Julian Roffman's "The Mask" 1961 Mask Display at Tiff Bell Lighthouse
Today, I went to TIFF, Bell Lighthouse here in Toronto, and what did I find?
Tucked away inside a hall way, (where nobody could see that well) , was the props (Masks) from Julian Roffman's "The Mask" in all their Glory. There were also two story boards. This fantastic surreal cult film with amazing dream sequences has always been a favorite of mine. Roffman also directed Peter Falk's first film "The Bloody Brood" 1958 about Beatnicks.
This from the Website "Canuxploitation" :
The Mask is an excellent psychological horror film that is important for many reasons. It was the first Canadian film to be distributed in the US by a major studio (Warner), it has a full cast of Canadian unknowns, and it succeeds in creating the surreal atmosphere found in cult classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Carnival of Souls.
The Mask also stands out as Canada's only contribution to the original 3-D fad (The other, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, was released during the 3-D wave of the 1980s). This is curious in itself as The Mask was released 4 or 5 years after the trend had died out in Hollywood. In the theaters, movie patrons were actually given a cardboard mask with built in 3-D glasses that they were instructed to wear whenever they heard a character say: "Put the mask on-- now!"
Although Julian Roffman, the film's director, had made military training films for the NFB during World War II, he left the Board to make feature films in the late 1950s. With Canadian exhibitor Nat Taylor's wife, he formed Taylor-Roffman productions, and made The Bloody Brood, a story of beatniks and crime which starred Peter Falk in his first role. In 1960, Nat Taylor built a studio in Kleinberg, Ontario, which Roffman used to direct The Mask.
This was probably the first Canadian cult movie that I had ever seen, and still remains one of my favourites. Obviously, the mask is a metaphor for drug use. Dr Barnes starts using it, and has hallucinations. He quickly becomes addicted and then crazed to the point of trying to kill others. At one point his girlfriend Pam actually refers to the mask as a drug, and is extremely worried over his obsession with it. As with most movies of this nature, the message is mixed. The hallucinations are portrayed as "fun," but the consequences are "bad."
The Mask is definitely darker than American films of its time, and could almost be considered a film-noir with its haunting musical score and shadowy atmosphere. Both The Bloody Brood and The Mask establish Roffman as one of the brightest talents that arose in this crucial time in Canadian film, which makes it such a shame that this was Roffman's last directorial effort. With the Taylors, he still remained active in Canadian film, and went on to produce a few Canadian movies in the 1970s, such as Explosion, the first movie funded by the CFDC and the bilingual crime film The Pyx. More than just a predecessor to the Canuxploitation of today, The Mask is also the earliest Canadian example of a horror film.
Видео Julian Roffman's "The Mask" 1961 Mask Display at Tiff Bell Lighthouse канала Tamrons
Tucked away inside a hall way, (where nobody could see that well) , was the props (Masks) from Julian Roffman's "The Mask" in all their Glory. There were also two story boards. This fantastic surreal cult film with amazing dream sequences has always been a favorite of mine. Roffman also directed Peter Falk's first film "The Bloody Brood" 1958 about Beatnicks.
This from the Website "Canuxploitation" :
The Mask is an excellent psychological horror film that is important for many reasons. It was the first Canadian film to be distributed in the US by a major studio (Warner), it has a full cast of Canadian unknowns, and it succeeds in creating the surreal atmosphere found in cult classics like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Carnival of Souls.
The Mask also stands out as Canada's only contribution to the original 3-D fad (The other, Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone, was released during the 3-D wave of the 1980s). This is curious in itself as The Mask was released 4 or 5 years after the trend had died out in Hollywood. In the theaters, movie patrons were actually given a cardboard mask with built in 3-D glasses that they were instructed to wear whenever they heard a character say: "Put the mask on-- now!"
Although Julian Roffman, the film's director, had made military training films for the NFB during World War II, he left the Board to make feature films in the late 1950s. With Canadian exhibitor Nat Taylor's wife, he formed Taylor-Roffman productions, and made The Bloody Brood, a story of beatniks and crime which starred Peter Falk in his first role. In 1960, Nat Taylor built a studio in Kleinberg, Ontario, which Roffman used to direct The Mask.
This was probably the first Canadian cult movie that I had ever seen, and still remains one of my favourites. Obviously, the mask is a metaphor for drug use. Dr Barnes starts using it, and has hallucinations. He quickly becomes addicted and then crazed to the point of trying to kill others. At one point his girlfriend Pam actually refers to the mask as a drug, and is extremely worried over his obsession with it. As with most movies of this nature, the message is mixed. The hallucinations are portrayed as "fun," but the consequences are "bad."
The Mask is definitely darker than American films of its time, and could almost be considered a film-noir with its haunting musical score and shadowy atmosphere. Both The Bloody Brood and The Mask establish Roffman as one of the brightest talents that arose in this crucial time in Canadian film, which makes it such a shame that this was Roffman's last directorial effort. With the Taylors, he still remained active in Canadian film, and went on to produce a few Canadian movies in the 1970s, such as Explosion, the first movie funded by the CFDC and the bilingual crime film The Pyx. More than just a predecessor to the Canuxploitation of today, The Mask is also the earliest Canadian example of a horror film.
Видео Julian Roffman's "The Mask" 1961 Mask Display at Tiff Bell Lighthouse канала Tamrons
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