Imagine a Murderers Row — to use a New York Yankees term — of 6 Canadian filmmakers to create short films celebrating the 350th anniversary of the founding by settlers of Montréal.
Montréal Stories | Montréal vu par … does just that with a collection of short films.
Your humble narrator was not familiar with Jacques Leduc, yet I can vouch for the other 5 legendary filmmakers: Patricia Rozema, Michel Brault, Atom Egoyan, Léa Pool, and Denys Arcand.
Sheila McCarthy plays a Toronto housewife who ends up at a Francophone party in Montréal (Desperanto). Rozema worked with McCarthy in I've Heard the Mermaids Singing (1987). Leduc explores the extensive history of a painting of former Montréal mayor Jacques Viger (La Toile du temps). This idea was also encapsulated in The Red Violin (1998).
Brault explores the frustrations of a middle-aged woman who is unhappy with her husband as she expresses them inside the Montréal Forum during a Canadiens game (La Dernière partie). Egoyan weaves a tapestry of a visitor to Montréal as well as a customs officer and lots of literal symbols (En passant).
Pool examines the intricacy of a woman's life as she battles to stay alive after a car crash (Rispondetemi). Arcand gathers a lot of discussion in a very warm and sunny place about the city of Montréal, leading to the telling of a passionate story in the middle of winter in a snowstorm (Vue d'ailleurs).
Most of the stories are from the French Canadian aka Quebecois standpoint yet in true Montréal fashion, 2 of the 6 directors are anglophones: Rozema and Egoyan. We have noted in the past that the Desperanto segment is a rare mix of English and French within a Canadian film.
Actors appearing in the films include Denys Arcand, Philippe Ayoub, Paule Baillargeon, Michel Barrette, Claude Blanchard, Domini Blythe, Geneviève Brouillette, Maury Chaykin, Anne Dorval, Rémy Girard, Élise Guilbault, Yves Jacques, Arsinée Khanjian, Alexandrine Latendresse, Charlotte Laurier, Véronique Le Flaguais, Robert Lepage, Maria del Mar, Sheila McCarthy, Monique Mercure, Jean-Louis Millette, Guylaine St-Onge, Raoul Trujillo, Suzanne Champagne, John Gilbert, and Guillermo Verdecchia.
You don't learn everything about Montréal from watching these films. Think of this as 6 very clever snapshots with Montréal as the theme.
This film may remind you of Cosmos (1996) with 6 short films with a common character of a Greek immigrant working as a cab driver in the city. That film, an unofficial sequel to this film, is a compilation of works from Jennifer Alleyn, Manon Briand, Marie-Julie Dallaire, Arto Paragamian, André Turpin, and some young filmmaker named Denis Villeneuve.
Top 10 Canadian films I still want to see
There is a reason why we wanted to find this film for a very long time. Despite the potential for being overhyped, the film delivered more than promised. We may lead the impression of preferring longer films to short films. While that is true, efforts such as Montréal Stories | Montréal vu par … and Cosmos are a whole film from 6 different perspectives on a related topic. This feels like a full film.
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The 1991 film Montréal Stories | Montréal vu par … may be difficult to find but worth the effort.
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