan-supported since the very beginning—for three weeks every summer, the kids (and grown-ups, too) have been forgoing splashy summer fun in the sun for the dank and dark confines of Concordia University’s cinemas for a freakshow of unfathomable proportions—and we mean that as the biggest compliment imaginable. Each year, dedicated programmers rifle through the world deep, dark cinema subconscious to create a programme of 100-odd feature films that represent the strangest and most bizarre, iconoclastic, genre-shattering cinema in the world.

The festival opened with a premiere of Kevin Smith’s aptly named foray into the horror genre, Red State, which premiered amidst controversy at Sundance in January, followed by a party with DJs for everyone—quite a stretch from the usual red-carpet ethos of some other film festivals down the way that we don’t care to mention. That’s kind of the point of Fantasia, it’s a festival with something for everyone, open to all, with absolutely no pretension, dedicated to real, true movie loving. That’s what makes it special.

Of course, with 21 days jam-packed with movies and events that range from the sublime to the ridiculously sublime, it can be hard to navigate the best of the fest—which is why we’ve laid out a few of the don’t miss events for the first days of the festival. That, and because we love every last minute of it.

#1: Belgian films have always been among the most striking selections of the fest, and Michael Roskam’s Bullhead is no exception. Promises to be harrowing.

#2: Burke and Hare, John Landis’ new film, stars Simpn Pegg and Andy Serkis (Gollum in the LOTR trilogy) in a screwball comedy about body-snatching in Victorian England. Part of a Lifetime Achievement Award for the famous Canadian director, who helmed The Blues Brothers and An American Werewolf in London.

#3: Fans of South Korean genre cinema will have a chance to kneel at the altar of Sion Sono (Love Exposure, Suicide Club) when the festival screens his latest, Cold Fish, a black romantic comedy set in a fish store.

#4: Jamie Bell, Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton—a cracker U.K. “it” cast—add star muscle to Retreat, first-time director Carl Tibbetts’ horror movie about a vacation, an island…and a plague. Festival director Mitch Davis calls it the most visceral British horror film since The Descent, which is really saying something.

#5: The Theatre Bizarre: An anthology of shorts directed by some of modern horror cinema’smost controversial figures: Buddy Giovanazzo, Richard Stanley, and Montreal’s own Karim Hussain. Six films shot in four countries with identical production budgets and wildly different perversions: You get the idea.

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THE DETAILS

Fantasia Film Festival, July 14-August 7, 2011

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Remember the grab-your-seat excitement of that rugged (and handsome!) archaeologist Indiana Jones, aka Harrison Ford? Well, now you can see, hear and feel that thrill again. This show is the first-ever Indy-themed exhibition, combining props and video clips from the Lucasfilm archives with archaeological information from the National Geographic Society and the Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Celebrating 30 years of Indiana Jones movies, this fun exhibit takes you on a winding wonderland. Enter and you are immediately on The Indie Trail. On display are materials from all four Indiana Jones movies, including iconic props like the macho motorbike and the gleaming gold Ark of the Covenant (from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark) and the fabulous crystal skull (Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). There’s also a racy red dress – with its amusing story. Kate Capshaw wore a red sequined dress in the film Temple of Doom. However, that particular dress is no longer around: an elephant ate it! No worries: a second red outfit is shown.

Part of the fun as one walks through the different areas is the virtual tour and treasure hunt designed for children. But I loved it too! Standing in darkened rooms with my cool multi-media hand-held device (complimentary with the admission ticket), I clicked it on and listened to Harrison Ford’s welcoming narrative. Each exhibit is numbered, so I simply cued in the number for which I wanted a description and a clear explanation about the item came up. The rooms are dimly lit, just like in a movie theatre. Each area showcases a different film with costumes, sketches and video clips. (Ugh factor: One video shows a massive mound of silver, slithering snakes, much to the delight of the kids there on opening day… if not their mothers!)

The exhibition is a brilliant combination of Hollywood magic and the allure of the unknown. Alongside the film bits are more serious areas, presenting photos lent by the National Geographic Society of real archaeological digs and priceless ancient pieces on loan from Penn Museum. One of the rooms shows pictures of mysterious markings made on the ground, patterns that are massive enough to be seen clearly from high in the sky. Who made these? Why? And, more puzzling, how?

On opening day, actor John Rhys-Davis, who co-starred with Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, flew in from New Zealand and added a touch of Hollywood glamour. And, yes, he loved Montreal!

