Allan King
Encyclopedia
Allan Winton King, OC
(b. February 6, 1930, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
– d. June 15, 2009, Toronto
, Ontario
, Canada
) was a Canadian
film director.
, King attended Henry Hudson Elementary School
in Kitsilano
, Vancouver
. He says he became a documentary filmmaker because, "I used to have a fantasy everyone would see my films and be changed for the better. That's why you want to make films."
In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
. A collection of ten of King's films was released as a collection representing various stages of life. His work was also the focus of a retrospective
at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival
. In 2007 New York City
's Museum of Modern Art
hosted a retrospective of his work.
. King describes his style as "actuality drama - filming the drama of everyday life as it happens, spontaneously without direction, interviews or narrative". He says he strives to "serve the action as unobtrusively as possible" and does so by becoming very familiar with the environment and people he films, by paying particular attention to movement patterns, routines and light quality.
Unlike Frederick Wiseman
, who spends a short period exploring an institution before he begins filming, King spends a significant amount of time with subjects before filming to develop trust with his subjects. King spent four weeks at the Warrendale school with 12 children and then another two weeks there with his camera crew before filming began. The crew had complete access to all aspects of the home/school situation at Warrendale - including one meeting where the top school administrator gently admonishes a counselor for using the holding technique at an inappropriate time. King lit the entire home and replaced dark paneling in a hallway with lighter paneling to improve the lights. Filming lasted eight weeks. Getting to know people before filming and staying with situations for a significant chunk of time is essential, he had said, "because in order for anything significant to occur in action or drama the subjects must make a huge leap of faith in the filmmaker".
The pivotal moment in Warrendale is when the counselors break the news to the children that their cook Dorothy has died suddenly. Children with emotional illnesses often believe their thoughts and feelings cause trauma and tragedy. The filming is intimate during the most tense and tender moments - with the camera sometimes inches from pained faces as they scream and cry - all the while being restrained by counselors. The cook's death happened early on during the filming, but King made it the film's climax.
Upon seeing Warrendale, director Jean Renoir
wrote, "Allan King is a great artist. His remarkable work exposes one of the most suspenseful action I have ever seen on a screen."
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
, which commissioned the film, refused to show it because the children often swore, uttering such words as "fuck" and "bullshit" that were not permitted on Canadian television at the time. Instead, the CBC allowed King to show Warrendale in cinemas. Shown in the Parallel Section at the Cannes Film Festival
in 1967, it won the Prix d'art et d'essai. It also shared BAFTA's Best Foreign Film Award with Michaelangelo Antonioni's Blowup
and the New York Critics' Circle Award (1968) with Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour.
described A Married Couple as "quite simply one of the best films I have ever seen".
, won the Grand Prix at the Paris International Film Festival and the Golden Reel Award
for the highest-grossing Canadian film of the year. The many television dramas he has directed have won top awards.
In 2003, he produced the documentary, Dying at Grace, a docudrama about five people in their final days at the Palliative Care Unit of the Salvation Army
Toronto Grace Health Centre as they come to terms with their deaths. It won awards at film festivals in Toronto and Berlin.
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
(b. February 6, 1930, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
– d. June 15, 2009, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
film director.
Life
During the DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, King attended Henry Hudson Elementary School
Henry Hudson Elementary School
Henry Hudson Elementary School is an elementary school located on Cypress Street in Kitsilano, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. As of the 2009/10 school year, the principal is Bruce Porritt.-History:...
in Kitsilano
Kitsilano
Kitsilano is an upmarket neighbourhood on the West Side of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.Known colloquially as "Kits", this neighborhood is home to many yuppies, young families and students as well as yoga studios, organic markets, cafes and Vancouver's Greektown. The primary...
, Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. He says he became a documentary filmmaker because, "I used to have a fantasy everyone would see my films and be changed for the better. That's why you want to make films."
In 2002, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada is a Canadian national order, admission into which is, within the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, the second highest honour for merit...
. A collection of ten of King's films was released as a collection representing various stages of life. His work was also the focus of a retrospective
Retrospective
Retrospective generally means to take a look back at events that already have taken place. For example, the term is used in medicine, describing a look back at a patient's medical history or lifestyle.-Music:...
at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival
2002 Toronto International Film Festival
The 2002 Toronto International Film Festival ran from September 5 to September 17 and screened 343 films from 50 countries. Of these 263 were feature films, of which 141 were in a language other than English...
. In 2007 New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
hosted a retrospective of his work.
Preeminent documentarian
King was a leader of the documentary technique known as cinema-verite. He ran Allan King Films Limited in TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. King describes his style as "actuality drama - filming the drama of everyday life as it happens, spontaneously without direction, interviews or narrative". He says he strives to "serve the action as unobtrusively as possible" and does so by becoming very familiar with the environment and people he films, by paying particular attention to movement patterns, routines and light quality.
