Raymond Cloutier Movies

Quebec filmmaker Catherine Martin makes her feature debut with this drama about a 19th century woman struggling against oppressive Victorian social norms. A born sensualist, 20-year-old Yvonne loves nothing more than the beauty of the forest, the smell of mountain air, and the bracing crispness of stream water against her naked skin. Her elder sister, Helene, could not be more different -- strict, prudish, and proud of her virtuous manners. Yvonne's penchant for skinny-dipping particularly scandalizes Helene, and she tries to forbid her from partaking in such unseemly activities. One day while swimming in her favorite spot, Yvonne is seen by Charles, the rakish scion of a wealthy local. As she desperately tries to hide and cover herself, Charles strips and takes a dip himself. Immediately, Yvonne is in love. Unfortunately, Yvonne soon learns that Charles is promised to none other than her sister. Demanding the passion that she craves, Yvonne sets out to make Charles hers. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

A joint project of the CBC TV network and the Raido-Canada service, this ambitious documentary series traced the History of Canada literally from the beginning--15,000 BC, to be exact. The subsquent episodes were nothing if not ambitious, covering the progress of the Dominion right up to 1850 AD. The seventeenth and final episode, covering the years 1976 to 1990, was open-ended enough to bear the title "In An Uncertain World". Three years in the making, the series utilized interviews, rare photographs, precious paintings and etchings, and vividly dramatic re-enactments. Telecast in English and French versions, Canada: A People's History ran from October 22, 2000 to November 18, 2001, yielding such ancillary projects as a two-volume book, a website, and a bestselling CD. ~ Rovi

Police detective Jacques Laniel's life becomes a nightmare the day drive-by shootists gun down his partner Thomas Colin. His colleagues make matters worse by blaming him for the death, and after his wife leaves him, Laniel decides to quit the force and launch a private investigation into Colin's murder. Soon afterward, Laniel finds the bullet-riddled body of famed author and literature professor Zachary Osborne tied to his car hood. The professor's wife hires Laniel to solve the murder, but what the detective finds is ugly: Osborne was a part of a lucrative land-speculation deal that involved the sale of a crumbling old rectory that had been turned into a halfway house called the Haven of the Monsters. The name is apt, for all the residents are convicted killers who were given inordinately light sentences. Up to this point in the plot, the film has been a standard crime thriller. But when Lanier starts questioning the Haven's tenants and their crimes are revealed via flashback, it takes on the character of a David Lynch production. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Aimed for both children and adults, this slapstick crime comedy chronicles the further adventures of Augustin Marleau, the protagonist from the 1991 film The Killer Played Trombone. As in the first film, aspiring actor Marleau (Germain Houde) is still a luckless loser. While performing in a television commercial, the psychotic and wheel-chair bound Elkin (Marc Labreche) shows up and tries to shoot him. Soon afterward Marleau's old nemesis Inspector Grasselli (Raymond Bouchard) shows up to arrest Marleau for the kidnapping of some wealthy captains of industry. Grasselli doesn't have a shred of evidence linking Marleau to the crimes, but that doesn't stop him from his obsession with incarcerating Marleau. Then there is Elkin's gang, several black-clad women who stalk and torment Marleau at every turn. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The illicit love-lives of high-ranking judicial figures and the government who will do anything to uphold their stalwart images provide the basis of this French Canadian thriller. The trouble begins when high-priced hooker Gabrielle Angers is raided by the police while she and an appellate court judge are engaging in a little S&M. Both are arrested and one of the judge's colleagues is assigned to try the case. He is the ultra straight-arrow magistrate Jacques Savard. Savard is not pleased with the assignment, and when Angers hands him a damning blacklist containing the names of other prominent clients, he becomes even more upset. Those upon the list begin pressuring him to keep it under wraps. Angers and her lawyer also have a few mighty interesting video tapes of she and her powerful clientele engaging in explicit carnal encounters. She and the lawyer were planning to use the tapes to extort them. Unfortunately things go horribly awry and the lawyer is found brutally murdered. Obviously one of those upon the list is responsible for trying to undermine the case and is slowly murdering all those involved, but which man is it? ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In a strangely aloof and uninvolved story of incest, director Brigitte Sauriol takes a certain distance in her treatment of a couple with two daughters on a summer vacation in Quebec. Scenes with the father and older daughter soon reveal that an incestuous relationship has been going on for a long time, without the mother's knowledge. The older daughter tries to run away at one point and talk to a friend about her plight, but that does not turn out successfully. She begins to suspect her father is starting to violate her sister as well. When the mother accidentally catches her husband with the younger daughter, she reacts with anger, but after her husband promises to reform, she calms down and eventually takes his side against her daughters. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

This Canadian tragedy centers around the controversial 1899 murder trial of Cordelia Viau and her retarded handyman, Samuel Parslow, with whom she had an affair. The case was so sensational because it represents the first time in which a conviction was based on purely circumstantial evidence. Despite the fact that both parties had strong alibis, and the evidence was contradictory, the jury still found them guilty of murdering her husband. The reason they were hung had more to do with the public's moral outrage at their well-publicized affair. People from all over the world attended their double hanging. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Although he is something of a layabout, and is still living with his mother, her death comes as something of a shock to Louis Pelletier (Gilbert Sicotte). Still, he has hopes of some sort of legacy and believes that his relatives will help him find a job. All his hopes are dashed when, before the funeral, his three aunts come to Quebec City to settle their sister's estate. As grasping and efficient a crew as ever strode a parlor, by the time they leave, the estate has been cleaned to the bones, as if by vultures. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

A young man finds himself tragically trapped between cultures in this drama that was filmed in the beautiful Canadian countryside. The young man is half-native and half-Quebecois; no matter where he goes, be it in the country, or the city, he cannot seem to fit in. As a result, he begins getting into trouble involving gangsters, fast cars, and loose women. Just before his early death, he gets involved in a surreal initiation rite. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi