Norman Jewison is one of the most famous Canadian directors who didn't really have a Canadian film career. Times were very different back then.
We like to talk back about the works of Canadian filmmakers who aren't making Canadian films. This time around, we want to look into rising Canadian filmmakers Celine Song and Emma Seligman.
Celine Song did wonderfully in her feature film debut with Past Lives with Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Song missed out on both yet should be happy with her debut film.
Song tells a story parallel to her own experience in Past Lives, including her time in Canada after emigrating to Canada from South Korea. Canada plays a small role in the film.
Song's world is in the United States, specifically New York, which is where part of Past Lives in set. Her follow-up film, currently titled Materialists, is filming in New York City featuring Dakota Johnson, Pedro Pascal, and Chris Evans.
Past Lives is definitely one of the best written films of the past year. Sophie Dupuis (Solo) can take some cues. If Song had won the Oscar, Canadian female filmmakers would have won screenplay Academy Awards for the second year in a row. Sarah Polley won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Women Talking, also not a Canadian film.
The film is slow moving, thought provoking, and an absolute joy to watch.
Looking back on Canadians nominated for screenplay Oscars
Ryan Gosling, Celine Song, To Kill a Tiger get Oscar nominations
Canadian film case study: Shiva Baby
Emma Seligman did make a co-production with Canada with her debut, Shiva Baby. A complex story packed into a tiny space, the film deserved the hype. Bottoms, Seligman's follow-up film, is definitely not a Canadian film.
Bottoms is over the top and surprisingly brash. I confess I stopped watching the film the first time I watched it because I feared the film would be almost too cartoonish based on the early part of the film. I did go back and watched the whole film and found the rest of the film slightly more realistic.
You do have to throw out logic when watching Bottoms. The idea of Rachel Sennott, who co-wrote the film with Seligman, and Ayo Edebiri struggling to find love is a bit of a surprise. The whole school dynamic ignores 94% of the student body. The football sequence was extremely odd where the opposing team had no fans. Feminism through fighting is unique as this movie shows.
The film is quite entertaining on what the film is trying to accomplish. You forget sometimes that former NFL running back Marshawn Lynch plays a teacher and he is wonderful.
The idea of a cultural test to determine truly Canadian content
Stories We Tell and the documentaries inspired by the Canadian film
Sarah Polley gets Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay but not Best Director
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
Films may get re-classified as Canadian that weren't before and maybe Canadian films losing Canadian status that never made sense from the beginning.
The reality is there will be Canadian filmmakers who aren't interested in making Canadian films in any respect. We will choose as needed to spotlight some of their works, especially when they write and direct their own films.
photo credit: Past Lives
video credit: KinoCheck.com
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