Just to add, more recently, Michael Crummey’s novel River Thieves documents meetings between European settlers and the Beothuk in Newfoundland. There’s definitely a feel that something much larger than the described action is really taking place. There’s a great film hiding in there. And Joseph Boyden’s Three Day Road follows two First Nations snipers into the First World War. It’s an ambitious novel, dealing, as is often the case in Canada, with culture clash on several levels and on more than one continent. It’s not always successful, in my opinion, but it has that epic feel and would make a great film.
There are dozens of other novels I could point out. English Canada has far more luck with novels than film. I think it just comes down to money. Film is expensive; novels, by comparison, are not. If an English-language novel flops, nobody loses their shirt. If a ten-million dollar film flops, on the other hand, it’s somewhat more disastrous, even though the sum is laughable by Hollywood standards. The question is, How does Quebec manage it? Why does the province have so many financially (and often critically) successful films? To which I can only answer that Quebeckers love to read about themselves, and they love even more seeing themselves up on screen. A Quebec-made film with a certain amount of hype is almost guaranteed to break even, just in Quebec alone. Anything else is gravy. Sadly, such is not the case in English Canada (which isn’t really even “English” to any great extent).
It’s actually a lot more complicated than that, but I’m boring myself.
In an odd reverse of extradition, Canada has refused to take him back in spite of numerous requests and our brief annexation of Nova Scotia.
I meant to mention JESUS OF MONTREAL earlier, incidentally, as by far my favorite of the Canadian films I’ve seen. (Lothaire Bluteau seems to be one good and working actor with no desire to leave Canada.)
Hey, as long as we’re talking kids’ shows as being “national epics,” * here’s one sure way to tell if someone over a certain age (30? 35?) is Canadian:
“Look up. Wayyyy up.”
If they can supply the next phrase, they’re definitely Canadian. And, how long will it take for someone to identify this one?
Though shared experiences they may be, I don’t think they’re “national epics,” but let’s have a little fun.