FUN FACTS:

• Love Indie’s hat? You can buy it (and his whip!) at the Indie Boutique.
• The exhibit will tour the world for six years. It was put together by a Montreal consortium called X3 Productions, including events producer Equipe Spectra.
• The four Indie adventure movies have received 14 Academy Awards nominations

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THE DETAILS

Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology, April 28 to September 28, 2011

Montreal Science Centre, Quays of the Old Port, 514-496-4724 or 1-877-496-4724, Metro: Place d’Armes

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Who among us doesn’t long for adventure, fortune and glory? When I first heard about the Indiana Jones archaeological museum exhibit debuting in Montreal, I realized we all relate to the epic quests of legendary truth-seeker Indiana Jones. Played by the ever-dashing Harrison Ford in movies released between 1981 and 2008, the earnest, brooding hero made archaeology sexy and ancient relics titillating.

I remember seeing Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in 1984, when I was an awkward, bespectacled kid. I remember the one-liners, the fedora, the triumphant theme song that made me sure that good would triumph over evil. Maybe things were simpler then, or maybe I was just young(er). But like our hero Indy, I believed that things would change.

With the franchise still going strong, there’s no better ambassador than Dr. Indiana Jones to make the science of archaeology exciting and relevant to a worldwide audience of all ages. As such, on April 28, the Montreal Science Centre hosts the world premiere of a major new interactive “museum experience”, Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology. (And who doesn’t love a glamourous world premiere?) Using state-of-the-art multimedia technology, the exhibit features a mind-blowing collection of ancient artifacts and Indiana Jones movie materials (like props, set designs and conceptual art). The show runs in Montreal through September 18 before hitting the road for stints across Canada, Europe and Asia.

Here’s how the exhibit goes down: You get a hand-held video companion guide to assist on your quest to solve various archaeological mysteries as you navigate through the 1,000 square-metre exhibit, from the Indy Trail to various archaeological zones and interactive adventures. Alongside your new BFF Indiana Jones, you’ll experience the real stories behind relics like the Holy Grail and decipher ancient scripts. You’ll learn how real-life archaeologists solve mysteries around the world from Peru to fictional places like Akator and Mayapore. You will be titillated!

Yet this exhibit is no fairy tale. If you’re wondering where the fact comes in, look no further than a little organization called the National Geographic Society, whose other traveling exhibitions have been seen by more than six million visitors. Along with the Penn Museum and the City of Montreal’s archaeology collection, they assembled actual artifacts and historical facts and figures for the show, whose other partners include Lucasfilms Ltd. and Montreal’s very own X3 Productions.

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THE DETAILS

Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology, April 28 to September 18, Montreal Science Centre, 333 de la Commune St. West, 1-888-558-4423

Guest Blogger Simona Rabinovitch is a Montreal native who lives Brooklyn, New York. She covers arts, culture, travel and entertainment-type stuff for the Huffington Post, Globe & Mail, ELLE Canada, Lonely Planet, Zink, DazedDigital and more.

Photos Credits: Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology- © Montreal Science Centre

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It’s no secret that Montreal is a great place to shoot movies, from the award-winning Barney’s Version and its Mordecai Richler precursor, The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, to horror movies like Gothika and Orphan.

The 60-day shoot for Zack Snyder’s 300 was completely enacted on greenscreens in a studio housed in five disused train warehouses in Montreal’s Cité Multimedia. After shooting was completed, the footage was passed to Hybride, the 95-person, Quebec owned and operated visual-effects house also responsible for Sin City, which operates out of a refurbished mansion in the Laurentian village of St-Sauveur and doesn’t even have an office in Tinseltown.

“The quality of the crews and expertise is great in Montreal,” said Snyder when 300 hit screens in 2007. He recently said that though his most recent film, Sucker Punch, was shot in Vancouver, he would love to shoot in Montreal again someday. “We did a lot of shooting and a lot of the post-production in Montreal, and we had a lot of surreal experiences there. On the last day of shooting, we’d just finished our last shot of a bunch of dead Spartans lying there. And then okay, that’s it, it’s 6 in the morning, everyone’s sweating in their loincloths and we all walked outside into this big blizzard and had a snowball fight. It was pretty awesome.”

The High Cost of Living is set to hit screens in the next few weeks, after premiering at the Toronto Film Festival last fall and more recently at the Montreal festival, the Rendez-vous du Cinema Quebecois. The emotionally-charged movie deals with the aftermath of a tragic drunk-driving accident, and stars Braff and Montreal-based actress Isabelle Blais.

“It was really fun to live in Montreal for a few weeks when we were shooting,” Braff explained. “I love the city and the chance to shoot here again was a big draw for me to accept the part.” (Braff also shot the Tony Goldwyn film The Last Kiss here in 2006). The actor mentions he especially liked wandering the city, looking for new favourite spots that would reveal themselves to him on his many long walks around town. “I especially love Old Montreal, walking the streets that feel so European, but have their own appeal. I love ducking into restaurants that feel secret only to me. I’d come back anytime- and we were shooting in the winter!”

