Our exclusive premiere of the international trailer for Matthew Rankin’s THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, which points to a bold new direction for Canadian cinema. Read @ethanves' #TIFF19 review: https://t.co/lRckZXJMn9 pic.twitter.com/WfPe3gIn0O
— The Film Stage 📽 (@TheFilmStage) September 8, 2019
Truth and fiction blurring about a Canadian prime minister might be more appropriate to the recent Canada election 2019, but applies to The Twentieth Century, Matthew Rankin’s take on Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King.
Rankin, who is from Winnipeg, applies a similar style to Guy Maddin, Winnipeg’s best known filmmaker.
Rankin has a bit of fun in the competition to be prime minister, a mix of reality show and the Olympics. Events include baby seal clubbing, peeing in the snow, ribbon cutting, and competitive waiting.
Arthur Meighen, who was briefly prime minister before King and a few months in 1926, appears as a character. Henry Albert "Bert" Harper, a real-life friend of King, also is in the film.
King served as prime minister of Canada from 1921–1926, 1926–1930, and 1935–1948. The film takes place in 1899, leading into the twentieth century.
The large cactus explodes. There is a bit of gender bending. There is a English-French battle complete with an ice maze.
Dan Beirne plays King as being into sniffing footwear, among a number of insecurities and issues. The cast is largely unknown, at least to me. Catherine St-Laurent, who plays a harpist that King somehow keeps mistaking for a trumpet, was in Tu Dors Nicole and Bon Cop Bad Cop 2.
The film takes us to Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, Winnipeg, and Vancouver (above), even if we aren’t in any of those places. The sequence that takes us from Bloor (Toronto) to Rideau Hall (Ottawa) is a single-lane, very quick train between the two cities that is more remnant of a ski lift.
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There is a lot on screen. If you do view this film in a streaming or similar fashion, pause and absorb is a smart way to go. A quick joke about J.G. Diefenbaker ladies undergarments store, which King buys for his mother (played by a man), can get lost otherwise. (Diefenbaker was prime minister from 1957-1963).
You don’t have to know Canadian history to enjoy the film. If you know quite a bit of Canadian history, you would get more out of the film. The Twentieth Century has a gorgeous visual sense with a lot happening. The story is told in 10 chapters that follow a linear path, despite a few distractions. We are as “sure as a winter’s day in springtime” about The Twentieth Century.
The Twentieth Century won the Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
Twitter capture: @TheFilmStage
photo credit: The Twentieth Century
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