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Okay cinema, you’ve been taunting us with films concerning things we can’t enjoy because of the pandemic. A couple of days ago it was renting an online getaway home, before that, it was road trips and movies set in faraway lands. Now, it’s the concert experience. This somewhat new release isn’t about a touring rock n’ roll band or a hard-partying country crooner (they’ve been doing a variation of the movies’ solution with drive-in concerts and simulcasts). We’re entering the world of classical music, with a profile of a celebrated pianist, so an indoor venue, a hall or auditorium, is preferred for the acoustics and intimacy. Oh, playing the “keyboard virtuoso’ is an actor that garnered lots of press and praise earlier this year for returning to the role that made him world-famous several decades ago. But he still wants to show us his...

Happy Saturday, ladies and gentlemen. Today, we once again bring the review round-up to you fine folks. Today we’re catching up on a pair of films that I simply wasn’t able to get around to and put reviews up of until now. The two movies getting this particular treatment here are independent titles, as you might imagine, and as tends to be the case, they’re quite different from each other. The dueling indies in question are the drama Coda, as well as the historical thriller Incitement. Are either of them worth your time this weekend? Read on to find out what I thought… — Coda Patrick Stewart deserves to get more starring roles in major motion pictures. Even just a small independent drama like this is the sort of thing that he can really sink his teeth into. Sadly, while Coda does have a quality Stewart performance, it...

“Do we actually need another recording of the Goldberg Variations?” The question, at once impudently cheeky and playfully taunting, is posed in “Coda” by the long-time manager and friend of a world-famous classical pianist during an intimate outdoor lunch with, among others, his bemused client. Ironically, a similar question could be asked about the movie itself: Do we really need another drama about an aged artist who’s reinvigorated, professionally and personally, by a free-spirited and much younger woman?

Maybe. It helps a lot if the drama is as low-key and credible as “Coda,” And it helps even more if the lead performances are as subtly affecting as those offered here by Patrick Stewart as Henry Cole, a celebrated musician who finds himself increasingly stressed by stage fright late in his decades-long career, and Katie Holmes as Helen Morrison, a thirtysomething (or thereabouts) writer for The New Yorker who wants...

"So just play, Henry... Play for them. I'll be listening..." Gravitas Ventures has debuted an official trailer for indie drama called Coda, the feature directorial debut of writer turned filmmaker named Claude Lalonde. This premiered at a film festival last year but hasn't shown up anywhere else, and will be released on VOD at the end of this month. Patrick Stewart stars as a famous pianist struggling with stage fright and sadness late in his career finds inspiration with a free-spirited music critic he connects with. Katie Holmes plays the critic, named Helen, and the cast includes Giancarlo Esposito, Letitia Brookes, and Drew Davis. Never heard of this film before, which is strange, but it looks rather sweet. Always like films about pianists. Here's the official Us trailer (+ poster) for Claude Lalonde's Coda, direct from Gravitas' YouTube: A famous pianist named Henry Cole (Patrick Stewart) struggling with stage fright...

Ricardo Trogi’s 1991 was the top prize winner at 2019 Gala Quebec Cinema Awards. Winning Best Film, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress (Sandrine Bisson), the film edged out Une colonie picked up a pair of awards in Best Supporting Actor (Robin Aubert) and Best Newcomer (Émilie Bierre) and Yan Giroux who won Best First Feature, Best Actor and Best Screenplay for À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas. Here are the noms and winners:

Best Film

1991 – Go Films – Nicole Robert – Winner

À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas – micro_scope – Luc Déry, Élaine Hébert, Kim McCraw

La Bolduc – Caramel Films – Valérie d’Auteuil, André Rouleau

Genèse – L’Unité centrale – Galilé Marion-Gauvin

La grande noirceur – Metafilms – Sylvain Corbeil

Répertoire des villes disparues – Couzin Films – Ziad Touma

Une colonie – Colonelle films – Fanny Drew, Sarah Mannering

Best Director

Denis Côté – Répertoire des villes disparues

Geneviève Dulude-De Celles – Une colonie

Maxime Giroux...

Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul’s Giancarlo Esposito is set for a lead role opposite star Carla Gugino in Cinemax’s straight-to-series drama Jett, from Gothika scribe Sebastian Gutierrez. Also cast as series regulars are Elena Anaya, Michael Aronov, Gaite Jansen, Chris Backus, Gil Bellows and Violet McGraw. Jodie Turner-Smith, Gentry White, Lucy Walters and Mustafa Shakir are set for recurring roles.

Esposito, who has a one-year deal on Jett, is coming off a two-season series regular turn on Better Call Saul, reprising his popular Breaking Bad character of Gustavo “Gus” Fring. That includes Season 3 and the upcoming fourth season, debuting Aug. 9, which already has been shot. I hear that while Esposito has has no deal in place beyond that, he could return to the AMC series should it get renewed for a fifth season, with the production schedule of Jett allowing for that.

Written by Gutierrez, in Jett,...

Patrick Stewart, Katie Holmes and Giancarlo Esposito are starring in The Gift, the Claude Lalonde-helmed drama penned by philosophy teacher and first-time screenwriter Louis Godbout. Production is just wrapping in Montreal. Nicolas Comeau of 1976 Productions is producing in collaboration with Anne Walser of C-Films. The plot centers on a famous pianist (Stewart) at the twilight of his career who returns to the stage after a long absence and finds himself struggling with a…...

Canadian comedian André Sauvé will adapt into a film a famous monologue he did in a sketch: the grocery store (l'épicerie). The film will fittingly be called L'épicerie.

This will be the second film in which André Sauvé plays after Filière 13. Instead of being in a supporting role like in Filière 13, Sauvé will be the lead actor.

Christal Film Productions, a production company, announced yesterday that André Sauvé will write the film's script along with Claude Lalonde (Filière 13). For the moment, no director is attached to the film.

The film is about a man who goes to the grocery store. Once there, he starts to panick because of what's offered to him on the shelves.

In the next months, the producers of the film will seek subsidies from Telefilm Canada and the Sodec, respectively a federal and a Quebecker cinematographic funding agency. The producers expect L'épicerie's budget to be at $6 M.

Unlike last year's two filmmaker/film horse race between Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique and Xavier Dolan's J'ai tué ma mere, this year it was all "Villeneuve" and "Incendies". Repeating his wins in all the same categories it won at the Canadian Oscars (Genies) this week (this includes Editing, Screenplay, Best Cinematography by the excellent André Turpin, Best Actress in Lubna Azabal (who forced here co-star Melissa Desormeaux-Poulin to give her own thank you speech). These wins more than makes up for his loss last year when Villeneuve won the Best Director honor for Polytechnique, but lost in the Best Film category to J'ai tué ma mere. The predictable 13th edition also saw a Genie-Jutra winner from Barney's Version and in the Animated Film category, the Nfb (naturally) supported Theodore Ushev added a Jutra to his Genie for Lipsett Diaries. Best Film/meilleur film 10 1/2 - Pierre Gendron (Zoofilms) Les amours imaginaires - Xavier Dolan,...

Yesterday, the nominees for the 13th Jutra Awards ceremony were revealed. The winners of this Quebecker Oscar will be revealed next month. The following is the full list of nominees.

Best motion picture:

* 10 1/2

* Les amours imaginaires

* Curling

* Incendies

* Les signes vitaux

Best director:

* Denis Côté- Curling

* Xavier Dolan- Les amours imaginaires

* Kim Nguyen - La cité

* Podz (Daniel Grou) - 10 1/2

* Denis Villeneuve- Incendies

Best leading actress:

* Lubna Azabal - Incendies

* Suzanne Clément - Tromper le silence

* Mélissa Desormeaux-Poulin - Incendies

* Évelyne Rompré- 2 fois une femme

* Guylaine Tremblay- Trois temps après la mort d'Anna

Best leading actor:

* Jay Baruchel - The Trotsky

* Emmanuel Bilodeau - Curling

* Jacques Godin - La dernière fugue

* Claude Legault - 10 1/2

* François Papineau - Route 132

Best supporting actress:

* Dorothée Berryman - Cabotins

* Marie Brassard - Les signes vitaux

* Geneviève Chartrand - Le journal d'Aurélie Laflamme

* Isabelle Miquelon - La dernière fugue

* Danielle Proulx...

