Crime Wave

John Paizs's 1985 Canadian film follows a young director who wants to make the greatest colour crime movie ever. He has written the beginning and the end of his script and cannot find the middle. His landlord's daughter tries to help. The film shows the attempts at that fictional script. Each attempt is shot as a separate genre pastiche; fifties educational films, television commercials and cheap crime pictures stand side by side within the same narrative. The lead barely speaks; the telling runs entirely on the girl's voiceover. Paizs both directs and performs. The use of colour and the sets are deliberately artificial, and the film became one of the known works of the independent scene around Winnipeg. Who it's for: those who like Canadian independent cinema and genre pastiche. Who it's not for: viewers who want an emotional connection; the film is distanced and formal throughout.