Revisiting a Canadian icon with Down the Road Again
Down the Road Screening December 21-22
by Staff
Okay, film fans.
If you were to name Canadian productions, that defined Canadian cinema early on and influenced so many others, what might some of them be? Nobody Waved Good-Bye? Mon oncle Antoine? Goin’ Down the Road? Neighbours? Warrendale?
The list goes on.
A director of one of those films will be at The Revue on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at 9:15 p.m. and Thursday, Dec. 22, at 7 p.m.
Don Shebib, who lives in the neighbourhood, will be on hand to introduce screenings of Down the Road Again, his sequel to Goin’ Down the Road. On Thursday, Toronto critic Geoff Pevere will be on hand for a post screening Q&A with Don. Geoff has written a book about Don's influential 1970 film, to be published in 2012.
First, about Goin’ Down the Road. It may seem ironic to invoke the response of prominent American critic Roger Ebert on this most Canadian of productions, but his review to the 1970 film was glowing. He awarded it four stars. Here are some of his comments:
“Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road feels at times like a film realization of Studs Terkel's Hard Times, until you remind yourself that the movie is fiction and the time is now. It tells the story of two young men from Canada's Maritime Provinces who come to the big city,”
Ebert continues: “The film's special accomplishment is its treatment of the characters and the city itself with an absolutely unsentimental level-headedness. It tells a story that contains joy, silliness, love and despair. But these things are kept organic to the story; the film itself doesn't pretend to be other than a record. Shebib achieves a documentary objectivity that touches us more deeply than tear jerking could.”
Now about this year's Down the Road Again:
Greg Quill of The Toronto Star says: “The journey and its resolution have lots to say about regret, growing old, making amends, resignation and grace. To his credit, Shebib has avoided both cheap shocks and saccharine sentiment in favour of a story that is a bit like everyone’s family saga — loaded with small moments of humour and pain, as well as gentle, bittersweet surprises.”
Here’s what Chris Knight wrote in the Financial Post: “There’s an undeniable pleasure in revisiting these characters four decades later. The only other film to come close to this feat was 1998’s The Odd Couple II, with Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau reprising their roles from the 1968 original. In a bittersweet postscript, (Cayle) Chernin, who was instrumental in pushing the film forward, died of cancer shortly after it wrapped."
Don’t miss this opportunity to meet an influential Canadian film director who has much to say about his decades in the industry.