Macha Grenon Movies
- 2007
A civil servant gradually regresses into a fantasy world while falling for a beautiful movie star (Diane Kruger) in director Denys Arcand's (The Barbarian Invasions) dark comedy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marc Labreche, Diane Kruger, (more)
The influence of genetics and the ability to identify oneself as a separate entity from family lineage lies at the heart of award-winning short-filmmaker Louise Archambault's slice of life drama concerning a nomadic mother and her teenage daughter. Affectionately known as Mimi by her friends, Michèle (Sylvie Moreau) is an aerobics instructor with a nasty gambling habit. When Mimi's boyfriend discovers that she has gone back on her promise to avoid the gaming table, his threat to freeze her finances drives the free-spirited mother to collect her daughter Marguerite (Mylene St. Sauveur) and hit the road on the sly -- again. A brief but revealing stop at the home of Mimi's youthful mother reveals the source of Mimi's impulsive nature, and after a friendly visit, Mimi and Marguerite seek refuge at the home of Mimi's childhood friend Janine (Macha Grenon). Reluctantly allowing the wayward pair into her suburban heaven so that they may get back on their feet, Mimi and Janine attempt to improve their parenting skills and serve as positive examples for their teenage daughters before an inherent difference in value systems leads to elevating tensions. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Juliette Gosselin
In this noir-flavored thriller, Desmond Craine (Stephen Baldwin) is cursed with insomnia; on nights when he can't sleep, he takes long walks through the city streets, hoping to clear his mind and allow himself to relax. However, quite the opposite occurs one evening when he unwittingly becomes a witness to murder, and suddenly getting a good night's sleep becomes the least of his worries. Dead Awake also features Michael Ironside and Macha Grenon. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Baldwin, Macha Grenon, (more)
- 2000
- Add Que Faisaient Les Femmes Pendant Que L'Homme Marchait Sur La Lune? to QueueAdd Que Faisaient Les Femmes Pendant Que L'Homme Marchait Sur La Lune? to top of Queue
A young woman tries to ease herself out of the closet without terrifying her parents in the process in this comedy-drama. The year is 1969, and Sacha (Marie Bunel) is a young Belgian woman living in Canada. Sacha's family sent her to Canada to attend medical school, but she hasn't had the heart to tell them that she's dropped out of college to devote herself to her new interest in photography. Sacha also hasn't told her parents that she's a lesbian -- and that she has a new girlfriend, Odile (Macha Grenon). Odile is tired of being kept a secret, and insists that Sacha tell her parents the truth before American astronauts land on the moon in a few months -- or else. Sacha flies home to Belgium for a visit, planning to come clean to her folks, but she discovers they've arranged a huge welcome home party for the entire neighborhood. With everyone so excited that the soon-to-be-doctor is paying them a visit, Sacha wonders when the time will be right to give her family the news. Not that it will be easy to explain things to them anyway: Mother (Helene Vincent) is high-strung and suffering from cancer, Father (Christian Grahay) is the owner of a business about to go bust, sister Elisa (Mimie Mathy) is an embittered midget who talks to her goldfish, and her grandmother (Tsilla Chelton) has a few secrets of her own that she isn't sharing. Que Faisaient Les Femmes Pendant Que L'Homme Marchait Sur La Lune? was the first feature directed by Chris Vander Stappen), who won acclaim for the screenplay to Ma Vie en Rose. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Bunel, Hélène Vincent, (more)
- 1998
This fact-based four-hour miniseries is set in the 1950s, an era when the CIA was actively researching the possibilities of brainwashing and other forms of mind-control. The chilling tale takes place in a Montreal mental facility and centers on a ruthless CIA-funded experiment in which 150 patients were brainwashed without their consent. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leon Pownall, Eric Peterson, (more)
Shimon Dotan directed this Canadian comedy-drama from Oren Safdie's screenplay based on Safdie's play, Hyper-Allergenic, set in a hospital room where a dysfunctional family awaits the results of surgery. Shirley Cooperberg (Ellen Burstyn) heads a Montreal Jewish family, and during her husband's operation, her brood arrives at the hospital -- failed writer Eli (Ted Levine), neurotic Susan (Amanda Plummer), and successful theatrical producer Edward (Mark Blum). Edward's wife Linda (Macha Grenon) is also present, as is Eli's ex, Diane (Mary McDonnell). An onslaught of one-liners find targets amid sibling rivalries and angst-ridden animosities. Shown at the 1998 Montreal Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ellen Burstyn, Amanda Plummer, (more)
- 1997
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Serge Dupire, Macha Grenon, (more)
A dark and brooding atmosphere pervades this dramatic, convoluted account of a battle between a backwater lawman and the would-be crime lord he recognizes as a former army buddy who turned traitor during the Middle-East conflict. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Paré, Macha Grenon, (more)
- 1996
