Masaryk University Faculty of Arts The Department of English and American Studies

Kotcheff’s film contains plethora of quintessentially Canadian topics and concerns, yet this time they happen in fast sequence, hence giving the audience some time to comprehend it, but not to dwell on it for too long. Throughout the film one

The guests in the summer resort collect quite a big amount of money for Duddy, because they

simply find him a nice and cheerful attendant.

"I don´t want to see you…ever…again" (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz).

experiences many types of emotions from hatred, through love to loss. Everything seems to be balanced just perfectly though. One can notice the co-operation between the director and the writer, which was indeed a good idea from which the film benefited. Another advantage was the well chosen cast, who attracted the necessary viewers, and caused the film to stand out. It might be considered a Jewish minority film, hence it is a good sample to analyse, since it encompasses the multiculturalism, so typical of Canadian society.
4.2.3 The Big Crimewave (1985) by John Paizs

The Big Crimewave (1985) aka Crime Wave is a collection of almost all, in previous chapters mentioned, typically exploited themes of Canadian film. It contains everything from weird sexual practises, through dark humour to irony and sarcasm; and nice Canadians cannot be left out either. The technique used by Paizs might be identified as a mixture of several techniques at once. He employs meta-film, camp, documentary – simply everything Canadians are generally considered to be good at.

To mention examples of meta-film, there are several scenes describing a process of making a film. Steven often reveals the techniques and processes of making a movie to his little friend Kim. The audience is, at one point, even included in an experiment which Steven practises on Kim to demonstrate how it works with animation, thus one can be deeper engaged in the film. The director relied on another method how to make the audience more involved in the story, and it is the generally acknowledged assumption that "throughout the history of movies, audiences have been obsessed with tales of crime…Something about breaking the law and getting away with it seems to appeal to everyone" (Jackson and Hughes qtd. in Jackson 120). What also supports the previous claim that crime films were popular at the time, is the fact that at the same time Paizs’ film was being released, there were simultaneously more crime stories coming out. One of them was, de facto, the reason for the two names of Paizs’ film – Crimewave and The Big Crimewave. It was a film by Sam Raimi called Crimevawe, as well occupied with crime stories, hence exploiting a popular topic of the contemporary audience.

Not to forget to include brief synopsis of the film, there are predominantly two main characters on the screen – Steven Penny and Kim (Penny’s landlord’s little daughter). Steven strives to become a colour crime movie director, though is forced to start by typing short crime story scripts every night when the street lamp is turned on. Unfortunately, he is only able to come up with beginnings and endings to his scripts. He lacks the ability to think of a good twist or any twists at all. In the end, it is Kim who attempts to help to solve this problem of his. She does that in return for his lectures on film making and film industry. She finds an experienced tutor for Steven in an ad in Colour Crime Quarterly, which Steven regularly reads. The tutor finally turns out to be a mad Dr. Jolly from the US, craving for weird sexual practises, for which he later uses Steven. Nevertheless, all these experiences make Steven improve his writing and get to the top where only "few people made it" (The Big Crime Wave). At the end of the film, Steven dies as a wealthy and acclaimed director, having turned all of his scripts into successful and popular films.

The whole story is about a struggling Canadian director whose path to success is painful and full of obstacles, yet he succeeds in the end. Unfortunately the end comes

too soon. One might also notice that he is not happy when 'at the top', experiencing the enchantment of the success and fame. The whole story reminds the viewer too much of the situation of a Canadian director in general in reality. Paizs might insinuate by this that Canadian directors and movies on purpose do not aspire to be generally acknowledged, since it is not what would make them happy anyway. This assertion corresponds to "Jay Scott’s Globe and Mail feature on Cannes 1980, headlined 'Yachts and Tax Breaks Do Not Good Movies Make,…'" (Urquhart qtd. in Keller 42). Canadians indeed as if followed this pattern, they do make good movies, yet "Canadian film is lamentably underappreciated. Despite the best efforts…less than five percent of screen time in the country is devoted to Canadian films" (Keller 1). The efforts of the Canadian film distribution is not accompanied by such sumptuous and spectacular propaganda as, for instance, the US feature film production is, thus it is not paid attention to in such extent. Although, it does not imply it is less good, only little less astounding and distinct on the surface. In Canadian film, one must go deeper to find the astounding and distinct. It is worth paying attention not just to the propaganda and the special effects, the outside qualities of the film in general; the plot and the thoughts i.e. the inside qualities are the true source of inspiration and where the best of the Canadian film might lie.

