By P.A. Sévigny
Last Sunday, Nuns’ Island’s new Ciné-Club held its initial meeting in Montreal’s Cinéma du Parc where almost 40 people went to see Joseph Hillel’s Regular or Super — his already famous documentary about world-famous architect Mies Van Der Rohe.
“It’s a community effort,” said island activist Serge Bellemare. “It responds to a certain collective desire for a deeper reflection and possibly some discussion about what these movies have to say about us, our world and our culture.”
As one of the founding members of the club, Bellemare said its directors would consider a number of factors when choosing the films that would make up the club’s viewing schedule.
“Local movies will get serious attention,” he said, “ because we owe it to local film producers to see their work and it’s always easy to have the film’s director, its producer or the writer come by to discuss the film after everyone has seen it.”
As for the Ciné-Club’s opening selection, Bellemare said the club’s directors were pleased to choose a film about the architect who did so much to define both the city and the island’s urban development over the latter part of the 20th century. As the architect who designed the island’s world-famous filling station, island residents were pleased to see how the documentary was firmly set in both the time and place which reflects their own immediate environment. While the documentary had a lot to say about the island’s promoters and its builders, it had even more to say about the architects who laid the template for a unique lifestyle which defines the island and its residents who live only minutes away from the city’s downtown core.
As one of the high priests of the previous century’s minimalist design, Van Der Rohe was on the cutting edge of North American architecture with at least three major projects built in Montreal during its prosperous and progressive years previous to the rise of the Parti Québécois. While the Nuns’ Island gas station is a signature piece of 20th century architecture, Van Der Rohe’s Westmount Square is still considered to be a classic piece of post-modern design which continues to reflect the power and prosperity of what could have been one of the greatest cities in North America. Seen by night, it continues to remind the viewer how good buildings are always meant to be seen by future generations insofar as they continue to define the previous generations who designed and built those buildings