The Big Picture: The UBC Film Production Program 40th Anniversary

May 6 2010

The Grocer’s Wife

Cast: Simon Webb, Andrea Rankin, Susinn McFarlen Jay Brazeau, Nicola Cavendish

When Atom Egoyan’s The Adjuster won Best Canadian Feature honours at Toronto in 1991, Egoyan turned his $25,000 prize over to John Pozer in recognition of The Grocer’s Wife. (Egoyan had been the beneficiary of a similarly magnanimous gesture from Wim Wenders at Montreal in 1987.) The film was made while Pozer was a UBC student; the crew consisted of a notable number of other UBC film students who would become prominent figures in the Vancouver film scene. “Set in the industrial hell of Trail, B.C., The Grocer’s Wife is a decidedly bent comic drama about a man (Webb) who spends his days checking the emissions from the town’s giant smoke stack. After his domineering mother (Rankin) dies from the pollution, his life takes a bizarre turn when an itinerant American stripper (McFarlen) moves into her bedroom. To make matters worse, the local grocer’s wife (Cavendish) lusts after the young man. This unsettling fairy tale — Pozer’s completely original ‘no budget’ feature debut — is shot in dense black and white and features an epic soundtrack” (Take One’s Essential Guide to Canadian Film). The film won two Genies: the Jutra Award (best director of a first feature) and Best Supporting Actress (Cavendish). B&W, 35mm. 100 mins.

http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca/the-big-picture-the-ubc-film-production-program-40th-anniversary/the-grocers-wife-man-feel-pain-off-key