The story of The Big Crimewave is not completely invented. It is a semi-biography of John Paizs’ himself, and as mentioned earlier, well-mastered Canadian documentary. It is not only a documentary on Steven Penny/John Paizs’ life but on a Canadian film in general. The whole existence of it is mentioned step by step in the course of the story – NFB, animation, bad reception of it, aspiration to cope with Hollywood’s production, insufficient promotion of the production and all the aspects connected with it. It might be considered a critical documentary, since Paizs alludes to

and criticizes the situation of Canadian cinema on many occasions, whether explicitly or only implicitly. Steven writes about his heroes who come from 'the North': "In 1977, critic Martin Knelman wrote of the period when Toronto and Canada became known as ´Hollywood North´ for making unsuccessful, large-budget movies with Canadian producers, second-string American stars and expatriate Canadians" (Kaye 71).

Except meta-film, Paizs’ film pays homage to another technique also widely employed by Guy Maddin and touched upon previously in the thesis. It is camp. Many scenes in the film are exaggerated and ridiculous, especially the scenes containing violence. Those might also remind one of another Canadian director – David Cronenberg. Several scenes where limbs are being cut off or people cause harm to themselves produce a lot of blood, and one can sense the spirit of Cronenberg´s Shivers, for instance. However, camp makes it all seem little theatrical and weakens the final impact on the audience, although, still leaving a strong impression of violence.

To finish listing the techniques applied in the movie, it chiefly generally gives the impression of a model NFB documentary. There is Kim’s voice over throughout all the movie, and she herself acts as an usher to every scene, introducing the facts and the background information of what the audience is about to watch. Kim’s voice over and her postures are also quite theatrical. The speech is exaggerated as well, since she, as a little girl, mentions every single detail, even those of no importance to the main storyline. She also tries to behave as an adult which gives the performance a little comical trace.

Despite the comical trace, the hero starts as a loser again. Steven cannot reach his goals and to make it worse he is even presented as dumb in the movie, so cannot really express aloud at all. He can express himself via his writing though, which he does. However, his endings are never happy. His heroes are made losers too. The only thing

Steven can compose are pessimistic endings to his stories, which is apparently so typical of Canadian writers. That is one of the reasons why their stories do not attain such popularity as, for example, Hollywood production: "The tragedy occurs when a

There is Kim’s voice over throughout all the movie, and she herself acts as an usher to every scene…

The tutor finally turns out to be a mad Dr. Jolly from the US, craving for weird sexual practises, for which he later uses Steven.

picture made by intelligent people tries to be more than a trivial romance or crime story. Then, it often suffers badly at the hands of this formula-loving audience" (Pratley 16). The genre of crime story might have, de facto, helped Paizs to make the audience at least aware of the film and made them interested in it, however, prior to that he was forced to change the original pessimistic ending of the film into a lighter one: "Then, at the last moment, the retard lowers his lantern towards the creek and Steven sees what he was meant to see--his reflection in the water. And Old Mum boots him into the creek and starts to berate him for being a quitter" (Corupe). The former ending of The Big Crimewave, did not follow the formula the audience was used to, hence they were not happy about it, and the critics wrote

[t]hat when Crime Wave cooks, it sizzles, but that the ending kinda lets things down--which I [John Paizs] had to agree with. So I returned home determined to fix the last 20 minutes of the film. I basically rewrote and re-shot it to make it more like the stuff that came before it…[because] I could hear people laughing all the way through the first hour, but then it gets dark and there was silence. I felt the first hour had been so strong that I could remake the last half-hour like it." (Corupe).

The end of Steven’s story within the film terminates with his lonely death, nevertheless, the whole film continues with Kim’s narration and a common shot of Kim and Steven together happily eating a cake shaped in the form of 'the top', which everyone has tried to reach throughout the movie, but only they finally made it. "[The film] never became a cult hit, but it really did connect with anyone who has a dream to make it" (Corupe).

