Robert Shaw as ‘Ginger’ and Mary Ure as ‘Vera” in a scene from THE LUCK OF GINGER COFFEY – a Crawley Films / Roth Kershner presentation. April 1964. Photo courtesy James Forrester.

So, what’s a Canadian feature film?

Start

By J. A. Forrester (revised for submission to Arthur, Canadianfilm.ca, 8July2024)

While on a Paul Newman survey I dug out his directorial debut Rachel, Rachel (1968) on DVD, based on Margaret Laurence’s 1966 novel A Jest of God. Not bad for a first-time effort and a low budget to have 4 Oscar nominations (Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actress for Woodward, and Best Supporting Actress for Parsons) and it won two Golden Globes: Best Director and Best Actress (Drama).

I love the story about Margaret Laurence receiving $30,000 from Newman for the screen rights to her novel, just after the Canada Council turned down her grant application, when she lived in Elm Cottage in Buckinghamshire. Newman reset the location to Connecticut from Manitoba, and shot the film close to his home outside Westport, CT. According to Telefilm Canada this film isn’t considered Canadian. By contrast Porky’s meets all the criteria. So, what is truly a Canadian feature film?

Director Irving Kershner discusses script with Robert Shaw in THE LUCK OF GINGER COFFEY – a Crawley Films / Roth Kershner presentation. April 1964. Photo courtesy James Forrester.

It’s a similar problem with The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964), which I introduced at a Canadian Film Institute screening in October 2017, as part of the 150th celebration of films which were shot in Ottawa. The film was favourably reviewed by critics in Canada and abroad and was a modest box office success. Yet, because it was directed by an American and had British lead actors, it was not considered “Canadian” by some critics. It was, however, nominated and won best feature at the 17th Canadian Film Awards in 1965. Personally, I view it as a quintessentially Canadian film in that the location is clearly identified (unlike the CCA era productions of the late 70s when Canada was just a Hollywood backlot). The title character is a “new Canadian” played by an experienced UK actor, so the casting is true to the original novel by Brian Moore, who wrote his first screenplay for this production. The bulk of the financing came from Canadian investors. If you are evaluating The Luck of Ginger Coffey via a Telefilm Canada bureaucratic checklist, the film does not have enough ‘points’ to qualify as Canadian. However, its look and feel are pure Canuck. The exteriors were all shot in downtown Montreal and the interiors in the Ottawa area. The black and white cinematography is stunning.

Back in the 70s and 80s we were under the impression that foreign owned theatre distributors and exhibitors were the impediment for getting Canadian films to market. Well, during the time that Gerry Schwartz of Onex Corporation Toronto owned Cineplex (2001- 2009), I didn’t see any appreciable increase in Canadian films making it onto our screens. So much for that theory.

Director Irving Kershner instructs Court Clerk (played by Paul Herbert) in scene from THE LUCK OF GINGER COFFEY – a Crawley Films / Roth Kershner presentation. April 1964. Photo courtesy James Forrester.

It’s true that Australia and New Zealand both have good domestic film production & distribution. Even then, the best ANZAC directors moved on to Hollywood as well as the Canadians. For my money Denis Villeneuve is the best Canadian film director export to world cinema. I recommend his 2010 film Incendies, which is remarkably prescient as the current conflict in Gaza illustrates.

My all-time favourite Canadian film is The Grey Fox (1982). Unfortunately, Vancouver director Philip Borsos died young (41), and the film was unavailable for 40 years until it was released by Kino Lorber on DVD in 2020. The next on my list is Claude Jutra’s Mon oncle Antoine which received the Criterion two DVD treatment, with extra features in 2014. The attention in both cases is well deserved.

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) released Ten Best Canadian film lists roughly every ten years in 1984, 1993, 2004 and 2015. I notice that many of the titles on the complete list were created in the 1970s and 1980s (with a few in the 1990s). This seems to have been the golden era of Canadian feature film production. Goin’ Down the Road and Mon oncle Antoine appear on all 4 lists, but The Grey Fox dropped off 20 years ago. I am looking forward to 2026 when the next TIFF list should appear. Hopefully there will be more recent titles deserving attention from Canadian audiences. You may recall that the Canadian Images Festival was organized at Trent University from 1978 to 1984, to highlight and celebrate Canadian film & media productions. Queen’s University eventually picked up the torch in 2001 when the Kingston Canadian Film Festival launched, and it continues to the present day.

Noted Canadian film professor Peter Harcourt and Take One publisher Wyndham Wise provide a concise summary of the state of Canadian feature film production in their revised Canadian Encyclopedia entry:

“If Canadian cinema has always been a marginal cinema within its own borders – as are most national cinemas in comparison with the Hollywood entertainment machine – it has become an international cinema. By becoming more diversified, our margins are now of greater interest to other nations – especially in Europe. In spite of recent economic setbacks, Canadian cinema, in whichever language, from whatever culture, and in whatever mode, has never had such an assured and respected place in the world.” (Canadian Encyclopedia online accessed 2024-07-08: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/canadian-feature-films ).

© James Forrester

James Forrester

James Forrester was a systems administrator at OCADU in Toronto for 25 years, before returning to graduate school from 2014 to 2016 in the Public Texts program, of Trent University’s English Department. He previously graduated in History from the University of Ottawa, Film Studies at Queen’s University and Library Information Science from Western University. He also worked for Film Canada, the CFI, Canadian Review, CLA, Carleton University, the Non-Theatrical Film Fund (DSS), EMPDA, and NLC. Forrester received two Canada Council grants, which led to this research being incorporated into two books and a documentary video about pioneer film producer F. R. “Budge” Crawley of Ottawa. (James can be reached at, BMWriderCanada@gmail.com)

23 August 2022

2 Comments Leave a Reply

  1. Thanks so much for your post, James. Some of my favourite Canadian films that come to mind for me are, ‘Videodrome’, ‘Les Dangereux’, and for shorts, I am a big fan of Norman McLaren animation, with ‘Neighbours’ making a big influence on me. An all time fav when I came across the works of Associated Screen News Director, Gordon Sparling, is ‘The Breadwinner’, a 20min short from 1932. Dale.

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