Joe and I drove out to Wolfville, Nova Scotia, where the esteemed Andy Brown, publisher of Conundrum Press and editor of this issue, now resides. After having sold Conundrum Towers in Montreal, Mr. Brown moved his offices to the new Conundrum Estates and Nature Reserve on the South Shore of Nova Scotia, where we met to discuss the Movie Mythos Top Ten Maritime Movies.
Due to the stifling July heat, we decided to adjourn to the Conundrum Cottage by the oceanside, where salty breezes would cool our brains for thinking. I asked the interns (mostly locals, fishpants and all, said Mr. Brown) what Maritime films they could recommend. The interns took a break from making lobster rolls and rappûre/rappie pie, an Acadian delight of gelatinous grated potatoes and meat, which I first sampled as a French Camp student at Ste-Anne University nearby. Some classics of Canadian cinema came up immediately: Margaret’s Museum, New Waterford Girl, The Hanging Garden. There followed a lively discussion of Anne of Green Gables and CODCO, and how these have shaped our national identity. Finally, we wracked our brains to come up with more recent examples of Maritime cinema, and came up with some of playwright Daniel MacIvor’s work, including Wilby Wonderful and Marion Bridge.
A hard day’s work concluded, the interns then took us crab-fishing off the dock. The lazy late afternoon stretched into the evening as we played Hearts, before a kitchen party erupted, everyone drinking Screech, jigging and playing fiddles and spoons. No, this last part was not actually true. There were, however, many rounds of Farewell to Nova Scotia (sung mostly by Joe) as we left in the morning.
The Movie Mythos Top Ten Maritime Movies:
Anne of Green Gables (1985) – Kevin Sullivan. Sure, roll your eyes. Anne is amongst the most recognizable kitsch icons of Canadiana, along with Mounties and lumberjacks. Prince Edward Island is a top tourist destination, thanks to her. But when I was young and romantic, I read and re-read the original stories a thousand times over. I thought the movie was a lovely rendition, Megan Follows as Anne was perfect, Colleen Dewhurst and Richard Farnsworth as the Cuthberts were inimitable.
The Hanging Garden (1997) - Thom Fitzgerald. You can’t go home again, especially when you’ve hung your troubled, fat, teen-aged self in the garden and gone off to be a gay man in the city. Ashley MacIsaac shows up playing the fiddle, who else?
New Waterford Girl (1999) – Allan Moyle. The best thing about this quirky Cape Breton small town coming of age comedy is the wonderful Liane Balaban in her first acting role. Not the only good thing though! Nicholas “Da Vinci” Campbell and Mary Walsh are also great. Themes include teen pregnancy, the strangeness of people “from away,” and wanting to get away.
Margaret’s Museum (1995) – Mort Ransen. Based on Sheldon Currie’s book The Glace Bay Miners Museum, with lots of Maritime signifiers, from the coal mining town where it is set, to the abundance of Gaelic music and dialect, bagpipes and booze.
The Shipping News (2001) - Lasse Hallström. There was a time when I would have been excited about seeing a movie by Lasse Hallström, director of the wonderful My Life as a Dog, but working in Hollywood for the last twenty years has done him a disservice. The Shipping News, though greeted with mixed reviews when it came out, warranted a spot on the list as one of the few Hollywood films set in Newfoundland (based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Annie Proulx). Maritime signifiers here include seal flipper pie and the sea, the sea, the raging stormy sea.
The Bay Boy (1984) – Daniel Petrie. A Catholic boy in small-town Nova Scotia, whose mother wants him to be a priest, wrestles with religion, girls, murder, and molestation by the local priest. An early coming-of-age Canadian classic with Keifer Sutherland, Liv Ullmann and Peter Donat.
Codco (1988-1992). A CBC television series that was on at the same time as The Kids in the Hall, which at the time I liked better than Codco, but my roommates, all of whom hailed from Nova Scotia, thought Codco was hilarious. I admit, I didn’t get the Newfie humour a lot of the time. But Cathy Jones and Mary Walsh would go on to do This Hour Has 22 Minutes, which in turn has spawned a Rick Mercer empire (Monday Report, Made in Canada, Talking to Americans…). Mercer was also in Secret Nation with Jones and Walsh (both of whom are also empires), a movie positing a conspiracy around the referendum that saw Newfoundland join Canada. Codco and The Kids in the Hall would meet at last in the short-lived series set in Newfoundland, Hatching, Matching and Dispatching, with Walsh and Mark McKinney.
The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood (1986) – Andy Jones and Michael Jones. The Codco gang before they were Codco, with all their trademark gags and humour, about a bureaucrat who becomes the first ruler of the People's Republic of Newfoundland.
Wilby Wonderful (2004) – Daniel MacIvor. A brilliant playwright, actor, and director who also wrote Marion Bridge, MacIvor leads a who’s who cast of Canadians here with Paul Gross, Maury Chaykin (may he Rest in Peace), Sandra Oh, Callum Keith Rennie, Ellen Page…
Crackie (2009) – Sherry White. Just last year, the latest Maritime film made its rounds through the film festival circuit, garnering great reviews. Crackie is about a young girl and her single mother, living in a gritty small-town of hardship in Newfoundland. Tough and poetic at the same time. Look for it at your local video store, though probably filed under “Foreign Films” as ironically, many Canadian works tend to be.
Altogether now! Farewell to Nova Scotia, the sea-bound coast/Let your mountains dark and dreary be/For when I am far away on the briny ocean tossed/Will you ever heave a sigh or a wish for me?
