DOCS, OUTDOOR SCREENINGS AND FRENCH CRIME CLASSICS
Now that summer is in full swing, outdoor movie screenings are happening all across the city
The Documentaries of Demme (+1): The passing of Jonathan Demme in April at the age of 73 was a shock to many in the film world. Perhaps that’s because the director had done so much strong work — in both the narrative and non-fiction fields — so reliably and for so long, it seemed almost reasonable to expect him to keep at it for a few more decades. But as we all know, that’s not how things go.
Taking a bit of the sting out of this loss, the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema celebrates the American filmmaker with The Documentaries of Demme (+1), a seven-film retrospective that begins this weekend with one of his most unduly overlooked efforts. Originally released in 1992, Cousin Bobby is Demme’s moving profile of Reverend Robert W. Castle, a bona-fide relative of the filmmaker, who was also an Episcopal priest and social activist with a sometimes controversial role in the histories of the civil rights movement and the Black Panther Party. Castle is such a compelling screen presence that it’s not so surprising that Demme would go on to cast him in such features as Philadelphia and
Rachel Getting Married. It plays a rare screening on Friday, with an introduction by local critic Tina Hassania.
The rest of the series is dominated by more of Demme’s typically thoughtful profiles of inspirational figures — namely the former U.S. president in Jimmy Carter: Man from
Plains (Sunday) and Haitian radio host and activist Jean Dominique in
The Agronomist (Thursday) — and music docs like Neil Young: Heart of
Gold (Saturday), one of his many collaborations with the Prairie rocker. Another of Demme’s musician friends, Robyn Hitchcock does a Skype intro and Q&A for the Tuesday screening of Storefront Hitchcock. Demme’s landmark Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense also
plays July 19. Another collaboration — this time with monologuist Spalding Gray — Swimming to Cambodia screens, along with the bonus narrative film, the 1986 genre mash-up Something Wild, on Wednesday.
Outdoor screenings: Corktown Common is the latest Toronto green space to become an open-air movie theatre this summer. Thanks to the team behind the Christie Pits Film Festival, the east-side park hosts movies every Thursday in July starting with A League of Their Own on
Thursday. The Sunday night series at Christie Pits continues Sunday with
Strictly Ballroom. The City Cinema program at Yonge-Dundas Square maintains its season-long patriotic focus with Bon Cop, Bad Cop on Tuesday. Also on Tuesday, the Open Roof Festival at 99 Sudbury opts for Ben Wheatley’s thriller Free Fire and a live set by singer-songwriter Tomi Swick. Finally, patrons of Harbourfront Centre’s Free Flicks at the Concert Stage get treated to the awesome sight of a dog playing basketball in Air
Bud on Wednesday.
Panique: French Crime Classics: TIFF Bell Lightbox’s suave slate of French programming this summer takes a more sinister turn with this week’s launch for Panique, a series made up of many of the toughest, coolest crime films ever made. The nastiness begins Thursday with Elevator to the
Gallows, Louis Malle’s French newwave thriller which featured both a brilliant performance by Jeanne Moreau and a suitably cool score by Miles Davis. Among the other mustsees (or must-see-agains) are HenriGeorges Clouzot’s sexy and ruthless
Diabolique (July 9), Jean-Jacques Beineix’s ever-stylish Diva (Aug. 4) and Georges Franju’s eerie Eyes With
out a Face (Aug. 5). Many of Panique: French Crime Classics’ titles will be presented for the first time in new digital restorations — the series runs July 6-Sept. 3.
Reset: Still a major force in movies as he gets deeper into his seventh (!) decade, Jackie Chan serves as producer and presenter for Reset, a sci-fi thriller that’s released in both China and the GTA on Friday. Yang Mi stars as a scientist who has to deploy the time-travel device she’s been developing in order to save her kidnapped son. The premise should be sufficiently intriguing to aficionados of Asian genre cinema even if it doesn’t feature any drunken fighting by Jackie. Reset plays Cineplex’s YongeDundas and Markham VIP locations. In Brief:
á Cineplex celebrates the Canuck origins of two of Marvel’s coolest superheroes with a Canada Day weekend double feature of Logan and
Deadpool at participating locations on Friday.
á TIFF’s Canada on Screen marks the holiday weekend with free showings of such essentials of Canadian cinema as Les Ordres and Videodrome.
á The Carlton celebrates both Canada’s birthday and its own with a free matinee of the martial-arts classic The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
á Richard Armitage stars in the Old Vic’s recent production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible in an HD presentation at several Cineplex locations on Sunday.
á Cineplex launches a series of Studio Ghibli animation favourites with
My Neighbor Totoro on Sunday and Tuesday at select locations. jandersonesque@gmail.com