RICHARD CROUSE’S MOVIE SHOW airs on Canada’s Independent Film Channel on Friday’s at 10:30 am and on the E! Channel on Sunday’s at 6:30 pm.
What’s the show all about?
RICHARD CROUSE’S MOVIE SHOW combines probing analysis of new theatrical films and DVDs, fascinating interviews with actors, directors and cult heroes and investigative journalism to understand what it is about the medium of movies that holds us in such a state of thrall. Richard draws on ten years experience hosting Reel to Real to bring the viewer the most informed and entertaining movie commentary on television. He’ll answer pressing film trivia questions like “Why do all movie phone numbers begin with 555?” and “Whose picture is on the Sheik condom wrapper?”
Along the way he’ll welcome guest critics who specialize in various topics. For instance a musician might join Richard to review The Last Pogo or a barber might share some insight to the DVD release of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street! The half-hour weekly show will be breezy but informative, in depth without being intimidating and will be appointment viewing for movie fans.
Q&A with Host ~ Producer Richard Crouse
Q: How is Richard Crouse’s Movie Show different than Reel to Real?
A: Richard Crouse’s Movie Show is the evolution of Reel to Real. We’re still doing the same kind of in depth movie coverage, but the show itself is a bit faster paced with tighter reviews and longer interview segments, but the basic idea of covering an eclectic range of movies—everything from foreign language documentaries to Canadian features and Hollywood blockbusters—hasn’t changed.
Q: Where will the show be shot?
A: We’re shooting Richard Crouse’s Movie Show in the same studio that I do my radio show in at CFRB in Toronto. I love the irony of shooting a television show about movies in a radio station.
Q: What is your methodology when it comes to writing your reviews?
A: I have a rule when it comes to reviews; I either write them 24 hours after seeing the film or wait 24 years. One is a gut reaction, the other a considered response with the benefit of hindsight and reflection. In my new book Son of the 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen I mostly used the latter approach but most often I write the reviews within hours of seeing the film.
Q: Will you feature celebrity interviews on Richard Crouse’s Movie Show?
A: Yes, but that won’t be the focus of the show. We live in an age of celebrity overdrive and I sometimes think that it’s actually more exciting, and these days, even revolutionary, to simply shine a spotlight on the movies and not the star’s personal lives.
Q: You’ve been interviewing celebrities for years, but do you remember your first celebrity encounter?
A: It was probably in 1982. E.T. had come out and become a huge hit. I was standing in a movie line at the Cumberland Theatre in Toronto to see something, I can’t remember what. The line was moving really slowly because of a hold up at the ticket booth. I noticed a little girl being told she couldn’t go in to see whatever movie was playing because she was too young. After some interjecting from an older handler of the “do you know who this is?” type the little girl was finally allowed in. Later she was sitting in front of me at an R-rated movie and I saw it was Drew Barrymore. She might have been 7 or 8 years old.
Q: Do you plan on covering Canadian movies on every show?
A: Absolutely. The biggest problem Canadian film has is a lack of awareness. Audiences simply don’t know the movies are out there. We make good movies in this country but often they go unseen because there is rarely enough money to mount really effective marketing campaigns. I aim to make people aware that there are good movies that reflect their Canadian experience playing on screens in their neighborhoods.
Q: What kind of shape is the Canadian film industry in these days?
A: Around the time of Bill C-10 and other proposed funding cuts to the arts I was asked what killed Canadian film, and I said ‘You and I did because we didn’t go see them.’ Now, I’m happy to report, the industry is far from dead. The last while has been really good with filmmakers like Bruce MacDonald, Guy Maddin, Benoît Pilon and David Cronenberg making the best films of their careers and the future is bright. It’s hard making films in Canada, but as long as some kid picks up a camera in Victoria or Winnipeg or Newfoundland and starts making home movies in their basement there is a hopeful and exciting future.
Q: What have been some of the stranger experiences you’ve had while shooting Richard Crouse’s Movie Show?
A: Aside from Faster Pussycat Kill Kill star Tura Satana almost breaking my arm during an interview as she demonstrated a karate move on me, the strangest and most dangerous part of the job happened when I interviewed the cast of Twilight.
