The Last Laugh: What with the doc’s abundance of comedy greats like Mel Brooks, Rob Reiner and Sarah Silverman, Renee Firestone may not count as the most famous interview subject in The Last Laugh, a Hot Docs 2016 selection that returns for an extended run this week. Yet as a survivor of Auschwitz, she may have the most interesting take on the film’s core subject, which is the always-provocative combination of humour and the Holocaust. In one scene, Firestone describes her feelings of bemusement (albeit belated) when she met Josef Mengele, who told her she really ought to get someone to take a look at her tonsils if she survived the war — it turned out he gave her sound medical advice.
Another survivor in the film — Robert Clary, who was a French teenager when he was imprisoned at Ottmuth and Buchenwald — speaks of singing and performing in cabarets for both his fellow prisoners and their captors. He later starred on Hogan’s Heroes, still the only U.S. sitcom to ever combine Nazis and slapstick. The film includes a delightful encounter between Clary and Firestone where they again find some mirth amid the pain.
Such moments add great richness to The Last Laugh’s thoughtful yet still funny examination of the importance of levity in the face of tragedy, and of comedians’ drive to break taboos and test the limits of free speech. Director Ferne Pearlstein augments his star-studded lineup of talking heads with clips from the “Springtime for Hitler” musical number and the making-out-in-Schindler’s-List episode of Seinfeld.
The Last Laugh plays March 10-28 at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
Shadow Girl: The latest documentary by Maria-Teresa Larrain will also be her last film. The reason is the progressive myopia that has inevitably had a dramatic impact on the Chilean-Canadian filmmaker’s life and work. A new documentary that plays its Toronto premiere this week, Shadow Girl is about her efforts to come to terms with her vision loss by creating a cinematic travelogue. Larrain will surely have more to say about her unique personal journey at the Q&A after the screening at the Revue on March 12.
Toronto Short Film Festival: A fiver is all it costs to see one of the 10 programs of minimovies screening at the Toronto Short Film Festival (TSFF) this week. The Carlton again plays host to the third annual offshoot of the T.O. Indie fest. Among the offerings by Canadians in the selection are a preview of Katie Uhlmann’s new comedy web series My Roommate’s an Escort and Forgiveness, a new effort by actor and playwright Andrew Moodie. The TSFF runs March 13-17.
Burden: Plenty of famous people suffered for their art but only Chris Burden asked someone to shoot him in the arm for it. The legendary American performance artist and sculptor who had a very special relationship with pain, Burden is the subject of an eponymous documentary that caps off the AGO’s spate of new art docs at Jackman Hall March 15-18.
Canadian Screen Awards’ Family Fan Day: As part of the weekend festivities for the Canadian Screen Awards on March 12, the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television invites fans to a free event the day before at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts. On March 11, YTV’s Carlos Bustamante hosts a “Family Fan Day” that includes meet-and-greets with cast members from Letterkenny, Murdoch Mysteries, Heartland, Kim’s Convenience and more. Additional enticements include contests, exotic animals, swag bags, a VR demo, Mike Holmes and free doughnuts.
In Brief:
- Relevant once again thanks to our new age of Orwellian doublespeak, Michael Radford’s screen adaptation of 1984 plays the Carlton on March 10.
- The NeverEnding Story (March 11), The Wizard of Oz (March 12) and Matilda (March 14) are a few of the family faves at TIFF Kids Classics for March Break at the Lightbox.
- The Royal’s lineup of cult curios this week includes The Honeymoon Killers (March 10) and the thoroughly terrible 2019: After the Fall of New York (March 16).
- No slouches themselves, the Lightbox’s got Eraserhead (March 11) while the Revue goes for Lady Snowblood (March 16).