Criterion progress
I've made it up to Canada now with the Criterion collection. However, as far as Criterion is concerned, Canada is mostly Allan King documentaries. I'm not quite sure who Allan King was or why he was important, but that is sort of the point of this exercise.
For Canada, in addition to Allan Kin films, we've also got what appear to be two Quebecois films and an outlier called Sweet Movie, which was made by a Yugoslavian filmmaker. So, I'm completely in the dark here and have absolutely no idea what to expect. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes not. Recently, I watched a Belgian film called Man Bites Dog. It's a mockumentary about a film crew that is following a serial killer around. The more they're around him, the more they become like him. Supposedly, it's gained cult status. It just gave me a bad case of nausea, though. I'm not really a fan of the psycho killer genre.
Moving on...the first film on the Allan King list was Come on Children. It's pretty much MTV's Real World, except that it takes place inside an Ontario farmhouse during the winter. This is reality TV (or cinema verite, which is the preferred title) before marketers figured out how to milk every single thing for commercial purposes. One of the things that continues to strike me where these films from the 70s are concerned is just how blase people are about product labels. A person in one film made a sandwich from Nutella. No worries about the Ferrero corporation knocking on the door, asking for their cut. An innocent time!
The documentary basically asks: "What happens when you put a bunch of teens in a farmhouse and let them live on their own?"
Well, interestingly enough, they smoke a lot of weed, get drunk, get into arguments about the dishes, sing, and talk. It's pretty much a recreation of my college experience, except with a lot more hair.
Not much sex, though. Rather surprising. Perhaps sex was happening while the cameras were off. Not certain. There were teen parents in the film, though. They smoked in front of the baby. Several times while watching the film, I wanted to jump right through the screen, stub the cigarettes out, and tell them, "Don't you know these things are bad for you and the baby? Come on, children!"
Oh, yeah...Again, the title of the film is Come On Children. I get the title reference. I just don't get why Allan King left out that critical comma, though. One little punctuation mark changes the whole meaning of things . . .
There's a kid named John Hamilton who's the self-appointed philosopher/troubadour/Bob Dylan. The camera seems to love him. The irony, though, is that he's not the future superstar of the film. No, that would be Alex Lifeson (aka Rush guitarist). I'm not much of a Rush fan, I must confess, but I did find it rather odd to see him in this film still trying to figure the whole guitar thing out. He does a passable Jimi Hendrix "Star Spangled Banner" at one point. However, he's not really the musical star of the show. John Hamilton is.
There was one funny and rather ironic bit--that is, ironic in hindsight. The parents visit towards the end of the film to see how the kids are doing. Alex's parents give him the classic lecture, "Son, what are you going to do with your life?" Alex doesn't want to finish 12th grade and is definitely not interested in college. He just wants to be in a band and he feels things will work out. He's into the music and not the money.
He was just lucky that he was Alex Lifeson and not someone else.
For Canada, in addition to Allan Kin films, we've also got what appear to be two Quebecois films and an outlier called Sweet Movie, which was made by a Yugoslavian filmmaker. So, I'm completely in the dark here and have absolutely no idea what to expect. Sometimes this is a good thing. Sometimes not. Recently, I watched a Belgian film called Man Bites Dog. It's a mockumentary about a film crew that is following a serial killer around. The more they're around him, the more they become like him. Supposedly, it's gained cult status. It just gave me a bad case of nausea, though. I'm not really a fan of the psycho killer genre.
Moving on...the first film on the Allan King list was Come on Children. It's pretty much MTV's Real World, except that it takes place inside an Ontario farmhouse during the winter. This is reality TV (or cinema verite, which is the preferred title) before marketers figured out how to milk every single thing for commercial purposes. One of the things that continues to strike me where these films from the 70s are concerned is just how blase people are about product labels. A person in one film made a sandwich from Nutella. No worries about the Ferrero corporation knocking on the door, asking for their cut. An innocent time!
The documentary basically asks: "What happens when you put a bunch of teens in a farmhouse and let them live on their own?"
Well, interestingly enough, they smoke a lot of weed, get drunk, get into arguments about the dishes, sing, and talk. It's pretty much a recreation of my college experience, except with a lot more hair.
Not much sex, though. Rather surprising. Perhaps sex was happening while the cameras were off. Not certain. There were teen parents in the film, though. They smoked in front of the baby. Several times while watching the film, I wanted to jump right through the screen, stub the cigarettes out, and tell them, "Don't you know these things are bad for you and the baby? Come on, children!"
Oh, yeah...Again, the title of the film is Come On Children. I get the title reference. I just don't get why Allan King left out that critical comma, though. One little punctuation mark changes the whole meaning of things . . .
There's a kid named John Hamilton who's the self-appointed philosopher/troubadour/Bob Dylan. The camera seems to love him. The irony, though, is that he's not the future superstar of the film. No, that would be Alex Lifeson (aka Rush guitarist). I'm not much of a Rush fan, I must confess, but I did find it rather odd to see him in this film still trying to figure the whole guitar thing out. He does a passable Jimi Hendrix "Star Spangled Banner" at one point. However, he's not really the musical star of the show. John Hamilton is.
There was one funny and rather ironic bit--that is, ironic in hindsight. The parents visit towards the end of the film to see how the kids are doing. Alex's parents give him the classic lecture, "Son, what are you going to do with your life?" Alex doesn't want to finish 12th grade and is definitely not interested in college. He just wants to be in a band and he feels things will work out. He's into the music and not the money.
He was just lucky that he was Alex Lifeson and not someone else.