Inside Québec – Northern Stars
|
 |
|
Menu
Inside Québec – Northern Stars
|
|
|
Northernstars.ca is published by the Canadian Independent Visual
and Digital Media Association – A nonprofit corporation.
Toronto, Ontario, M4X 1X7
First published as Northernstars.net February 1, 1998
ISSN 2563 4895
the back of gigantic dump trucks. One of the picture`s few adult characters, a dead friend`s father (Norman D’Amour), looks like a burnt-out hippie and aimlessly practices golf putts in his scraggly yard. As in a film by the late Michelangelo Antonioni, the desolate environment seems to both reflect and influence the psychological state of the characters.Before beginning its theatrical run in mid-February, Tout est parfait opened Les Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois and screened in the Panorama section of the Berlin International Film Festival. Despite the ironically titled film`s implacable harshness (by contrast Japanese director Sion Sono`s 2002 cult classic Suicide Club takes the theme of adolescent self-destruction into dark comedy and surreal fantasy), German and Québécois festival audiences embraced Fournier’s debut feature.On top of positive audience reactions and reverential reviews, Seville International had no trouble selling the picture, produced by Go Film`s adventurous Nicole Robert, at Berlin`s European Film Market. Once there was a clear signal that Tout est parfait would be one of 2008`s most talked-about movies, Fournier and screenwriter Guillaume Vigneault became instant media darlings, interviewed in media outlets ranging from radio and TV to the dailies and alternative weeklies.It turns out that Tout est parfait was an intensely personal movie for its director; during a period when he and his teenage friends toyed with nihilistic ideas, some of them committed suicide. As for Vigneault, he is the son of legendary chansonnier and indépendantiste, Gilles, whose song Mon Pays is an unofficial national anthem. It`s a long way from Gilles’ quivering yearning for a brave new world to his perfectly bilingual son`s vision of 17-year-old skateboarders killing themselves in a depressed hinterland.Au Revoir Rendez-VousEverything in Québec is far from perfect, but no matter how ugly the headlines and crappy the winter, les Québécois and Québécoises know how to get bubbly when they’re out having a good time with “tout le gang.” Even a film about teen suicide failed to dampen the celebratory mood of the 1500 people who attended the opening of the 26th Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in Place des Arts.The good vibe continued throughout the RVCQ`s ten-day run with enthusiastic cinephiles crowding screenings and the festival’s various events. When the event wrapped, organizers were claiming that box office was up 20% over last year’s edition.Among the hottest tickets, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette`s The Ring imagines a young boy who sees pro wrestling as salvation from poverty. In an unusual move, the RVCQ played a 140-minute version of Roderigue Jean`s unfinished Hommes à louer, which documents Montreal`s male hookers with a provocative candour that may have led to the film`s producers relegating the movie`s completion to the back burner.Another doc, Francine Pelletier`s La femme qui ne se voyait plus aller, traces the rise and catastrophic fall of children`s TV producer Micheline Charest. And writer-director Stéphane Lafleur`s much-honoured 
critiques de cinéma, of which I am a member, announced its choice of Continental as 2007`s best film. It opened in Toronto on February 29th.The Rendez-Vous’ Pierre and Yolande Perrault prize for “best documentary hope” went to the currently red hot Up the Yangtze, directed by Montreal-based Yung Chang. Now drawing large audiences in selected Canadian cities, the copro between Montreal`s EyeSteelFilm and the NFB takes a cruise ship voyage through a mythic landscape threatened by China`s Herculean Three Gorges Dam project.The world`s largest hydroelectric facility will offer benefits, but it`s an ongoing apocalypse for nature and the lives of over a million people flooded out of their homes. At the Sundance Film Festival, Up the Yangtze sold to the American distributor, Zeitgeist Films, and an abbreviated version of the picture will air on the CBC.SpoilersAmidst all the good will at Les Rendez-Vous du Cinéma Québécois, two incidents threatened to taint the festival. To the anger of many observers, Denys Arcand’s master class on screenwriting devolved into a master class on peculiar behaviour when the venerated filmmaker banned critics and reporters from attending it.According to Odile Tremblay, film critic for the daily Le Devoir, a Journal de Montréal staffer managed to slip in, but got thrown out like a gate crashing pickpocket. Media types speculated that the ban was Arcand`s payback for the bad press heaped on his new film, 
in English Canada. Veteran industry journalist Jean-Pierre Tadros pointed out that Arcand knows what it`s like to be shut out by the powers-that-be. In the 1970`s, the NFB put his controversial exposé of the textile industry, On est au cotton, on the shelf.Another embarrassment for the RVCQ concerned doc filmmaker Malcolm Guy`s resignation from a jury that awarded a prize for the “promotion of tolerance.” In a published open letter, Guy explained that he got cold feet upon discovering that the annual honour from the Foundation Alex and Ruth Dworkin “was a project of the Canadian Jewish Congress.” According to the outraged doc-maker, the latter is a pro-Israel lobby that promotes intolerance against Palestinians. For the record, the winning film was Helene Klodawsky`s Family Motel, a compassionate portrayal of Somali immigrants coproduced by Montreal`s Instinct Films and the NFB.On ScreenWhile stats show that the 2007 box-office returns for Québec films were not as robust as in years past, 
ucers Christian Larouche and Pierrre Gendron were applauded. The Kodak-sponsored party`s biggest hand went to producer and retired funding agency manager, Harry Gulkin, who was slated to be honoured on Genie night.Last month, I humbly predicted that Lyne Charlebois’ striking debut feature, 