Quest for Fire + Black Robe Double Bill, April 21st @ the Mayfair

Quest For Fire, 1982, Directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, 100mins, Cinemascope 2.35, Dolby A, Rated AA, 35mm original studio print (may have colour fading and print wear) 7pm

French director Jean-Jacques Annaud takes on the dawn of man. Shot in Canada, Scotland and Kenya and set 80,000 years ago, this science-fantasy is a unique take on our early history. The film follows three cavemen, Ron Perlman, Nicholas Kadi and Everett McGill on a quest to find fire, but the real star of
the film is 20 year old Canadian Rae Dawn Chong, who they meet on their way.  “I saw this film a couple years after its release at the Museum of Man (now the Museum of Nature) back when they still projected film and had a nice 300 seat theatre. A friend and I snuck into the upper balcony and were soon kicked out by the ushers - the film was rated AA and we were alone and about 10 years old. I got my dad on the phone and he told them it was okay for us to watch the film. We loved it! Who wouldn’t?:  Sabre-tooth tigers, woolly mammoths, cave bears, cannibal Neanderthals, primitive humour, nudity, sex and caveman battles.  The film still holds up today in part because of the great locations, CinemaScope photography and the use of Desmond Morris and Anthony Burgess (author of A Clockwork Orange) who worked on the early human body language and languages for the film. Another interesting note is that the more advanced tribe that Rae Dawn Chong is from speaks Inuktitut. Apparently if you speak it, you will be rolling in the aisles. A friend of mine also claims that Quest for Fire is a perfect date flick. Here's your chance to find out.” - Paul Gordon

Black Robe, 1991, Directed by Bruce Beresford, 100mins, 1.85, Dolby SR, Rated AA, 35mm Studio print, 9:10pm