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Montreal Gazette

Friday on My Mind: Film noir on the banks of the Lachine Canal, a JFLGBTQ+ gala and a celebration of Haitian culture among best bets

By Friday on My Mind is a highly subjective, curated rundown of five of the cooler things happening in Montreal during the weekend. Pushover, part of Film Noir au Canal Sunday at 9 p.m. at St. Patrick Square. Serge Turgeon had an inspired idea 10 years ago: Why not screen classic film noir flicks on the banks of the Lachine Canal just off of Pointe-St-Charles? He figured if there was ever a film-noir setting, it was right there at St. Patrick Square, near the intersection of Wellington and St-Patrick Sts. 'That place really has a natural film-noir decor,' said Turgeon, who is the founder, general manager and artistic director of Film Noir au Canal, an annual summer film series. 'You have the old industrial canal, the grain silos, the big sign for Farine Five Roses. The asphalt. The cement. The red brick. The festival becomes an immersive experience. It's like you're in a film set.' This weekend, Film Noir au Canal will pay tribute to legendary Hollywood actress Kim Novak with a screening of the 1954 film Pushover, which stars Novak, Fred MacMurray, Phil Carey and Dorothy Malone in a film inspired by two novels, Bill S. Ballinger's Rafferty and Thomas Walsh's The Night Watch. It was directed by Richard Quine. A police detective falls hard for the bank robber's girlfriend he's supposed to be tailing. The tribute to Novak will also include a screening of Vertigo, arguably her most famous film, at the Cinémathèque Québécoise on Saturday at 7 p.m. Turgeon will introduce both films. 'The magazine Sight and Sound named it the best film of all time,' Turgeon notes. Turgeon created Film Noir au Canal as a community project. He lives in nearby Little Burgundy, thought it was a cool idea to have people gather outdoors and figured a film screening was as good an excuse as any to do that. And he thought film noir — the old black-and-white American detective films from the '40s and '50s — was the ideal genre to focus on. The festival holds six screenings a summer, always featuring four American films and two French productions. The films always have subtitles. So far this summer the fest has screened director Carol Reed's classic The Third Man, starring Orson Welles, and the French film Le Jour se lève, directed by Marcel Carné. Turgeon says half the crowd comes from the neighbourhood and the rest are cinephiles from all around the city. Free admission. Information: JFLGBTQ+ GALA Saturday at 9:30 p.m. at Espace St-Denis. The Just for Laughs fest is pushing full steam ahead this weekend with the English galas, and one of the most anticipated is the JFLGBTQ+ Gala hosted by Scottish actor and writer Alan Cumming. The all-star cast includes Mae Martin, Sabrina Jalees, Tranna Wintour, Joe Dombrowski and Jay Jurden. The Importance of Being Earnest Friday at 7 p.m. at the Mount Royal Cemetery. One of the cooler summer traditions in Montreal is heading out to your local green space to see Repercussion Theatre perform Shakespeare in the Park, a tour that usually reaches about 13,000 people. This summer they're switching it up, moving on from Bill Shakespeare to Oscar Wilde with a new take on Wilde's biting comedy The Importance of Being Earnest. Repercussion has teamed up with Persephone Productions to present the play, directed by Rebecca Gibian and Adam Capriolo. Here's the director's statement on what to expect: 'Earnest is Wilde's way of satirizing himself and the world he lived in: A dandy and his 'roommate' looking for fabulous women to marry to be able to maintain their position in high-society London. This is not your mother's Earnest. This is your drag mother's Earnest.' OK, I'm intrigued. The tour kicks off this weekend and continues in parks around the city, everywhere from Pine Beach in Dorval to Jarry Park in Parc-Extension. Free admission, but they do take donations. It's in Mount Royal Cemetery, near the Mount Royal Cemetery and Funeral Complex. The Weeknd Friday at 7 p.m. at Parc Jean Drapeau. You kind of forget how big The Weeknd is. Abel Tesfaye's two shows at Parc Jean-Drapeau are the concert event of the summer for the city. The first show on Thursday was a complete sellout, though there are tickets still available for the second show on Friday. The Toronto artist started out making druggy late-night mix tapes and when he added an '80s New Wave gloss to his contemporary R&B, he became a huge pop star. About 80,000 people will turn up on the island for these shows. Personally, I haven't been all that excited about The Weeknd since Starboy in 2016, but that's just me. Tickets: Haiti en folie Various venues all weekend. This fest has been celebrating Haitian culture in all its forms since 2007, and there's lots going on this weekend, including a gastronomy fair in Parc Lafontaine Saturday afternoon and the closing concert in the same park Sunday at 7 p.m. with the Oswald Band.