The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 26

C2 THE GAZETTE. MONTREAL. FRIDAY, JANUARY 29, 1993 hadow of Wolf comes in from co Phantoms have grounding in what blues are ail about 9 Vr-ii Vi BRENDAN KELLY SPECIAL TO THE GAZETTE lW fk TV After three years, $30 million and a blizzard of controversy and complications, Shadow of the Wolf finally padded into Montreal theatres this weekend. The immediate question is what's the big deal? Take away some violence and a sex scene or two, and Jacques Dorfmann's handsome "adaptation Agaguk, Yves Theiaulfs Quebec novel about Inuit power struggles in the Canadian North, is prime material for television's Family Channel. There is a touching love story, jaw-dropping primal scenery, cute furry animals, good parkas, great props and an age-old clash between father V2 vt 1 i r.y' M'4 -A Toshiro Mifune (left) looks on as director Jacques Dorfmann handles a rifle on Shadow of Wolf set 'I and son set in 1935.

The white man tends to be venal, the native people tend to be decent, the women are strong and the spirit world gets all the best lines remember, this is the '90s and Dancing With Wolves made $200 million. Yet Shadow of the Wolf has been surrounded by more controversy than any Canuck production since the last most expensive movie in Canadian history, 1990's Beth-une: the Making of a Hero. Early complaints from In JOHN GRIFFIN played by Mifune, tribal shaman Kroomak is more interested in maintaining his power, guzzling bootleg hootch and eying the young girls than facing the reality of a culture in crisis. After a fight, a fire and a murder, Agaguk and his mate Igiyook (Tilly) leave the tribe and set out on their own. We know they are mates because he says, "You are my woman," and she replies "I did not know I was yours." Shadow of the Wolf is not big on dialogue.

It's not that big on acting, either. Tilly's biggest stretch is childbirth, while Phillips gets to emote with a wolf, a whale and the elements. MOVIES realistic about the hardcore reality of earth. It made me less of a flake." The result was the appropriately titled Raw, the band's second album a tough, gritty slice of blues rocking which mixes up 12-bar standards by legends like Willie Dixon and Albert Collins with a handful of new, more down-to-earth Phantoms originals. The Phantoms, who will be singing the blues tomorrow at Club Soda, have always had a rep as an intense live outfit and they attempted to capture that raw spirit on the new album.

No day of rest "We tried to get that live feeling by playing all week and then going into the studio on Sunday," Godbout says. "We did the whole thing on Sunday. No one does it like that any more, but Muddy Waters and those guys used to cut records like that. We just wanted to see if we could cook up a good meal in one day. It even felt like a gig because we'd been playing so much that week that the smoke was still on our clothes when we went into the studio." Raw is the group's first record for Forte Records, which is a label owned and run by the members of the Jeff Healey Band.

Both bands sprung up from the Toronto blues scene at the same time, and Healey and Co. didn't forget their old bar buddies when they hit the big time. Forte Records is trying to swing an international deal for the Phantoms, and Godbout and his band-mates are currently working on their next record in Healey's private studio. "We're really lucky," Godbout admits. The Phantoms perform at Club Soda tomorrow at 9 p.m., along with Montreal band the Respectables.

Tickets, $5.99 plus tax and service charge, are available at Club Soda and through the Admission network (790-1245). Je6me Godbout has loved the blues from the first moment he heard the music of classic blues mavericks like Sonny Boy Williamson and James Cotton. But Godbout who sings lead vocals and blows bluesy harp with Toronto-based blues-rockers the Phantoms got a crash course in what the blues really mean just over a year ago, and he says he's now singing the blues with more conviction than ever before. "Crash" is the operative word. The band which includes Godbout, guitarist Joe Toole, bassist Big Ben Richardson, and drummer Gregory Ray were involved in a car accident on the way back from a Western Canadian tour in late 1991.

A huge truck smashed into them from behind and sent their car spinning across an eastern Manitoba highway. Luckily, there was no traffic going in the opposite direction and the damage to the Phantoms themselves was relatively minor. But Godbout says he's never been quite the same since crawling from that overturned car. He figures he now knows at least at little something about what the blues are really all about. 'Songs have sobered up' "It gave us a real taste of the blues," Godbout says in a phone interview from his Toronto home.

