Canada's Top Ten 2013

Feature Films
- Asphalt Watches by Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver
- Enemy by Denis Villeneuve
- F Word by The Michael Dowse
- Gabrielle by Louise Archambault
- Rhymes for Young Ghouls by Jeff Barnaby
- Sarah Prefers to Run by Chloé Robichaud
- Tom at the Farm by Xavier Dolan
- Vic + Flo Saw a Bear by Denis Côté
- Watermark by Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky
- When Jews Were Funny by Alan Zweig

Short Films
- An Extraordinary Person Monia Chokri
- The Chaperone 3D by Fraser Munden and Neil Rathbone
- The End of Pinky by Claire Blanchet
- A Grand Canal by Johnny Ma
- In guns we trust by Nicolas Lévesque
- Noah by Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg
- Nous avions by Stéphane Moukarzel
- Paradise Falls by Fantavious Fritz
- Subconscious Password by Chris Landreth
- Yellowhead by Kevan Funk

A Modern Day Kandinsky (On Jean-Marc Vallée's Café de flore)

Café de flore (Jean-Marc Vallée, 2011)
**** (Masterpiece)
*****Jean-Marc Vallée’s Café de flore, which recently played at the Lightbox with Vallée in attendance as part of Canada's Top Ten, is a blessing. When there are so many movies that come out already looking like standardized products, a work as original like Café de flore dispels of convention and in its rebirth leaves only essences and feelings behind. Café also proves the long-standing suspicion that Vallée is actually an auteur as he not only directs the film but he also wrote the screenplay and edited it – look carefully and you can spot him in a signature cameo. After the screening, Vallée mentioned that after completing The Young Victoria (2009), a film that he didn’t have total control over, he wanted to make something edgy. And edgy – hell, I would describe it as dangerous! - is what you get in Café as Vallée’s powerful imagination is on view.

Like the other great Québécois director Denis Côté (cf. 3 + 4 + 1), Vallée’s approach to form is similar to that of Modernist painters and, more precisely, to Wassily Kandinsky’s Impressionist-style paintings from his Munich period. The unlikely comparison offers striking similarities. What these two artists achieve is the creation of abstract visual expressions built from stylized forms that are imbued with symbolic meaning. When Vallée cuts the sound and all you see are figures presented in decisive moments showing unrestrained feeling alongside Doctor Rockit’s catchy track Café De Flore - the effect is that of ecstasy.

There is something free and lyrical to the rhythm and melody of Café that creates an unreal mood and a self-contained world. When Antoine (Kevin Parent) jumps into his swimming pool and some water lands on his daughter’s foot it seems to connote an unexplained spiritual connectedness between the two. Kandinsky was also interested in theosophy, the occult and religion as elaborated in his important essay Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Vallée’s concern with the spiritual bleeds throughout the entire film through representational and abstract forms, the casting and editing, colour and lighting, music and sound. Vallée seeks the essence beneath appearances, where the actions are drowned in style, in hope of sharing unbridled feelings, substance and life. - David Davidson

Toronto's Current Film Climate

Here are three Toronto-based end-of-the-year film surveys. -D.D.

1. 2010 Toronto Film Critics Award winners
- The Social Network for Best Picture, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor (Jesse Eisenberg) and Best Supporting Actor (Armie Hammer).
- Exit Through the Gift Shop for Best First Feature and Documentary.
- Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress (Winter's Bone).
- Hailee Steinfeld for Best Supporting Actress (True Grit)
- How to Train Your Dragon for Best Animated Feature.
- Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives for Best Foreign Film.
- You Are Here by Daniel Cockburn received the Jay Scott Prize for emerging talent.
- A Special Citation for Bruce McDonald.

2. TIFF Canada's Top Ten 2010

Canada’s Top Ten feature film selections for 2010:
- Les Amours imaginaires by Xavier Dolan (Alliance Films).
- Barney’s Version by Richard J. Lewis (Entertainment One). December 2010
- Curling – Denis Côté (Mongrel Media). March 2011
- The High Cost of Living by Deborah Chow (Filmoption). Spring 2011
- Incendies by Denis Villeneuve (Entertainment One). January 2011
- Last Train Home by Lixin Fan (Kinosmith).
- MODRA by Ingrid Veninger (Mongrel Media). February 2011
- Splice by Vincenzo Natali (Entertainment One).
- Trigger by Bruce McDonald (Entertainment One).
- Trois temps après la mort d’Anna by Catherine Martin (K Films).

Canada’s Top Ten short film selections for 2010:
- Above the Knee by Greg Atkins.
- Les Fleurs de l'Age by Vincent Biron.
- I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors by Ann Marie Fleming (NFB).
- The Legend of Beaver Dam by Jerome Sable.
- The Little White Cloud That Cried by Guy Maddin.
- Lipsett Diaries by Theodore Ushev (NFB).
- Marius Borodine by Emanuel Hoss-Desmarais (Travelling Distribution).
- Mokhtar by Halima Ouardiri (EyesteelFilm).
- On the Way to the Sea by Tao Gu.
- Vapor by Kaveh Nabatian (Locomotion).

3. James Quandt, senior programmer at the TIFF Cinematheque, best of 2010.
1. Rite of Spring & The Strange Case of Angelica (Manoel de Oliveira)
2. Mysteries of Lisbon (Raul Ruiz)
3. Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Apichatpong Weerasethakul)
4. Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
5. Aurora (Christi Puiu)
6. Carlos (Olivier Assayas)
7. Four Times (Michelango Frammartino)
8. The Mouth of the Wolf (Pietro Marcello)
9. The Wanderer (Avishai Sivan)
10. Static (Steve McQueen)
*****Also, this just in, Mark Peranson in the Editor's Note of the latest issue of Cinema Scope (N.45) writes "So because I have nothing else to do, it’s time for an about face: starting this winter, check out cinema-scope.com for a weekly supplement, reviews and reports of the same quality you’ll find in the printed issues (and quarterly web postings) of the magazine from some of our frequent contributors" and "as well as articles on retrospectives and the like taking place in our immediate and general global jurisdiction. This is a Canadian film magazine based in Toronto, and that’s an important part of the mandate."

I guess that means that my own website will be getting some more competition.