Most Americans have probably never heard of this movie, which is considered a classic of Canadian cinema. If you’re among those who know nothing of this work, please seek it out – it might be one of the best films you’ve never seen.
Set in rural Ottawa valley, the film focuses on itinerant bush worker Emery Parmenter, a man whose pride obscures his sense of responsibility. Emery and his large family – a wife and nine children, with another baby on the way – live in poverty and rely on clothing donations from a welfare worker. But Emery refuses to apply for financial assistance, stubbornly insisting that he can provide for his family despite an erratic income stream and health that is being weakened with beer drinking and smoking.
Emery’s way of life comes under attack from his eldest child, 16-year-old Rosie, who complains that neighboring families that received government assistance have higher standards of living, including a new refrigerator, the money to buy groceries from a store (Emery hunts and fishes most of the family’s meals), and a television set. Rosie wants to break away from the poverty of their area and make her own money, but Emery believes her place is in the Ottawa Valley where she should marry and have babies – and he blames Rosie’s schooling for putting such wild ideas in her head.
“The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar” was a National Film Board of Canada production created for broadcast on CBC, but it is far from the typical made-for-television movie. Joan Finnigan’s screenplay unfolds slowly but carefully – there is no huge backstory reveal that explains Emery’s self-destructive behavior, although it gradually becomes obvious that he is the product of generational rural poverty and believes this is the best way for anyone to live. He actively encourages his oldest son disrespect his mother and skip school to join him in scrounging for work at a local sawmill, thus ensuring a new generation continues to follow in his family’s raggedy path.
Rosie represents a new generation of women who want something better in their lives. She decries her mother’s perpetual state of pregnancy as being akin to imprisonment, and she dares to find her own sense of maturity in a brief fling with one of her father’s friends. Ultimately, she rejects her father when he refuses to seek financial assistance and escapes with the social worker. Her final appearances show her wearing a then-modern mini-skirt as she heads to an employment agency in a city, and later she is seen as a telephone operator – the first step on her road to self-reliance.
Rosie was played by a 19-year-old Margot Kidder in her screen debut, and she is utterly astonishing. Kidder brings a unique mix of sensitivity and steeliness to the role, and her character’s arguments with her father carry a maturity and resolve that makes her a force of intelligence. Chris Wiggins’ Emery is irascible and charismatic, making the character’s willful refusal to acknowledge his misfortune truly jolting. The scenes between Kidder and Wiggins offer some of the most subtle acting you’ll ever see.
Kate Reid is Emery’s wife and she has relatively little dialogue, but her pleased expressions amid the domestic chaos of her home and the glee she shares with her husband in his refusal to follow doctor’s orders on a health regimen makes her a disturbing equal partner in the perpetuation of their family’s poverty.
Director Peter Pearson shot this film with a grimy black-and-white 16mm style that gives the impression of a documentary, and at 49 minutes the movie gets its message across without an ounce of cinematic fat. The one mistake in the film is the use of Hector Berlioz’s “Harold in Italy” on the soundtrack – it doesn’t fit and badly detracts from the scenes it is supposed to enhance. But that doesn’t ruin the film.
“The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar” won eight Canadian Film Awards including Best Picture and is available on YouTube. It deserves your attention.