I had no idea how popular the movie Twilight was going to become until I interviewed the cast and then shot a stand-up on Queen Street in Toronto in front of hundreds of teenage girls, most of whom had waited in the rain all night to get a glimpse of the cast. While we were shooting I thought it might be fun to talk to them, so I walked over and mentioned that I had just interviewed Robert Pattinson, the movie’s heart throb. Two things happened. First there was a collective shriek—the kind only young girls are capable of producing—that made my ears ring for a week afterwards, and then they started grabbing at me, wanting to touch me because I had touched him. It was scary, but that little bit of hands-on market research taught me how popular that movie was going to be.
Q: Do you have a catch phrase or a slogan for the show?
A: I Watch Bad Movies So You Don’t Have To… I’ve been using that for a while now and the other day a guy yelled, “Hey, you watch bad movies so I don’t have to!” out of his car window as he passed me on the street, so I guess it’s catching on.
What is Richard Crouse’s Movie Show (Fridays at 10:30 am on the Independent Film Channel)?
It’s kind of a mash-up of my old movie review show Reel to Real, a really cool DVD extra, Inside the Actor’s Studio and The Jack Paar Show (that’s where I got the glasses and the slicked back hair). With all due respect to Mr. Ebert and Mr. Siskel there are no thumbs, there’s no gossip, no yelling host and no celebrity sightings. Just movie chat and reviews, simple and straight up.
I’ll walk you through the most recent releases, add in a dash of historical perspective with a Did You Know segment that could cover anything from the early days of Warner Brothers to the classic Ray Harryhausen sci fi movies of the 1950s to Salvador Dali’s work with Alfred Hitchcock or why Rudolf Valentino’s picture is on the Sheik condom wrapper, and let you know what’s hot on DVD. I’m hoping for an eclectic mix that looks beyond what is available at first run theaters or the front rack of the video store. Blockbusters are great, and I’ll review them, but so are foreign movies and documentaries. Expect the unexpected.
We’ll also have guests sit in from time to time. Already we have shot interviews with Ed Harris, Viggo Mortensen, Mark Ruffalo, Jeremy Piven, Bill Maher, Larry Charles and even Seasame Street fairy-in-training Muppet Abby Cadabby. As I said earlier, expect the unexpected. I have plans for a variety of theme shows as well, including one on unusual music movies. Just know that it won’t include any movies with the words “High School” in title unless the next word is “Confidential”… and not “Musical.” This will be a HSM-free zone. Stay tuned.
Richard Crouse’s Movie Show won’t look or sound like any other movie show on television… I mean how many other movie shows have a twangin’ surf guitar theme song? Hear it once, hum it forever!
So check us out on IFC every Friday at 10:30 am—watch it live, set your PVRs, crank up your VCRs, whatever. If you’re a movie fan you won’t want to miss it.
Richard Crouse is the host of Richard Crouse’s Movie Show on the Independent Film Channel and Richard Crouse at the Movies on CFRB NewsTalk 1010 in Toronto. He is the regular film critic for CTV’s Canada AM and is also the author of six books on pop-culture history, including The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen and Reel Winners. He hosts an IFOA reading and interview with John Waters, the American writer, filmmaker, actor, and visual artist; Waters will be reading from his latest book, Role Models. Friday, Oct. 22, 8 p.m. in Fleck Dance Theatre.
Globe and Mail: Can you recall your first hosting gig?
Richard Crouse: It seems I have always been hosting something, in one form or another. As a kid, I’d always throw on a suit and gladhand at my parent’s parties. Later, as a bartender, I tried to get my customers kibitzing and chatting amongst one another. I guess I was training myself for dealing with difficult (although usually more sober) interview subjects yet to come.
I can’t remember the first of the live Q&As I hosted. I do 100 or so a year. There have been memorable ones, though. Glen Hansard doing an impromptu version of his (soon-to-be) Oscar winning song Falling Slowly with some back-up singers recruited from the audience sticks out. Harrison Ford calling me Canada’s most “beloved film critic” made me smile. And Paper Heart star Charlene Yi re-enacting the final scene of her movie live on stage was hilarious and touching.