Nevertheless, all these experiences make Steven improve his writing and get to the top where

only "few people made it" (The Big Crime Wave).

…shot of Kim and Steven together happily eating a cake shaped in the form of 'the top', which

everyone has tried to reach throughout the movie, but only they finally made it.

However, we might argue about what views Paizs actually holds on 'the top' which is nowadays predominantly ruled by American cinema. His last shot is likely to give us some hints: the two Canadian protagonists biting into it and slowly eating it bit by bit.

Paizs, as almost every Canadian director, also pays attention to technology:

Paizs’s films have the power to fascinate viewers who, like the filmmaker, grew up in the TV age and found themselves simultaneously seduced and abandoned by the televisual dream screen. His intriguing character studies exhibit a constantly fluctuating love/hate relationship with the idealized images that have organised both the director's fantasy life and those of his like-minded viewers (Cagle 2).

To summarize the techniques Paizs employs, there are a few advertisements included within the film. Some of them promote technology per se – product placement is employed with Bolex, Kodak, Star Trek, and others. It might strongly remind one of a different film widely exploiting product placement as well. It is The Truman Show (1998) by Peter Weir, where actually the product placement is overtly justified as the source of financing for the show in which the products were placed. This might as well relate to the TV age, Cagle talks about above, when there appear more and more advertisements on TV.

Paizs addresses Canadian-American relationship in his film, specifically Canadian-Hollywood cinema relations. It is namely in the shape of the perverse and crazy American Dr. Jolly who almost destroys Steven’s writing spirit and talent when he sets off to meet him in the US to acquire some advice and help from him on writing twists and middles to his scripts. Paizs might insinuate here that Canadian cinema is constantly exploited by American production, hence slowly destroyed: "The historical and ongoing predicament of the lack of success of English-Canadian films has been variously attributed to similarities to the United States in language and culture, lower production budgets, and weaknesses in distribution, exhibition, marketing and ´quality´" (Kaye 61). Nevertheless, Steven manages to escape the influence of the American script writer and succeeds to get to the top in the end. Might there be such a happy ending awaiting Canadian cinema in reality as well? Might Paizs be capable of thinking that optimistically, i.e. in such non-Canadian manner?

There are more allusions to American society one might notice. Steven Penny is finally awarded many golden statues for his films, which are widely popular among mass audience - too similar to Steven Spielberg’s production and his many Oscars winning films. Steven Penny also builds his own theme park where all his characters can be met by their fans. It is advertised as "a theme park [where]…on route magic touched everyone…Such was the attraction of Steven Penny’s most enchanting creation…" (The Big Crimewave). This, in turn, might remind one of Walter Disney and his Disneyland.

Paizs also praises Canada as a land of opportunities and touches upon its multicultural aspect and the openness of Canadian society: "It’s only in a great country like this that all that’s happened to us, happened to a couple like us. Any places else we might’ve ended up herding sheep or…" (The Big Crimewave). This is an excerpt from the Holidays’ speech in the first half of the film. They mention Canada being the land that has given them a chance to make a career. However, as it was already mentioned before, how much one is to be considered Canadian depends on how much one contributes to overall Canadianness. Hence, even the Holidays are successful and acknowledged salespeople giving speeches, yet only until it is discovered that they had committed a crime. After that, they are brutally pursued by the police regardless their prior economic contribution to Canadian society.

Although the whole movie takes place in the town and not much of Canadian wild and eerie landscape is thus represented in the course of the narration, there is still a part of it incorporated within – it is Canadian winter. The story begins with it. When Kim appears in the opening scene, there is snow heavily falling behind the window. Likewise, Steven’s life ends with his death in winter: "Now frozen for the ages Steven Penny rests peacefully while old friends gather to say goodbye…" (The Big Crimewave). It reminds one of a similar pattern occurring in Denis Arcand’s Decline of American Empire (1986), where the story opens with a snow-covered countryside and terminates again with freezing winter.

