by MATTHEW HAYS

In keeping with the spirit of Halloween, the Cinéma du Parc is screening Montreal filmmaker Eric Lavoie’s wacky homage to ’50s and ’60s sci-fi and horror, Silent Invasion. Made with his good buddies on a dime, the feature is an hilarious riff on virtually every space-invaders movie ever concocted. Adding to the nuttiness is an infusion of Hollywood ’20s-style humour, with Keystone Cops antics figuring prominently. Lavoie knows his pop culture very well indeed, and his passionate romance with the movies is captured beautifully here. The film screens this weekend, Nov. 1 and 2 at the Parc.

I’ll never forget the tremendous sadness I felt upon hearing the news that filmmaker Claude Jutra’s body had been recovered from the St. Lawrence River. Unable to take the graduating symptoms of Alzheimer’s, the reports went, the man behind Mon oncle Antoine took his own life. It was a sad end to a brilliant life, one that’s recounted in Paule Baillargeon’s heartfelt and intelligent feature documentary, Claude Jutra: An Unfinished Story. Baillargeon was friends with the late Jutra, and that insider knowledge of the man shines through here. The film was very well received when it premiered at the World Film Fest in August; it airs this Thursday, Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. on CBC. Don’t miss this primer on one of the most crucial figures in Canadian and Quebec cinema.

This weekend the Cinémathèque québécoise will be presenting a veritable orgy of animation for three days solid. From Friday through Sunday (Nov. 1–3), there will be retrospectives (of Phil Mulloy and the Fleischer Bros.), an anthology of Czech cartoon shorts and some Japanese anime thrown in for good measure. The event also includes a master class on animation and an awards ceremony recognizing excellence in the medium. Info: www.cinematheque.qc.ca or call 842-9768.

In other Cinémathèque québécoise news, their programmers are presenting a screening of the remarkable and unusual oeuvre of Montreal filmmaker Denis Côté, which also screens this weekend. In the spirit of full disclosure, I must also state that Côté is a colleague, being the film critic/editor for the Mirror’s French-language sibling mag, Ici. What the hell, everyone needs a conflict of interest every now and then, is how I like to look at things.

In the wonderful world of film books, Raincoast Books has published an extremely impressive collection of James Bond Movie Poster Art. In many cases, the posters are as fun as the movies, not to mention the sexy Bond women and sexy Bonds who populate them. My personal 007 ratings: Timothy Dalton: a 7 out of 10. (I know he didn’t work at the box office, but many regard him as the thinking-person’s Bond.) George Lazenby: 8. (He looked amazing in a kilt and was the only one-movie-only Bond.) Roger Moore: 9.5. (This man has been unfairly maligned; I loved his dry-as-martini one liners.) Pierce Brosnan: 7. (Overrated!) Sean Connery: a perfect 10, of course. (Is there any debate on this point?) :

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