American Cinematographer - November 1998 - 18

compiled by Andrew O. Thompson
in

black-and-white by cameraman
Miklos Gurban, HSC, this tale of a love

Queuing with
the Quebecois

triangle set in 1930s Hungary will be
covered in an upcoming installment of

by Andrew 0. Thompson
Though the constant cloud of
separatism looms large over the Cana¬
dian province of Quebec, this localized
threat does little to dampen the Montreal
World Film Festival's reputation as a
bastion of global cinema. The fest's 22nd
incarnation (which ran from August 27 to
September?), opened with French-Canadian director Robert Lepage's No, a
period piece set at the 1970 World's Fair
in Japan and a Montreal under military
occupation, while Gallic director Claude
Lelouch's bitter love story Hazards and
Consequences closed out the revelries.
Also featured

were

focus series

Production Slate.

ing businessman's life, Whitehouse
only to uncover his own

seeks the truth,
inner conflicts.
New

Though Banks's novel is set in
Hampshire, Schrader opted to

on

Korean and Latin American cinema, as
well

the well-attended,

open-air
Screenings Linder the Stars, which
included showings of Les Miserables,

Affliction (U.S.)
Director: Paul Schrader

Ma Vie

Cinematographer:

as

en

Hose, Hidicule, Microcosmos,

Paul

Secrets and Lies and Intervista.

Top: Small-town
cop Wade
Whitehouse

(Nick Nolte), his
abusive father,
Glen (James

Coburn), and

Special
tributes included a retrospective of short
films surveying the Canadian Film
Center's 10-year history, as well as
screenings of Hiroshima Mon Amour and
In the Realm of the Senses in recognition
of late European film producer Anatole
Dauman. Also honored

was

Swedish

filmmaker

Sarossy, CSC

Evidenced

of self-destructive

protagonists. When
Patty
Hearst, The Comfort of Strangers and
Light Sleeper, it's apparent that his inter¬

one

considers his directorial efforts

Ingmar Bergman, with screen¬
ings of Winter Light, The Silence, a
candid conversational documentary, and

considered odd

deceased in

the 1997 TV film In the Presence of

dards. With his

Affliction,

Clown,

bookish brother

(Willem Dafoe)
pay their last
respects to the

film based
the novel

a

on

by

Russell Banks.
Bottom: Direc¬
tor Paul

Schrader and
actor Nolte
brave the frigid
elements while
on location in

Montreal,
Quebec.

a

project which the octogenarian
professes to be his final small-screen
film

a

as a

director.

Of the movies viewed

by this
reporter, Affliction and Hold You Tight
stood out for their

interesting cinematog¬
raphy. Another notable entry was
Passion, a retelling of the James Cain
novel The Postman Always Rings Twice
by Hungarian director Gyorgy Feher. Shot

16 November 1998

by his script for Martin

Scorsese's Taxi Driver, writer/director
Paul Schrader is no stranger to the plight

ests lie with characters who could be

by offbeat stan¬
adaptation of the Russell
even

Banks book Affliction, Schrader tackles

yet another "crushed romantic" in the
guise of hard-luck case Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte), the lone cop in the
one-horse town of Lawford, New Hamp¬
shire. A perennial loser, Whitehouse is
troubled by a traumatic childhood that's

shoot most of the $6.3 million film in the

countryside outlying Montreal, Quebec
safeguard the production against the
possibility of an abnormally warm winter
season. He says, "I wanted snow conti¬
nuity - I did not want to get burnt with
having to work around a thaw. When you
get up through Quebec, particularly
around this mountain [St. Hillaire], it

to

socks in

about an early
spring. Additionally, of course, the
economic factors [a lucrative exchange
on

Canada's deflated dollar] are very,

left him mired in the abuse of both alco¬

very

hol and his loved

crews

ones.

But when

baffling hunting accident claims

a

a

visit¬

heavy and hard all winter long.

You don't have to worry

helpful." He also found the local
to be quite acclimatized to the
inclement weather, since they tend to

GFLDiloacmonturserfyt.e,sy
Atila

byPhot s
American Cinematographer - November 1998

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