Guest Blogger: Melora Koepke

The post MONTREAL IN THE MOVIES appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

Our picks for Montréal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma...

October 18th

ENTER THE VOID Directed by Gaspar Noé / France, Italy / 2009 / 161 min. His movies are never for the faint of heart. No matter if you’re a lover or a hater, Noé’s movies never leave anyone indifferent. This one is about the spiritual – or dare we say demented – journey of a gunned-down drug dealer in Tokyo. We believe this is a must-see on the big screen.

October 19th

OVER YOUR CITIES GRASS WILL GROW Sophie Fiennes / France, New Zealand, United Kingdom / 2010 / 105 min. An insightful documentary on the creative process of German artist Anselm Kiefer. Not your typical wordy documentary (interviews after interviews…), the movie’s narrative structure itself is said to be quite a piece of art.

October 20th

SHIT YEAR Directed by Cam Archer / United States / 2010 / 95 min. In the movie, actress Ellen Barkin, plays an aging actress (!) who leaves Hollywood and starts questioning her identity. Between “madness and grace” her world slowly crumbles… This is the second full-lenght movie of director Cam Archer, former protégé of renowned director Gus Van Sant.

October 21st

MONSTERS Directed by Gareth Edwards / United Kingdom / 2010 / 94 min. Don’t be fooled. Although the title may suggest this is just another average “monster” feature, this movie is said to give american blockbusters a run for their money: it was made with only 15,000$, two actors and a three-person technical crew. No wonder it created such a buzz at the last Cannes Film Festival.

October 22nd

THE HEADLESS FAMILY Directed by Kote Aramboy / Thailand / 2009 / 102 min. Described as a “pop-art movie”, this comedy hails from Thaïland with a unique tone that’s said to be morbid and funny – like a cross between Pee Wee Herman and Tim Burton!

October 23rd

FILM SOCIALISME Directed by Jean-Luc Godard / France, Switzerland / 2010 / 101 min. A new provocative movie by iconic director Jean-Luc Godard. His latest is a tryptic of sorts, and is a must for all hardcore cinéma lovers who’ve followed his work since the breakthrough of the French Nouvelle Vague.

October 24th

SUBMARINO Directed by Thomas Vinterberg / Danemark, Sweden / 2010 / 105 min. Two brothers living like strangers in the same city come face to face at their mother’s funeral. Director Thomas Vinterberg digs once more into troubled family matters, as he did so masterfully with his world-acclaimed Celebration in 1998.

The post FESTIVAL DU NOUVEAU CINEMA: OUR PICKS appeared first on Tourisme Montréal Blog.

Steve Carrell confirmed last weekend that he’ll be leaving his signature small-screen role (as Michael Scott on The Office) for the big screen at the end of this season, after a hat trick of movie releases this summer: First Date Night with Tinay Fey, then last week’s animated outing Despicable Me, and finally, in director Jay Roach’s (Austin Powers, Meet The Parents) Dinner For Schmucks, which opens in theatres July 30.

Also, “Steve will be playing for the Miami Heat”, confirmed Roach during a press day Mtl Buzz attended in LA last weekend.

Carrell plays Barry, the titular ‘schmuck’ of the film’s title (it’s an adaptation of French funnyman Francis Veber’s 1998 film Le Diner des cons.)

Barry is a tax accountant whose avocation is building dioramas of “great moments in history” with taxidermized mice. He calls them his “mousterpieces”. Funny stuff.

When asked why the role appealed to him, Carrell said, “I like the storyline it was funny, a little weird, had a heart to it, and I kind of like things that have grey areas, said Carrell. Plus, working with Jay Roach and working with Paul [Rudd, who plays Carrell’s straight man in the film] were enormous factors for me.”

“I think Jay does a great job having char comedy meets physical comedy, so I was just thrilled to be along for the ride,” he added.

Continuing the Jay roach love-fest, Rudd jumped in: “I think Austin Powers is one of the funniest movies I’ve seen, and such a surprising movie,” adds Rudd. “One of the things I think is amazing about Jay is how personal he is, just such a smart guy—I will often singe his praises because he has all this talent and yet he’s the most self-effacing guys and stealthy with his humour and his ability to write, and edit—he’s amazing and I was thrilled to be able to work with the guy.”

“My wife’s really into Paul, too” shot back Roach.

Jay Roach will receive the Just For Laughs Director of the Year award tonight following an 8 p.m. screening of Dinner for Schmucks at montreal’s Imperial Theatre.

For tickets and more info, visit hahaha.com

Guest Blogger: Melora Koepke

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