This police drama from Quebec blends elements of psychodrama, thriller and romance to tell the story of noirish detective Charles Renard and a mentally unstable woman in her mid-20s who steals credit cards from wealthy men. Renard is assigned to capture the enigmatic Maria, who has an obsession with Strindberg's play "Miss Julie," a fixation that stems from a childhood trauma. Renard too has his own past to deal with, mostly the recent accidental death of his wife during a vacation to the Middle East. To compound matters, he is also recovering from a bullet to the head he received while on surveillance for the Montreal police department. Investigating Maria, he discovers that she lures victims by placing provocative ads in the classifieds. He answers the ad and they arrange a meeting. She mistakenly sits down with the wrong man, giving Renard an opportunity to watch how she deftly nabs the man's wallet. He then begins to tail her to a local production of her favorite play. Soon they connect and surprisingly, he ends up helping her to escape. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Cote, Macha Grenon, (more)
- 1995
A grizzled frontiersman, a snooty Frenchman, and a plucky young lass search for Esperanza, the famed lake of gold up in a remote corner of the Yukon. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randy Quaid, Georges Corraface, (more)
- 1994
Be careful what you wish for...it just may come true. This is the underlying theme of this French-Canadian comedy drama that follows the travails of a TV addict who wins a talent contest and finds himself the subject of an embarrassingly revealing television series. Louis Jobin is a rather depressive young salesman who works in an electronics store. At night he is a passionate channel surfer, sitting upon his couch staring at his television. When Channel 19 announces a talent contest. Louis immediately enters. The contest winner will become the subject of a TV show with Channel 19 filming every movement, 24 hours a day for three months. Louis wins the contest and is at first elated by his prize but then begins to feel otherwise after he becomes a celebrity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Drainville, Agathe de la Fontaine, (more)
- 1993
The excesses of feminism and political correctness come in for some serious ribbing in this Canadian comedy, which might just give Rush Limbaugh a belly-laugh or two, along with anyone else who has ever thought that his pet term "feminazi" was humorous. In the story, Jimmy (Bruce Dinsmore) is having a mid-life crisis, and in order to get a handle on why he has so much trouble with women, decides to participate in a college-sponsored study on male sexuality. What he doesn't know is that the study is being run by some extremely radical, doctrinaire feminists, and that he's in for a nightmarish grilling. He shows up for his first sessions, is blindfolded, and is then put through his paces as a relentless female interrogator puts him constantly on the defensive for everything he has ever done with women throughout his entire life. Indeed, these women completely turn the tables on nineteenth century (male) sexologists and, instead of questioning female orgasm (as those researchers actually did), make Jimmy wonder if there ever was such a thing as male orgasm. Other permutations on the contemporary war of the sexes are shown outside the setting of the study Jimmy is participating in. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Dinsmore, Miranda de Pencier, (more)
- 1991
Jean and Colette are teen-aged sisters living in Toronto who jointly conceive a passionate interest in their new neighbor, a handsome, piano-playing Japanese man named Takahasi. They are a bit too young to engage in sexual acts with him, but as soon as they are able, they tentatively cooperate in wooing him, and the threesome shares at least one night together in bed. Later, as feuding adults, the girls consider their first passion and eventually work out a way to be reconciled with one another. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Macha Grenon
- 1991
- PG13
Television flavor-of-the-month Richard Grieco made his feature-film debut in this juvenile spoof of James Bond films. He plays a high-school senior named Michael Corben who has flunked out of his French class, but has the chance to make up his grade on the French Club's summer trip to Europe. On the airplane booked to transport the French Club to France is another man by the name of Michael Corben, and this man happens to be a super-spy. When he is killed, the hapless high-school senior is mistaken for the real spy by British intelligence. He becomes involved in a mad plot by Augustus Steranko (Roger Rees) in which Steranko and his evil assistant Ilsa Grunt (Linda Hunt) plan to dominate the European continent by converting the gold standard to coins that will bear Steranko's likeness. Corben goes along with it when he is provided with a red sports car, a tuxedo, and some high-tech weapons. Along with all the spy accouterments, he latches onto a sexy helper -- Mariska (Gabrielle Anwar). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Grieco, Linda Hunt, (more)
This was the "unofficial" Liberace biopic, as opposed to the error-ridden "official" Liberace (telecast one week earlier in October of 1988). The star of Liberace: Behind the Music is Broadway actor Victor Garber, who later scored a personal triumph as the devilish Mr. Applegate in the revival of Damn Yankees. Behind the Music is an unauthorized TV movie based on the recollections of the pianist's business manager, giving scriptwriter Gavin Lambert far more leeway in delineating the title character, warts and all. The closing sequences delve much deeper into the AIDS question than was possible in the family-approved Liberace starring Andrew Robinson (who, to be fair, looks more like the real entertainer than does Victor Garber). Liberace: Behind the Music could have descended into tabloidism ("Behind the rumors and the secrets" read the advertising copy), but emerges as a work of conspicuous dignity and (reasonably) good taste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Garber, Maureen Stapleton, (more)
