A lifetime of suburbia in a half hour, Springtime in Greenland uses 50’s cinematic conventions and attitudes to tell a story about the sophomoric inhabitants of a fictional utopia. Meet Nick, a young Adonis played by Paizs. He is silent, aloof and straining against his suburban values. Nick wears a gloomy cloud despite the sunny spring weather.Read More »
The final instalment of John Paizs’ “Three Worlds of Nick” trilogy is an amusing melange of ’60s spy thrillers and other classics. Super secret agent Nick attempts to liberate a top secret microchip from the clutches of multimillionaire Quinton Frost. Paizs pokes fun at the jet set, the Cold War and Jean-Paul Sartre.
The film stars Canadian television personality Peter Jordan as the protagonist, and John Paizs in his reoccurring silent Nick character. Guy Madden (credited as Gal Madden) also has an unbelievable cameo, as does George Toles.Read More »
In the second instalment of “The Three Worlds of Nick”, Paizs’ silent hero sets off to college where he meets Brock West (Winnipeg journalist and rocker Peter Jordon, aka Rocky Roletti). Unwittingly, Nick becomes involved in attempts to restore an old campus hangout and in the dirty political tricks swirling around a hard fought student election. The film successfully weaves the tone of college hijinx movies through the clever spoof of electoral trends, suggesting how easily old fashioned ethics can turn into fashion.Read More »
A young man meets his obsession – a ghostly ’60’s Playboy-bunny styled “Connie,” – and is never the same! This is the first of John Paizs’ films to feature his silent Nick character that would later be featured in his cult hits Springtime in Greenland and Crimewave.Read More »
A Canadian cult classic.
A seminal film in Winnipeg independent film-making in the 1980’s Crime Wave is a work of incredible imagination and inventive ideas. Upon its release in the mid 1980’s the film played to terrific acclaim at film festivals across North America. Crammed with B movie gags and pop cultural references the movie follows the story of Steven Penny, a crime writer who wants to create the perfect colour crime movie but he is only good at writing beginnings and endings (and not the stuff in the middle.)Read More »