Mar 28, 2024
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Headline, Industry News

Toronto Film Club: A not-so-secret society

Toronto has never looked better to cinephiles, with a revived Carlton, a healthy rep house scene and, of course, the newly anointed Bell Lightbox, a Grand Central Station of moviegoing.

Yet those who might consider the fare at the city’s art houses too mainstream can seek refuge in the esoteric programming of the Toronto Film Society, which for decades has thrived below the radar.

This Sunday, for instance, the society presents a war-themed double-bill of forgotten classics you won’t find playing anywhere else: Little Man, What Now? (1934) and Bright Victory (1951).

The earlier film, about a young German couple coping with the collapse of the Weimar republic and the rise of Nazism, is an unusual one, says TFS president Barry Chapman. “There weren’t many films about post-war Germany back then. It’s a look at war from a different perspective,” he says.

Formed in 1948, the Toronto Film Society is the oldest of its kind in Canada. Today it has about 115 members, and a decidedly older demographic, and while its profile is not as high as it once was — you might find their glossy black and white brochures in various cinemas and Queen St. coffee shops — the non-profit organization, which specializes in classics from the 1930s to the ’60s, has pioneered how we interact with film.

At the former Odeon Hyland Cinema on Yonge St., it was the first Toronto group to show films on Sundays, circumventing the business-prohibiting Lord’s Day Observance Act; they assisted the Toronto Historical Board on designating film-related plaques, such as the site of the former Robinson’s Musee, on Yonge St., where in the summer of 1896, Toronto audiences were privy to Edison’s Vitascope projector for the first time.

Since their members-only status exempted them from the Ontario Censor Board’s jurisdiction, they were able to screen Pier Paolo Passolini’s controversial Salò, or 120 Days of Sodom (1975). When Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby (1978), starring Brooke Shields as a child prostitute, was deemed unclassifiable by the censors, the society screened it.

“The distributors had the prints but they couldn’t show them. We met with the censor board. It was very diplomatic, but they didn’t understand why we wanted to show it,” Chapman says with a laugh.

Chapman was inspired to join the society in the early 1970s by the late film critic Clyde Gilmour. “It specialized in foreign film,” says Chapman, and went beyond the works of Bergman and the French New Wave, then common in Toronto rep houses. “Their programming was something you couldn’t find elsewhere.”

A lifelong movie lover, he fondly recalls the Queen St. W. cinemas of his youth, like the Odeon, the Parkdale and Kum-C. The latter was a “dingy theatre,” but he was often sent by his parents to collect dinnerware giveaways, a long-gone custom in movie showmanship.

Indeed, showmanship and etiquette have long been staples of the Toronto Film Society. In 1954, it produced Eight-Fifteen, a short film about moviegoing punctuality. In 1980, Ron Mann, years before directing the popular documentaries Comic Book Confidential and Grass, was hired to direct Shhh. The four-minute disclaimer featured Elwy Yost, then host of TVO’s Saturday Night at the Movies, and ran at the Eaton Centre Cineplex for several years.

Although the Yonge St. megaplex is long gone, the TFS screens at Innis Town Hall, and this season’s themed double-bills also include westerns like Laurel & Hardy’s Way Out West (1937) and Arthur Penn’s The Left-Handed Gun (1958); and yes, Hollywood once made films about bellhops — tough bellhops, mind you — such as Blonde Crazy (1931) with James Cagney and Kid Galahad (1937) with Edward G. Robinson.

“We’ve always tried to offer what was not readily available in the city,” says TFS Vice-President Shirley Hughes, who earlier this year launched the Toronto Silent Film Festival.

Hughes explains that when silent films were a rarity, they ran a silent series; when art films were scarce or Canadian filmmakers couldn’t get into theatres, they were there for them. Now with festivals and DVDs filling the gap, they offer “the famous, the obscure and the rare,” says Hughes.

Just be sure to arrive on time.

Eric Veillette chronicles the history of Toronto cinemas at www.silenttoronto.com.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Toronto Film Society’s Sunday Film Buff Programme

WHEN: Sunday, 2 p.m.

WHERE: Innis College Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave.

