The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 34

THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1996 Michael Ondaatje couldn't write, English teacher says mm LONDON He may be the only Canadian to ever win a Booker Prize, but Michael Ondaatje's literary skills didn't impress one of his high-school English teachers. "I only remember him for cricket," said Laurie Jagger, 71, who taught Ondaatje at Dulwich College in South London. "He couldn't write sentences and showed no sign of creativity. That came later" Jagger gave that less-than-glowing assessment yesterday in a Times article, in which he raved about another ex-student-the latest Booker winner, Graham Swift. "I am delighted that he won.

He was the most creative chap I ever taught," he said. Swift won the 1996 Booker on Tuesday for his novel Last Orders, beating Canadians Margaret Atwood and Rohinton Mistry in the process. Ondaatje a native of Sri Lanka who lived in London before moving to Canada shared the 1992 Booker for his novel The English Patient. Wellington wins Jutra Award TORONTO Peter Wellington, director of Joe's So Mean to Josephine, has won this year's Claude Jutra Award, a special Genie Award recognizing achievement by Canadian directors in a first feature-length dramatic film. Starring Sara Polley (Road to Avonlea, Exotica) and Eric Thai (A Stranger Among Us), it explores what happens when a college student causes a brooding hoodlum to fall in love.

It opens Nov. 15. Wellington has also been nominated for a Genie for best original screenplay for The Boy's Club. CANADIAN PRESS III 4f GAZETTE FILE PHOTO Comedian Joan Stuart played pig-tailed Modest Violet. Peter Blrnle.

VANCOUVER SUN "PASSIONATE, FASCINATING AND HUMOUR-LAD Eli It succeeds admirably. A merry little romp." SISKEL EBERT "TWO THUMBS UP Joan Stuart best loved for doll skit GRIPPINGLY INTENSE! A wonder of a film!" Inn Mew. TNI NEW TOMUER "ELEGANTLY CRAFTED! WONDERFULLY FUNNY!" 1 HtriiNSiiiiiMiitui.Hk Tl'J iJ THE 61ASI0W FIIH FUNB JjT a'iVut hkkinnoh Sf 1' 1 'fy I CINEMA 287-7272 STARTS NOVEMBER 8THH PUgARCJ ft riJUDE l3l I CINfPtXX OOEON I lQ I CMTM-WUi I CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES VWN chris oiai 1 fin Biurxrjuf THE Biiai8EB UNIUIIUI LMULIbn VLMUON vhhhhhhnv fir 1 I CWPIU OOioH I CMtPUIOION I L5 LuECARiE If wnm-ctAiff DECARIE Iwnm-ctAitt WAY UP!" ALAN HUSTAK THE GAZETTE Janet Maslin, THE NEW YORK TIMES "A TRUE REVELATION! Sharp, Funny And Illuminating." Bruce Williamson, PLAYBOY fiyr Superbly Entortaining!" 7 I V- a film by al pacino nDtCM YEN1KN 'riNPUXODtON 1 1 LYS MUCHEKVIUJE i TBWSHI VIEHfcS UUAUi fflKQ 1 1 lAVAl 2000 CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES 4- "IRRESISTIBLY ROMANTIC. ONE OFTHE YEAR'S BEST." STARTS TODAY! 1 fa miEM a I mceaw CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES Comedian Joan Stuart, a Kim Novak look-alike who was best known in the 1950s and '60s for her Modest Violet walking, talking doll routine, died Wednesday in Toronto after a five-year battle with cancer. She was 59.

Miss Stuart was born in Toronto Feb. 6, 1937, and joined the National Ballet of Canada as a dancer when she was 15. She left the company in 1957 and moved to Montreal to join the Up Tempo 58 dance revue at the Cafe Andre. She played in McGill's highly successful production of My Fur Lady and toured the country for several seasons in the early '60s with the national variety show Spring Thaw. Later she starred in the CBC television and radio variety series Comedy Crackers and Funny You Should Say That.

"I like comedy best because I like making people laugh," she once said. "I really enjoy the scope of being a dumb blonde, a silly secretary, a little old lady or sendup vamp." It was, however, her impression of a little girl in pigtails that most endeared her to audiences. "People always say how well I imitate babies. Well, it's because I watch them with their mothers in the supermarket and I've learned how they move. "And I'm always overhearing conversations and thinking, 'This is funny, I have to remember that She was engaged in 1959 to Sammy Davis whom she met in Montreal, but Miss Stuart's parents objected, and the wedding was cidled off.

