The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 47

E7 ttnham tefer steels olamorous imaae THE GAZETTE, MONTREAL. SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1996 Portrays dirt-poor woman in Genie Award-winning Margaret's Museum She is tiny, dead-tired and pale as the favored date at a vampire convention. But the woman curled around a cigarette and whisky soda in the bar of a downtown hotel is unquestionably the British pre-Raphaelite beauty known as Helena Bonham Carter. The pellucid young star of Merchant Ivory Edwardian costume classics Room With a View and Howard's End, the monster's muse in Mary Shel most appealing trait of the national character. During a wispy conversation earlier this week, only hours after the final lampshade had been relinquished at the post-Genie film industry bash, it's also just possible this idealized picture of feminine perfection in Room With a View is suffering from a hangover.

Margaret would recognize the symptoms. Her earthiness is one of the attractions the prototypi got myself an agent It was the confidence of the ignorant" Despite Bonham Carter's constant protestations of apathy, she soon found herself in a television play as an Edwardian ghost She next did Trevor Nunn's feature film Lady Jane, and the day that wrapped, moved on to the set of Room With a View, and history. She was 18 years old. Both films were made under protest she was writing her British school-leaving exams during the first, and wanted to attend university instead of doing the second. Bonham Carter has been ley's Frankenstein by Kenneth Branagh, and member of Woody Allen's ensemble cast in Mighty Aphrodite has come to Montreal in the service of another character and another film.

Bonham Carter is Margaret in the Genie Award-winning Mort Ransen film Margaret's Museum, which opens here next Friday. Her portrayal of a dirt-poor, fiercely independent woman in a 1940s Cape Breton mining community is the heart and soul of a powerful social drama that depends on both for its credibility cal English rose Bonham Carter felt for the role. "Over the last few years I've felt the need to diversify in my work," she explains with an accent only breeding can buy. "The Woody film offered that. And so did Margaret's Museum.

The moment I read the script I felt a certain chemistry between the actor and the role." She liked the character's backbone, her rebelliousness and commitment to expose the life of a coalminer's wife for whatitwas-adailydeathwatch. She liked the opportunity it gave to "(' "'St. 7 JOHN working ever since She has worked so hard, and so consistently, that she continues to live with her parents in the London suburb of Golders Green. For the rest, it's suitcases on location, and a commitment to move out of her happy family rooms a move she says she's been threatening between roles for years. The move hasn't been "Anything that requires me to change attracts me." GRIFFIN MOVIES It is a small film but'a big break for the 29-year-old Bonham Carter, and she is determined to give it every chance for success.

So she is in Canada for 10 days during the core of our winter, graciously accepting the Genie for best actress, pressing the flesh and touring every town that will have her and find a place in its multiplexes for her film. She is, understandably, exhausted. Part of it is jetlag after a flight from London; part general fatigue from years spent shooting one film after another. "I decided on a career in acting when I was very young." shed the burden of being a daughter of the privileged classes, and too often typecast as one in her films. "I've been accused of getting into my career the easy way, through my family connections.

But it wasn't the case at all. We have no theatrical connections. "I decided on a career in acting when I was very young," she says. "Everyone at my school wanted to become an actress, and my parents knew an actress when I was growing up who seemed immensely glamorous to me. My brothers were in love with her.

So it seemed a good thing to be in life. "Acting was also the opposite to my natural disposition, which is very shy or was. It seemed to me a profession where you didn't so much show off your ego, as lose it" She laughs. "That sounds like such a load of bull, doesn't it? The things you say when you have to talk about yourself She does, however, continue. made yet.

But with Mar- garet's Museum, Bonham Carter has taken a huge, and hugely believable, professional step away from her glamorous image. "God knows you can be incredibly talented in this business, but you've got to make the right choices. "Parts like Margaret are a wonderful opportunity to diversify they're almost like a hedge against the future. You can say you've done a role like that. "In fact, it was one of the things that attracted me to the wonderful script of Margaret's Museum.

Anything that requires me to change attracts me. And Margaret required me to change completely." Margaret 's Museum opens in Montreal cinemas next Friday. GORDON BECK, GAZETTE Helena Bonham Carter says she has felt the need to diversify In her film work. "I certainly didn't pop out of the womb thinking 'that's what I want to be, an It wasn't that exclusive an ambition." But with the singemindedness of those who are young, focused and sequestered in the company of their peers at school, Bonham Carter pursued her goal. "I was quite determined when I was 13-1 was much more confident than I am now, I think so I Part, too, is an endless round of interviews in -which the main subject of conversation is herself.

