Julie McClemens Movies
- 2008
An uprising on a college campus evolves into something more dangerous than a clash of ideals in this drama from Canadian writer and director Sébastien Rose. Jean-Marc (Raymond Bouchard) is the president of a well-respected university in Quebec who has found himself at the center of a heated controversy. Louis-Ferdinand (Frederic Pierre) is the leader of a student activist group who have demanded sweeping changes in Jean-Marc's policies; Jean-Marc refuses to consider their proposals, leading to a series of protests which have inspired a wave of campus vandalism. Bertrand (Alexis Martin) is a professor at the university who supports the students' cause but not their methods, and when he attempts to reason with Louis-Ferdinand and his colleagues, it leads to an altercation that only makes a tense situation more difficult. Natacha (Catherine de Lean) is Jean-Marc's daughter and also a single mother with a drug problem who is still dealing with the scars of an unhappy childhood. Jean-Marc and Bertrand are scheduled to speak at a university banquet where they hope to air their differences about the ongoing student protests, but Gilbert (Benoit McGinnis) is an uninvited guest who has his own radical solution to the stand-off. La Banquet was an official selection at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexis Martin, Raymond Bouchard, (more)
- 2005
Quebecois actor and filmmaker Luc Picard takes the helm for this Genie Award-winning drama about an actor in search of the perfect role, and the pregnant girlfriend forced to make a life-changing decision. Forty-year old Louis (Picard) is a loud-mouthed repo-man who has nurtured a lifelong dream of becoming a successful actor. Fortunately for Louis his cousin is a casting agent, and he soon learns that local producers are seeking to fell the role of a father videotaping a final message for his two year-old son. Lately the strain of his job has been wearing not only on Louis, but his frustrated girlfriend Suzie (Suzanne Clement) as well. When Suzie discovers that she is pregnant, she immediately begins pondering the prospect of leaving Louis to raise the pair's child in a more stable environment. Though she hesitates to break the news to Louis for fear of how he will react, the news soon gets out when Louis spots Suzie showing off baby clothes to her circle of friends. When Suzie discovers that Louis has been practicing for the audition in secret and has since won the role, she determines to stick out the relationship just the low-level criminal's sordid past threatens to catch up with him in the most devastating manner imaginable. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Suzanne Clement, Alexis Martin, (more)
- 1996
The story of a young woman's miraculous escape from her dangerous father and her backwoods family is combined with elegant choreography in this avant-garde Canadian film. The woman in question, played by Geneviève Rochette, gets involved in a secret affair with a neighborhood lad and gets pregnant. When the father finds out, he is so angry that he tells her brothers to put her into a coffinlike wooden box and set her adrift in the river. They do so, but our heroine is never alone. She is visited by the ghost of her dead sister and several other friendly spirits who dance for her and tell her everything will be okay. Meanwhile, a great flood comes, wiping out absolutely everybody else in the village. She comes ashore in an ancient village and is helped to deliver her baby by the spirits and a mysterious old woman. ~ John Voorhees, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Genevieve Rochette, Julie McClemens, (more)
