Montreal: Each year for the past 25, Montreal World Film Festival president Serge Losique and WFF vice-president Daniele Cauchard have undertaken a daunting, year-long search for international films, including films for competition in the Grand Prix des Ameriques. Both attend screenings in Asia, Europe, North America and elsewhere, with the added duty of sorting through literally hundreds of cassettes submitted by hopeful filmmakers and distributors.

Many foreign-language films at WFF do not have North American distribution, but Cauchard says film professionals from abroad tend to be understanding.

‘We have a lot of world premieres and most of the time they don’t have a distributor yet, which is a good thing, because at least [the films] are available,’ she says. ‘In a festival you can experiment, and we know they [the foreign filmmakers] know it will be rather difficult finding a [North American] distributor.’

The heart of WFF’s programming mandate is international cinema, typically auteur-style movies from national cinemas outside the commercial and Hollywood orbits.

David Novek, corporate communications advisor with Astral Media, says WFF is important to independent filmmakers from abroad because it provides a chance to ‘see how their films are going to play in North America.’ He says many American film critics value WFF because it provides them with the opportunity to see films unlikely to be released in the U.S. or Canada.

Novek, a pioneer in Canadian film publicity and communications advisor for WFF in its earliest days, says international movies are part of Montreal’s heritage. ‘[The city’s] bilingual nature makes it more open to subtitled and foreign-language films than most, if not all [other] North American cities.’

Novek recalls WFF’s inaugural edition when he met Ingrid Bergman, Gloria Swanson and Fay Wray, star of King Kong.

The film veteran says he most fondly remembers tributes to other old-time Hollywood legends, actors like Ginger Rogers, Joan Fontaine and Kathryn Grayson. He also recalls wining and dining people like Alan Rickman, who loved Montreal’s restaurants, and Ben Cross, who apparently spent part of one late-night outing dancing on tables in a hotel bar. ‘Glenn Ford was honored to be back in Montreal because he was born in Quebec City,’ he adds.

Robert Roy, who assumed WFF market director duties for Losique (from 1990 to 1993) after a long and distinguished career at Radio-Canada, says there’s too much talk, and copy, about which movie star is or is not attending, and more time should be devoted to the films.

‘I have a lot of respect for Serge Losique,’ says Roy. ‘We’ve had our differences and our fights, but he knows his cinema. The problems with the festival are subjective. Some colleagues say he’s a czar, and that the WFF isn’t an industry meeting place like Toronto. But these aren’t Losique’s concerns. He’s concerned with the crowds. If you go to the festival at 8:30 a.m., there are line-ups. People take their holidays [to attend the festival]. People of all ages attend. He’s doing a hell of a job.’

‘Window on the world’

Asked if he thinks the bickering by local scribes bothers Losique, Roy says, ‘He knows his cinema. Those are his concerns. The festival does a great job for the public. I don’t care about the press’ opinion of the festival. I’m concerned that they look at the films themselves and not focus on the hand-shaking. The critics of the festival are too distracted by things other than the films. It bothers me.

‘The festival is a real window on the world. It takes courage to screen some of these films. Where else would you get [to see] Iranian cinema?’ asks Roy, still remarkably active as chairman of the Montreal Children’s Film Festival, secretary general of the International Center of Films for Children (created by UNESCO) and as VP of the Independent Production Fund and a member of the board of the Cogeco Production Fund.

Tributes and parties

This year, the WFF is honoring legendary actress Sophia Loren (at an Aug. 27 tribute which includes a screening of Marriage Italian-Style) and action star Jackie Chan (Sept. 1 at a screening of The Legend of the Drunken Master/Drunken Master II) as well as Spanish actor Francisco Rabal (Belle du jour, Goya in Bordeaux) and Argentinean director Fernando Solanas (The Hour of the Furnaces, The Cloud). There is also a special screening of Claude Berri’s 1986 film Manon des Sources in honor of French actress Emmanuelle Beart, president of this year’s festival jury.

WFF is organizing free nightly movie screenings right on Ste-Catherine Street and party ‘theme’ nights every night throughout the festival, running Aug. 24 to Sept. 2. Events include parties at the Wyndham Hotel, starting at 11 p.m., with themes like Sunglasses at Night, Jazz Lounge and Tequila. The partying continues outdoors with more daily and nightly activities on the Esplanade of Place des Arts, adjacent to the Wyndham. Palme d’Or-winning director Emir Kusturica (Underground) and his No Smoking Orchestra are on hand for the 25th anniversary celebrations, performing outdoor concerts on Aug. 25 and 26.

WITH files from JOANNE LATIMER.