Olympics 2012 Film Part 4 - Norway, Denmark, Cuba, South Korea, Netherlands & Canada

Canada €“ 260 Medals

Canadian cinema will always be overshadowed by its next door neighbour. With imports and exports an everyday occurrence between the two, it seems it will forever be that way, given the dominance of both Hollywood and the country€™s vast independent films. Hollywood even went through a phase in the early 1900s of depending upon Canada as an 'exotic' filming location, the problem being that they had a stereotyped recipe in depicting both the country and its people. Unfortunately, with the draw of Hollywood proving too much, many Canadian directors and actors showing any promise, immediately got drawn to America, leaving Canada without a cinematic distinctiveness for many years. Slow to get sound into its films and with internal politics affecting the productivity of their industry for many years, Canadian cinema floundered. From pre-war to the 1970s production was slow, arduous and produced numerous failures. Its problem wasn€™t necessarily America, but the country€™s reluctance to move forward, it spent many years trying to seek a niche market in the wake of Hollywood€™s dominance. It wasn€™t until the 1980s that Canadian cinema gained confidence in itself and its sluggish development began to gather pace. Beginning to make cinema which had increased artistic merit, Canadian cinema chose not to shy away from American cinema, instead embracing its independent film making as a blueprint to making quality driven cinema. With a focus on the art house, its cinema was gaining more critical acclaim from abroad even if box office figures were low. It will never be able to beat America for box office dominance, but with the abundance of beautiful landscapes and talented filmmakers available, such as the affable Sarah Polley, it can undoubtedly make great art out of beautiful stories. Bronze €“ My Winnipeg (Guy Maddin, 2007) Guy Maddin is a director who clearly loves his home city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. His filmography has pretty much all been filmed in the city and the majority of the narratives take place there, none more so than what I believe to be his best film; My Winnipeg. A Maddin-styled mockumentary fused with surrealism (he refers to it as a docu-fantasia); My Winnipeg is an examination of Winnipeg, its history and Maddin€™s own interaction with the city he grew up in. He informs us of many stories revolving around the city€™s history. The stable fire for example, which led to the horses in panic running into the river and freezing to death. Their forzen heads sticking out of the frozen lake, merely becoming an obstacle to the skaters who choose to skate there. He introduces us to Winnipeg monuments with their back stories, but more importantly he recites old personal memories. With the city in flux, Maddin€™s personal tales are full of anger and disappointment at the city€™s changes. His own interactions and memories of the city, now failing to exist in a physical form. Instead they€™re confined to memories and as we know memory can be disputed. His recounting of tales become beautifully exaggerated, perhaps they happened at some point but with the evidence now gone, it is in his memory where they have grown and expanded to mean much more. It is a nostalgic examination of a town, which in essence, does not exist in the same way as it used to. Shown through the eyes of the surrealist Maddin, My Winnipeg, becomes so much more than a documentary, Lynchian in its approach, the term docu-fantasia is terrifically fitting. Silver €“ Atanarjuat - The Fast Runner (Zacharias Kunuk, 2001) The Inuit community has been explored in cinema before, unfortunately most of its depictions have been savagely stereotyping. The famous documentary Nanook of the North however, is a fascinating look at Inuit culture. Atanarjuat on the other hand, goes one step further, creating a fictional narrative film (based around Inuit culture) which was filmed, acted and released in the native Inuit language of Inuktitut. The narrative surveys everyday Inuit lives, which are disrupted when an evil spirit is summoned to cause rifts in the community, during which, it instigates a spiritual duel where one of the local chiefs is unfortunately killed. With a curse placed upon the community, a member of it, Tulimaq has lost the ability to hunt. Continually failing to get meat for his two children Amaqjuaq and Atanarjuat, he must rely on a fellow member to gather meat for him and his family. The film then chronologically jumps forward to the lives of Atanarjuat and Amaqjuaq and their rivalry with the leader of the camp Sauri and his son Oki. Focusing on the love triangle between Atanarjuat, Oki and his betrothed wife Anuat, the film begins a story of mistrust, revenge and love revolving around the greater presence of spiritual mysticism. Its depiction of Inuit life is authentic and dispels many of the stereotypes that the Inuit community have had to endure from cinema. Some locations are meant to be shown on the cinematic screen and the icy tundra is stunning, enveloping the characters in size. In one particular scene, Atanarjuat is chased naked across the ice, it is here we get to see the landscape in all its beauty and omniscient presence, albeit with the sight of a naked man. With great acting from a relatively amateur cast of real Inuit, the film maintains realism throughout a narrative. When looked at candidly, the narrative is not far from a Hollywood film, however the roots of Inuit culture protrude through it, giving voice to a culture which America and even Canada, have misused in their pasts. Gold €“ Videodrome (David Cronenberg, 1983) David Cronenberg has gone onto become one of the best directors working today. A prime of example of Canadian talent drifting to America, he is one of the more artistic and audacious directors in cinema. Embracing body horror, Cronenberg became a master in the niche genre, with Videodrome standing as his greatest example. James Woods stars as Max, a Cable TV programmer who looks for more and more ways to titillate his audiences. He and a colleague come across a satellite transmission, which he believes is coming from Malaysia; one which essentially shows snuff footage. Believing that the extremity and sense of reality will gain him even more viewers, Max begins to broadcast it on his network late at night. Unbeknownst to Max, the intentions of Videodrome go much further than the screen and to much more disturbing levels. One of the greatest science fiction films of all time, Videodrome is a great examination of television and how it blurs the line between the man and his machines, a world where television begins to replace reality. Cronenberg examines how television can affect us, proposing that the box that sits in our living rooms, seeks to make life seem as real as what we view. Perhaps now the overall message resonates even louder. The introduction of social media has caused many social interactions to be played out via our television, computers and phones; with the social arena of life making way for the technological arena of the screen. It is an extremely interesting dichotomy that Videodrome examines, albeit with extreme body horror. Cronenberg will never ever shy away from the distortion of the body, gore is his friend and perhaps in some of his other films it exists as a mere shock factor. Here however, it resonates with the films overarching ideology which still echoes in today's world.