"When you're young, you feel indestructible. You feel light as can be. I always felt perfect and then, bang; you realize how hard the Canadian Shield is when you hit it. I think our songs have sobered up quite a bit since that accident. "Looking back on it, it was a rite of passage, like getting your face smeared in the dirt so that you're a little more realistic in your songwriting.

Before that, a lot of our songs were really spiritual; now death has become part of what we write about. It just made us more What juicy dialogue there is goes to white guys like RCMP murder investigator Donald Sutherland who has now been in every movie ever made in North America. Not even Sutherland, however, can upstage the landscape. Oscar-winning cinema-tographer Billy Williams this week. "That interest became passion, and the passion drove me to make the film.

By the time I saw what I was getting into, it was too late to back out." The obstacles would have driven a lesser man to drink, or suicide, or both. There was the early indigenous unpleasantness. There was the frustration of fighting frozen cameras and frozen toes in temperatures that dipped to minus-67 up north, while praying for cold and snow on a set constructed in a quarry west of Montreal during the unseasonably warm, dry winter of 1 99 1 -92. There was the matter of paying $2 million for a mechanical whale that is featured in perhaps 10 minutes of the final cut. There was the nightmare of a helicopter crash in a snowstorm.

(No one was killed.) The ignominy of chasing reluctant wolves around the tundra. The absurdity of trying to coax a polar bear from the Moscow Circus to act ferocious. "At least we got the shot," Dorfmann laughed. "Our other option was a polar bear from Florida that refused to come up north. His trainer said it was too cold! "The weather was definitely the major factor.

It is incredible how much cold eats your energy when you are shooting in temperatures that regularly hovered between minus-30 and minus-40. "I loved working on Shadow of the Wolf. I'm very proud and happy it is finished and ready to be seen. But it would take a big, big project to get me to do something like it again." Shadow of the Wolf playing in English at the Imperial and Famous theatres. Parents' Guide: violence, some sex and partial nudity.

uit groups about negative stereotypes proved unfounded. Granted, it would have been nice to see First Nation actors in the lead roles that are played by Americans Lou Diamond Phillips and Jennifer Tilly and Japan's Toshiro Mifune. Hey, it would have been nice to have Canadian actors in these roles. As it is, Inuit have most of the lesser supporting roles and all the walk-ons. It would also be nice to think there was no violence, no tension, in the Canadian North during the years when the white man came to dominate an ancient, self-sufficient culture.

But in the interests of telling a story people might actually pay money to see while remaining marginally true to the original novel, Shadow of the Wolf had to set father against son, white man against native people, culture against culture. It's called narrative dynamics, or something. Under these circumstances, people get hurt. Especially when the whole thing is set in some of the most inhospitable terrain on the face of the Earth. Shadow of the Wolf follows the adventures of a young hunter named Agaguk (Phillips), who is smart enough to reject the booze and boredom of the round-eyes in a native village for the ways of his forefathers in the frozen tundra.

His father, however, is easier to seduce. As (Gandhi, Women in Love) has Lou Damond captured the awesome, fright- Dhiiiine 1 1 clar ening power of the high Arctic rmi siar in ways to humble Montrcalers who snarl about January temperatures here. It is a place of terrible beauty and utter solitude, and raises other questions. Like, why would anyone want to film a feature there? With 20 years in the business and 30 motion pictures under his belt, French producer-director Jacques Dorfmann paid his dues long before he started work on Shadow of the Wolf. What could he possibly have wanted to prove? "I first was attracted to the novel about three years ago," the genial film-maker said earlier a Centaur Theatre Company production in association with BLACK.THLATRE WORKSHOP All surprises should be as pleasant as tiny, friendly, ambitious Bistro Latin A Winston Sutton is7 Pln.l West Indies Km 1 4 THE SUNNIEST, FUNNIEST MOST AFFORDABLE WINTER GETAWAY OF YOUR ijlVl'flh fell surrmn Miiixin 1..

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Ikk- Lilniiiii iVstt-n N-ukrh Me J. 4 ponor CftBttl 9Z7ffft flavors sang; the lamb itself was tender and succulent. The breast of chicken was equally pleasing, tender and moist and bathed with a light sauce of ground and blended jalapenos and cilantro with white wine. When I noted that it was a little too bland for my taste, it was whipped back to the kitchen where whole tiny slices of jalapenos were added, providing considerably more character. Quite a meal Both plates were garnished in the same manner there was a slice of slightly sweet squash, a boiled potato in its jacket, herbed corn on the cob, zucchini in garlic butter, black beans, sweet red peppers, carrots and a vegetable rice with the distinctive bite of cilantro.