Dave Broadfoot. who worked with her on Comedy Crackers, suggested Miss Stuart's background as a dancer contributed to her success as a comic. "She had an impeccable, rhythmic sense of comic timing, she was unbelievably funny and always an absolute delight, a joy Offstage, she was very shy at times and very quiet, very demure. Not like her onstage personality at alL" Miss Stuart's stage credits include Damn Yankees in 1960 at Winnipeg's Rainbow Stage, and she appeared in the movie In Praise of Older Women. In 1963 she married musician Dick Grant.

The couple divorced in 1980. Miss Stuart retired from the stage in 1986 and, until she became ill, worked for the Toronto Board of Education as a teacher's assistant. She is survived by her second husband, former CBC broadcaster Dan Phelan, her sister. Marilyn, and her brother-in-law, Jack Duffy There will be no funeral service, but the family plans a party in the spring to celebrate her life. Dennis Cunningham, CBS-TV IF YOU BELIEVED IN 'GHOST, you're going to love this movie" "THE LOVE STORY OF ALL TIE.

FORJHIR T1ME.SIMPLY THRILLING!" Prtrr CjlUhcr Claire Dints Kalhy Baker Wendy Crewson Bruce Altmin Michelle Pfeiffer 41 (0 Gillian 7th bi; Some love Usts a lifetime. Real love last forever. "AN EXCITING Vj fffgf HEW VISION." If jim i jo Irs' 'i Visit tfw Sony Pictures Entertainment Site at http:tvww.sony.com I cwf STfirooToS 1 1 cw(plx hocofi 1 1 cif. ptEx ooeon I fiiK6forrroN I I fAUBOUHC I I WWK-tUlK Vfc I WfmW)i' I CINtPtEX ODtON ON CINEMA PINE ilJ 1 STE-ADEtH CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES French film director Marcel Carne, 90 i MMaawHiBHeeMMeiiM OWriMm PMLMII VtlWOM ASSOCIATED PRESS awl hex obtoi tics cmtuAS auaol chIpex ooion ohIhcx 6M0S I rits oNtSus auaDl I chIpex odIom cirrf pira ooioi I ATWATEH 1 1 UCOHDAWt 11 1 1 USAUE (Pltct)fc I AT WATER 1 1 UC0RDAME 11 USAUE (fiscal Si 1 riwotisWAYr9r-i I (tnwta brossard Kf warrt-ciAi 13 il L-OATINIAU JJ ICUtuuhut Bcas PARIS Marcel Carne, one of France's greatest film directors, who produced the classic The Children of Paradise, died yesterday, state radio France Info reported. He was 90.

Carne, whose style became known as "poetic realism," worked with Jacques Prevert to shoot two of his greatest films during the Nazi occupation of World War II. In Les Visiteurs du Soir (Night Visitors), Carne used a medieval story to indirectly denounce the occupation. Among other Carne masterpieces was Hotel du Nord, shot in 1939. 1 CINiPLCX ODEOH "1 I.ES CINFMASQU220 CINCPLEX OOf ON I CINCPtEX OOEON "If CINPtFX ODEON I FAUBOURG as 1 1 LflCORDAIRE 11 i LASAllE (Plac) CVtNDlSH (Mail)Vfc. I BERRI t.

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I ItXilUltUI IOI t. CctNfpLEx odibN 1 Pus ciNiiMj ouizo I us cinemas auno-) PcARMrpuBpu NOW) 1 MUCHEHVItltVA. 1 LSTE-THERESE A. LlEHHEBONNEyAJ I ST-JEROME cAdnrrouA nr ricun qe lvs JOUETTEa I TTOIS-RIVItMi Ajl CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES CHECK THEATRE DIRECTORIES FOR SHOWTIMES A GALA CONCERT MARKING THE 60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION On the program: Beethoven, Bizet, Mozart, Poulenc, Rachmaninoff, Schubert, Schumann, EFC2)Hi (SdD VENERIS CD CD LIVE BROADCAST With numerous winners of the CBC National Radio Competition for Young Performers, including Angele Dubeau, Norbert Kraft, James Ehnes, Desmond Hoebig, Kevin McMillan, Arthur Ozolins, Marina Piccinini and James Sommerville. CHAlNE CULTURELLE FM CBC tRC BIITV YAH OIANT AN COC Stereo JLDE RADIO-CANADA -It 1.