This November, prepare for the coming winter with three underappreciated 1970s classics from our neighbors to the north, restored by and presented in collaboration with Canadian International Pictures. The three films on display – a musical drama, a crime thriller, and a sensitive character study – point to the exceptionally rich and diverse landscape of Canadian filmmaking in the 1970s, one aided significantly by public investment in the art via the National Film Board of Canada.
Spectacle is proud to present the long-overdue New York theatrical debuts of The Hard Part Begins (1973), Cold Journey (1975) and The Mob (1975), all three of which deserve to be remembered among the country’s most memorable cinematic achievements of the decade.
Special thanks to Canadian International Pictures.
THE HARD PART BEGINS
Dir. Paul Lynch, 1973.
US. 90 min.
In English.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 – 5 PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28 – 10 PM
TICKETS
After toiling for decades in the lowest rungs of the Canadian music scene, country singer Jim King (Donnelly Rhodes) may finally be on the verge of a major-label record deal. But just as King’s dreams of stardom seem to be within reach, all the people he’s burned on his way there – a son in juvenile hall, a bitter ex-wife, a stranger who wants his blood, and an unsatisfied bandmate/girlfriend – start coming back to haunt him.
If fans of previous Spectacle classic Payday are looking for another downbeat 1973 road movie by a Canadian director about a deeply toxic country singer, they should look no further than The Hard Part Begins. Donnelly Rhodes inhabits King with a mixture of bitterness and charm that befits the character’s big-fish small-pond aspirations, while future Prom Night director Paul Lynch finds a ramshackle beauty in its world of van journeys and dive bars. The Hard Part Begins presages Inside Llewyn Davis in its balance of an unforgiving portrait of its protagonist with a sympathy for those following their artistic ambitions to the bitter end.
COLD JOURNEY
Dir. Martin Defalco, 1975.
US. 75 min.
In English.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – 10 PM
TICKETS
15-year old Buckley (Buckley Petawabano), a student in Canada’s infamous residential school system, finds himself alienated from the culture and language of his native Cree reservation when he returns over summer vacation. He strikes up a friendship with fellow Cree Johnny (Johnny Yesno), a groundskeeper at the school, who reintroduces Buckley to the heritage of his people. Buckley’s identity crisis soon has tragic consequences, and Johnny is left to pick up the pieces.
Loosely based on the true story of Anishinaabe boy Charlie Wenjack, Cold Journey is a heart-wrenching tale of the profound pain wrought by forced assimilation, pinpointing the evils of residential schools decades before their injustices became mainstream knowledge. Featuring a stunning original song soundtrack by Indigenous musician and filmmaker Willie Dunn and a supporting turn from Chief Dan George (The Outlaw Josey Wales, Little Big Man), this is a long-overlooked yet essential work of Indigenous Canadian cinema.
THE MOB (aka LA GAMMICK)
Dir. Jacques Godbout, 1975.
US. 86 min.
In French with English subtitles.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 – 10 PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27 – MIDNIGHT
TICKETS
François “Chico” Tremblay is one of the most feared and respected mobsters in Montreal, but he’s still on the small-time circuit. So when he hears about a $50,000 contract on the head of a New York City mob boss, Chico decides to hit it big – despite being warned against it by his local boss. When he returns to Montreal and finds the target on his back, Chico devises a unique strategy: he calls a local radio station, threatening to spill the Mafia’s secrets unless they back off.
From its utterly repugnant misogynist of a main character to its unique deployment of mass media as a narrative device, The Mob is a far more idiosyncratic a take on the gangster picture than its title might suggest. The film’s cynical edge and finely detailed criminal underworld land it somewhere between Elmore Leonard and a Quebeçois take on the poliziotteschi. As the walls start to close in and Chico’s loyalties are tested, so too are the viewer’s sympathies in this least romantic of crime thrillers.