Meeting the Ends Two Canadian Directors’ Views

Outline Don McKellar Jeremy Podeswa The Five Senses

Don McKellar A joiner extremely prolific -- acted in many films and co-wrote the scripts of Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould and The Red Violin; wrote the script of Highway 61 (1991), etc. A playwright and actor first; Usu. plays the role of a kind and unassuming noboby;

Don McKellar on End of the World Films The ending of Independence Day “... All these people dancing around because the world was saved, even though this was like the worst disaster that had even befallen humanity, but it’s all okay now. No one was even sad.” (Monk 242)

On Last Night “I was gravitated to those instances of optimistic modernism. Like the gas company is International Style and the scenes in Craig’s apartment are in that Jetson sixties mode, the family suburban house is 1970s. To me, they all shared a certain innocence in design as they look toward the fture. Once again, I found that moving because there is no future.”

Jeremy Podeswa a native of Toronto, has been making movies about the nature of love since David Roche Talks to you about Love – cynical monologue; Eclipse – 10 sexual encounters occurring in the days leading up to a solar eclipse.

About his Style "For me, it was important that I did not have the tyranny of happy endings in the movie where everything works out happily for Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. I wanted a complexity and diversity in terms of what happens to all the characters.“ (source: wa.html ) wa.html

About his Style (2) Reversal of expectations --”about making people rethink something they think they’ve already thought through.” e.g. Richard seems to be suspicious; Two responses to Amy Lee’s disappearance

The Five Senses -inspired by Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses (1991) Her call to focus on each sense as a means to re- examine world around us. --The characters with a similar need—”to go back to a more innocent place in their lives,... and approach connecting people in a more innocent way so that it’s not so confused. What the movie became, in a way, is really about emotion over intellect or instinct over rationalization” (Take One Fall 1999 Goslawski 21)

The Five Senses R-Characters Rona (a cake artist), Robert Ruth (a widowed massage therapist), Rachel Richard (eye doctor) The others Anna & Amy Lee

Connecting Device 1.The apartment –where Richard, Ruth/Rachel and Rona live, 2.Robert, the cleaner, 3.The missing girl – an innocence all the other characters have lost

Robert Meeting his old lovers to smell love – 1.“Are you ok?” (suspecting AIDS)Are you ok 2.Not having the same view of their sexual relationship; 3.Likes but not loves him. 1.What do you think about his love with the lawyer couple? He wants to have “that,” their intimacythat

Rona Cynical about lovelove Suspicious about Roberto’s coming to join her// not being able to tasteSuspicious

Ruth and Rachel Her problems; Sympathy between two teenagers: 1 about their family; 2. About sexual identity (It’s like looking at you from inside out.)Sympathyabout their familyAbout sexual identity between and two mothers – Ruth rejected by Anna first; – mutual understanding --loss

Richard Watches his daughter’s tape; listens to the railway, the birds, the sea,..., to save in his mind before he becomes totally deaf. –There are other voices;other voices –”Things happen. You give and keep going”  survival. survival

Happy Endings? Clip Still connections and disconnections Connections –between Rachel and the boy  more complicated view of sexual identity; –between Richard and the woman  mutual support; –between Rachel and Anna, Rachel’s hand  in touch with the world again; –Between Robert and the lawyer couple? Disconnection between Rona and Roberto