Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 1963
The Bitter Ash
Buy The Bitter Ash now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'The Bitter Ash' is a Canadian drama film, directed by Larry Kent and released in 1963.David Spaner, [http://povmagazine.com/articles/view/larry-kent-pioneer-auteur "Larry Kent: Pioneer Auteur"]. 'Point of View', May 28, 2013. One of the first narrative feature films ever shot in Vancouver,John Mackie, "Dark film focuses on Hastings Street, 1962; Once-shelved because of poor sound, Larry Kent's short was restored with modern technology". 'Vancouver Sun', April 24, 2010. the film stars Alan Scarfe as Des, an unhappy blue collar man who is drawn into the city's counterculture underground, where he clashes with bohemian intellectual Colin (Philip Brown) over the affections of Colin's wife Laurie (Lynn Stewart).
Kent made the film while he was a student at the University of British Columbia, and the film was acted primarily by university drama students rather than professional actors.Matthew Hays, "Catch up on your Kent". 'The Globe and Mail', February 1, 2003.
The film was controversial at the time because it depicted sexual activity, brief nudity, profanity and drug use."TIFF movie review: The Bitter Ash". 'The Globe and Mail', September 6, 2012. Unable to secure commercial distribution, King exhibited the film by personally undertaking a cross-Canada tour to screen it on university campuses. The film has often been characterized by critics as an exploitation film, but King himself disputed this characterization on the grounds that it didn't have enough sex in it.Matthew Hays, "The Kent Files". 'Take One', Vol. 12, Iss. 43, (Sep-Dec 2003). pp. 20-24. 'The Globe and Mail' also later wrote that "the story of the collision of bohemian and working-class values in provincial, precountercultural Vancouver, today seems less striking for its formerly transgressive content - sex, extramarital pregnancy, pot-smoking and nudity - than for its fiercely expressed attitude of utter socioeconomic despair."
The film later received screenings at the 1984 Toronto International Film Festival in the Front & Centre program,Jay Scott, "Mon Oncle Antoine No. 1 with critics". 'The Globe and Mail', August 2, 1984. and at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival in the Cinemathque program. It was also part of a retrospective screening of Kent's films, alongside 'Sweet Substitute', 'When Tomorrow Dies' and 'High', which screened at a number of venues in 2002 and 2003, including Cinematheque Ontario in Toronto, the Pacific Cinmathque in Vancouver and the Canadian Film Institute in Ottawa.
References
Buy The Bitter Ash now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 1963