Saint Monica At The Playhouse (July 18, 7PM)

Source: torontofilmreview.blogspot.com · Published: 2024-07-15

&nbsp;If folks are free Thursday evening at 7PM in Hamilton, I’ll be moderating a Q&amp;A with Terrance Odette after a screening of his 2002 film&nbsp;Saint Monica&nbsp;at The Playhouse.If you don’t know Odette, he’s a proto-diy&nbsp;Hamilton filmmaker.&nbsp; His first feature&nbsp;Heater&nbsp;dates back to 1999 and he now already five features to his activity (alongside music-videos and television shows). Working with modest budgets, Odette’s able to create these complex characters usually going through these very intense days and nights.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p>In terms of his creative process, Odette describes how seeing how actors read his dialogue is one of his favorite things about being a director, and I would add how he is able to film them integrated within a very specific local setting is one of my favorite things about being one of their spectators.<o:p></o:p>The style of his films recalls that of John Cassavetes and the Italian neorealist.<o:p></o:p>In&nbsp;Heater&nbsp;two unlikely guys-experiencing-homelessness in Winnipeg on a snowy day come together to attempt to return a boxed heater. How they react to their hardship is so vivid and powerful and following them you get to see the downtown city from an on-the-street perspective.<o:p></o:p>The coffee-and-donut shop is a reoccurring setting in his films and through them he shows different ways people interact with it. In&nbsp;Heater&nbsp;it’s where the guys go for warmth and the public washroom, while in&nbsp;Fall&nbsp;(2014) and&nbsp;Bike&nbsp;(2024) it’s the spot where they go so that they can reconnect with past friends and family and have intimidate conversations.<o:p></o:p>Bike,&nbsp;which played at The Playhouse already this year, is noteworthy for its “beautifully apocalyptic” portrayal of Hamilton (thank you&nbsp;Spectator&nbsp;for this apt description of the city). There’s a sense of authenticity to Odette’s cinema and after the Winnipeg of&nbsp;Heater, Toronto’s Little Portugal in&nbsp;Saint Monica,&nbsp;and Niagara Falls and Sault Ste. Marie in&nbsp;Fall, Odette finally captures with&nbsp;Bike&nbsp;one of the best portrayals of Hamilton that I’ve seen (up there with Stephen Hosier’s&nbsp;Attilla).<o:p></o:p>Bike,&nbsp;tells the story of “Bike,” a rougher-around-the-edges older guy, that collects empty beer cans from local recycling bins on garbage night and steels bikes when he needs to. Bike gets wrapped up in a real-estate murder conspiracy, which forces his hand o<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCg6h_h1tT4u_mfZJCPQR_JdNHnvH8B1kqN_hs-1x1130bSvdKhqWi2HaXcjVgM1D2ZApOTb1KBiGv7mK1Own3w6iEiQ8iu93X7Mn3nNFR0E4Xx7vF1rZuLoUaIRoWDBay6ieZ76EFJsu58j7CfXXaAKuVD9wWYqW8OoVr_M4cgCbGk1X_PlqeCb7LQg/s340/saint_monica.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="218" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidCg6h_h1tT4u_mfZJCPQR_JdNHnvH8B1kqN_hs-1x1130bSvdKhqWi2HaXcjVgM1D2ZApOTb1KBiGv7mK1Own3w6iEiQ8iu93X7Mn3nNFR0E4Xx7vF1rZuLoUaIRoWDBay6ieZ76EFJsu58j7CfXXaAKuVD9wWYqW8OoVr_M4cgCbGk1X_PlqeCb7LQg/s320/saint_monica.png" width="205" /></a></div> n how he has to resolve some of his family, lawyer and police issues. It’s really gripping. The feature-version (in contrast to the web-series) maybe has Odette’s funnest film references (in a filmography rather sober in them) and the lurking criminals give the whole proceedings an ominous sense of foreboding.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p>I think it should of have been more widely seen and it’s a shame that the funding for a sequel wasn’t approved.<o:p></o:p>But to return to the subject at hand, the reason I think&nbsp;Saint Monica&nbsp;is my favorite of Odette’s films is that in contrast to the heaviness of&nbsp;Heater&nbsp;and&nbsp;Fall&nbsp;– about an end-of-career protestant pastor questioning his life –,&nbsp;Saint Monica&nbsp;takes on a certain reoccurring opacity and mystery that’s there throughout his films, but from the perspective of a young ten-year-old girl, who steals a pair of angel wings meant to be used as part of a procession. It has a religious quality, that of little girl trying to talk to God, which is so powerfully captured through the simplicity of her minimal performance. The film almost feels like a miracle, and as such reminded me of other religious films like Dreyer’s&nbsp;Ordet&nbsp;(1955), Rossellini’s&nbsp;Stromboli(1950) and Tarkovsky’s&nbsp;Andrei Rublev&nbsp;(1966). Rarely has cinema been this great.&nbsp;<o:p></o:p>It’s a great feat that a 35mm print of&nbsp;Saint Monica&nbsp;will be showing at The Playhouse on the big screen this Thursday.<o:p></o:p>I can’t recommend it enough.<o:p></o:p>