The nominees for the 31st Annual Genie Awards, Canada’s answer to the Oscars, were unveiled at simultaneous press conferences in Montreal and Toronto yeseterday. After being snubbed by the major Hollywood awards, only receiving 1 nomination and win for Paul Giamatti at the Golden Globes, Barney’s Version has been highly recognized by Canadian audiences. This is no surprise as its source material is a novel from beloved Canadian treasure Mordecai Richler and the film was partially shot in Montreal. Barney’s VersionIncendies leads the pack with 11 nominations including Best Motion Picture and populating most of the acting categories including one for Paul Giamatti for a Performace by an Actor in a Leading Role and Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Dustin Hoffman. Following closely is the other Canadian darling this year, Incendies , which garnered 10 nominations such as Adapted Screenplay (Denis Villeneuve) and Performance by an Actress...

Richard J. Lewis’ “Barney’s Version,” a festival favorite and big-screen version of the Mordecai Richler, garnered 11 nominations — including Best Motion Picture and Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Giamatti) — to lead the way for the 31st Annual Genie Awards, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies,” a contender this year for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, was next with 10 nominations, including Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction.

The Genies will be handed out on Thursday, March 10, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The following is a list of nominees in some of the major categories.

Best Motion Picture

“10 ½”

Pierre Gendron

“Les amours imaginaires” (“Heartbeats”)

Xavier Dolan, Carole Mondello, Daniel Morin

“Barney’s Version”

Robert Lantos

“Incendies”

Luc Déry, Kim McCraw

Splice

Steven Hoban

Achievement in Direction

Podz

“10 ½”

Xavier Dolan

“Les amours imaginaires” (“Heartbeats”)

Denis Villeneuve

“Incendies”

Vincenzo Natali...

Richard J. Lewis’ “Barney’s Version,” a festival favorite and big-screen version of the Mordecai Richler, garnered 11 nominations — including Best Motion Picture and Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Giamatti) — to lead the way for the 31st Annual Genie Awards, presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies,” a contender this year for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards, was next with 10 nominations, including Best Motion Picture and Achievement in Direction.

The Genies will be handed out on Thursday, March 10, at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. The following is a list of nominees in some of the major categories.

Best Motion Picture

“10 ½”

Pierre Gendron

“Les amours imaginaires” (“Heartbeats”)

Xavier Dolan, Carole Mondello, Daniel Morin

“Barney’s Version”

Robert Lantos

“Incendies”

Luc Déry, Kim McCraw

Splice

Steven Hoban

Achievement in Direction

Podz

“10 ½”

Xavier Dolan

“Les amours imaginaires” (“Heartbeats”)

Denis Villeneuve

“Incendies”

Vincenzo Natali...

Yesterday, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (Acct) announced the nominees for the 31rst Genie Awards, Canada's own Oscars.

Best Motion picture:

* 10 1/2

* Les amours imaginaires

* Barney's Version

* Incendies

* Splice

Best Actor in a Leading Role:

* Jay Baruchel in The Trotsky

* Paul Giamatti in Barney's Version

* Robert Naylor in 10 1/2

* Timothy Olyphant in High Life

* François Papineau in Route 132

Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

* Martin Dubreuil in 10 1/2

* Dustin Hoffman in Barney's Version

* Alexis Martin in Route 132

* Callum Keith Rennie in Gunless

* Rossif Sutherland in High Life

Best Actress in a Leading Role:

* Lubna Azabal in Incendies

* Tatiana Maslany in Grown Up Movie Star

* Molly Parker in Trigger

* Rosamund Pike in Barney's Version

* Tracy Wright in Trigger

Best Actress In a Supporting Role:

* Sonja Bennett in Cole

* Anne-Élizabeth Bossé in Les amours imaginaires

* Minnie Driver in Barney's Version

* Terra Hazelton in Fubar 2

* Mary Walsh in Crackie

Best Adapted Screenplay:

* Michael Konyves...

Toronto -- Montreal's Festival of New Cinema is to open with Quebec director Daniel Grou's latest thriller, "10 1⁄2," and close with Denis Cote's Locarno award winner "Curling."

Grou, a veteran Quebec TV director, earlier this year screened his debut feature, the revenge thriller "7 Days," at Sundance.

