Dir. Larry Kent
1965, Canada, 89 min
Rated 18A
Larry Kent’s third feature and first “professional” film—i.e. cast and crew were actually paid!—saw the director age up his thematic concerns from youthful malaise to marital unrest. Scripted by Robert Harlow, a creative writing professor at UBC, this Vancouver-set portrait of domestic disillusionment adopts the perspective of a stifled, put-upon housewife (Patricia Gage, Rabid) who seizes on the ’60s social-liberation movement, much to the chagrin of her traditionalist husband (Douglas Campbell). Believing she can balance familial duties and female empowerment, she enrolls in higher education and falls for her debonair English professor (Neil Dainard). When Tomorrow Dies marked Kent’s biggest budget to that point, enabling him to hire trained actors and an experienced cinematographer (Doug McKay, Madeleine Is…). Its excursions into impressionism signaled an evolution in Kent’s visual style, while the story evinced a clear-eyed grasp of the lopsided nature of “free love” under patriarchy.
Cited by David Cronenberg as “a heroic figure,” Larry Kent made films “so ahead of their time” (to quote Atom Egoyan) that they eventually fell out of official circulation. Situated somewhere between the vivid indie dramas of John Cassavetes and the lurid melodramas of Doris Wishman, Kent’s films brought new vitality to Canadian cinema – and time has only added to their potency. The Dave Barber Cinematheque is proud to present these enduring works of underground Canadian cinema, informally known as “The Vancouver Trilogy”, featuring new 4K restorations from Canadian International Pictures.
