by MATTHEW HAYS

I suppose it’s inevitable, when one sees so many films, but I confess to becoming a bit jaded about most of the movies I see. It’s very very rare, especially with the number of horror movies under my belt, that something can really jolt me.

But it did happen a few years ago and in a very, very big way. I should have expected it, seeing as the recommendation to see The Reflecting Skin, Philip Ridley’s unbelievably offbeat ’90 masterpiece, came from a Fantasia programmer. (I watched it late at night, in a double feature with Across 110th Street, which turned out to be an equally disturbing choice.) It’s fairly impossible to describe a film this distinctive, but it’s basically about a young boy whose father kills himself (by burning himself alive) and the boy’s obsession with their neighbour, a sexy woman he’s convinced is a vampire. Ridley’s visionary work has led many to compare him to David Lynch, and I think the parallel is a good one. This is an unforgettable piece of work, something that is so cleverly put together that it’s bound to enter your dreams (or nightmares).Through the performances and beautiful prairie landscapes, Ridley creates a very, very specific universe here. In film scholar Mario Falsetto’s book Personal Visions: Conversations with Contemporary Film Directors, Ridley explains that his idea for Skin came from a series of drawings he’d done: "I think what’s happened is it’s the year 2020, and somebody’s taken an hallucinogenic drug that’s making them hallucinate what they imagine 1950s America was like… so all the men look like Elvis Presley and all the women look like Marilyn Monroe and all the landscapes look like Andrew Wyeth… All the cars were Cadillacs. Women were walking around with huge Psycho knives by their sides… It was a painter friend who suggested I use those paintings as a storyboard. And that’s exactly what I did." The Reflecting Skin screens this Friday, Feb. 28, as well as on March 1 and 5, at the Cinéma du Parc. See rep listings for showtimes.

In celebration of Black History Month, St. James United Church will be presenting a screening of Honour Before Glory, Anthony Sherwood’s fascinating documentary on an intriguing and largely unknown bit of Canadian history. The film recounts the story of Canada’s first all-black battalion, a group of men who fought bravely during WWI but who were treated with contempt and hatred nonetheless because of the colour of their skin. The film screens at the church this Friday, Feb. 28 at 7 p.m. The People’s Gospel Choir will also be performing at the event.

Montreal’s sixth annual Children’s Film Festival will again unreel this year, beginning this Saturday (March 1) and running until the following Sunday (March 9). As usual, the programmers have come up with an impressive international menu of kiddie fare. Info: www.cyberpresse.ca/fifem :

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