ADMISSION: Full series of 14 films (7 double bills) $80.00, including membership. More information available at www.torontofilmsociety.com

Source: The Toronto Star

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Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Headline, Industry News

Toronto Film Club: A not-so-secret society

Toronto has never looked better to cinephiles, with a revived Carlton, a healthy rep house scene and, of course, the newly anointed Bell Lightbox, a Grand Central Station of moviegoing.

Yet those who might consider the fare at the city’s art houses too mainstream can seek refuge in the esoteric programming of the Toronto Film Society, which for decades has thrived below the radar.

This Sunday, for instance, the society presents a war-themed double-bill of forgotten classics you won’t find playing anywhere else: Little Man, What Now? (1934) and Bright Victory (1951).

The earlier film, about a young German couple coping with the collapse of the Weimar republic and the rise of Nazism, is an unusual one, says TFS president Barry Chapman. “There weren’t many films about post-war Germany back then. It’s a look at war from a different perspective,” he says.

Formed in 1948, the Toronto Film Society is the oldest of its kind in Canada. Today it has about 115 members, and a decidedly older demographic, and while its profile is not as high as it once was — you might find their glossy black and white brochures in various cinemas and Queen St. coffee shops — the non-profit organization, which specializes in classics from the 1930s to the ’60s, has pioneered how we interact with film.

At the former Odeon Hyland Cinema on Yonge St., it was the first Toronto group to show films on Sundays, circumventing the business-prohibiting Lord’s Day Observance Act; they assisted the Toronto Historical Board on designating film-related plaques, such as the site of the former Robinson’s Musee, on Yonge St., where in the summer of 1896, Toronto audiences were privy to Edison’s Vitascope projector for the first time.

Since their members-only status exempted them from the Ontario Censor Board’s jurisdiction, they were able to screen Pier Paolo Passolini’s controversial Salò, or 120 Days of Sodom (1975). When Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby (1978), starring Brooke Shields as a child prostitute, was deemed unclassifiable by the censors, the society screened it.

“The distributors had the prints but they couldn’t show them. We met with the censor board. It was very diplomatic, but they didn’t understand why we wanted to show it,” Chapman says with a laugh.

Chapman was inspired to join the society in the early 1970s by the late film critic Clyde Gilmour. “It specialized in foreign film,” says Chapman, and went beyond the works of Bergman and the French New Wave, then common in Toronto rep houses. “Their programming was something you couldn’t find elsewhere.”

A lifelong movie lover, he fondly recalls the Queen St. W. cinemas of his youth, like the Odeon, the Parkdale and Kum-C. The latter was a “dingy theatre,” but he was often sent by his parents to collect dinnerware giveaways, a long-gone custom in movie showmanship.

Indeed, showmanship and etiquette have long been staples of the Toronto Film Society. In 1954, it produced Eight-Fifteen, a short film about moviegoing punctuality. In 1980, Ron Mann, years before directing the popular documentaries Comic Book Confidential and Grass, was hired to direct Shhh. The four-minute disclaimer featured Elwy Yost, then host of TVO’s Saturday Night at the Movies, and ran at the Eaton Centre Cineplex for several years.

Although the Yonge St. megaplex is long gone, the TFS screens at Innis Town Hall, and this season’s themed double-bills also include westerns like Laurel & Hardy’s Way Out West (1937) and Arthur Penn’s The Left-Handed Gun (1958); and yes, Hollywood once made films about bellhops — tough bellhops, mind you — such as Blonde Crazy (1931) with James Cagney and Kid Galahad (1937) with Edward G. Robinson.

“We’ve always tried to offer what was not readily available in the city,” says TFS Vice-President Shirley Hughes, who earlier this year launched the Toronto Silent Film Festival.

Hughes explains that when silent films were a rarity, they ran a silent series; when art films were scarce or Canadian filmmakers couldn’t get into theatres, they were there for them. Now with festivals and DVDs filling the gap, they offer “the famous, the obscure and the rare,” says Hughes.

Just be sure to arrive on time.

Eric Veillette chronicles the history of Toronto cinemas at www.silenttoronto.com.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Toronto Film Society’s Sunday Film Buff Programme

WHEN: Sunday, 2 p.m.

WHERE: Innis College Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave.

