PROFILE: MICHAEL SNOW
MICHAEL SNOW
Born 1929, Toronto, Ont.
If there were ever a perfect image of the Canadian psyche -- it’s that of Snow. Born with the perfect name and a desire to make us aware of negative space, Snow may be a grandaddy in the context of this book, but as Atom Egoyan’s foreword makes clear, his vision of the world has framed much of the Canadian film experience for generations past - and no doubt generations to come. For a guy concerned with the mechanics of framing, it’s a fitting legacy.
Born in the very crust of the Canadian establishment, raised in Toronto’s tony Rosedale district, and funnelled through its favored institution -- Upper Canada College -- Snow was born to be a bank president. The fact that he became an artist makes him an original rebel, as his entire life’s path turned him into a living artwork defined in opposition to institutional ways of thinking. Already a painter and sculptor, Snow’s formal film career began in 1956, when he joined George ...
HARKEMA’S GIRL TROUBLE
A GIRL IS A GIRL (1999): The first feature film from Vancouver-based film-maker Reg Harkema (editor of Hard Core Logo, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, Last Night), A Girl is a Girl is a kinder, gentler meditation on Canadian alienation as it tells the story of Trevor (McIntyre), a really nice guy looking for a that one perfect girl. Little does Trevor know he’s a victim of mass media marketing campaigns, and really, there is no such thing as the smart, funny, Sports Illustrated swimsuit model who lives and breathes to make Trevor feel good about himself. Instead, women are just people -- or, as the title suggests: a girl is really just a girl. For the bulk of this offbeat charmer, we watch Trevor make an ass of himself in a variety of ways, with a variety of different women. There is Lisa, the ex-model with the eating disorder, Lisa, the rocker chick and Karen, as he slowly comes to accept the lack of feminine perfection -- not to mention his own shortcomings. Good dialogue, strong ...
ROBERT LEPAGE BIOGRAPHY
Biography: Robert Lepage
Born: 1957, Quebec City
A Renaissance man with a modernist’s flair for re-inventing media, Robert Lepage is one of the most exciting visual narrators in Canadian cinema -- a talent that may be explained by his entrance to film via theatre.
Born into a working class family which had already adopted two English-Canadian children, Lepage was always interested in performance, a passion that eventually led him to Quebec City’s Conservatoire d’art dramatique. He was an engaged student, and when he graduated in 1977, he could write, direct, act and execute elaborate stage designs -- but had no particular area of expertise. After a three-week workshop with Alain Knapp in Paris, he returned to Quebec and formed Theatre Hummm with Richard Fréchette.
The two produced award-winning work and from there, Lepage hooked up with Théâtre Repère, an established troupe, where he would stage works such as Tectonic Plates, En attendant and The Dragon’s Trilogy ...