In conclusion, it is appropriate to point out the fact that Paizs’ film is very similar to Guy Maddin’s films. The style is almost identical, yet enriched by specifically John Paizs’ "primordial style--crisp, mock-radio sound, no camera movement, mood lighting--showing a debt to low-grade pocketbook covers, instructional films, technicolor travelogues and even Saturday morning cartoons" (Peranson). Paizs learnt from Maddin and was a good friend of his, admired his style and was constantly in touch with him, hence under the influence of Maddin’s ideas. He himself admits that he was affected: "Though just knowing him [Guy Maddin] may very well have influenced me… And his point of view, his personality, they were so out of left field to me that they really made an impression. And he was funny! Really, I’d have been lucky if any of this had rubbed off on me" (Scalzo).

Nevertheless, apart from the style, Paizs in his movie is profoundly occupied with the overall Canadian cinema situation. This serious problem is, however, wrapped up in a playful mode making the whole story seem funny and almost optimistic about the future of upcoming Canadian production.
4.2.4. Last Night (1998) by Don McKellar

This is indeed the movie one should start watching right before the end of the year to enjoy the atmosphere to its utmost. Last Night (1998) is a film about the end of the world, yet one might perceive it as the most optimistic and playful movie out of the selected set, and maybe out of the Canadian production overall as well. It was made in the 1990s, before the end of the second millennium, which must have most probably had a certain impact on the director.

The whole story takes place within 6 last hours on the Earth (approximately 95 minutes of screen time). The plot starts at 6p.m. and finishes at 00:00 sharp. There are different characters meeting on the screen throughout the course of the film, and the audience is invited to spend their last hours on the planet with them. Or are they invited to spend our last hours with us? As the movie progresses we are no longer sure, since the realities blur. Among the main protagonists, there are Patrick (Don McKellar), Sandra – wife of Duncan (David Cronenberg), Patrick’s family, his friend Craig, and various other characters who those main protagonists meet on their last day.

The opening scene begins with a phone ringing, which is not what one would expect of a film about the end of the world, so one might feel a little puzzled. Yet, bigger astonishment is awaiting us after we hear a voice of a gas company employee leaving a message on the answering machine: "Good afternoon, Mr Wheeler. I’m calling from the gas company. I hope you’re doing well and spending these final hours in peace with your loved ones. Rest assured that we will make every effort to keep the gas flowing right until the End" (Last Night). After the message has been recorded, not many of the viewers are to believe McKellar is really going to make the world come to an end. Who would ever go to work on the last day of the Earth? The Canadians.

Only few moments later, the audience is taken into Sandra’s car playing a song on the radio. The song goes: "Last night, I didn’t get to sleep at all/ I lay awake and watched until morning light/ washed away the darkness of the lonely night/…" (ibid.). The song is, de facto, a preview of what is about to happen to the main protagonist, Patrick. He intends to spend the last night on his own, however, he meets Sandra, who he slowly falls in love with, and since on the doomsday, the sun never sets, the light eventually washes away his loneliness. Unfortunately, the light washes away more than just the loneliness, all the world basically. So far it has not reminded one much of a Canadian movie at all – too optimistic, under the circumstances, too lyrical, and too bright, literally.

On second thought, from a different point of view, everybody in the film might be deemed a looser. They are all losing the battle with the world. From that angle, the film suddenly begins to unfold in a more Canadian manner. Another thing that reassures the viewer about it is when "Sandra Oh, scouring a ransacked supermarket for some wine, finds two bottles left of the shelf. She picks the two up, reads the labels, selects one and returns the other politely to the empty shelf. That, exclaimed Clarkson, is how you tell it's a Canadian film" (Gittings 418). Here, we might once again recognize Will Ferguson’s claim about Canadian ´extreme´ niceness and politeness (see Chapter 4.2.1). It is also touched upon explicitly in the film when Mr Wheeler says that "the end of the world is all the more reason to be civilized" (Last Night). On the contrary, to balance the emotions and hence complete the picture, while Sandra is ´shopping´, there is a mob of drunk teenagers outside destroying her car: "Americans use violence as a substitute for emotions. Canadians don't" (Tanzer). They let violence coexist alongside emotions, as they conjointly appear throughout the movie.

Interestingly enough, it is predominantly cars and other vehicles that attract people to commit violence or to destroy. There recur more scenes where a drunk mob attacks a bus, cars, telephone booths and similar. Violence directed at people is present as well, though aggression towards technology prevails. This might be interpreted as a criticism of technology. Moreover, there is also abundant complaining about cellular phones throughout the movie: "Well, they haven’t worked for weeks. Cell phones! Never really did!" (Last Night) They do not work, while the old-fashioned hard line phones do. An old-type camera can be found among the presents, commented on by Patrick’s sister: "It’s old…It’s like nostalgia" (Last Night) By contrast, the Internet is presented as an easy source of sexual services: "Baby, it’s not too late… If I were you, I would get on the blower. Get on the Internet, I mean. That’s what it’s there for. That’s why they invented it…" (Last Night). Nevertheless, contrary to the modern invention of the Internet, Canadian television and Canadian radio both work properly and efficiently. They continue broadcasting pleasant music and bringing the most recent news to Canadian people until the End. What the director might try to indicate here is that everything under Canadian official supervision works better than in the private sector. It might even be interpreted as an implicit positive criticism of institutions such as NFB et al. Another scene which might be considered a positive criticism of technology is when Jennifer instructs her mother: "Just leave it, Ma! Leave it to the machine!" (Last Night) Technology might indeed make people’s lives more

comfortable, when, for instance, in a full house, nobody needs to answer the phone. By contrast, it might get obnoxious when spoiling the Christmas atmosphere with piercing noise.

Patrick is also addressed as obnoxious by his sister. He reminds one of Ernie from The Ernie Game (1967) by Don Owen. In his own way, he also strives to maintain his personal identity. He refuses to follow the others in the common celebration of the End, nor does he attempt to play along for the sake of his mother’s happiness. His acting and decisions hurt his family, as do Duddy Kravitz’s. With respect to that, Patrick is "the truly Canadian heroic figure…who wishes to maintain his own separate identity within the social complex, however cramping it seems to be…" (Brown qtd. in Bossiére 25). He is a widower, introvert, depressed and longing to die alone. All those seem quintessentially Canadian issues. Patrick is a genuinely Canadian hero who perfectly conforms to Canadian traits. He is the type of a person "with no special skills, heroism or prowess [,which] represents a playful variation on a worn-out Canadian stereotype – that of a male loser" (Pospíšil qtd. in Kyloušek 212). Apart from a typical Canadian hero, there are more issues a genuinely Canadian film would engage with. Some of the examined reviews even argue that Last Night "is an oddly endearing film, low-key and Canadian to the core: you could blindfold someone, spin him around three times and drop him in the theatre, and it wouldn't be five seconds before he recognized Last Night as a home-grown product" (Jay 1). McKellar as a person seems to comply with the description of his characters too: "'The apartment is a little messy,' he says. He [Don McKellar] lives with a 2-year-old black-and-white female cat named Stinky he found at a bar. He has just broken up with a girlfriend" (Sullivan).

While watching Last Night where the protagonists deal with their own every-day problems, such as troubles with getting a car, partying, being stuck in a traffic jam,

Violence directed at people is present as well, though aggression towards technology prevails.

Patrick refuses to follow the others in the common celebration of the End, nor does he attempt to play along for the sake of his mother’s happiness.

Likewise, as in previously explored films, the acting might seem exaggerated and sometimes artificial. The film contains acting within acting. The actors play people who try to act, who try to pretend the End is not coming, hence the effect might give an impression of looking strained and affected. All the dialogues seem to be too sophisticated for a certain situation, or sometimes too formal. People reflect on things overly and in detail.

A topic discussed and concurrently practised in abundant amount by Craig is sex, which Katherine Monk identifies as one of the typical Canadian issues: "Canadian film has explored more sexual quirks on screen than Canadians society has ever had the courage to talk about out loud" (qtd. in Cavell 113). In the film, Craig aspires "to enjoy as many choice permutations of sexual intercourse as he can", including intercourse with Patrick (Sullivan). However, in the film the audience is only shown his sexual intercourse with a virgin, his French teacher (Geneviève Bujold) and a black woman. He only talks about the rest of the permutations with Patrick, therefore does something a 'true' Canadian would supposedly not do, since they do not talk about sex out loud, according to Monk (see Cavell’s quote above).

