Falling Over Backwards

Falling Over Backwards is a Canadian comedy film, directed by Mort Ransen and released in 1990.^[1]

Falling Over Backwards
Directed by	Mort Ransen
Produced by	Mort Ransen Stewart Harding
Starring	Saul Rubinek Julie Saint-Pierre Helen Hughes Paul Soles
Cinematography	Savas Kalogeras
Edited by	Rita Roy
Music by	Milan Kymlicka
Production company	Moving Image Productions
Distributed by	Astral Films
Release date	August 23, 1990 (1990-08-23) (MWFF)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	English

Plot

The film stars Saul Rubinek as Mel Rosenblum, a newly divorced schoolteacher suffering a mid-life crisis, who decides to reconstruct the happier times in his life by engineering the reunion of his divorced parents Harvey (Paul Soles) and Rose (Helen Hughes).^[2] Meanwhile, Mel himself is drawn into a nascent relationship with Jackie (Julie Saint-Pierre), his landlady, which is complicated when Jackie discovers that she is pregnant by her previous boyfriend and considers having an abortion.^[3]

Cast

• Saul Rubinek as Mel Rosenblum
• Paul Soles as Harvey Rosenblum
• Julie Saint-Pierre as Jackie
• Helen Hughes as Rose Rosenblum
• Vlasta Vrána as Drunk
• Harry Standjofski as Club Manager
• Aidan Devine as Young Man

Reception

The film was compared by critics to a Jewish version of a Michel Tremblay play.^[4] Ransen described it as the film that led to his decision to leave the National Film Board to work as an independent director, as he could not imagine the board approving the project.^[5]

The film received two Genie Award nominations at the 12th Genie Awards in 1991, for Best Supporting Actor (Soles) and Best Sound Editing (Gudrun Christian, Andy Malcolm, Michelle Cooke, Abby Jack Neidik and Diane Le Floch).