British to a fault, Bonham Carter has the natural reserve of the aristocracy from which she sprang, and the wry self-deprecation that is a nie Awards show justice to film industry Following the English CBC-TV broadcast of the Genie Awards last Sunday night, an acquaintance called to lament the state of Canadian film. He hadn't actually seen any of the films nominated, but he was certain they weren't worth watching based on the way they were presented on TV utes. Walsh would have mustered more enthusiasm waxing about the merits of the Canadian cod fishery. Worse, though, interview segments with directors, actors and critics must have led viewers to believe Canadian film was precious and pretentious. It would have been enough to make even tors like Denys Arcand and Jean-Claude Lauzon didn't have any films in competition.

The idea of an awards show is to seduce viewers, not alienate them. Certainly, most awards shows including the Oscar gala are feeble. But they succeed in whetting appetites with ail I1 the most die-hard Canadiana culture-booster gag. (The Genie Awards broadcast in French on Radio-Canada probably won't result in many converts to Canadian film, either. The show was marred by technical glitches and inanities, according to many viewers.) Sadly, perception is everything.

If audiences come away with the impression that Canadian film looks like the glitz. Not the Genies. American films don't need more help finding audiences in Canada. But find them they do after the Oscar or Golden Globe awards shows on the tube. American films occupy more than 90 per cent of He has a point.

Anyone who caught the Genie Awards proceedings on the tube could have easily come to the conclusion that Canadian films are about as compelling and sexy as a special on sutures on the Life cable channel. The 90-minute Genie Awards TV show was an edited, boring rehash of the ceremonies held earlier that day in Montreal. One can only speculate how dreadful the minute, I offered this list I came out with in the same time frame: Mon On-cle Antoine; Goin' Down the Road; Les Ordres; Les Bons Debarras; Jesus de Montreal, Leolo; 32 Short Films About Glen Gould; Un Zoo la Nuit; Le Declin de l'Empire Americain; Highway 61; Kamouraska; Paperback Hero; The Grey Fox; The Apprenticeship of Dud-dy Kravitz, Lies My Father Told Me; and My American Cousin. Among this year's Genie nominees were some impressive efforts: Stunning homage to Hitchcock Robert Lepage's Le Confessionnal -winner of best-film honors is a stunning homage to Hitchcock with a clever Quebec City spin. Mort Ransen's Margaret's Museum -which won a half-dozen Genies and is opening here next Friday is a haunting take on mining life in the Mar-itimes.

Jean-Marc Vallee's Liste Noir -which came up empty at the Genies is a full-throttle thriller. Also strong were nominees like Charles Biname's Eldorado and Clement Virgo's Ruda And this was considered a slow year in Canadian cinema. Hot-shot direc same star and story rules as American films. But it's not exactly a level playing field. Canadian films don't have the budgets for stars or major promotional launches as do the American flicks.

Reviews were tepid It's no accident that the cyberspace thriller Johnny Mnemonic starring Keanu Reeves was the runaway winner of this year's Golden Reel Award as the best-grossing Canadian film, with receipts of $3.2 million. Even though reviews were tepid, Johnny Mnemonic was the only film of its kind with a big star and publicity campaign. But, frankly, the flick is about as Canuck as Canada Dry ginger ale. Films that do address Canadian cultural concerns like Le Confessional and Margaret's Museum just can't compete for audiences the way a buzz-cut Keanu Reeves can. And the pity is that when these Canadian films finally get their few free moments in the limelight at the Genies, it is blown big-time by a TV network that actually believes it's performing a public service for the industry.

Only in Canada! BILL Reeves Runaway winner BROWNSTEIN so much blowing wheat in a show that's supposed to celebrate the industry they sure won't fork out eight bucks to see one such flick at the multiplex. But the reality is that the Canadian film industry has produced more than its share of gems over the years. actual awards show was very dreadful, according to some who attended -if that was the best they could do with editing and color commentary. The host of the English broadcast was the normally witty Mary Walsh, the Newfoundlander who has made Canadian movie screens. Canadian offerings have to duke it out with the Europeans and Australians for the balance of space.

Unlike TV, where the CBC provides a showcase for many home-grown television productions, Canadian theatres do not offer special access to Canadian films. Canadian films must play by the her mark roasting Canadian icons on To the skeptical caller who defied me the CBC show This Hour Has 22 Min- to name just one Canadian classic in a Once Blue makes sparkling debut with cross-genre gem fF Xift 4f lr ONCE BLUE Once Blue EMI INFO-LINE: 841-8600, code 8001 Once you go blue you'll never go back, they say; or they should say, because there's a central truth about lost innocence in that paraphrase. In fact, there are as many truths about spawn of mini-genres proliferate, the more they bleed intaone another. At the centre is angry young daughter Tori Amos, proud mother of a new single, Caught a Little Sneeze. A little to her right, Sarah McLach-lan roams the moors.

