French-Canadian Relationship Films
From Abortion to the Impact of Moving, Dying to the Effects of Media
French Canadian films win many awards but are not often the first pick at the video store. Try these four movies that explore the many aspects of having relationships.
The French Canadian film industry produces powerful movies that are rarely neglected at award time, but are often quickly forgotten amid the high budget hype of American films. While action films are not the forte of the Canadian film market, dramas of depth that plumb relationship issues are their specialty. Films produced in Quebec are particularly potent movies. They make you laugh and cry, they take risks and they expose the complexity of political concerns from abortion to the psychological impact of media saturation.
Maelstrom
A film by Denis Villeneuve, Maelstrom won five Genie and eight Jutra awards in 2001. This unique and moving drama uses a fish on a chopping block to tell the tale of a 25 year old fashionista caught in a tragedy. Disoriented after having an abortion, Bibiane kills a fisherman in her car one rainy night. After she plunges her car into the river to conceal the evidence, she realizes she has to change her life. She later has an affair with a man who is mysteriously connected to the accident victim, and confronts the effect having a famous mother has had on her psyche. Poetic and powerful, Maelstrom features a terrific sound track predominated by Tom Waites' tunes.
Quebec-Montreal
For a lighter evening of entertainment, pick this comedy that won four Genie nominations in 2003. The film covers the adventures and mishaps of nine travelers in their thirties, headed in four cars to different destinations. Some are going on holiday; others are relocating for jobs. Along the way, the nature of the relationships between men and women are discussed. Betrayal, passion, hope and disappointment are at the core of such repartees. The movie is hilarious and very Canadian with its mix of French and English dialogue. The scene with the talking moose on the road sign is particularly memorable.
The Barbarian Invasions
A 2003 film that won an Academy award, as well as Genies and Jutras, for its controversial director, Denys Arcand. Featuring much of the same cast as his 1970s era film, The Decline of the American Empire, the Invasions follows the dying wishes of crusty, incisive skirt-chasing Remy. He asks for his jet-setting business man son Sebastien to return from London to care for him. Reluctantly, his son does, securing for him the best hospital treatment, illegal pain medication,and the rallying joie de vivre support of his intellectual and vivacious entourage, including former students. Along the way, the film analyzes everything from North American treatment of Natives to the erosions of the health care system. By turns humorous and serious, this film is wholly memorable.
Stardom
The only movie of these four that is not subtitled, Stardom is another film directed by Denys Arcand, also the winner of Cannes and Toronto Film Festival awards in 2001. This groundbreaking movie offers the viewer the experience of what it's like to comprehend everything in life through the mediation of a screen. Following the modelling career of the young Tina Menzhal, including her romantic entanglements with older restauranteurs and ambassadors, Stardom makes visible the corruptions of mass media on an individual's life. Tina only appears through the aegis of a lens or screen, seen on talk shows, on the news, in commercials and even through her friend's hand -held camera. As she becomes a marketable commodity, she loses grasp of her own reality. Both fun and thought-provoking, this film is a perfect one to watch with your teenage daughter!
