Bye Bye Blues

Directed by Anne Wheeler

Canada, 1989 (fiction, 110 minutes, colour, English)

Image: © Mongrel Media

Film Description:
"In this critically acclaimed feature drama, Daisy returns home to Alberta from India at the start of World War II. There she learns her husband has been captured by the Japanese. To make ends meet, she joins a dance band as a singer, only to be faced with a multitude of personal dilemmas."
-- National Film Board of Canada (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Anne Wheeler
Produced by:	Tony Allard, Arvi Liimatainen, Anne Wheeler
Principal Cast:	Rebecca Jenkins, Luke Reilly, Stuart Margolin, Wayne Robson, Robyn Stevan, Michael Ontkean, Kate Reid, Chad Krowchuk, Kirk Duffee, Vincent Gale, Leslie Yeo, Sheila Moore
Cinematography:	Vic Sarin
Film Editing:	Christopher Tate
Music:	George Blondheim
Production Company:	Allarcom, True Blue Films, Artificial Eye, Telefilm Canada

(sources)

Awards won by Bye Bye Blues

Genie Award: Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role -- awarded to Rebecca Jenkins
Genie Award: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role -- awarded to Robyn Stevan
Genie Award: Best Original Song -- awarded to Bill Henderson

Notes about Bye Bye Blues

Nominated for a Genie Award in the Achievement in Direction category.

(sources)

Quotes about Bye Bye Blues

"The core conflict is within Daisy herself, rooted in her transformation from pampered, passive doctor's wife to hard-working single mother and swing-band diva."
-- Kathleen Cummins (source)

"Bye Bye Blues recovers an element of Canadian women's history not represented in any other Canadian feature film, the challenges and temporary opportunities presented to Canadian women by the Second World War."
-- Christopher E. Gittings (source)

"Rowley [Alberta] had almost become a ghost town after the closure of the Canadian National Railway line years before. The station still existed, along with three grain elevators and a 1940s-style main street, which then served a population of sixteen. There were many vacant buildings and a service station still equipped with the old-style glass reservoir gasoline pumps. [Bye Bye Blues] production designer John Blackie brought the town back to life with alterations, additions, and paint. [...]."
-- Bill Marsden (source)

"[Anne] Wheeler mingles bits and pieces of Hollywood with a modern Canadian sensibility to come up with a film that is steeped in the romantic side of wartime nostalgia without being pat or predicable. Accented by gorgeous shots of the roiling Alberta landscape, you can feel Wheeler's love for the land though the lens."
-- Katherine Monk (source)

Quote about Bye Bye Blues [in French]

"Il faut savoir gré à l'auteure d'avoir pu dépeindre avec une telle finesse (jeux de regards, gestes ébauchés) les déchirements intérieurs de Daisy, sa mélancolie profonde cachée derrière un sourire, ses désirs amoureux, sa délicatesse dans ses relations avec ceux qui l'entourent (enfants, parents, collègues, amis) ce qui n'exclut pas de poser à l'occasion des gestes décisifs. Il est indéniable que l'oeuvre est animée par une sensibilité féministe, mais Anne Wheeler est assez intelligente pour ne pas imposer les schèmes des années 80 sur des personnages des années 40."
-- Robert-Claude Bérubé (source)

Bibliography for Bye Bye Blues

Brief Sections of Books

Gittings, Christopher E. Canadian National Cinema: Ideology, Difference and Representation. London: Routledge, 2002. (pp. 275-276)
Marsden, Bill. Big Screen Country: Making Movies in Alberta; A Memoir. Calgary: Fifth House, 2004. (pp. 137-139)
Monk, Katherine. Weird Sex and Snowshoes: And Other Canadian Film Phenomena. Vancouver: Raincoast Books, 2001. (p. 279)
Therrien, Denyse. "Petit à petit, le cinéma des prairies fait son nid." In À la recherche d'une identité : renaissance du cinéma d'auteur canadien-anglais, edited by Pierre Véronneau. Montréal: Cinémathèque québécoise/Musée du cinéma, 1991. [in French] (pp. 149-154)

Articles from Newspapers, Magazines, or News Websites

Bérubé, Robert-Claude. "Bye Bye Blues." Review of Bye Bye Blues. Séquences, June 1990. [in French]
Heung, Marina. "Bye Bye Blues." Review of Bye Bye Blues. New Directions for Women, May-June 1991.
Laffel, Jeff. "Bye Bye Blues." Review of Bye Bye Blues. Films in Review, December 1990.
O'Pray, Michael. "Bye Bye Blues." Review of Bye Bye Blues. Monthly Film Bulletin, October 1990.
Quick, Shelly. "Bye Bye Blues: An entertaining hybrid." Review of Bye Bye Blues. Kinesis, March 1990.
Variety. "Bye Bye Blues." Review of Bye Bye Blues. Variety, September 6, 1989.

Web Sites about Bye Bye Blues

"IMDb: Bye Bye Blues." Internet Movie Database. http://imdb.com/title/tt0096999/combined.
National Film Board of Canada. "NFB -- Bye Bye Blues." National Film Board of Canada. http://nfb.ca/trouverunfilm/fichefilm.php?id=25966&v=h&lg=en&exp=.