Straight to the art

>> Beijing, Bilbao, bohemians and bikers at the Festival of Films on Art

by JOANNE LATIMER

 For the 18th annual roundup of Montreal's Festival of Films on Art, founder Rene Rozon has once again created a masterful programme--a unique balance of pop culture matched by more traditional fare. Over 170 films cover jazz, opera, literature, architecture, cinema, dance, poetry and fashion alongside fine art.

 Rozon disabuses people of the notion that art films are painfully academic. The films he selects are witty, fun, controversial and often beautiful. Nor is he afraid of works with intellectual rigueur.

 Opening night (Tuesday, March 14) features a screening of Turandot in the Forbidden City at the Museum of Fine Arts. China's most bankable director, Zhang Yimou, directs this $15-million production of Puccini's unfinished opera, set in Beijing. With a cast of over 1,000 characters and tight filming restrictions, it's not surprising to see The Making of Turandot in the Forbidden City in the festival's section of films on cinema.

 The closing event, six nights later, is a stunning film about Canadian-born architect Frank Gehry's Guggenheim in Spain. At 33 minutes, David Collier's Guggenheim Museum, Bilboa is just the right length. The camera circles the museum, catching how the structure's glass and titanium surfaces play off the river, bridges and nearby highways. Interviews with the architect reveal his work patterns, using multiple-sized models, and how an unexpected drop in the price of titanium saved his original conception.

 Notables from the home team include a documentary by Julie Perron about Jean-Luc Godard's little-known trip to Abitibi in 1968, called Mai en decembre, and films about Refus Global painter Marcel Barbeau, St-Laurent sculptor Louis Archambault, and painter Jacques de Tonnancour. The Other Side of the Picture, by Teresa MacInnes, is a brave investigation into why, 20 years after the issue was first protested, women artists still have to vie for equal credibility.

 Eleven of Canada's respected photographers are profiled in Photographies: Onze artistes du Canada, while Calgary-based director Kevin Alexander presents A New Kind of Bohemian about the Beat Generation. Keifer Sutherland narrates this thorough documentary on Jack Kerouac, Neil Cassady and their circle of colleagues. Don't miss Cassady's widow, Carolyn, recalling how Kerouac and Cassady had "PhDs in guilt" about being bohemian artists.

 Anyone wanting to learn about Abstract Expressionism is in luck, with the tribute to art dealer Leo Castelli's stable of painters. There are biopics on Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Rauschenberg and even the 1966 film by Rauschenberg called Linoleum. Of course, there's the latest film on Jackson Pollock, including interviews with his surviving lover and friends. Finally, don't miss the shock value of Hell for Leather, a British biker opera about good and evil. :

 

The Festival of Films on Art runs March 14-19. Info: 874-1637 or www.artfifa.com