Madeleine Is (1970)

When I interviewed the legendary film exhibitor Leonard Schein a few months back I was able to thank him for the great films he programmed at the Ridge, after he took it over in 1978. The Ridge was 24 blocks north of where I lived then (I was sixteen in 1978) and I would see mostly foreign films there. The Ridge was a huge part of my education. About 90% of the films I saw at the Ridge I saw on my own.

I was alone last night for the Cinematheque's screening of Sylvia Spring's Madeleine Is (see the movie here). Madeleine Is is the story of a kindly young French-Canadian woman, an artist living in Vancouver and working in fashion. She lives and works in her studio, which she shares with her activist/male chauvinist boyfriend "Toro", who is either trying to start a cult or overthrow the The Establishment. Maybe both.

Madeleine has a recurring dream about her joyful encounters with a clown. One day she meets a straight-laced young man on Granville Street who looks like him (we take her word for it). After visiting his apartment she realizes he is not her clown, and is disappointed. Toro meanwhile has disappointed her for the last time: he has allowed her studio to become a crash pad for hippies, and is fucking one of them. He suggests a "menage a trois," then a foursome with a mutual male friend, and Madeleine is repulsed.

Upset, Madeleine flees into the night -- through the flashing neon of Granville Street (accompanied by a free jazz score) -- only to catch a chill and be taken in by some of Toro's older friends: a hippie couple, one of whom is a former physician. A recovery period follows, which includes a visit from an "old bum" who Madeleine often talks to at Victory Square Park, and an in-group session with a psychologist who, from the sounds of it, has merged Jung with Lacan. 

The final scene is chilling, but concludes happily with Madeleine learning that she is her own clown, and that the fellow she thought was her clown is in fact his own person -- by then less "straight" than he was when she first met him.

There are many Vancouver locations in this film. Stanley Park, English Bay, Coal Harbour, a pre-beautification Gastown. Back in 1970, city councillors were doing everything they could to get neon off Granville Street. Now it's back -- the most incongruous example being the Backpackers Hostel sign (at bottom). When I was a teen, neon was the last thing I expected to see when I set out with a pack on my back.