On William D. MacGillivray

The following article was commissioned for a book on Canadian cinema, or more specifically on a number (I believe it was well over twenty) of 'great' Canadian film directors, many of whom I had never heard of. When I was asked what directors I would like to write about, I replied immediately 'William MacGillivray and Scott Smith', neither of whom were included in the list I was sent. (I should confess at once that I am not sufficiently familiar with Quebecois cinema, of which we see so little in Toronto, to have the confidence of an opinion, and future references to 'Canadian cinema' in this article should be taken as referring only to Canada's English language cinema). The editor of the proposed book was clearly somewhat astonished, his response being in the nature of 'Well, do you really think ...??', but he magnanimously agreed to let me write about them. After some thought I decided it was too soon to write (in a book on 'great' Canadian directors) on Smith, whose first film, RollerCoaster I thought quite remarkable. But I had already written about it in CineAction and in my book Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, and it has followed only (so far) by Falling Angels, a highly competent but less personal, less idiosyncratic, work that seemed (in terms of a future career) neither here nor there. Scott Smith told me a couple of years ago that he was planning a film about gay marriage and its effect on the parents and family, which he was trying to get funded. It sounded fascinating, but it has never materialized, and I have heard no word about him since. That left me with MacGillivray, What follows is what I wrote for the anthology. The editor (having submitted it, apparently, to some academic editorial board and asked for their advice) sent me an 'edited' version which cut a considerable number of pages. By mutual agreement I withdrew from the enterprise, and MacGillivray will not make an appearance among the 'great' Canadian directors celebrated in the book which, as far as I know, has still to appear (or have I missed something?). MacGillivray is the only Canadian film director whom I would confidently call 'great', and that on the strength of only two feature films, neither of which is widely known, neither of which has received anything approaching the recognition it deserves. If Ingmar Bergman was Canadian we would probably never have heard of him and he would have made only his first two feature films. In my opinion MacGillivray's Life Classes is a finer film than anything Bergman made prior to Smiles of a Summer Night. English Canada will never have a cinema we can be proud of until authentic talent is recognized, encouraged and funded. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] What follows is the original article as it would have appeared in the anthology. I have merely added one or two footnotes. Notes on Nationalism: A Dissenting View Is that what you're supposed to give us--'American' criticism? Vendemer asked, with dismay in his expressive, ironic face. Take care, take care, or it will be more American than critical, and then where will you be?. --Henry James, Collaboration, Complete Tales, Vol.8. My position in this volume may be something of an anomaly: unlike most (perhaps all) of the other contributors I have no particular interest in, or commitment to, Canadian cinema, despite the fact that I have lived in Canada for almost thirty years. Neither (I hasten to add) have I any particular interest in British cinema, despite the fact that I was born and brought up in England and spent most of the first forty years of my life there. In fact, though I like living in Canada well enough, I have no nationalist feelings for it or for Britain (to which I feel no impulse nowadays to return, and no nostalgia whatever). I feel a certain antagonism to all forms of nationalism, even the least harmful. I see no reason why I should take an interest in Canadian cinema any more than in, say, Hungarian or Egyptian cinema. …

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