There was very little middle ground for French (and other languages) speaking Canadian films: very good and not so good. We had 3 strong French-speaking Canadian films up for the WIFF Prize in Canadian Film. Mylène Mackay was in 2 films.
Shepherds | Bergers A very pretty take on the French Alps as a Montréal copywriter abandons that world for a live of herding flocks of sheep. He gets teased for being Canadian yet we have no sense of who this person was before this adventure. Our protagonist happens to meet a female bureaucrat who leaves her world for sheep herding. The scenery in the French Alps was fun to view in a large theatre setting. The film is decent enough, a good first-date film (mostly). The major confusion was why this would be considered the Best Canadian Feature Film at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. The film is likely the best of the last 4 winners but that is a very low bar. Sophie Deraspe made a more consistent film than Antigone but a lighter one.
All Stirred Up! | Tous toqués! English Canada doesn't make broad comedies like le cinema de Quebec does. Julie LeBreton plays a tough border guard who ends up confiscating the tools and food of an arrogant chef, who didn't even cross the border. The twisted premise has her daughter, who gets picked on, entering a cooking contest. The chef gets drafted into helping the daughter (logic not needed in this film). The story is cute about the obsession of cooking, especially by children, and the need to win at all costs. Advisory: there will be truffles and lots of them. The story is entertaining enough and LeBreton helps that out. A film for the whole family that the adults can handle.
Sisters and Neighbours | Nos belles-sœurs This is the movie version of a long-time Quebecois musical (Les Belles-sœurs from Michel Tremblay) about a housewife who is the envy of the neighbourhood by winning 1 million golden stamps. Unfortunately for her, she needs help from the aforementioned sisters and neighbours. The songs and dialogue go deep into what women's lives were about in this bygone era. I asked a French Canadian friend if she knew most of the women involved and she did. I recognised a couple of the husbands. A light-hearted, amusing story that definitely survives the Bechdel Test.
1995 This is the 4th installment of the Ricardo Trogi saga about years and the impact on his world as seen through the eyes of Quebec actor Jean-Carl Boucher, who has played Trogi. He almost gives up on being a filmmaker when he gets a shot at a reality show where people travel around the world to make short films. The Trogi films are very broad in its comedy and this one follows that pattern. The breakdown of getting a new camera through customs in Cairo is genius, insane, very real, and way too much of the film. The finally, very serious film is really good, almost too good given the character. Trogi has created this awkward, somehow lovable character over this time and we don't figure he will stop now. A fan more of 1987 and 1991 (there is also 1981), 1995 will satisfy fans of the ongoing saga.
Tell Me Why These Things Are So Beautiful | Dis-moi pourquoi ces choses sont si belles Marie-Victorin Kirouac (Alexandre Goyette) and Marcelle Gauvreau (Mylène Mackay) are like-minded souls who have cheated death and are botanists. Their relationship remains platonic because he is a clergyman. There is an incredible intimacy, a lot of this being verbal. I want to see this film to make notes on the dialogue. Porquoi? C'est difficile to explain. You have to watch to see for yourself. I feared this would be a boring, period piece of "will they, won't they." Thank goodness we get a meaningful film from writer/director Lyne Charlebois. I used to predict whether films would get released in the States. This one not so likely, which is a shame because a meaningful film such as this one deserves a larger audience.
Bonjour Tristesse The line I whispered to my friend while watching this: "I want to be this rich but I don't want to be this boring." There is more to this remake of the 1958 film but not much. Spoiled kid Cécile (American actor Lily McInerny) likes her father's girlfriend Elsa (French actor Nailia Harzoune). The father pushes Elsa aside for an old family friend, Anne (American actor Chloë Sevigny). Cécile and Anne don't like each other. Watching this film made me want to watch the Jean Seberg version from 1958. Harzoune, who is perfectly cast, and Sevigny, who is poorly cast, are the only ones fighting to make that film better. Durga Chew-Bose had one good scene: a non-verbal shot of the 3 women — Cécile, Elsa, and Anne — eating apples. This is a 4-country co-production so blame the other countries for this disappointing effort.
Evergreen$ The introduction to the premise is brief, which is thankful. A young male loser in Quebec gets into quick debt and needs a way to make fast money. He finds about selling Christmas trees in New York City. He goes with a friend but the friend is caught at the border. The New York City situation doesn't go terribly well, but he meets some good people along the way. He even meets a female partner who has her own dreams. This film feels a New York City film with splashes of Quebec. A good film to get a sense of the underground economy. You almost wish the debt wasn't hanging over his head. I had low expectations for this film and this story got to me.
Ababooned | Ababouiné This is a fictional film with enough real moments to feel like a documentary. This film shows us the impact of the Catholic Church before the Quiet Revolution in Faubourg à m'lasse district in Montréal. Radio station wars. Baseball (Montréal Royals). Standing up to authority. Protest. The divide between church and state, especially in education. Éric Bruneau, whom you might remember from Coroner, plays a priest so horrible that he reminded me of a cross between Doug Neidermeyer of Animal House and current federal opposition leader Pierre Poilievre. A very strong portrayal of a scary character. Remy Girard is beautifully cast as the cardinal with all the eccentricities one would have in that era. There are kids in this film and some rather adult themes, so keep that in mind with little ones in watching this film. You will ride several roller coasters in this film yet the trip is worth the watch.
Blue Sky Jo | La petite et le vieux Hélène is a young girl who decides to go by the name Jo after a superhero she sees on TV. She is lost in the middle of several girls in her family in the Limoilou neighbourhood of Quebec City. Searching for independence, she starts a newspaper delivery route and befriends an older man Roger, an elderly neighbour with a past to her parents. There is a battle over baseball hats and loyalties between the Montréal Expos and the New York Yankees. This gets tied back to The Old Man and the Sea. This is a movie about a kid as opposed to a kids movie. Still, Jo is an enchanting character who has to carry the film and does so well. The film is based from the Marie-Renée Lavoie 2010 novel La petite et le vieux. Was good to see a story about a girl that age handled with maturity and still be entertaining.
