1991 Chances
by Ralph Lucas – Publisher
(May 31, 2019 – Toronto, ON) I was hoping to be in Montréal this weekend to cover the annual Gala Québec Cinéma on Sunday. As someone named Allen Saunders once said (and John Lennon repeated) “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
I don’t know for sure, no one does at this point, but I’m fairly certain Ricardo Trogi’s film 1991 is going to do well. It was last year’s winner at the box office pulling in a respectable 3-million dollars plus. 1991 is the third film in Trogi’s autobiographical trilogy, which began with films titled 1981 and 1987. In 1991, the lead character of Ricardo (played by Jean-Carl Boucher) is now 21 years old. When the love of his life insists that he accompany her to attend summer school in Italy, the young man cannot help but accept the invitation. Filled with hope, Ricardo leaves Québec in pursuit of love.
Trogi’s film is 1 of 7 nominated for Best Film, he is 1 of 5 people nominated for the Best Director award. He’s also 1 of 5 people nominated for Best Screenplay. 1991’s Jean-Carl Boucher is nominated for Best Actor in a lead role. He is up against Martin Dubreuil for his work in À tous ceux qui ne me lisent pas; Patrick Hivon for Nous sommes Gold; Pierre-Luc Brillant for La disparition des lucioles and Théodore Pellerin for his work in Genèse. Earlier this year he took home a Canadian Screen Award for Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role for his work in Chien de garde.
Sandrine Bisson was nominated for a Best Actress in a supporting role for playing Claudette in 1991. Alexandre Nachi is nominated for the same film for Best Actor in a supporting role.
The film also picked up nominations for Best Art Direction (Christian Legaré), Best Cinematography (Steve Asselin), Best Sound (Sylvain Brassard & Michel LeCloufle), Best Editing (Yvann Thibaudeau), Best Visual Effects (Jean-Pierre Bois & Jean-François Talbot), Best Original Music (Frédéric Bégin), Costumes (Anne-Karine Gauthier) and Makeup (Virginie Boudreau). Last but not least in the craft area is Best Hair and Daniel Jacob got a nomination for his work on 1991.
There are two other categories open to 1991 and that’s the “Prix du Public,” which is a “people’s choice” award. 1991 is up against La Bolduc, Denys Arcand’s La Chute de L’empire Américain, the animated feature La course des Tuques (released in English as RaceTime!) and La Disparition des lucioles.
The last category (other than shorts and documentaries) is one that looks for the Québec film that had the best results outside of the province. 1991 is not nominated here. The five films that are include Arcand’s La Chute de L’empire Américain, La course des Tuques, La Disparition des lucioles, Kim Nguyen’s Eye on Juliet (which is my pick) and Cielo from Alison McAlpine.
Quick count: That’s 16 nominations across 20 categories for 1991. It did not get a nomination for Best Casting nor for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The other remaining category is for Best Discovery of the year, usually reserved for actors making their feature debut appearances.
Le Gala Québec Cinéma will be broadcast live beginning at 8:00 p.m. this Sunday, June 2 on CBC’s French network, Radio-Canada.
Also see: Canadian Film: The Last 20 Years.
Ralph Lucas is the founder and publisher of Northernstars.ca. He began writing about film and reviewing movies while in radio in Montreal in the mid-1970s.