Farther into dreamland, wrapped in ambient passion, Portishead. Now Karen Peris of Innocence Mission lays her voice over the swirling guitars and surg rwer- si KOMI fl mm 7x rx- i ing bass, ambient and plangent, this year's soft-focus melancholy hit In Happy, the End, she arid her band even achieve a heartbroken melding of all the sisters. But beware, the protean shape-shifting doesn't stop here: push Peris hard enough out of therapy and she becomes Juliana Hatfield. The new Amos is adorned with a photo of Her Toriness, one white heel missing, down on all fours on a filthy mattress and gazing at bulls in a pasture. And, no, this is not a dream I had, although it might be listed somewhere in lost innocence as there are losers to tell them.

One of the best says nothing captures it all better than the right pop song, and there are a few of those on Once Blue. Duo Rebecca Martin and Jesse Harris file the arch edges off the Lounge Music Uprising, borrow some pages from the smarter class of singer-songwriters and work a small cross-genre gem of a debut Martin is especially adept at drawing Sunday-afternoon portraits of languorous heartache. Transplanted from Maine to New York, she carries enough MARK LEPAGE SPIN DOC steelworker who made it on a Beatles cover and a Kim Baslnger striptease soundtrack. GABY JR. Getting Over Being Born RightWde INFO-LINE: 841-8600, code 8005 From the local label that challenges the city's music community to rise up and shake off the shackles of apathy comes a CEO leading by example.

Gaby is an anglophlle down to his pop spats, and If his business acumen Is anything like his songwritlng savvy, RightWide can only get Righter and Wider. Punks is a club anthem, Halfllfe the kind of perfectly controlled bittersweet pop that deserves a chance to break out on local radio. The balance is punchy, although the vocals could have been mixed higher. Altogether impressive. CHICKPEA Truckbirdydlggcrdog RightWide INFO-LINE: 841-8600, code 8008 Young enough to be in a godawful hurry, Ottawa's Chickpea puts another feather in RightWide's cap Exposure to any powerpop over the last 25 or so years will mean most of these chord progressions sound familiar, but by the time opening cut Panic Twister has peeled out of the speakers, It won't matter.

Bettor yet, Just when It seems the band plays In one gear (aster they drop a Cool or a Heartsick In between the candled riffs. Frontgirl Christine makes use of her limited range, and when she sings "I've got marbles in my mouthI miss you so much It sucks," it sticks more than it would seem possible. Coming soon (no doubt) to a club near you. Vou can Imr excerpts from the albums reviewed in today's Spin Doctor by calling The Gazette i Info-Line on your Touch-tone phone. After calling Info-Line at Ml 8G00.

follow the Instructions and dial the four-digit code listed after the symbol in therevkw. Onca Blue: Rebecca Martin and Jesse Harris. beefcake on. It's a generational thang if the sweetly sad A Year or FatherDaughter Dialogue brings tears; somewhere in the suburbs, It's working on a dad who can't believe he became Dad. Makes you wonder if rueful wisdom is really conscious wisdom or just the natural capitulation to a receding hairline.

JOE COCKER The Long Voyage Home: The Silver Anniversary Collection INFO-LINE: 841-8600, code 8004 Cocker released a single-CD best-of in '93, or rather, former label Capitol milked his contractual obligations for one last payday before the two parted ways. Six of those 12 songs are featured on the fourth CD of the new boxed set, six don't even appear, which raises the question: how did find 57 other tracks to package Into this? No surprise In an ago when anyone who ever swept up roaches hi a recording studio has a compilation out Cocker's worth more than that, but how much more? Four CDs' worth? Not bad for a Freud. At least it ought to be. The song? Architectural and quite Bjork-like, actually. Name of bull withheld pending formal charges.

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III Grown Man Virgin INFO-LINE: 841-8600, code 8003 Wainwright approaches the big 5 0 with a relaxed air disguising his wary philosophizing. Wouldn't swear to it, but watching your son's signature dry on a contract with the biggest new label in the business might have something to do with it In That Hospital, he mentions a daughter in Montreal, but not Rufus Wainwright, who unveils a career in Club Soda Wednesday. Fittingly, Grown Man revels in its prosaic folky domesticity This means the hcaviositles are snuck upon, an end run rather than a linebacker blitz. The titlo track is a hey-we're-only-guys caveat to a girlfriend, Housework a country song whose New Man lyrics no New Country star would risk his of her roots to the big city to pen something as cool and heartfelt as Stardust and Snow. It has a post-mod Jazzy flavor, down to the brushed drums and Becky's post-Rickie Lee voice, but there is a heart here.

When the Lilies Bloom moves from cocktail cool into the territory Holly Cole runs with a firm velvet-gloved hand. Wait tangos its K.D. Langs off, Trumansburg is jaunty and the fine, affecting writing in Geral-dine says Martin is someone to watch. At its best, this is the place where background music moves Into the foreground. Plenty of better albums don't have a line as good as "There's an amateur inside you that I love." The innocence thing again, and it's early enough in the year for a sleeper to win over an audience.

THE INNOCENCE MISSION Glow INFO-LINE: 841-8600, code 8002 Truly, we arc all descended from the Earth Mother, the high priestess Kate Bush, and a9 her.