Paul Almond: talks about his marriage to Genevieve Bujold, the creation of telefilm Canada and the beginnings of feature filmmaking in Canada

TAKE ONE, Sept-Dec, 2003 by Wyndham Wise

A graduate of Oxford University; Paul Almond began his career as all actor with a repertory company in England before joining the CBC in "Toronto in 1954 as a director. In 1964, he directed Seven Up!, a multi-award-winning study of a group of seven-year-old British children that has been used in countless university courses and was the origin of Michael Apted's continuing documentary series (21 Up, 28 Up etc.). He also directed a number of episodes for such early Canadian television classics as Wojeck, RCMP, Forest Rangers and the American series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.

When Almond turned to feature filmmaking, he attracted domestic and international attention with Isabel (1968), Act of the Heart (1970) and Journey (1972), a trilogy of understated, highly interiorized explorations of mind and spirit starring his then wife Genevieve Bujold, All three films are concerned with rites of passage, but more particularly with the change of consciousness undergone by his female lead. However; Almond's attempts to establish an art-house cinema in Canada met with critical resistance and only modest commercial success and he has since moved permanently to Los Angeles. His legacy in the canon of Canadian cinema is of a director who was far ahead of his time. The Almond filmography, complete with television credits, can be found on his comprehensive Web site, www.paulalmond.com.

Paul Almond spoke with Take One in Toronto this past June on his way to pick up his Order of Canada in Ottawa. He was awarded the distinction last year but wanted to wait until there was a presentation ceremony at Rideau Hall. For me, this is a big thing," he said. "I'm so Canadian."

During the 1950s and 1960s you directed hundreds of television dramas for the CBC and BBC. What caused you to turn to feature filmmaking, especially at a time when their was no infrastructure in Canada Jot such a venture?

It really all started when I met Genevieve. That was in 1965 when I did Romeo and Jennette for the CBC. I had wanted to do motion pictures for a long time, but nobody made them in Canada. There is only one I remember from the early days, The Luck of Ginger Coffey [1964], which was produced by Budge Crawley. I met Genevieve when I went to Montreal to cast a French Canadian for Jennette. I also cast Michael Sarrazin as Romeo. He was the big new discovery at that time. Genevieve and I got together and I did several television shows with her. We fell in love, then she went to France to do a picture for Alain Resnais called La Guerre est finie [1966] with Yves Montand. Then she did a film for Philippe de Broca called Le Roi de coeur [1966]. All the time she was in France I would fly over and stay with her. I thought, "Why can't we do a film in Canada?" While she was making Louis Malle's Le Voleur [1967], we had a little studio flat on the Left Bank where I began the first draft of Isabel. Then I came back to Canada and continued to work on it. I never showed anything I was writing to Genevieve until it was completely finished; that way she could decide for herself if she wanted to be in it. She read it and loved it. Then I thought, "What do I do now?" Apart from Crawley, there was no such thing as a feature-film producer in Canada. So I went to New York to find a guy who liked it. His name was Joel Katz. After a month I asked him what was happening, and he said he hadn't started doing anything. So I said, "fuck this," pardon my French, "no way," and I said to myself, "I'll do it." I went back down to New York, hustled and met various people. Genevieve and I had a good agent, and we were meeting the right people. In a couple of months--and this is almost unbelievable--I had two major studios that wanted to do the picture, Columbia and Paramount.

Based on what? Genevieve or the script or both?

Based on the two of us because we made a couple. Here was this hot director--I had won a number of awards for my television work--and this rising young French-Canadian star. You know how these things happen; there was a swirl of energy. At the time, Paramount was being taken over by a conglomerate. It was Charles Bluhdorn who ran Gulf & Western, and he had just bought Paramount. His wife happened to be French and she knew about Alain Resnais and Philippe de Broca. She obviously said to Charles that Genevieve had done those pictures in France and that he should get hold of this couple. I believe she thought I was French, or something like that. Paramount got in touch and said Charles would like to meet me and Genevieve and talk over a deal. Genevieve said, "Well, if Charles wants to meet us, tell him to come over here." We were staying at the Plaza in New York. So I phoned back and told the people at Paramount that if Charles wanted to meet us, ask him to come over to the hotel and we would meet him in the lobby. Unbelievably, he came over to the Plaza and sat down with us. We had a drink in the bar and made the deal. Because this was the very first deal made after the takeover, everyone at Paramount was terrified of Charles and what was going to happened. When we walked into the Paramount offices we were treated like stars. I don't think anyone had actually read the script and anyway, we were going to make it for nothing.