(1994 Canadian independent film)

Canadian filmmaker Paul Donovan created Paint Cans to illustrate the ineptitude of the Canadian Film Board System. Premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, this 1994 art house film begins as an amusing social commentary but concludes as an over-the-top black comedy. Bruce Greenwood is cast as Vittorio Musso, an independent filmmaker whose outrageously pretentious work - Paint Cans - makes the usual rounds of government financing without any success till he begins squeezing an old college acquaintance, Wick Burns (top billed Chas Lawther). Musso's questionable ethics compromise most the film's protagonists, but none more than Wick, who begins to plot revenge, leading up to one of the most bizarre endings Greenwood's ever performed.

A totally unexpected role for Greenwood, his performance is beautifully detailed and elegantly complex, peppered with crude language, boorish behavior and an enigmatic charm, especially in a wonderful little vignette with his son. Although the film is understated and a bit obscure, he stands out in a part that could have been overplayed but always stays comfortably within its overblown boundaries. Others in the all-Canadian cast are Robyn Stevan as Wick's fleeting love interest, Paul Gross as a campy gay screenwriter and Nigel Bennett as Wick's superior.

After Toronto the film was shown at The American Film Institute Festival in Los Angeles before a general release in Canada, but it was never released in the U.S.A.

It's no longer available on video but is still shown over many Canadian pay stations.

A Libra Films release of a Salter Street production.

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Sound Files from Paint Cans

		Vittorio Musso's grand plan	39 secs
		Vittorio defends his film to Wick	36 secs
		Vittorio pleads for another chance	1 min 12 secs