{"id":4602,"date":"2012-04-05T15:27:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-05T19:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3020"},"modified":"2012-04-05T15:27:08","modified_gmt":"2012-04-05T19:27:08","slug":"darrell-wasyk%e2%80%99s-the-girl-in-the-white-coat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=4602","title":{"rendered":"Darrell Wasyk\u2019s The Girl in the White Coat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A colleague wandered into the old Ammo Video store on College last fall and came across a VHS copy of something called H<\/strong>, and found the basic premise \u2013 two heroine-addicted characters attempt to kick the ugly habit \u2013 intriguing, but didn\u2019t know much else about the film, hence the hesitation to purchase the tape. When he returned a few months ago, the store was locked, and most likely so went an easy chance to snap up some vintage Canadiana because H<\/strong> doesn\u2019t exist on home video.<\/p>\n

A lot of Canadian films \u2013 good, bad, and fromage-scented canuxploitation \u2013 were released on tape, and then vanished, as far as further home video appearances went. There are the odd TV airings, but I often suspect their play comes not from a smart programmer, but the needs of stations to abide by CanCon rules and fill the time slots with native fodder.<\/p>\n

Fair enough, but H<\/strong> is not unlike countless praised and award-winning films that have vanished from distribution. H<\/strong> was shot for virtually nothing, and because of the urgency to put his intense vision on film, writer \/ director Darrell Wasyk made a personal film which did the film festival circuit, won awards, and was picked up for distribution by Alliance Releasing.<\/p>\n

Wasyk made another feature, then did some TV work, and stepped away from filmmaking until 2011 when he returned with The Girl in the White Coat<\/strong>, liberally adapted from Nikolai Gogol\u2019s short story \u201cThe Overcoat.\u201d It\u2019s a surreal, dreamy character piece, psychological study, and effective transposition of the chilly Russian setting to chilly Montreal during a brisk winter season. For some, at virtually 2 hours, it\u2019ll be tough going, but I argue that like a dreamy & sometimes meandering Andrei Tarkovsky film, it\u2019s more the mood and the weird aura that\u2019s worth investigating.<\/p>\n

The film opens tomorrow at the TIFF Bell Lightbox<\/a>, and in addition to a film review <\/a>[M<\/a>], I\u2019ve posted an interview <\/a>[M<\/a>] with Wasyk on the film\u2019s scriptorial and performances nuances. We also discuss H<\/strong> a bit, including the foreign DVD release Wasyk is aiming for, given Alliance has shown any interest in releasing on home video.<\/p>\n

In an upcoming Editor\u2019s Blog, I\u2019ll post some thoughts on the strange conundrums Canadian filmmakers face in getting their films to viewers when rights issues are complex, and large monopolistic companies sitting on vast back catalogues have no clue on how to exploit their worth, leaving you and me with little chance of seeing a notable film outside of rare TV airings of old transfers, and cinematheque screenings with prints loaned from the Canadian Archives.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re peeved that our cinematic culture is only accessible via archival loan-outs, beat-up VHS tapes, and Betamax copies from First Choice stay tuned, because I\u2019ll address the issue with related reviews of Dancing in the Dark<\/strong> (1986) and The Grey Fox<\/strong> (1982).<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a lengthy absence from feature films, writer \/ director Darrell Wasyk (H, Mustard Bath) returns with The Girl in the White Coat, his liberal adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s short story “The Overcoat,” starring Pascale Montpetit, which begins its engagement at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Friday. Uploaded is both a film review, and an interview with Wasyk, who also discusses his breakthrough film H, and its planned DVD release. Yes, really!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1ce","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4623,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602\/revisions\/4623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}