ADMISSION: Full series of 14 films (7 double bills) $80.00, including membership. More information available at www.torontofilmsociety.com

Source: The Toronto Star

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Headline, Industry News

Toronto Film Club: A not-so-secret society

Toronto has never looked better to cinephiles, with a revived Carlton, a healthy rep house scene and, of course, the newly anointed Bell Lightbox, a Grand Central Station of moviegoing.

Yet those who might consider the fare at the city’s art houses too mainstream can seek refuge in the esoteric programming of the Toronto Film Society, which for decades has thrived below the radar.

This Sunday, for instance, the society presents a war-themed double-bill of forgotten classics you won’t find playing anywhere else: Little Man, What Now? (1934) and Bright Victory (1951).

The earlier film, about a young German couple coping with the collapse of the Weimar republic and the rise of Nazism, is an unusual one, says TFS president Barry Chapman. “There weren’t many films about post-war Germany back then. It’s a look at war from a different perspective,” he says.

Formed in 1948, the Toronto Film Society is the oldest of its kind in Canada. Today it has about 115 members, and a decidedly older demographic, and while its profile is not as high as it once was — you might find their glossy black and white brochures in various cinemas and Queen St. coffee shops — the non-profit organization, which specializes in classics from the 1930s to the ’60s, has pioneered how we interact with film.

At the former Odeon Hyland Cinema on Yonge St., it was the first Toronto group to show films on Sundays, circumventing the business-prohibiting Lord’s Day Observance Act; they assisted the Toronto Historical Board on designating film-related plaques, such as the site of the former Robinson’s Musee, on Yonge St., where in the summer of 1896, Toronto audiences were privy to Edison’s Vitascope projector for the first time.

Since their members-only status exempted them from the Ontario Censor Board’s jurisdiction, they were able to screen Pier Paolo Passolini’s controversial Salò, or 120 Days of Sodom (1975). When Louis Malle’s Pretty Baby (1978), starring Brooke Shields as a child prostitute, was deemed unclassifiable by the censors, the society screened it.

“The distributors had the prints but they couldn’t show them. We met with the censor board. It was very diplomatic, but they didn’t understand why we wanted to show it,” Chapman says with a laugh.

Chapman was inspired to join the society in the early 1970s by the late film critic Clyde Gilmour. “It specialized in foreign film,” says Chapman, and went beyond the works of Bergman and the French New Wave, then common in Toronto rep houses. “Their programming was something you couldn’t find elsewhere.”

A lifelong movie lover, he fondly recalls the Queen St. W. cinemas of his youth, like the Odeon, the Parkdale and Kum-C. The latter was a “dingy theatre,” but he was often sent by his parents to collect dinnerware giveaways, a long-gone custom in movie showmanship.

Indeed, showmanship and etiquette have long been staples of the Toronto Film Society. In 1954, it produced Eight-Fifteen, a short film about moviegoing punctuality. In 1980, Ron Mann, years before directing the popular documentaries Comic Book Confidential and Grass, was hired to direct Shhh. The four-minute disclaimer featured Elwy Yost, then host of TVO’s Saturday Night at the Movies, and ran at the Eaton Centre Cineplex for several years.

Although the Yonge St. megaplex is long gone, the TFS screens at Innis Town Hall, and this season’s themed double-bills also include westerns like Laurel & Hardy’s Way Out West (1937) and Arthur Penn’s The Left-Handed Gun (1958); and yes, Hollywood once made films about bellhops — tough bellhops, mind you — such as Blonde Crazy (1931) with James Cagney and Kid Galahad (1937) with Edward G. Robinson.

“We’ve always tried to offer what was not readily available in the city,” says TFS Vice-President Shirley Hughes, who earlier this year launched the Toronto Silent Film Festival.

Hughes explains that when silent films were a rarity, they ran a silent series; when art films were scarce or Canadian filmmakers couldn’t get into theatres, they were there for them. Now with festivals and DVDs filling the gap, they offer “the famous, the obscure and the rare,” says Hughes.

Just be sure to arrive on time.

Eric Veillette chronicles the history of Toronto cinemas at www.silenttoronto.com.

JUST THE FACTS

WHAT: The Toronto Film Society’s Sunday Film Buff Programme

WHEN: Sunday, 2 p.m.

WHERE: Innis College Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave.

ADMISSION: Full series of 14 films (7 double bills) $80.00, including membership. More information available at www.torontofilmsociety.com

Source: The Toronto Star

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

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