Warrendale
The film tells about emotionally disturbed children who live in a Toronto institution known as Warrendale. The school practiced an experimental "holding" technique of safely restraining a child when she or he loses control because of fear, rage or grief. the therapy is designed to push children to verbalize their emotions so they learn to identify and deal with them. Holding is employed instead of drugs or other techniques. The documentary is not an expose of the restraining technique. It neither chastises or applauds the approach. Rather, Warrendale is an absorbing, empathetic glimpse of children in distress.Unlike Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman is an American documentary filmmaker. He came to documentary filmmaking after first being trained as a lawyer...
, who spends a short period exploring an institution before he begins filming, King spends a significant amount of time with subjects before filming to develop trust with his subjects. King spent four weeks at the Warrendale school with 12 children and then another two weeks there with his camera crew before filming began. The crew had complete access to all aspects of the home/school situation at Warrendale - including one meeting where the top school administrator gently admonishes a counselor for using the holding technique at an inappropriate time. King lit the entire home and replaced dark paneling in a hallway with lighter paneling to improve the lights. Filming lasted eight weeks. Getting to know people before filming and staying with situations for a significant chunk of time is essential, he had said, "because in order for anything significant to occur in action or drama the subjects must make a huge leap of faith in the filmmaker".
The pivotal moment in Warrendale is when the counselors break the news to the children that their cook Dorothy has died suddenly. Children with emotional illnesses often believe their thoughts and feelings cause trauma and tragedy. The filming is intimate during the most tense and tender moments - with the camera sometimes inches from pained faces as they scream and cry - all the while being restrained by counselors. The cook's death happened early on during the filming, but King made it the film's climax.
Upon seeing Warrendale, director Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
wrote, "Allan King is a great artist. His remarkable work exposes one of the most suspenseful action I have ever seen on a screen."
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
, which commissioned the film, refused to show it because the children often swore, uttering such words as "fuck" and "bullshit" that were not permitted on Canadian television at the time. Instead, the CBC allowed King to show Warrendale in cinemas. Shown in the Parallel Section at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 1967, it won the Prix d'art et d'essai. It also shared BAFTA's Best Foreign Film Award with Michaelangelo Antonioni's Blowup
Blowup
Blowup is a 1966 film directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, his first English-language film.It tells of a British photographer's accidental involvement with a murder, inspired by Julio Cortázar's short story, "Las babas del diablo" or "The Devil's Drool" , translated also as Blow-Up, and by the life...
and the New York Critics' Circle Award (1968) with Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour.
A Married Couple
Despite censorship, King continued to innovate and in 1969 directed A Married Couple which explores a crisis in a real marriage and the issue of choice. New York Times ' critic Clive BarnesClive Barnes (critic)
Clive Alexander Barnes, CBE was a British-born American writer and critic. From 1965 to 1977 he was the dance and theater critic for the New York Times, the most powerful position he had held, since its theater critics' reviews historically have had great influence on the success or failure of...
described A Married Couple as "quite simply one of the best films I have ever seen".
Other genres
During more than 50 years of filmmaking, King has worked in every film genre except animation, creating an enormous and diverse portfolio. To support his documentaries, King has also directed episodic television and feature films. His first dramatic feature film, Who Has Seen the Wind (1976), based on the novel by W. O. MitchellW. O. Mitchell
William Ormond Mitchell, PC, OC better known as W.O. Mitchell was a Canadian writer.-Early life and career:...
, won the Grand Prix at the Paris International Film Festival and the Golden Reel Award
Golden Reel Award (Canada)
The Golden Reel Award is a Canadian film award, presented to the Canadian film with the biggest box office gross of the year. The Canadian Motion Picture Distributors Association introduced this award in 1976 as part of the Canadian Film Awards until 1979...
for the highest-grossing Canadian film of the year. The many television dramas he has directed have won top awards.
In 2003, he produced the documentary, Dying at Grace, a docudrama about five people in their final days at the Palliative Care Unit of the Salvation Army
Salvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
Toronto Grace Health Centre as they come to terms with their deaths. It won awards at film festivals in Toronto and Berlin.
Films and telefilms
- Skid Row (1956)
- The Pemberton Valley (1957)
- Rickshaw (1960) (TV)
- Interview with Orson WellesOrson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
(1960) (TV) - A Matter of Pride (1961) (TV)
- Dreams (1962) (TV)
- The Field Day (1963)
- Joshua: A Nigerian Portrait (1963) (TV)
- Running Away Backwards (1964)
- Children in Conflict: A Talk with Irene (1967)
- WarrendaleWarrendaleWarrendale is a 1967 documentary film by Canadian filmmaker Allan King. It was originally produced for broadcast on CBC Television, but was never shown due to King's refusal to edit out the copious profanity in the footage....
