Gaston Lepage Movies
- 2008
This short-subject feature from Canada concerns Lucien, a young man who discovers that his roommate Léo has a collection of unscratched lottery tickets - and struggles to resist the temptation of scratching them off. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Luc Senay, Gaston Lepage, (more)
- 2003
Director Louis Belanger follows up his debut feature Post Mortem with this introspective, low key, working-class comedy drama concerning relationships, responsibility, and father-son bonding. Affectionately referred to as "The Boss" by his friends, Mr. Brochu (Serge Theriault) has been running the full-service Champlain gas station with the help of his family for the past 15 years. Though his wife is long gone and he is beginning to suffer the effects of Parkinson's disease, he maintains the store well until his sons begin to express aspirations outside of the family business. An aspiring photographer, Rejean (Sebastien Delorme) makes way for Germany when he hears that the Berlin Wall is about to fall, and Guy (Danny Gilmore) seems to be more interested in developing his blues band than maintaining the pumps. At least young Alain (Maxime Dumontier) shows some interest in carrying on tradition, though, at age 14, he's hardly ready to take on all of the adult responsibilities that the job entails. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Serge Theriault, Gilles Renaud, (more)
- 1997
In a style evocative of Fellini at his most surreal, this bizarre French Canadian fantasy follows the romance between a young filmmaker and a bearded lady from a local circus during the 1960s. The story begins in a contemporary theater where a projectionist describes, to movie director Rex Prince, the ghostly spirit that seems to be haunting his film. The story then races backward to the 1960s when a half-mad, idealistic Rex was busily making his first film, a Marxist tract depicting poverty in Montreal. Edouard Dore, a well-connected editor works with him and it is he who takes Rex to a carnival late one night to meet the performers in a freakshow. The first person Rex meets is Le Grand Zenon, a hulking one-eyed fellow with the amazing ability to use his eye to project movie images on a screen with neither a projector nor film. Later Rex meets the beautiful but facially hirsute Paula Paul de Nerval. For Rex it is almost love at first sight, so he is therefore upset when, only a few hours after their meeting, she takes off to join a Cajun circus in Louisiana . A few months later, Rex, still obsessed with Paula, races southward in an Edsel to become a human cannonball at the same circus as she. The story jumps back to the present to Rex's latest film "La Comtesse de Baton Rouge," a chronicle of his strange love affair with Paula. Up to this point, the story has been surreal and quite poetic, but as Rex's movie unspools, the film becomes a zany comedy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
- NR
Episodic and unflinchingly realistic, this docudrama offers a seldom-seen look into the lives of Montreal's homeless as it tells the story of a veteran beggar, Marcel, and his neophyte panhandler-buddy Joseph. Most of the time, the down-and-out duo spend their days walking about, talking to their equally less-fortunate and very eccentric peers. Though such wandering is seemingly aimless, Marcel is actually quietly searching for his long-lost and suicidal friend Stanley, in hopes of saving his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gaston Lepage, Benoit Briere, (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)
- 1992
This French Canadian psychological drama begins as homosexual hustler Yves is having sex with his lover Claude. During the climactic moment, he grabs a knife and cuts the throat of his partner and then flees to the streets of Montreal where he pauses only long enough to make a phone call. The killer is captured and is next seen in a judge's chamber undergoing interrogation. He freely admits the crime but refuses to explain why he did it. Nor does he explain why he is in the judge's chamber or why he called the press. Eventually he does explain himself during a long impassioned, self-piteous speech. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Dupuis, Jacques Godin, (more)
- 1989
Forty-year-old Claude (Gaston Lepage) and his father Gaspard (Jacques Godin) have an uneasy truce since the death of Madame Chuinard 11 years earlier in this uneven drama. Their search for a missing lottery ticket takes them from Montreal to New York and finally Venezuela. Their shared experience only proceeds to reinforce their mutual dislike for one another. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jacques Godin, Gaston Lepage, (more)
- 1989
In this watered-down fantasy, Cotnoir (Remy Girard) is a middle-aged male virgin who falls in love with the picture of a female author on the back of her novel. He sets out by boat for the island where author Helena Montana (Marie Tifo) presently resides, but when the boat breaks down, he has fantasies that she is a mermaid. Soon the line between fantasy and reality is blurred as Cotnoir returns to Montreal with Montana and is able to convince his friends as well that she is a mermaid. The title refers to a fictional book written by Montana. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marie Tifo, Rémy Girard, (more)
- 1982
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
- Starring:
- Guy L'Ecuyer, Michel Cote, (more)
- 1980
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Portal, Gaston Lepage, (more)