The characters are claimed to be Canadian, yet in one aspect they diverge from the characteristic Canadian traits. Those Canadians on the screen discuss taboo topics without restrain. Consider, for instance, Grandmother and Rose, who represent nice elderly loving ladies, yet at one instance they speculate: "I’m tired of the children. They haven’t lived, given birth, watched their friends die. I have invested eighty years in this life. The children don’t know what they’re missing" (Last Night). This particular scene exemplifies why Canadians do not wish to overly associate with Canadian cinema. It is excessively direct, comprised of taboos, and it does not aspire to follow the mainstream. It is universally acknowledged, people prioritize children in plenty of situations. Hollywood mainstream cinema does, yet the Canadian film reveals the grudge it might cause in people. It explores the issue from all angles, which might sometimes lead to surprising findings.

McKellar also alludes to Canadian cinema situation since it stimulates every truly Canadian director to incorporate it into his work, if only implicitly. This idea is encompassed in the piano concert scene. Patrick’s friend is performing for practically an empty hall. This alludes to the popularity of Canadian cinema in reality. Providing the theatre plays something of Canadian production, the hall is empty. Regarding music, film score also plays a relevant role in Canadian cinema, as it is often put into foreground to complete or entirely create the atmosphere. Canadian film-makers seek to encourage Canadian musicians, and promote Canadian music as well, as "[t]here's so much great independent music out there, and so much is Canadian" (Quill). Another assumption asserts that "there are so many funding opportunities in Canada, in a lot of

Patrick’s friend is performing for practically an empty hall. This alludes to the popularity of

Canadian cinema in reality.

There is a shot of Patrick and Sandra pointing guns at each other…

cases, producers have to hire Canadian composers, or even composers from a certain province if there are tax credits involved,…" (King 47).

The final scene of the film induces a lot of ambivalence. The last moments of the protagonists are quickly shown successively. There is a shot of Patrick and Sandra pointing guns at each other, people are chanting and counting the last minutes, Patrick’s friend is playing slow and sad melody on the piano, and Guantanamera³ can be heard in the background. The respective scenes might certainly be deemed light and bright. Everything seems perfectly normal. It is the End.

Furthermore, they intend to enjoy as many variations of sexual intercourse as possible. In the end, unfortunately, the most Canadian aspect is yet the fact that the movie will not become popular with the mainstream audience.

In conclusion, I would like to summarize the knowledge I have acquired from the analyses of the respective films, and hence provide the evidence that my hypothesis raised prior to the writing was verified. In the introduction I asserted that a profound analysis of the Canadian film can help one to understand and define Canadian identity, also referred to as Canadianness in the thesis. Throughout the 4 chapters I have attempted to verify the statement. On the following pages I am to present the results of my research, which has occupied one year of my studies. During that time I have studied the issues regarding concept of identity in general, and later Canadian identity specifically. I have watched relevant amount of Canadian films and have studied the background information connected with the process of their making and the crew involved – including directors, actors and the audience.

The thesis is occupied with three identities – American, British and chiefly Canadian, which is dealt with in most detail, and also further divided into three subgroups – Francophone, Anglophone and First Nations. Prior to specific identities discussion, identity as a general concept is addressed. Reflecting upon the annotated literature, there is a basic distinction of identity per se into personal and social. When later preoccupied with Canadian identity, the thesis’ main concern is social identity, which is also predominantly represented in the analysed films. Personal identity is referred to marginally, but the thesis refrains from dealing with in much detail, mainly due to its scope limitation. Social identity is presented as a need of people to belong somewhere, to distinguish from the others, and also, according to Rousseau, a need to unite in anticipation of a threat from the outside.

