Expo ’67 is ever present in the city landscape of Montreal. For one, there is Buckminster Fuller dome on St-Helen Island, an impressive metal-lattice dome once home to the United States pavilion, now Montreal’s Biosphere which houses exhibits on the environment and nature. Nearby, is Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67, an interlocking housing complex made of concrete and hugged by moss and hanging vines, which still stands in its original purpose as a housing complex. The two notable monuments serve as an important reminder of Expo ’67 and its impact on Montreal and likewise, on Canada’s international reputation.
Although originally intended to be hosted by Moscow, Montreal won the Bureau of International Expositions (BIE) bid in late 1962 for the year 1967- a promising year which marked the centenary of Canada’s independence.[1] The Canadian Commission of the 1967 World Fair was set on making this exposition neither a Space Race rivalry display of “’cold’ technology” like those of Expo ’58 in Brussels or Century 21 in Seattle and “neither were they interested in creating a simple amusement park” like the New York World’s Fair of 1964-65.[2] In this regard, Expo ’67 had the unique challenge of making expos universally relevant in a manner beyond scientific competition or pure entertainment.
The distinction started firstly in its name. While the term “expo” goes back to Brussels in 1958, the name did not stick for Seattle or New York. Wanting to distinguish itself from the American tradition of fairs and inspired by the Maurice Chevalier song “La p’tit’ dame de L’Expo,” the organizers and Montreal Mayor Jean Drapeau decided that the event would be dubbed as “Expo ’67.”[3] The decision to rename the event became the subject of virulent criticism by anglophone newspapers who decried that the French contraction of the word exposition would not be understood by anglophone Canadians or Americans.[4] Certainly, their criticisms proved to be futile as the word expo had been used in Seattle to denote housing options, known as Expo Lodging, and therefore, the familiarity with the word would be no issue to North American visitors. In fact, the new name was such a hit that a new Major League Baseball team in 1969 would take on the name The Montreal Expos (Les Expos de Montréal).
The theme of the exhibition was “Man and his World”, a title from Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s Terre des Hommes, proposed by Canadian Senator Mark Drouin based on a visit to Brussel’s Expo ’58.[5] More than ever before, the theme played a central role in the exposition, its layout, and its exhibits. The expo was divided into thematic sections titled Man the Explorer and Questioner, Man the Producer, Man the Creator, Man within the Community, Man the Supplier, and “thus man was placed at the center of every possible activity, which made for coherent and efficient participation by all countries, knowing exactly how they were expected to develop the idea.”[6] The Man the Creator section, for instance, would showcase the artistic abilities of man through fine arts, photography, and design while the Man the Explorer section would explore man in his most daring environments including space, oceans, and the polar regions.[7] In architecture, the Expo sought to distinguish itself by highlighting Safdie’s Habitat ’67, an architectural experiment dedicated to the prefabrication of cubed units as a solution to high-density housing, rather than a sky-reaching symbol like the Atomium or the Seattle Space Needle.[8]
Perhaps, more than architectural wonders and thematic displays, some of the most captivating parts of Expo ’67, in my opinion, took place in the expo’s many movie theaters. “As never before at an expo, the exhibits relied on film as the primary medium of communication” with over 5000 innovative displays of film technology and storytelling.[9] One of the notable films included Labyrinth, a modern retelling of the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur among a maze of film screens produced by the National Film Board of Canada. Polar Life, directed by Graeme Ferguson, wowed its audiences with a panoramic display (and quasi precursor to IMAX) showing the complex relationship between man and the arctic land.[10]
However, it is the shared opinion of many, including that of Canadian journalist Neil Compton, that “the undisputed cinematic champion of the fair [was] Czechoslovakia… Not content with mounting a conventional exhibit of surpassing beauty and intelligence, the Czechs offer no fewer than four extraordinary film presentations.”[11] Laterna Magika (Pavel Prochazka) counterpoints a theater troupe’s performance with film after a majestic success at Brussel’s Expo ’58.[12] In the first few days of the expo, the film’s theater was empty so Phillipe Casgrain and Maurice Déry, two Montreal-based businessmen who had invested in the production, hired students to come and queue up for the movie. Between the crowds lining up by the theatre and the genuine quality of the production, people filled the theaters of Laterna Magika to maximum capacity for the entirety of the show’s run at the expo.[13] Polyvision, a film celebrating Czech industry and progress, used a dozen projectors and rotating screens to create a kaleidoscope of movement and visual amusement.[14] Thirdly, Diapolyécran created a 112-cubed mosaic of screens to tell a history of man under a spectacular and highly-acclaimed score.