"10 1⁄2" portrays a troubled young boy of the same age, played by Robert Naylor, whose violent behavior finally receives treatment when he meets a social worker (Claude Legault).

The film is produced by Pierre Gendron, with Claude Lalonde writing the script.

The 39th edition of the Festival du Nouveau Cinema, to run from Oct. 13 to 24, will close with Cote's "Curling" after it receives a North American premiere in Toronto.

The organizers of Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc) announced that 10 1/2, the second feature film by Canadian director Daniel Grou, will open this festival. The Fnc will take place in Montreal from October 13 to 24.

The film was produced by Pierre Gendron and was scripted by Claude Lalonde (Les 3 p'tits cochons).

It tells the story of Tommy (Robert Naylor), a ten-years-old-and-a-half boy. Because he is prone to have a violent behaviour, Tommy has always been handled by social services. However, Gilles (Claude Legault), his social educator, believes that Tommy's life can be put back on track.

The film also stars Mélanie Desjardins-Chavaudier, Eugénie Beaudry and Albert Kwan.

Finally, no release date has been announced for this film.

More than one week ago, we saw the poster and the teaser of the upcoming film Filière 13. Now, full-length trailer is online.

The story, which was penned by Claude Lalonde and Pierre Lamothe, follows three cops. Thomas (Claude Legault) has a headache that stops him from getting the job done correctly. Besides, because he committed a serious blunder, his boss, Benoît (Paul Doucet), reassigns him to one simple job: keeping an eye on the mother of a notorious criminal who is at large. After all, the Montreal police expects that criminal to get back to his mother so that they can catch him. Obviously, Thomas will have a partner: Jean-François (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge), the police's PR who cracked on television while he was trying to explain Thomas's last blunder. Besides, Jean-François has difficulties to talk to anyone.The film also stars Jean-Pierre Bergeron, Elisabeth Locas, Marie Turgeon, Anik Jean, André Sauvé,...

Alliance Vivafilm, a Canadian film distributor, released on its Facebook page the poster of the second film directed by Patrick Huard, Filière 13. As indicated on the poster, the film will come out on August 6, 2010.

The story, which was penned by Claude Lalonde and Pierre Lamothe, follows three cops. Thomas (Claude Legault) has a headache that stops him from getting the job done correctly. Besides, because he committed a serious blunder, his boss, Benoît (Paul Doucet), reassigns him to one simple job: keeping an eye on the mother of a notorious criminal who is at large. After all, the Montreal police expects that criminal to get back to his mother so that they can catch him. Obviously, Thomas will have a partner: Jean-François (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge), the police's PR who cracked on television while he was trying to explain Thomas's last blunder. Besides, Jean-François has difficulties to talk to anyone.

The film also stars Jean-Pierre Bergeron,...

Yesterday, Alliance Vivafilm, a film distributor, released on the net the trailer of 10 1/2. This will be the second feature film directed by director Daniel Grou (Les 7 jours du talion), aka Podz, and a release date has yet to be confirmed.

The film was produced by Pierre Gendron and was scripted by Claude Lalonde (Les 3 p'tits cochons).

It tells the story of Tommy (Robert Naylor), a ten-years-old-and-a-half boy. Because he is prone to have a violent behaviour, Tommy has always been handled by social services. However, Gilles (Claude Legault), his social educator, believes that Tommy's life can be put back on track.

Finally, here's the trailer:...

• The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television have announced the nominees for the 28th annual Genie Awards and leading the pack with 12 noms each is David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises and Roger Spottiswoode's Shake Hands with the Devil. The real applause goes to films like Away From Her (7 noms), The Tracey Fragments (6 noms) and Continental, a Film without Guns (5 noms). Two highly promising films that fizzled this year are veteran directors François Girard's Silk (it garnered many technical  noms) and Denys Arcand's Days of Darkness who got some sympathy votes. Interesting side note: Ellen Page is going up against Julie Christie not with Juno but with Canadian made Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments. Awards will be handed out just after the Oscars on March 3rd.         Best Motion Picturedays Of Darkness - Denise Robert, Daniel LouisAWAY From Her - Daniel Iron, Simone Urdl, Jennifer WeissCONTINENTAL, A

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