From the editor

TAKE ONE, Sept-Dec, 2003 by Wyndham Wise

Cannes 2003. For the first time Take One was able to send an official representative to the world's most prestigious film festival courtesy of the Canada Magazine Fund. Maurie Alioff, Take One's associate editor, spent 10 "arduous" days on the Cote d'Azur tracking the Canadians at Cannes. A tough assignment to be sure, but someone had to do it.

Denys Arcand arrived for the world premiere of his latest opus, Les Invasions barbares, which was chosen to represent Canada in the Official Selection. And even though the Palme d'Or once again eluded his grasp, the film did win the top prize for its screenplay, and Les Invasions' Marie-Josee Croze was chosen the festival's best actress, beating out such heavyweights as odds-on-favourite Nicole Kidman in Lars yon Trier's Dogville. It was Canada's best showing since 1997, when Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter won the Grand Jury Prize and the International Critics' Prize.

In addition to Arcand's success, Jean-Francois Pouliot's La Grande seduction, a bittersweet comedy produced by Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal about impoverished fishermen trying to con a young doctor into practicing on their remote island, was the closing film of the Director's Fortnight. Meanwhile, Bernard Emond's 20 h 17, rue Darling, the filmmaker's second inquiry, into alcoholism (he previously directed the award-winning La Femme qui boit), played in the Critics' Week, as did The Truth about Head, Dale Heslip's cleverly designed, Tod Browning-esque freak show. The short picked up four awards. Canada also had its label on a trio of minority co-productions that drew favourable critical attention: Bertrand Bonello's Tiresa, Claude Miller's La Petite Lili and Sylvain Chomet's animated feature, Les Triplettes de Belleville, which screened hors competition.

Maurie Alioff provides extensive coverage of the festival from a Canadian perspective while Peter Howell, film critic with The Toronto Star, writes about Les Invasions barbares and Take One's contributing editor, Tom McSorley, surveys the festival as a whole. Widely considered to have the weakest Official Selection in many years, the festival provided unexpected delights in the less covered sections such as the Critics' Week and Director's Fortnight. Also in this issue are articles on Emile Gaudreault's Mambo Italiano, which sold well in the Cannes market, Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World, including an interview with its radiant star, Isabella Rossellini, Peter O'Brian's tax-shelter satire, Hollywood North, and William Phillips's Foolproof.

To acknowledge the 35th anniversary of Telefilm Canada (which the agency celebrated last year, though its doors didn't open for business until 1968), Take One interviewed the legendary Paul Almond, whose film Act of the Heart was the first one financed by what was then known as the Canadian Film Development Corporation. And finally, we would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publication Assistance Program and Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Heritage toward the mailing and project costs, which made this special issue possible.