A Place to Stand

A Place To Stand stands the test of time due to its intelligent use of split screen images, some stunning photography and an unforgettable theme song....the only element that needs primping is the narrative, which has the antiseptic feel of a bureaucratic rubber stamp (in this case, the Ontario Tourist Board). This oscar winner delighted Expo '67 and the sequel in '68 "Man And His World" in Montreal and is totally obscure today. Picked up a vhs wide-screen copy for personal use from a friend in the business and was thrilled as any World's Fair film completist must be. As the closing theme lyrics cheerlead "Give us a place to stand, and a place to grow, and we will build Ontario!!!!" ***1/2

This film was produced for the Ontario pavilion at Expo67, the Montreal World's Fair. It has no story line, and the only words used are the lyrics to the title song, which are sung in both English and French. The film uses a large, wide-screen format but makes frequent use of multi-screen images of various sizes and formats projected onto the single large screen (my favorite being a small screen which followed a character walking across the larger screen). The film evokes the various regions of the province throughout the year, and presents a winning image of Ontario to the world. Magnificent photography coupled with a catchy title song.

I wanted to review this piece after watching it on U-Tube. I tracked it down after researching the gorgeous sequences in the Original 'Thomas Crown Affair.' Actually those sequences are better than this short BUT the short is the true prototype & a little appreciated step forward in film technique. It is more realistically viewed as the greatest & only step forward in Montage style editing since Eisenstein DEFINED montage with his work. The montage is the Poetry of Cinema & at it's best Poetry contains beauty & intensity of meaning an order of magnitude beyond what mere prose can accomplish. As others have pointed out Chapman's 'Multi-dynamic image technique' can compress meaning & content many times over what straight edits or even traditional Montage can accomplish. There is a dimension here beyond where the viewer can be guided in revolutionary ways thru complex material in completely new & novel directions. It is a powerful tool for the editor. For only one example; Motion can be allowed to draw attention to one of the multiple frames which then expands to fill the screen. Used with intelligence & planning there are endless possibilities without the distraction of digital "Gee Whizz" effects. Cutting tends to go faster & faster with each generation of film. Ask any older person; They will tell you that a modern film goes by too fast. Chapman pioneered a way out of this trap. More information & meaning can be logically conveyed thru this technique without overloading the viewer. As with any variation of the Montage it must be used sparingly almost like spice in cooking. In that respect 'Thomas Crown affair' strikes a fine balance & points the way. The Multi Screen sequences convey mood, subplot & glamour quickly & efficiently in a way that no other technique could accomplish. A great part of the mystique of the film comes from the compressed story information in those sequences. The spice was not applied with too heavy a hand; It Works. True advances in story telling technique in Cinema are very rare indeed & this is one.

Christopher Chapman's Oscar-winning documentary short "A Place to Stand" got produced for the Ontario pavilion at the 1967 Expo held in Montreal that year. A kaleidoscopic look at Canada's most populous province, the documentary uses multi-dynamic image technique (wherein multiple images shirt simultaneously on panes). The viewer gets to see lots of the things that make Canada great. There's a reason why Michael Moore has so much praise for our northern neighbor. A well done documentary that deserved its Oscar. I recommend it.

As for multi-dynamic image technique, Norman Jewison used it in "The Thomas Crown Affair", and it also featured prominently in the opening sequence of "The Brady Bunch".