(1967) - A Married Couple (1969)
- Come on Children (1973)
- Red Emma (1974) (TV)
- MariaMaría (film)María is a 1938 Mexican film. It was directed byChano Urueta....
(1977) (TV) - Who Has Seen the Wind (1977)
- One Night Stand (1978) (TV)
- Silence of the NorthSilence of the NorthSilence of the North is a 1981 Canadian film starring Tom Skerritt, Gordon Pinsent, and Ellen Burstyn. The three main actors were nominated for Genie Awards, as was the director, Allan King....
(1981) - Tucker and the Horse Thief (1985) (TV)
- The Last Season (1986)
- Termini StationTermini Station (film)Termini Station is a Canadian drama film, released in 1989. It was directed by Allan King, and written by Colleen Murphy.The film stars Colleen Dewhurst and Megan Follows as Molly and Micheline Dushane, a mother and daughter living in a small Northern Ontario town...
(1989) - The Dragon's Egg (1998) (TV)
- Leonardo: A Dream of Flight (1998) (TV)
- Dying at Grace (2003)
- Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company (2005)
- EMPz 4 Life (2006)
Television series
- Alfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock PresentsAlfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
(1985) - Philip Marlowe, Private EyePhilip Marlowe, Private EyePhilip Marlowe, Private Eye is a mystery series that aired on ITV in the United Kingdom and on HBO in the United States from April 16, 1983 through June 3, 1986. The series featured Powers Boothe as Raymond Chandler's titular character, and was the first drama produced for HBO.-Synopsis:The series...
(1986 episode) - Friday the 13th: The SeriesFriday the 13th: The SeriesFriday the 13th: The Series is an American-Canadian horror television series that ran for three seasons, from October 3, 1987 to May 26, 1990 in first-run syndication....
(1987) - The Twilight ZoneThe New Twilight ZoneThe Twilight Zone is the first of two revivals of Rod Serling's acclaimed 1950/60s television series of the same name. It ran for two seasons on CBS before producing a final season for syndication.-Series history:...
(1988 episode) - BordertownBordertown (TV series)Bordertown is a television western-drama series that aired from 1989 to 1991. It depicts the town formerly known as Pemmican that was later renamed Bordertown when the western border between the United States and Canada was surveyed in 1880, dividing the town.-Premise:Pemmican was a town in the...
(1989 episode) - Road to AvonleaRoad to AvonleaRoad to Avonlea was a television series which was first broadcast in Canada and the United States between 1990 and 1996. It was created by Kevin Sullivan and produced by Sullivan Films in association with CBC and the Disney Channel, with additional funding from Telefilm Canada.It was adapted from...
(1989) - Neon RiderNeon RiderNeon Rider is a Canadian drama television series which first aired between 1990 and 1995. Created by Winston Rekert and Danny Virtue, the show was about the titular character, a man named Michael Terry who quits his job as a therapist to become a mentor for troubled kids which he brings to his...
(1990 episode) - Dracula: The SeriesDracula: The SeriesDracula: The Series was a short-lived syndicated series about Count Dracula and his struggles with Gustav Van Helsing, as well as Gustav's young nephews — Maximilian and Christopher Townsend. They were also aided by a schoolgirl, Sophie Metternich...
(1990, 1991 episodes) - MadisonMadison (TV series)Madison is a Canadian teen drama television series that premiered on Global Television Network on September 21, 1993. The first season of the series was filmed between 1991 and 1993 and released in 1992 and 1993 to classrooms as a learning aid under the title of Working It Out at...
(1993 episodes) - Kung Fu: The Legend ContinuesKung Fu: The Legend ContinuesKung Fu: The Legend Continues is a spin-off of the 1972-1975 television series Kung Fu. David Carradine and Chris Potter starred as a father and son trained in kung fu - Carradine playing a Shaolin monk, Potter a police detective. This series aired in syndication for four seasons, from January 27,...
(1993) - Twice in a LifetimeTwice in a Lifetime (TV series)Twice in a Lifetime is a Canadian mystery/drama series that originally aired from 1999 to 2001. Created by Steve Sohmer, the series aired on CTV in Canada and PAX in the United States.-Synopsis:...
(1999)
Further reading
- Seth Feldman, ed., Allan King: Filmmaker, Indiana University Press 2002, ISBN 0-9689132-1-0
- Stanley Kaufmann, Children of Our Time, 1967;
- Nik Sheehan, Crisis, What Crisis, 2002)