One of the first movie works of Alberta Watson (http://imdb.to/a5jLnm), well-known to television audiences for her roles on "La Femme Nikita" , "24" and "Nikita". By 1978, at the age of 23, she received a Genie (Canadian equivalent of the Oscar) nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this role -Mitzi, a Hungarian girl who sings in a cabaret- in the salacious "In Praise of Older Women" (directed by George Kaczender).
/// HUGE THANKS to Missy (YouTube user @broadway309 ) for the lyrics for the CC (closed captions)! :) ///
Fun facts about the movie:
-IMDb says "This was the very first movie screened by the Toronto Film Festival (now the Toronto International Film Festival)" ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077728 )
-From Robert Lantos (producer of the movie):
"1978: the second Toronto Film Festival. The opening-night film was the first movie I produced: "In Praise of Older Women." And we all arrived — the cast and filmmakers — by horse and carriage down Younge Street, duplicating one of the scenes of the film, only to discover that because of the controversy surrounding the film, the theater was not only sold out, but our seats had been given away, and so there was absolutely nowhere to sit. So this was the only time I had ever been to the premiere of one of my movies at any film festival ever where the entire cast and the filmmakers stood in the back of the theater." ( http://exm.nr/v4quev )
"The Festival's freedom was hard won. Back in 1978, when my first movie, "In Praise of Older Women" was the Opening Night Gala of TIFF, the Ontario Censor Board attempted to interfere by refusing to allow the film to be shown unless cuts were made. The fundamental logic of censorship is premised on the principle of in loco parentis: That the censor, be it the Ontario Censor Board or Naomi Klein, knows better what's good for people than they know themselves and thus has the right to overrule individual free choice. We defied the censors in 1978 and my film was shown uncut." ( http://bit.ly/uru4Up )
-"In Praise of Older Women -- The 1978 premiere of the (mildly) salacious Canadian film nearly sparked a riot, after organizers were forced to turn away hundreds of filmgoers from the oversold screening. (Audience interest was high after the drama was targeted by the Ontario Film Review Board. Now, Ontario's Film Classification Act allows TIFF to be exempt from review, after it agreed to limit audiences to those 18 and over.)" ( http://bit.ly/oMttFO )
-