Fri, Dec 23 / 7pm *
Sat, Dec 24 / 5pm
Wed, Dec 28 / 7pm
Fri, Dec 30 / 9pm
Dir. John Paizs
1985, Canada, 80 min
New Restoration
* Join us on Friday, December 23rd for an introduction and Q&A with John Paizs.
John Paizs’ Crime Wave is one of the greatest films ever made, and still criminally underseen. What’s even more underseen, though, is Paizs’ original, darker cut, before he rewrote, reshot and recut the entire last reel – 20 minutes that radically alter the ending. This version of the film is the same one that led critic Jay Scott to proclaim, “If the great Canadian comedy ever gets made, John Paizs might be the one to make it,” when it premiered at Toronto’s Festival of Festivals (precursor to TIFF), in 1985. Matchbox Cine (in collaboration with the Winnipeg Film Group) created a new restoration from Paizs’ own 16mm print.
Crime Wave centers around an awkward loner, Steven Penny, who turns out bizarre scenarios for colour crime movies. Steven wants to turn on the best colour movie ever, but he has a problem, he can only write beginnings and ends to his scripts. No middles! Living above a family garage in suburbia and befriended by the landlord’s ten-year-old daughter (Eva Kovacs), we see excerpts from a number of Steven’s scripts, zany ideas based on get-rich-quick schemes. Finally frustrated by his creative block, he sets out for Kansas to meet Dr. Jolly, the script doctor.