Perhaps most notably, the pavilion included the showing of the first-interactive film, Kinoautomat (Činčera), in its basement theater.[15] Conceptualized by cinematographer Radúz Činčera, the film, One Man and his House, invited its viewers at six points in the movie to vote on the outcome of the protagonist’s, Mr. Novák (Miroslav Horníček), moral dilemmas.[16] As the choices were presented to the audience, Miroslav Horníček comes before them, not just on the screen but physically in the theater to speak to the filmgoers, making Kinoautomat an innovative experience of both film and theater. Impressively, Horníček memorized all his lines in English without knowing how to speak the language and is often quoted to have told journalists “I cannot speak with you, but I can have a whisky with you.”[17] The performance was remembered as “a totally delightful screwball comedy” that invited the audience to be active participants in the film’s plot even if all versions would end in Mr. Novák’s house in flames- perhaps indicating the inevitability of destiny despite our human meddling.[18]
The films presented by Czechoslovakia were one of many elements in the Czech pavilion at Expo ’67 that allowed the country to distinguish itself and appeal to the wider theme of Man and His World. Certainly, in witnessing Czechoslovakia’s daring films, one comes to understand the world exposition, in the best of conditions, as an environment that fosters innovation and progress. Kinoautomat, as the world’s interactive first, provides a uniquely relevant lens to the exposition’s focus on cinematic modernization and likewise, on Czechoslovakia’s unique history.
It is widely agreed upon that the Kinoautomat coupled with the physical pavilion’s “absence of Socialist Realist Ornaments… [were] a questioning of the artistic establishment.”[19] Thanks to its 350-show run at Expo ’67 Kinoautomat would become intensely popular.[20] The movie would be shown to full theaters in Prague until 1971 when its screenings would be suspended due to the regime of state censorship under normalization. “The possibility of the spectator’s free choice must have displeased the guardians of normalization” and as such, Činčera had to take his production abroad where it had the possibility of succeeding.[21] Kinoautomat would only return to Prague when his daughter, Alena Činčerova, remastered the film for a singular showing to an audience in May of 2007.[22]
The legacy the Kinoautomat’s is therefore inextricably linked to that of Expo ’67. By creating a space where people from all parts of the world were invited to take part in the creation of a story within the larger context of cultural diplomacy, the Kinoautomat fulfills, most effortlessly, the quintessential mission of the world expositions. Expo ’67 welcomed 120 nations in over 60 national pavilions over a 183-day period between the 28th of April to the 27th of October in 1967. While the organizers expected about 26 million visitors during this time, there were well over 50 million admissions recorded.[23] It is widely considered to have been one of the most successful contemporary world expositions both in attendance and revenue at the municipal, provincial, and federal level. In my opinion, Expo ‘67’s success is best attested in the engagement brought by the Kinoautomat that fulfilled Antoine Saint-Exupéry’s notion that “to be human is to feel that if everyone contributes their small grain of sand, they are all contributing to building the world.”[24]
Bibliography
Bambasova, Daniela. “La Tchécoslovaquie Dans Les Expositions Universelles Au XXè Siècle: Les Arts et Les Sciences Au Service de La Politique,” 2009.
Berrada, Reda. “A Spring Breeze at Expo 67: The Czechoslovakia Pavilion,” 2018.
Blumer, Ronald. “Expo’s Interactive First.” New York Times, January 14, 1993.
