The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood
{{short description|1986 film by Andy Jones and Mike Jones}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood
| image =
| caption =
| director = Andy Jones
Michael Jones
| writer = Andy Jones
Michael Jones
| producer = Andy Jones
Michael Jones
| starring = Andy Jones
Greg Malone
| narrator =
| cinematography = Michael Jones
| editing = Michael Jones
| music = Robert Joy
Pamela Morgan
Paul Steffler
| studio =
| distributor =
| released = {{Film date|1986}}
| runtime = 110 minutes
| country = Canada
| language = English
| budget =
| gross =
}}
The Adventure of Faustus Bidgood is a 1986 surreal Canadian comedy film directed by Andy Jones and written by Andy and Mike Jones,{{cite book|author=Wyndham Wise|title=Take One's Essential Guide to Canadian Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oveMBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA1999-IA16|date=15 December 2001|publisher=University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division|isbn=978-1-4426-5620-8|page=1999}} with the collaboration of a number of workshop participants. It stars Andy Jones and Greg Malone.
Plot
Andy Jones stars as Faustus Bidgood, a clerk in the Newfoundland provincial department of education who harbours secret dreams of becoming president of Newfoundland and leading the province to secede from Canada. The film contains several levels of what might be termed competing "realities", oscillating between visions of mundane office work and sequences in which Bidgood accidentally leads a revolution, and containing a film within a film that narrates Faustus' real life and imaginary rise to power.{{cite book|author=David Clandfield|title=Canadian Film|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=23xZAAAAMAAJ|date=1 January 1987|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-540581-1|page=106}}
In the film within a film, we learn that Faustus' paternal grandfather has predicted that a great man will lead the people of Newfoundland to glory. His name is the Reverend Dempster Peebles, although his son (Faustus' father) is named Bruce Bidgood and Faustus full name is Faustus Peebles Bidgood.
Cast
The film also stars Jones' CODCO colleagues Robert Joy and Brian Downey, respectively, as Bidgood's boss and a government official who plans to indoctrinate students in a cultish geometric theory known as Total Education. Greg Malone appears as a figment of Faustus' imagination, who acts as both his conscience and as a revolutionary spokesman in Faustus' dream of taking over Newfoundland.
Production
Faustus Bidgood, the first feature film ever produced entirely in Newfoundland with a Newfoundland cast, crew, and funding, was initiated in 1977 and took ten years to complete.{{cite book|author=Eva Šormová|title=Don Juan and Faust in the XXth Century: Theatre Conference, 27.9. - 1.10.1991, Prague|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bTRoBDWvkzAC|year=1993|publisher=Department of Theatre Studies, Faculty of Philosophy Charles University|isbn=978-80-901489-6-3|pages=113–114}} It satirizes and comments on aspects of Newfoundland politics and culture, and sends up traditional religious and historical expectations that great men are the prime movers of cultural and social change.
Awards and Nominations
8th Genie Awards (1987) - (nominations)
- Best Original Screenplay, Michael Jones and Andy Jones
- Best Achievement in Editing, Michael Jones
- Best Original Song, Robert Joy and Andy Jones, "Show Goin' On"
References
{{more citations needed|date=June 2010}}
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0090593}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adventure of Faustus Bidgood, The}}
Category:English-language Canadian films
Category:1980s English-language films
Category:Canadian political comedy films
Category:Films set in Newfoundland and Labrador