Apart from social identity, landscape identity and technologized identity are illustrated in the work as well. Landscape identity is bound to a specific countryside, and influences the people connected with that landscape. Likewise, the identity of the people inhabiting a certain area has an impact on the landscape identity. It is a mutual influence, landscape identity is invariably closely tied to a person’s identity. Technologized identity is also closely related to an individual, influencing him/her in positive way, hence making his/her life more comfortable and easier due to new inventions. Concurrently, it might influence the individual in negative way as well, hence distort his/her image of him/her-self completely. Profusely mediated images might cause confusion regarding one’s identity, and lead to excessive generalization and blurring the boundaries between the identities. Identity definition then becomes obscure and only one global identity might linger on eventually.

All the introductory general information is applied on Canadian surroundings and therefore specified. The outcome of this is the thesis attempts to define Canadian identity by demarcating it in relation to American, British and its own smaller identities within Canada. It is a complicated task to venture one single explanation of Canadianness, since it encompasses myriads of smaller components. Canadian society is based on a principle of 'a mosaic', and this policy is also officially acknowledged by the government of Canada. The inhabitants are therefore not forced to assimilate. They are allowed to pursue their own national roots, hence what one can observe in Canada is de facto a mixture of origins and identities at one place, yet not 'melted' (as in the US, for instance).

Based on the study, technologized identity is a typically accentuated issue both in Canadian film and Canadian society. This is reflected in a great deal of the distinguished Canadian director’ oeuvre, such as, for instance, apart from those presented in the thesis, Atom Egoyan’s Family Viewing (1988), Sriniva Krishna’s Masala (1992) and David Cronenberg’s eXistenZ (1999). Canadian directors are both engaged with technology in their works, as well as employ it extensively while making it, as in case of Guy Maddin’s films.

As far as the second part of the thesis is concerned, it is occupied with analyses of the respective films. The films are all made by Canadian or hyphenated Canadian (as it is quite common) directors: they sometimes refuse refraining completely from acknowledging their ancestors’ origins. Based on the readings and explored films, there are several issues and features that recur in Canadian cinema. Furthermore, based on the reviews and directors’ comments, certain aspects have even come to the fore repeatedly and concurrently. Among those of considerable importance, there is weird sex, thoroughly explored by Catherine Monk who wrote a whole book on it called Weird Sex and Snowshoes. She focuses on various perverse sexual manifestations in Canadian film: "Lord knows, there is no shortage of weird sex in our celluloid closet, and when I say closet – I mean it. We’re as quiet about sex in general…which itself affirms the guilt that sex has historically carried in Canadian culture" (qtd. in Cavell). There are several sexual contexts or insinuations in each of the analysed films.

Another feature occurring in each of the analysed film and mentioned in all the consulted sources are heroes losers, usually in comparison to the US heroes. Most of the bibliography comments on the Canadian loser in comparison to the US winner. The main protagonists from the explored films: Ernie, Duddy, Steven, and Patrick give an impression of characters who lead mental fight within, and three of them actually lose it and die. Ernie commits a suicide. Patrick plans to commit it though in the end waits until the End does that for him, since he is too afraid. Steven dies as a consequence of his life, the director does not offer any other explanation of his death. Duddy, as the only one, ´succeeds´ and reaches his chief goal, however, loses everything else on the way towards it. Canada commonly compares itself to the US, and consequently assumes an attitude of a loser, which has an impact on the directors’ thinking, and is reflected in their final products, which later influence the audience. It is therefore a never-ending vicious circle.

Another often exploited topic is wild and eerie Canadian countryside, which likewise can be found in the US films. Nevertheless, somehow, Americans are always able to conquer it eventually, in comparison to Canadians who are heavily influenced by it and finally submit to it. The Canadian artists, including directors often "comment on the inescapable role of the natural environment in what may be seen as a specifically "Canadian" artistic response engendered by the entrancing but also frightening land" (Buss qtd. in Prajznerová qtd. in Kyloušek 186). Canadians respect their landscape, hence they do not exploit it in their films the same way Americans do.

