Montreal: Paul Shapiro's The Lotus Eaters was among the Canadian standouts at this year's Montreal International Film, Television and Video Market. According to Marie-Claude Poulin, director of Malofilm International, the film's international exporter, "There was big interest in the film from all major territories, including Germany, Australia, the U.S., Italy, Spain and Israel.

"The film is refreshing, well written and directed, and it proves you don't need violence or extreme sex to get good reviews," she says.

Poulin says she took calls from u.s. and other distributors, not present in Montreal, who urged her not to close deals for the film until they had a chance to meet in Toronto. Interest includes possible theatrical deals.

Toronto's Norstar Entertainment had a kiosk at the market along with a film in the official competition, Howard Davies' The Secret Rapture.

"The market certainly wasn't busy, but it wasn't a waste of time," says John Fulton, Norstar's director of international sales.

Fulton says he uses the Montreal market to "work out more complicated deals because people actually have the time to do some shopping. If this year's market had attracted bigger sellers, bigger buyers would have attended."

Market delegate Mario Fortin says well over 600 buyers, sellers, distributors, producers, and festival and television programmers registered at this year's market, a slight increase over last year. During the six-day event, one of the Complex Desjardins cinemas adjacent to Meridien Hotel, where the Oct. 30-Sept. 4 market was held, was used exclusively for the screening of Canadian films.

Eight Ontario-based companies, including Charles Chaplin Enterprises, Sullivan Entertainment International, William F. Cooke, S.C. Entertainment, Doomsday Studios and Oasis Pictures, operated out of the Ontario Film Development Corporation's kiosk, a smaller version than last year's, says Kelley Alexander, the ofdc's sales and distribution co-ordinator.

Alexander says independent producers found few takers for specialized short films, but most took advantage of publicity opportunities in preparation for mipcom.

Andre Bennett, president of Cinema Esperanca International, is a regular at the Montreal market. Bennett reports a good response for Lois Seigel's Lip Gloss, which was screened at the festival. He says he used the market to discuss three or four coproduction deals - "Montreal is very good for coproduction" - but adds he would like to see the press room, market area and hospitality suite combined into a single busy setup.

"You just can't sit around the market," he says. "You have to move around and find your buyers, at screenings, in the hotel or at the bar."

Jan Rofekamp, president of Films Transit, Montreal, says he discovered something very disturbing at this year's market: "Canadian film, in the main, is no longer sellable. Out of an average annual crop of 40 Canadian feature films, two are really sellable, five are reasonably sellable and the rest are a waste of time."