Compton, Neil. “Expo 67.” Commentary Magazine, September 3, 2015. https://www.commentary.org/articles/neil-compton/expo-67/, originally published July 1967.
Findling, John E, and Kimberly D Pelle. Encyclopedia of World’s Fair and Expositions. McFarland & Company, 2008.
Heller, Alfred. World’s Fairs and the End of Progress: An Insider’s View. Corte Madera, CA, 1999.
Jasmin, Yves. La Petite Histoire d’expo 67: L’expo 67 comme vous ne l’avez jamais vue. Montréal, QC: Editions Québec/Amérique, 1997.
Lambert, Maude-emmanuelle. “Expo 67.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, February 7, 2006. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/expo-67.
Merin, Gili. “Architecture Classics: Habitat 67 .” ArchDaily, February 9, 2023. https://www.archdaily.com/404803/ad-classics-habitat-67-moshe-safdie#:~:text=Habitat%2067%2C%20designed%20by%20the,housing%20in%20dense%20urban%20environments.
Teixeira, Luis Calvo. Universal Exhibitions: The World in Seville. Barcelona: Editorial Labor, 1992.
Whelan, John. “Man the Creator.” Expo 67. Accessed July 12, 2024. https://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_man_the_creator_p1.html.
[1] Heller, Alfred. World’s Fairs and the End of Progress: An Insider’s View. Corte Madera, CA, 1999.
[2] Heller, World’s Fairs and the End of Progress.
[3] Yves Jasmin, La Petite Histoire d’expo 67: L’expo 67 comme vous ne l’avez jamais vue, Montréal, QC: Editions Québec/Amérique, 1997.
[4] Jasmin, La Petite Histoier d’expo 67.
[5] John E Findling and Kimberly D Pelle, Encyclopedia of World’s Fair and Expositions, McFarland & Company, 2008.
[6] Luis Calvo Teixera, Universal Exhibitions: The World in Seville, Barcelona: Editorial Labor, 1992.
[7] John Whelan, “Man the Creator,” Expo 67, Accessed July 12, 2024. https://expo67.ncf.ca/expo_man_the_creator_p1.html.
[8] Gili Merin, “Architecture Classics: Habitat 67,” ArchDaily, February 9, 2023, https://www.archdaily.com/404803/ad-classics-habitat-67-moshe-safdie#:~:text=Habitat%2067%2C%20designed%20by%20the,housing%20in%20dense%20urban%20environments
[9] Heller, World’s Fairs and the End of Progress.
[10] Teixera, Universal Exhibitions: The World in Seville.
[11] Neil Compton, “Expo 67,” Commentary Magazine, September 3, 2015, https://www.commentary.org/articles/neil-compton/expo-67/, originally published July 1967.
[12] Compton, “Expo 67.”
[13] Jasmin, La Petite Histoier d’expo 67.
[14] Compton, “Expo 67.”
[15] Daniela Bambasova, “La Tchécoslovaquie Dans Les Expositions Universelles Au XXè Siècle: Les Arts et Les Sciences Au Service de La Politique,” 2009.
[16] Bambasova, “La Tchécoslovaquie Dans Les Expositions Universelles.”
[17] Bambasova, “La Tchécoslovaquie Dans Les Expositions Universelles,” translation Sarah Chocron.
[18] Blumer, Ronald. “Expo’s Interactive First.” New York Times, January 14, 1993.
[19] Reda Berrada, “A Spring Breeze at Expo 67: The Czechoslovakia Pavilion,” 2018.
[20] Bambasova, “La Tchécoslovaquie Dans Les Expositions Universelles.”
[21] Bambasova, “La Tchécoslovaquie Dans Les Expositions Universelles,” translation Sarah Chocron.
[22] Bambasova, “La Tchécoslovaquie Dans Les Expositions Universelles.”
[23] Lambert, Maude-emmanuelle. “Expo 67.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, February 7, 2006. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/expo-67.
[24] Teixera, Universal Exhibitions: The World in Seville.