Last but one preoccupation of Canadian film is technology, which might still sometimes contain liabilities, contrary, for instance, to the US, where it is successfully and thoroughly exploited to its utmost. Technology is commented on in each of the films the thesis focuses on. The opinions are ambivalent. The directors pay attention to its positive and negative traits concurrently. It is the telephone which disturbs people’s privacy in The Ernie Game, as well as it is the camera which he exchanges for an old type-writer that makes him obsessed with images and later his own personal identity. In Don McKellar’s Last Night the Internet is criticized for providing an easy source of sexual services, yet on the other hand, people manage to stay in contact until the End due to hard-line phones. Patrick is able to spend the last hours with his parents on the phone while being with his new girlfriend at the same time.

To conclude the topics Canadian directors quintessentially engage themselves with, there is one last of which one might find allusions in almost every Canadian film – it is the general situation of Canadian cinema. Most directors usually incorporate a scene insinuating the criticism of the low popularity and inefficient distribution of Canadian production. Of the analysed films, only Paizs explicitly criticizes the fact, Kotcheff, McKellar and Owen all incorporate scenes which implicitly touch upon the matter.

Considering the topics commonly depicted in Canadian movies, it might not strike one as a surprise that the Canadian film distribution is generally very low, and the awareness of the existence of Canadian cinema at all is mainly sustained in the close circle of Canadian film experts or zealous fans. In general, the films are received with scepticism and preliminary depression among the viewers. Canadians do not prefer watching films about them that might cause them depression or profound speculation. They want to relax and enjoy the cinema, therefore they prioritize the Hollywood production, which follows a fixed pattern of its storylines, which very rarely takes the audience aback, as for instance, by contrast, Canadian film is prone to do. Canadian cinema is controversial, innovative, artistic, experimental, documentary and very often shocking.

One might object that there is a fixed pattern of Canadian storyline too, which is true. Plethora Canadian films contain the previously mentioned topics and myriads of them contradict Hollywood happy-endings. However, there are always deviations, which is one of the idiosyncratic features of Canadian cinema as well. It typically contains a deviation, which makes the film atypical and extraordinary, while still being made in a documentary style making us conceive of it as real.

In many ways, the four explored films can certainly be considered exemplary movies of Canadian cinema, and one can find plenty of representations of Canadian identity in all of them. The formal structure of the films is very similar as well. All the directors emphasize exaggerated acting, rely on implicit expressions and unambiguous endings – entailing death in a certain way in all of the four movies. To sum it up, Canadian film in general "revels in opposition and twin-mirror imagery; it is concerned with themes of alienation and has a tendency to show us the negative space around the subject to express character rather than indulge in contrived dramatic dialogue to articulate a specific meaning" (Monk 106).

The directors present a story to the audience made in documentary-like manner, however, at the same time constantly remind the viewer of the fact that what they see is only constructed. By means of this technique they prevent the spectators from identifying with the main protagonists, which is common for Hollywood cinema. Apart from that, the films are full of other contradictory aspects, which yet all together make a coherent whole. This idea stems from Canadian policy per se, which itself consists of “multitude of people, rainbow belief systems and a cacophony of voices” (Monk 108). The whole film consists of myriads of smaller components collected by the director and their teams from various sources. Therefore the impression the audience acquires of the film is never monotonous or unambiguous.

There are also plenty of contradictory forces present in every Canadian film. Firstly, there are various identities contradicting each other; often, the director himself/herself has an identity consisting minimally of two parts which might contradict each other in the process of making the film. Secondly, people in Canada are ashamed to talk about taboos and sex, yet Canadian film is full of those, and not only ordinary versions. Thirdly, Canadians do not prefer watching Canadian films since it might make them depressed, yet the films are supposedly documentaries about Canadians – depressed losers scared of the wild countryside, and obsessed with technology and sex. Music is an important component of the film, and not only in Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993). De facto, it is prevalently more powerful than the dialogues, and conveys more meaning than words.

To conclude the thesis, I have analyzed four examples of the Canadian cinema. Unfortunately, space has not been provided for more, nevertheless, in those explored, similar topics have been found. The topics have been profoundly and frequently discussed in the reviews and the secondary sources consulted. The analyses of more samples of the Canadian cinema would only confirm the already verified hypothesis: Canadian films are about Canadians, and for Canadians. They contain 'Canadianness' which has been influenced in multifaceted manner.

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