Quite a meal. Desserts were also appealing although I settled for a bite of my friend's torta de queso the house's special cheese cake. Made with Monterey Jack cheese, it is somewhere between the traditional crumbly type and the smooth gelled type, a delightful and delicious compromise. Adding to its attraction were the Inca-iike designs worked on its surface in chocolate. Coffee ($1.15) was excellent.

The service throughout was both charming and efficient. Bistro Latin 775 Mount Royal Ave. E. Phone: 521-8432 Open: noon to 3 p.m. and 5 to 10:30 p.m.; noon to 3 p.m.

and 5 to 11 p.m.; 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. Licensed: Yes Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard Wheelchair access: Yes Dinner for two, Including taxes but not wine or tip: $35.20 Helen Rochester's Dining Out column appears Friday in the Preview section and Saturday in Show. And condensed versions of previous reviews appear in TV Times each Almost everyone dreams of a nice warm holiday at this time of year, but few of us can afford it. That was the theme of The Gazette's food page Wednesday, to which I contributed a small list of Montreal restaurants where, with a little imagination, one might enjoy some of that longed-for heat.

Tucked in among them was the Bistro Latin, a place I had just tried, but not yet reviewed. The little bistro qualified on all counts. Its staff creates the warmth and friendliness one associates with holiday destinations, the decor adds to the illusion, and the food is generally better than I've ever experienced on any of those "dream" vacations. It's a tiny place: a little storefront and one smallish room behind it. We passed by it on the first try, thinking it was a travel agency.

The storefront display window held a beach scene, complete with sand, beach chairs and umbrellas and such. Once safely inside, we found the same scene repeated with huge beach umbrellas shielding groups of tables, warm magenta walls, wine tablecloths over white, decorative sombreros, and colorful Peruvian weavings of village festivals and scenes. Menu covers a lot of territory The bistro marks the coming together of three longtime friends: cook Juan Barros from Chile, Alfredo Duran from Peru both of whom worked together for many years in Vancouver and Pedro Leon, from Chile, whom they met in Montreal. You are bound to meet at least one and possibly all three partners in the course of an evening. The little menu sets itself quite a challenge to present dishes from several regions from the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico to Patagonia on the southernmost tip of South America.

The menu will change every couple of months to accommodate this ambition. The current menu offers dishes from Colombia, Peru, Chile mm hi Helen Rochester Friday, Jan. 29, 1993 and Argentina, plus a whole list from Mexico. As we were nibbling on the house's welcome of fresh tortilla chips (they make their own, from fresh tortillas) and a refreshing salsa of tomatoes, onions and cilantro (coriander) with lemon and lime juice, Barros came out of the kitchen to help with our decisions. When none of the essentially Mexican appetizers really caught our fancy, he offered to make up a "surprise" from whatever he had in the kitchen.

Would that all surprises were so pleasant. What eventually arrived was a generous plate ($5) of strips of chicken breast that were sauteed with butter, garlic, a touch of cumin, shallots and wine, along with gorgeous mushrooms sauteed in olive oil with shallots, dry chili peppers, cilantro and white wine. Also included on the colorful plate were grilled sweet red peppers and fried eggplant, all as fresh as they come and all delicious. We decided to forgo the Mexican main dishes, tempting as they sounded, since they're fairly familiar. Instead, we chose the costillas del paine 1 S.75) which was a rack of lamb Chilean style, and the pe-chuga limena ($12.75) or Peruvian chicken breast.

We also chose a bottle of Chilean wine, Santa Rita, Me-dalla Real '88 for $24, a full-bodied and flavorful red. Both plates were impressive and as colorful as the weavings on the walls. The rack of lamb, coated with a blend of anchovies and jalapcno peppers, roasted and served with a light sauce that included the above ingredients combined with veal stock and lamb juice, pepper and red wine, was a real winner. The SAVE to 5(D) AND MORE at your Yves Rocher Boutique kaw -feSafc wfe3 lfcua Up to 50 and more off more than 70 preselected natural beauty products starting from $1.95 For example: Protective handcream with Marigold. 50 ml.

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