G&M: Like an editor who remains invisible to the reader, I suspect the mark of a good host is one who lets the subject shine in his or her best light. What’s the trick to staying in the conversation while removing yourself to make room for their responses?
RC: I make a point of never making the interview about me. No questions starting with “What I liked about . . .” or “I think what you did . . .” Who cares what I think? The audience paid their money to see what the guest has to say. If they want to hear from me they can tune into my radio show or look me up on Facebook. My job is to make the guest as comfortable as possible so I can then draw out answers from them that will be entertaining (hopefully), enlightening (with any luck) and interesting (fingers crossed!).
G&M: On Friday you’ll interview John Waters. In a phone interview with Waters this past summer, you note that there are people in his book Role Models who could easily be dismissed, yet Waters treats them respectfully. And in a New York Times review of the book, Tom Carson suggests that Waters hasn’t been “undone by the realization that he’s not outrageous anymore.” As someone who has watched Waters career, do you see an evolution in character, or are we just now seeing beyond the fringe to a regular (if extraordinary) man?
RC: I’m not sure if it is John Waters who has changed or if it is the world that has gone through a transformation. His early films may have been intended to shock but instead of being outrageous for the sake of it, I always felt he was trying to slap the conservative post-war generation in the face, waking them up to the fact that there is an unseen and marginalized assortment of people that make up the grand mosaic of American life. Job well done. It worked. Now the kinds of characters he focused his camera on in the beginning of his career are mainstream figures, much less outrageous now than then.
Role Models is an extension of the film work, just much more personal. Reading about the characters he has befriended and/or simply admired from afar gives us a great deal of insight into his own character and why he felt it so important to stray far from the middle-of-the-road.
G&M: If you could concoct a cocktail comprised of the ingredients for a perfect evening — audience, interviewees and host — what would they be and what would it be called?
RC: I’d have a handpicked audience huddled around the bar at Southern Accent on Markham Street (still the best bar in the city) listening to my conversation with Hunter S. Thompson, Keith Richards and Andy Warhol, who, of course, would be accompanied by Superstar Candy Darling. We’d listen to Cajun music and discuss the creative process in a night I’d call “Why Do You Hate Freedom? A Look Into the Heart of an Artist.”
Richard Crouse is a Canadian staple when it comes to film, known for his sharp take on cinema in his reviews on CTV’s Canada AM, The Globe & Mail, The National Post, his six books, as well as informed and entertaining movie commentary hosting shows like Reel to Real(Canada’s longest running television show about movies). and The 100 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen on Rogers Television Now, he has a new venture, aptly named: Richard Crouse’s Movie Show. The show combines probing analysis of new theatrical films and DVDs, interview and investigative journalism to uncover “what it is about the medium of movies that holds us in such a state of thrall”. Expect the unexpected. The show airs every Friday at 10:30 a.m. on Canada’s Independent Film Channel and every Sunday at 6:30 p.m. on E!.
First Weekend Club had a chance to catch up with this very busy movie man and discuss his new show, the state of Canadian film, the art of being a film critic and much more…
Describe the show in one sentence.
All the movie news, reviews and interviews you can use!
This is not your first movie show. You’ve done a number of them actually. What made you get involved with this one & how did it come to be? What makes it unique?
Richard Crouse’s Movie Show was a natural extension of my last show Reel to Real. We did that show for ten years and when it came to an end I thought the idea of doing movie reviews on television was still viable. It’s certainly not as common as it once was. There was a time when every morning show had a reviewer on staff and shows like Siskel and Ebert were on every weekend. Now, it’s different. Most television entertainment shows don’t have a critical edge and seem to simply work as extensions of the Hollywood studio’s publicity arms more than anything else. I thought, and still think, that movie criticism is important, serves a purpose and is something that people find interesting. Luckily the folks at IFC Canada and E agree with me.