You'll Never Know | Tu ne sauras jamais This is the film you thought would be made when we were trapped in the depths of the pandemic. The old man is trapped in his room in a nursing home wanting to see his love, who is elsewhere in the home. Robin Aubert gives us an interesting premise. Aubert presents a world of isolation. The problem is that the old man's life is boring and we are bored watching it. The opening 7-minute shot of a bare wall produced a verbal reaction within the theatre that was likely not what Aubert intended. Let's say that Aubert chose to spend way more time in the room than theoretically why we are there: the chase for his love. If that part of the story is what draws you to this film, fast forward through most of the film. Film students will have an appreciation for Aubert's efforts, but this does not translate for the overall audience.
Hidden Woman, The | La Femme cachée A Montréal couple have a daughter. The woman is pregnant and everything is great … until they find out they are having a boy. Then she confesses to her husband that she has this family she has kept secret. By the way, they are in France but not the cool part of France. While you figure out quickly that all of this is tied to her having a boy, the film takes its sweet time making us wait. Halima (French actor Nailia Harzoune) works her way slowly through a maze of relatives. Sylvain (Antoine Bertrand) plays the husband who keeps getting shocked but comes back for more. The gender reversal in this dynamic is the most exciting part of the film. If Sylvain had taken his young daughter to the beach and had a boring time, that would have been more interesting than what we saw in this film.
Little Jesus We get a decent premise of a father, who went through a divorce, wanting to believe that his son can perform miracles. Antoine Bertrand plays the father. He isn't a believer but is intrigued by the idea of his son being one. That is about the extent of the interesting part of the film. Bertrand has to carry the film and there isn't much there in terms of the script. If you need a French-Canadian film that is sort of cute and not likely plausible, you have a pick for the night.
You Are Not Alone | Vous n'êtes pas seuls There is romance, a bit, and definitely science fiction in this film. Léo, a pizza delivery man, loves working the night shift to not think about love. Ultimately, he falls in love with Rita, a singer. Meanwhile, an alien in human form is chasing after Léo. The alien is also craving the fire. These dual movies sort of co-exist within this film. The science fiction part was hard to follow and there wasn't enough of the romance part. There was a message in this film but we had a difficult time finding what this was.
Mother And The Bear, The The plot of the film involves a young woman of Korean descent who slips and falls on ice in Winnipeg. Her mother comes from Korea to take care of her daughter. She discovers that she doesn't really know her daughter. She searches for a man for her daughter, not realizing her daughter's partner is hidden from her mother's knowledge. The film is cute in that the mother meets a Korean man who runs a restaurant in Winnipeg. The film is pleasant but not challenging in a lot of ways. Johnny Ma, whom you might remember from his debut Old Stone (2016), brings us a mild, fish out of water story that is pleasant and forgettable to a point.
WIFF Prize in Canadian Film
Universal Language We covered this film in an earlier review.
Canadian film review: Universal Language
Hunting Daze | Jour de chasse Toxic masculinity dominates this film as well as Lucy Grizzli Sophie. We will explore the overall topic in film soon. Annick Blanc puts us in the woods with sex worker Nina (Nahéma Ricci, the lead in Antigone) at a men's hunting gathering. Nina seems capable of handling herself with a group of men oozing in toxic masculinity. A newcomer comes into the group. The impression is that this is a game-changer. Blanc mostly gives us the different mechanisms of that toxic masculinity like a tornado where we can't escape. I left this film feeling very dissatisfied initially. After a few days, I felt a bit better about this film but recognise some flaws within. This film at times feels like a documentary on toxic masculine men. Might be worth watching it once if the topic doesn't trigger you but you won't want to watch the film twice.
Lucy Grizzli Sophie Toxic masculinity is portrayed online in this film also set in the woods. Sophie (Catherine-Anne Toupin) is definitely running away from something where she takes refuge in a rural bed and breakfast. Louise (Lise Roy) runs the place but Sophie interacts mostly with Louise's nephew Martin (Guillaume Cyr). We see flashbacks to what Sophie is running away from, as in toxic masculinity online. The film is a psychological drama as we try to figure out the pieces in the puzzle. We don't want to say too much but this film is definitely worth watching in terms of the content and presentation. Also intriguing to work with a film with 3 primary characters. Toupin wrote the original play La Meute and adapted the screenplay directed by Anne Émond. This is significant because this was the first film Émond has directed but not written.
On Earth As in Heaven | Sur la terre comme au ciel Clara and Sarah live in a restrictive Christian cult just outside of Montréal. Sarah runs away from the cult headed for Montréal. Clara, armed with Sarah's secret notebook, goes to Montréal to find her sister. Their Aunt Louise (Édith Cochrane) didn't follow her sister to the cult. Clara finds Louise and asks to stay there while she finds her sister. We see Louise as a flawed character. Clara is a fish out of water. Some aspects she conquers with ease yet potato chips confuse her. When you recognise that the film is more about Clara finding herself instead of Sarah, the more you will enjoy the film. While we find some structural issues with the film from Nathalie Saint-Pierre, the story is overall enjoyable. Montréal makes for a wonderful co-star.
We didn't get a chance to see Who Do I Belong To from Meryam Joobeur. The film's language is Arabic, not French. We include films in languages other than English — that aren't documentaries — in this column.
photo credit: Lucy Grizzli Sophie
video credit: WIFF
Overview English French Documentaries
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