Slings, arrows and outrageous film criticism 

MONTREAL -- The World Film Festival's stormy relationship with the media is reflected perfectly in one of this year's standouts, Maria de Medeiros's feature documentary Je t'aime . . . moi non plus. The film is an insightful and often hysterically funny examination of the complex relationship between filmmakers and film critics. Shot at Cannes, the film has a broad range of directors discussing their most memorable reviews. Atom Egoyan loved what The Village Voice critic Jim Hoberman had to say about The Sweet Hereafter. He also recalls when a critic at a film festival praised his first film, Next of Kin. The result Egoyan expected was a major review; instead, months later, he got half a sentence.

 But the filmmakers also discuss the pain that can be caused by scathing reviews. A director says a review slammed one of his films so badly that his lead actress seriously considered suicide. David Cronenberg says the artist can't help but take criticism to heart: "It's not abstract, it's personal, of course," he says.

 Ken Loach, Pedro Almodovar and Wim Wenders seem particularly bitter about the film critic community. Wenders says that when he's approached by someone who says that they saw one of his movies and it changed their life, that is worth more than any number of positive reviews. The reviewers themselves attempt to explain their own complex reasons for becoming reviewers. As one puts it, he's met many critics who want to be filmmakers, but he's never met any filmmaker who aspires to be a critic.

 Medeiros, an actor perhaps best remembered for her role as Bruce Willis's girlfriend in Pulp Fiction, asks various questions, including why men critics outnumber women critics by such a significant margin. (Many of the women conclude it's sexism that keeps them from positions of authority and power; oddly enough, Medeiros doesn't ponder why the same imbalance exists among filmmakers themselves.) One of the European critics actually suggests, with a straight face, that the role of a critic is a lonely and sad one and that is why so many homosexuals are drawn to the vocation.