As for the show itself, Richard Crouse’s Movie Show is the evolution of all the shows I have done previously. I’m still doing the same kind of in depth movie coverage I’ve always done, but the show itself is a bit faster paced with tighter reviews and longer interview segments, but the basic idea of covering an eclectic range of movies—everything from foreign language documentaries to Canadian features and Hollywood blockbusters—hasn’t changed.
How much focus will you be giving Canadian films & talent on the show?
I have always focused on Canadian talent and films on all the shows I’ve done and this one is no different. I’m active in the Canadian film community, hosting events like the First Weekend Club events and Q&As for all kinds of filmmakers—everyone from established artists like David Cronenberg all the way to new directors like Charles Officer—and I plan to continue that kind of support on the show.
The biggest problem Canadian film has is a lack of awareness. Audiences simply don’t know the movies are out there. We make good movies in this country but often they go unseen because there is rarely enough money to mount really effective marketing campaigns. I aim to make people aware that there are good movies that reflect their Canadian experience playing on screens in their neighborhoods. What’s your favorite Canadian film, actor and director?
People ask me for lists of my favorite films all the time and I’m always really non committal with my answers. I’m a Gemini, so my mood changes every few minutes, so depending on my mood the answer changes. Right now I’d say Hard Core Logo, Nadia Litz and David Cronenberg. Ask me again in five minutes and you’ll likely get different answers.
How would you describe the state of the Canadian film industry these days? What sorts of films do you see being made here most?
I think we’re at the beginning of another rebirth of Canadian film. As I answer these questions two Canadian movies are being released on the same weekend—Pontypool and One Week—and are getting great reviews, have decent releases and have a really good chance of finding an audience. Young People Fucking is the number one download on i-tunes. That’s really heartening. I think people are finally realizing that we make great movies in this country that tell our stories and if they go see them perhaps that support will help the industry blossom.
The kinds of films being made here right now are still overwhelmingly American. There’s 200 foreign productions shooting in Toronto this year, and overall there will only be about 80 or so Canadian films made in the same period. But that’s OK, it’s about quality, about making the best films we can, not numbers.
Around the time of Bill C-10 and other proposed funding cuts to the arts I was asked what killed Canadian film, and I said ‘You and I did because we didn’t go see them.’ Now, I’m happy to report, the industry is far from dead. The last while has been really good with filmmakers like Bruce MacDonald, Guy Maddin, Benoît Pilon and David Cronenberg making the best films of their careers and the future is bright. It’s hard making films in Canada, but as long as some kid picks up a camera in Victoria or Winnipeg or Newfoundland and starts making home movies in their basement there is a hopeful and exciting future.
You probably could go write or host a show elsewhere in the world, including our friendly neighbor the USA – why do you stay in Canada?
It’s simple. I’m Canadian. I like it here. I like that there is a market for what I do here. In the US I’d be shaped and hammered into some kind of generic television personality, sans hair gel and horn rims, and while I’d likely make more money I wouldn’t be as happy.
Why did you decide to get involved with film from a more journalistic focus, rather than say, becoming a filmmaker?
Because I can’t frame a photograph to save my life. Because I like watching movies more than I enjoy the process of making them. Because sitting in a darkened movie theatre watching a movie that someone has labored over is still one of the great pleasures of my life.
What episode of your show are you most excited about?
The next one. I’m always most excited by the future and the challenge of trying and doing something new.
Any future projects?
Working on a novel right now about a singer in a band who kills his drummer to get publicity for the band’s new record. It’s a whodunnit, a comedy (I hope) and a comment on the lengths to which people will go to get famous. Who knows, maybe one day it will be a movie…
To keep track of Richard Crouse’s show, viewers can join The Richard Crouse Movie Show Appreciation Society group on FaceBook.
RICHARD CROUSE’S MOVIE SHOW airs on Canada’s Independent Film Channel on Friday’s at 10:30 am and on the E! Channel on Sunday’s at 6:30 pm. ![Waters Interview Oct[1]. 22 (c) readings.org](https://richardcrouse.ca//wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Waters-Interview-Oct1.-22-c-readings.org_-300x199.jpg)
