The plot of a film is one of the major windows for why people pick a film. An unusual plot can divide people into those who have no interest and others excited about the prospect.
August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre starts out with Simone (Pascale Bussières) at the wheel of a car that is going off the road as she is asleep. Simone survives the wreck. She gets a ride to the hopital from a stranger (Serge Thériault). When Simone asks the stranger what day it is, he replies August 32nd.
Simone was scheduled to be in Italy on a photo shoot as a model. Her desire to have a baby is heightened after the wreck.
Simone approaches her best friend Philippe (Alexis Martin) with her offer. Philippe has known Simone for years but has been in a relationship with Juliette (Évelyne Rompré) for 4 months. Philippe agrees to the deal but only if they conceive in a desert.
The pair travel from Montréal to Salt Lake City.
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You might be influenced if you knew that August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre is the feature film debut from a young Quebecois filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Good.
Villeneuve's impression on the U.S. market has been as a director not as a director and writer. Dune is the first exception. His early work in Quebec was as both director and writer.
Villeneuve uses these shifts in time and place to tell a simple story of people trying to figure out what they want for themselves from the world. Simone shifts focus after her accident. Philippe is close to being a doctor but has tried studying a number of different career pathways.
Philippe says the idea of a desert was a joke. The emptiness and isolation gives a visual element to what the characters are dealing with in real life.
They had made a pact about where they would be when they turned 30 though she is 4 years away.
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Un 32 août sur terre (1998) is a simple story that is beautifully shot. The story is a bit minimalist once they hit Salt Lake City but that speaks to the vastness of the space as a contrast to urban, crowded Montréal. Few directors, famous or not, have had this wonderful use of space, especially in the debut feature film.
Robert Charlebois, who appears as himself in Gabrielle, contributes heavily to the soundtrack in this film.
Your humble narrator has lost track of how many films he has seen with Pascale Bussières. This was nice to see a younger version of her in a film. True, she plays a model in the film but is a better actor in real life than a model.
The film is more than the sum of the plot and actors. See the film as early genius even if the plot might befuddle the viewer.
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Trying to find an English subtitled version of Villeneuve's debut feature film August 32nd on Earth has been très difficile.
The U.S. audience is quite aware of Denis Villeneuve from his post-Canadian films. Your humble narrator hoped that the curiosity of Villeneuve would lead to wider curiosity for his earlier works. That seems to be as open as the U.S.-Canada border has been during COVID-19.
The joy and charm of a young director is watching that person directed a film they wrote. This is often lost in big-budget "American" films where a studio can go through countless writers.
August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. The film was selected as Canada's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards but didn't make the shortlist. Alexis Martin won the Prix Jutra for Best Actor.
August 32nd on Earth is reportedly on iTunes.
photo credit: August 32nd on Earth | Un 32 août sur terre film
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