Canada's Top Ten Films

After spending the first half of February with a schedule devoted to classic Japanese Samurai films, Vancouver's premier independent movie house, The Pacific Cinematheque, is about to turn things around completely as they offer up their latest program: Canada's Top Ten. You can help honor the country's criminally underrated movie scene as the theater pays tribute to the best Canadian-made films to find release over the last year.

Making its debut in 2001, Canada's Top Ten is the "perfect opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of Canadian filmmakers in 2007, and to spotlight those films that deserve special recognition." Selections for the Top Ten are made by a ten-member panel of filmmakers, journalists, academics, and film professionals from the Toronto International Film Festival Group. Our sister site blogTO covered the lists' unveiling back in December. The movies, screened earlier this month in Toronto, include the latest offerings from such Canadian staples as David Cronenberg, Denys Arcand, and Bruce McDonald, as well as some great sounding films from promising new directors.

This weekend, help fight the urge to watch the vocal stylings of Hannah Montana, or a senescent Stallone one-lining it through the latest "Rambo", (they both have that strange car-crash allure, no?), by supporting our country's steady output of wonderful, under-seen cinema instead. Details after the jump...

The run of movies started Wednesday night with the crookedly overrated Eastern Promises, the latest film from Canadian auteur David Cronenberg. The Russian mafia movie, starring Viggo Mortensen, received great reviews upon its North American release last year, but in my opinion was a terrible misstep from the man responsible for such classics as "Crash" (1996, not the 2004 snafu) and "Videodrome" (1983)... Hollywood boring and bone-dry with cliche. Don't listen to me though, because even Only Magazine gushed over it, and the movie does contain one of the tastiest fight scenes ever put to celluloid (*cough* youtube). If you're still dying to see it, the film screens again both Saturday and Monday. However...

My most anticipated pic on the list would have to be Deny's Arcand's Days of Darkness, "a caustic social satire set in a fascistic near-future," about a man's descent into a fantasy world, it's being compared to "Brazil" and "American Beauty". Set in a futuristic, 'Orwellian' Montreal, the film is the third in the Quebec filmmaker's trilogy that includes the essential "Decline of the American Empire" (1986) and "The Barbarian Invasions" (2003), two of the best Canadian films ever produced. "Days of Darkness" was chosen to close last years Cannes Film Festival, and demands to be seen. Watch it tonight at 7:30.

Another highlight is Bruce MacDonald's The Tracey Fragments. From the director of such cult classics as "Highway 61" (1991) and "Hard Core Logo" (1996) comes this story of a teenage girl on a quest to find her missing younger brother. Starring recent 'it-girl' Ellen Page of "Juno" and featuring music by Broken Social Scene, the movie uses split-screen throughout its entire runtime, separating the frame into numerous, differently sized panels as it shifts in time and focus. The flick has widely split critics, but all have praised its audacity, and is a must see for fans of both Canadian and experimental cinema. It plays next Thursday & Friday.

In addition, there's a trio of movies showing from promising first-time directors, including the winner of 'Best First Feature' at both last year's Toronto and Whistler film festivals, Stephan Lafleur's Continental, A Film Without Guns, which plays tonight. Also showing is the Toronto-made Delhi drama Amal and the nicely titled Young People Fucking. Not sure whether those ones contain firearms or not...

There's one documentary playing that is bound to be full of guns, however; A Promise to the Dead follows writer Ariel Dorfman as he returns to Chile thirty years after fleeing the tyrannical reign of Augusto Pinoche. The film is director Peter Raymont's follow-up to the widely acclaimed "Shake Hands With the Devil," and shows both Monday and Thursday of next week.

Finally, the theatre is screening Canada's Top Ten Shorts, a selection of short movies running just over two hours in total. The films were were selected by an independent committee and feature both live action and animated work, showing off Canada's tradition of excellent experimental film. The set screens on Sunday at 7:30.

Visit TIFFG's official Top Ten site to check out in-depth synopses of films and interviews with the panel and filmmakers.

Visit the Pacific Cinematheque's website for full dates, times, pricing, and tickets. The theatre can be found at 1131 Howe Street.

photos courtesy of canmag, imdb and Pacific Cinematheque