Gilles Renaud Movies

Director Eric Canuel and producer Kevin Tierney collaborate on Canada's first "completely bilingual" film, a buddy cop murder mystery starring Colm Feore and Patrick Huard. When a body is discovered on the border between Ontario and Quebec, a street-savvy Ontario cop and a steely Montreal detective must join forces to solve the crime and catch the killer. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

An elderly alcoholic looks back on her many unhappy memories as she pulls together the fractured pieces of her life in this French-language drama from Canada. Paulette (Elise Guilbault) was an attractive young woman working in a factory when she fell in love with Belley (Michel Forget), a good-looking man with money, social status, and a wife. Paulette and Belley became lovers, but she was unhappy with her status as the other woman, and in time left Belley for a relationship with Frank (Luc Picard), an insurance agent. Paulette loved Frank and they soon wed, but Frank was chronically unfaithful, and their relationship became a source of constant sorrow. Shortly before the birth of their first child, Paulette began drowning her sorrows in alcohol, and while she tried to shut out the pain and humiliation of Frank's infidelity by caring for her child, it's wasn't long before she found that alcohol was the surest way to dull her pain, and her addiction to alcohol soon took precedence over everything in her life -- including her marriage and the care of her child. Meanwhile, Frank became all the more brazen in his affairs with other women, driving Paulette deeper and deeper into the abyss of drink. La Femme Qui Bot was screened as part of the Critics' Week program at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Thomas (Guy Thauvette) has returned to Montreal from South America with some memories he would rather not have. He would like to stay where he is, and put all that behind him. At a strange, chic cafe, he meets Sylvie (Marie-Josee Gauthier). Though they are attracted to each other, and go to bed with each other, it would seem that their goals are irreconcilable. Sylvie is very restless, and wants to go anywhere to get away from Montreal. When a stranger threatens to kill Thomas, his memories rush in on him, and he reluctantly tells Sylvie about them. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Even though the protagonist of the Canadian Femme De L'Hotel is a female filmmaker, one would think twice before suggesting that this effort by Swiss-born director Lea Pool is autobiographical. Paule Baillargeon portrays a well-known director who returns to her home town of Montreal to film a high-budget musical drama. At her hotel, Paule has a brief but unsettling encounter with a suicidal elderly woman (Louise Marleau). This element of the plot is briefly forgotten as we get to know the actors in Paule's current project. Then she meets the old lady again, and with mounting incredulity Paule discovers that the actual events in the woman's life mirror the fictional events in the director's film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Plouffe Family, aka Les Plouffe, is a Canadian assault to the kidneys directed by Quebec's "critic's darling" Gilles Carle. The film covers seven years (1938 through 1945) in the lives of the French/Canadian Plouffe clan. Emile Genest is the one "name" player in this phlegmatic character study. Like to try this one on for size? Be warned: it runs (or crawls) 180 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this socially conscious drama, a TV journalist begins investigating a large factory that has been threatening the health of the children who live in the town's poorest, most polluted section. Because of his investigation, he and his family are threatened by company thugs. He gets no help from his TV station as they are loathe to tangle with big business. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide