Pierre Gendron

Three sex-obsessed brothers gather around their comatose mother and engage in a heated debate over the pros and cons of cheating on your partner in this Roshomon style comedy from director Patrick Huard (screenwriter of Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Lucielle (France Costel) has lapsed into a coma, and her sons Mathieu (Claude Legault), Christian (Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge), and Remi (Paul Coucet) have all gathered around her hospital bed. Before long, typical discussion about family budgets, raising children, and keeping the passion alive in marriage descends into a heated debate on the topic of infidelity. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In 1919 and 1920, a courageous young filmmaker named Robert Flaherty set out for the frozen north of Canada, Inuit (Eskimo) country, and filmed the first successfull documentary feature Nanook of the North. In doing so, he enormously increased awareness of the frozen wastes in the north of Canada, and produced a film of haunting beauty. This drama recreates his journey, and shows how Flaherty (Charles Dance) persuaded a young Inuit named Nanook (Adamie Quasiak Inupuk) to hunt for him in the old ways, foregoing the advantages of a rifle. The two men faced many amazing dangers along the way, and saw many extraordinary sights. One of the more striking images captured in this film is an encounter with a herd of walrus. This film, like the one which inspired it, casts Inuit people in all Inuit roles - not a common filmmaking practice even today. When the Inuit language is being spoken, the film provides English subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Ding and Dong (Serge Theriault and Claude Meunier) are two standup comedians whose slangy Quebecois humor has made them popular among those who speak that dialect of French. This slapstick comedy capitalizes on their wordplay to the maximum extent; consequently the film is recommended primarily to those with close ties to Quebec. In the story, Ding and Dong are a standup act who go to perform at a tiny club in a remote town. Their act receives a much less enthusiastic welcome than the fistfight which closes the bar down. Subsequent adventures are similarly disastrous, until they inherit a tidy sum and buy "Theatre de la Nouvelle Tragedie" where they begin producing (and starring in) classical plays which they warp in their own characteristic fashion. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A modern-day Passion Play becomes a reenactment of the life and death of Jesus Christ in more ways than one with this critically acclaimed drama from Quebec filmmaker Denys Arcand. Lothaire Bluteau stars as Daniel Coloumbe, an intense young actor in Montreal who is hired by church fathers to restage and update the city's annual Passion Play, which over the course of the past 40 years has begun to seem hidebound. Daniel hires a group of struggling young actors that become devoted to him and his creative vision as he devises an extremely avant-garde production that takes Christ's rebellious teachings literally. Revolving around set pieces reflecting passages from Christ's life rather than a traditional re-creation of events, Daniel's revisionist work also incorporates blasphemous ideas about his subject, questioning his true nature. Daniel's play is a critical smash and wows mesmerized audiences, but greatly disturbed church officials order the labor of love dismantled. Real life begins imitating biblical events as the actors become cast-outs and Daniel smashes up an audition in which the actress portraying his Mary Magdalene (Catherine Wilkening) is asked to disrobe by a prurient producer. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A rousing "he said/she said" endeavor, The Decline of the American Empire begins by separating the boys from the girls. Preparing a gourmet dinner, four male intellectuals begin trading stories of their sexual experiences. At the same time, four well-read women, all working out in a gym, exchange their own tales from the love front. The film is set in the lofty circles of academia, a world well known to Canadian director Denys Arcand. The anecdotes related herein are based on actual events in the lives of Arcand's professorial friends. There's nothing bookish, however, about the subject matter of the stories themselves, which ranges from mild philandering to S & M. The Decline of the American Empire was the winner of eight Canadian Genie awards (that's the above-the-border equivalent of the Oscar), including Best Picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Au Clair de la Lune is hardly "something for everybody", which is its chief source of interest. The stars are Guy L'Ecuyer and Michel Cote, who cowrote the script with director Andre Forcier. L'Ecuyer plays a blue-collar Joe whose sole passion in life is bowling. We won't tell you how, but L'Ecuyer forms a strong bond with Cote, who plays a gay albino. Filmed in Quebec, Au Clair de La Lune was released below the border with English subtitles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of Canada's talented directors, actress Micheline Lanctot expresses an effective, engaging approach in this simple, poignant drama about Armand (Jocelyn Berube), a handyman with one problem romance after another. The quiet Armand settles into Montreal after his wife has left him and before long, he continues the momentum when an ill-considered liaison with a nubile woman ends on her insistence. Next, Armand gives his heart to a frustrated housewife, though this decision is hardly well thought out. In the meantime, a gay man who rents out a room in his apartment has unfulfilled longings directed at the unsuspecting handyman. L'Homme a Tout Faire won a Silver Medal for "Best Picture" at the 1980 San Sebastian Film Festival. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide