by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(September 23, 2024 – Toronto, ON) With about a week left in September, I was reminded that a good number of features that screened at The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) earlier this month will soon enjoy theatrical releases. Most of them seemed destined to open only in Québec, but we can hope they will find their way to theatres across Canada.
But first, I must mention a new television series that drops on Wednesday of this week and should be a must see for the legion of fans that loved or merely liked the novels, poetry and songs of the late Leonard Cohen. Titled So Long, Marianne, this 8-part series is built upon the real life story behind the song that any true fan knows all the words to.
The series, a Canada-Norway coproduction, delves into the legendary love story between Cohen, and Norwegian Marianne Ihlen. Shot last year and set in the 1960s, the locations range from Greece to Norway and Canada. Starring Alex Wolff as Cohen and breakout star Thea Sofie Loch Næss as Marianne (pictured above), So Long, Marianne debuts this Wednesday at 10PM Eastern on Bell Media’s Crave.
In film, there are four features that we know about, opening between October 11 and November 15. There may be others and we will add them as we learn about them. You can always use the links to either Now Playing or Coming Soon.
First up is Vous n’etes pas seuls. Written and directed by real life partners Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien, the story centres on Léo, played by Pier-Luc Funk. The young actor has come a long way since his debut in 2008 and in this film, he plays a pizza delivery man who likes to drink a little too much. It is a love story, but a love story set in a fictional, fantasy landscape. What is real? What isn’t? The cast is solid and Marianne Fortier (pictured above), who made her feature film debut in 2005 playing the title role character of Aurore, is the other half of this sci-fi connection. According to its distributor, Vous n’êtes pas seuls (You Are Not Alone) is scheduled to open on October 11.
Guy Maddin always produces something worth watching and his latest, co-directed by Winnipeg brothers Evan and Galen Johnson, is titled Rumours. It would an injustice to describe the plot as basic, but complicated might also be wrong. The synopsis is rich and at this particular moment, with those parts of the world that aren’t at war, unhealthily fixated on the United States election, Rumours points its cinematic finger directly at the position of “leader”. In this film, shot in Hungary, the leaders of the G7 nations have convened in Germany. Maddin has always been able to attract Hollywood stars to his films and in this case, look for the likes of Cate Blanchett playing German chancellor Hilda Ortmann, and Alicia Vikander who plays Celestine, President of the European Commission. The Canadian Prime Minister, Maxime Laplace, is played by Roy Dupuis. The leaders are there to solve the world’s troubles and draft an annual statement to the world, a document of vital importance, especially in light of what they refer to as “the present crisis”, which is an unspecified geopolitical situation.
I won’t give any more of the story away but as Maurie Alioff added to his piece on films at TIFF, “This is a very strange film,” wrote The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, “like a mixture of George A Romero with a crimeless, detectiveless Agatha Christie, and maybe TS Eliot’s The Cocktail Party.”
Rumours is scheduled to open October 18…just 18 days before the U.S. election.
About a month from now, on October 25, Kaniehtiio Horn’s Seeds should open. Horn plays the role of Ziggy. The 82-minute film is a take on a collection of vital real world situations, including the power of agriculture corporations; the need for sovereignty over one’s land; ownership of what the land produces and being able have a true sense of who you are and how to protect yourself and your territory. In this case, in this film, the bad guy is Nature’s Oath, the agra-company’s name, which is planning to steal her family’s precious seed supply. Ziggy is compelled to fight to preserve the history of her people and discovers her strength in the process. Kaniehtiio Horn (pictured above) makes her feature directorial debut with Seeds.
Last on our list, but far from least, is the pastoral adventure story of a young man ready to flee his job at a Montreal advertising agency to begin a new life as a shepherd somewhere in France. Titled Bergers, or Shepherds in English, it should be enough to know this film is worth seeing simply because it was written and directed by Sophie Deraspe. If that isn’t quite good enough (it should be) then maybe knowing Bergers, aka Shepherds, was named Best Canadian Feature Film at the just completed 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Bergers is set to open November 15.
There are links to all these films as well as the series and most have trailers as well as more information about each production. If release dates change, we will update our film pages.
Ralph Lucas is a former broadcast executive and award-winning director in high-end corporate video production. The founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca, online since 1998, he began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
