by MARK SLUTSKY

Guess the writing’s been on the wall since Don Lobel and Mitch Davis left in February, but it was still a shock to learn last week that after 10 years, the Cinéma du Parc will close its doors in early August.

The Groupe Daniel Langlois honchos, who bought the Parc in 2001, blamed a drop in business and a changing market for the decision, and to be fair, DVDs and home theatres have certainly affected independent and rep cinemas’ bottom lines for the worse.

Still, it’s been a while since you could really call the Parc a rep house—art house, yes, but it hasn’t had much of a claim to the repertory title for a while. And you’ve really got to question the wisdom of some of their recent programming; surely the city had enough venues showing Brokeback Mountain already.

For whichever reason that Parc is closing, it still totally sucks for film fans in this city of ever-decreasing movie theatres. It sometimes feels like there’s a master plan afoot to make Montreal an increasingly hostile city for movie buffs—they’ve turned our beautiful downtown movie palaces into dumbass Club Med restaurants and virtual reality... uh, venues? Interactive experiences? Whatever the hell that “Metaforia” thing was. Video stores are crippled by the province’s outdated and infuriating sticker system. And the less said about the endless series of fiascos and outrages that is the city’s major film festival scene, the better.

Still, in the midst of Montreal’s busy July, we can still pretend, for a little while, that we live amidst a thriving film culture. There’s a ton of cinematic stuff to see and do this week, from the grassroots level to the big-festival-sponsored.

Cinéma Abbatoir is a new local group who’ve been putting on screenings since last fall, with a mission statement claiming “an opposition to the film festival circuit as an alternative space of diffusion.” You’ve got to admire the gumption of a group that sums up their aim with the phrase “nails in the eyes.” This week they’ll be screening Kier-La Janisse’s documentary Metal Storm: The Scandinavian Black Metal Wars, which chronicles murder, mayhem and church burnings in the Norwegian metal scene of the ’90s. It’s preceded by some metal-themed shorts and shows at Zeke’s Gallery (3955 St-Laurent), Thursday, July 13, at 9:30 p.m. Tix are $3.

Later this week, self-described “punk cabaret” band the Dresden Dolls come to town, with singer Amanda Palmer bringing her Fuck the Back Row! show along. Described as “a night of short films and Dadaist vaudevillle,” the evening will see a program of films culled from submissions from the bands’ fans, as well as a performance from Palmer herself, singing “songs from not-so-popular film soundtracks.” That’s at the Main Hall (5390 St-Laurent) on Sunday, July 16, 8:30 p.m., $10 (yes, the same night the Dresden Dolls are performing at Metropolis, and no, I’m not sure how that works).

Marathon film events seem to be quite the thing in indie film circles these days. This week, local group PONY TV hosts the San Francisco-based Cinemasports, which comes to town after hitting Moscow, London, New York and Bulgaria. The format is similar to the recent 2880 Film Blitz—filmmakers have 10 hours to produce a film based on “ingredients” revealed at a morning meeting, with entries screening that very night. That’s also on Sunday, July 16 at the SAT (1195 St-Laurent), with the kickoff at 9 a.m. and the screening at 8 p.m. Participation is free, but it’s $3–$5 to get into the evening event.

Let’s also not forget that this week marks the start of Just for Laughs, and Comedia, its film component. Most of note are probably the advance premieres of Strangers With Candy (see page 46 for an interview with Amy Sedaris) and Clerks 2, although both open in theatres next week. Also premiering is the latest in the Asterix franchise, Astérix et les Vikings, as well as 95 Miles to Go, a doc following comedian Ray Romano (of Everybody Loves Raymond) on the stand-up circuit. There are also five shorts programs, the most intriguing-looking being Found Footage, a program curated from stuff found in videotapes found in the trash, garage sales etc. It’s hosted and narrated by curators Joe Pickett and Nick Prueher. Info on all screenings is available at www.hahaha.com.

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