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Canadian horror cinema turns 50

Eric Veillette

If a modern-day horror film were shot in the Royal Ontario Museum, a director might be inclined to set some action in the museum’s bat cave. But the revered exhibit didn’t exist 50 years ago when Julian Roffman directed The Mask, a psychological 3-D horror film which made use of the museum’s iconic totem pole. Premiering at Toronto’s Downtown Theatre on November 10, 1961, it ushered Canadian cinema into the horror genre established by Hollywood in the 1920s. Screened at TIFF Bell Lightbox this week, the film, a drug-use allegory in which an archaeologist blames an ancient mask for terrible … Continue reading Canadian horror cinema turns 50

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TIFF: Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

Eric Veillette

In today’s Toronto Star, I preview TIFF’s latest exhibit, Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star, based on the collection of Rob Brooks. Over the course of three decades, Brooks, a Toronto native, amassed thousands of items including lobby cards, posters, correspondence and several personal items once owned by Toronto’s own Mary Pickford. In the article, I mention Pickford’s long-held ties to Toronto. In an early 1920s visit, Pickford was so enamoured by the patients and staff at the Christie St. Military Hospital that they received private screenings of all her forthcoming films. When Sparrows was released in … Continue reading TIFF: Mary Pickford and the Invention of the Movie Star

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Fritz Lang’s Metropolis at the Tivoli

Eric Veillette

“Imagine Toronto in 2927,” announced press agents when Fritz Lang’s Metropolis premiered at the Tivoli Theatre on September 12, 1927. “Erotic, exotic, erratic” are other words used to describe the futuristic and prophetic tale, but had Fritz Lang directed his masterpiece ten years earlier, Ontario movie-goers may have waited longer to see it. According to Eric Minton in the Canadian Film Society’s 1969 “Silent Screen Review,” a war-time ban on German films kept many classics of European cinema from hitting Ontario screens until the late 1920s, when the Ontario Censor Board finally showed some leniency. Good thing they did, because … Continue reading Fritz Lang’s Metropolis at the Tivoli

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The Uptown Theatre

Eric Veillette

To cinephiles, the theatres we patronize are often just as important as the films they show. It might only be a building, but once an audience is at attention and the image is flickering, the place takes on an organic quality. Whether it’s a run-down rep house, a bicycle repair shop moonlighting as a cinema or the second floor of a restored hotel, these darkened spaces allow us to forget the outside world, and as Neil Gaiman once put it, let “others think of things of import and consequence.” A few days ago, I asked  our Twitter followers to share … Continue reading The Uptown Theatre

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Midnight Madness Looms!

Eric Veillette

If this were sometime in the early ’70s, I’d be spending the witching hour on the Danforth, catching a bunch of Midnite Movies at the Music Hall, then known as the Titania. But hey, those days are long gone, so whataya gonna do for your midnight kicks? Thankfully, Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival is right around the corner. Learn a little more about this year’s selections at the official Midnight Madness Blog! Continue reading Midnight Madness Looms!

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The University Theatre

Eric Veillette

by Eric Veillette With the construction of the city of Toronto’s latest and tallest skyscraper set to begin at the south-east side of Yonge and Bloor, it’s safe to say that intersection will never be the same. Not that it’s anything to write home about at the moment, either; when walking west on Bloor, you’re hit with Yorkville shops selling designer wear and other overpriced junk. But in the late 1940s, the only thing people were lining up to see on that street was the city’s latest and possibly most luxurious movie house, The University. Dubbed “Famous Players Finest Post-War … Continue reading The University Theatre