Monique Mercure Movies

Gerard Depardieu, Vincent Perez, and Jason Isaacs star in director Jean Beaudin's historical account of the battle waged between England and France in hopes of gaining a geopolitical foothold in Canada. When a fur-trapper (David La Haye) and a young widow (Noemie Godin-Vigneau) find themselves inexorably immersed a violent clash of nations, the heartbreak that follows will prove an intimate glimpse into the horrifying effects of war on all of humanity. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Francois Girard directed this drama tracing the history of a musical instrument through five countries and three centuries. In 1681, to keep the spirit of his wife alive, an Italian paints the violin with a red varnish made from her blood. It is later found in the Austrian Alps when a prodigy gives a performance in the court of Vienna in 1792. Taken by gypsies, the instrument is acquired by a Dionysian composer. After a journey by boat to China in 1966, it is hidden during the Cultural Revolution. In contemporary Canada, it is spotted at an auction house by a violin expert (Samuel L. Jackson) who becomes obsessed with it. Scripted by Girard and Don McKellar. Filmed on a $10 million budget in Montreal, China, Italy, Austria, and Oxford. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Lonely for a friend of his own, an 11-year-old boy invokes special plea to an ancient Egyptian goddess and has her turn his pet cat into a friend. Unfortunately, something goes a little haywire, for the boy's new pal acts like a 30-year-old man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This cinematic/literary hybrid fuses motifs from Beat writer William S. Burroughs's novel of the same name with elements of the author's biography and plenty of the cerebral alienation and biomorphic special effects fans of creepy cult director David Cronenberg have come to expect. Bill Lee (Peter Weller) wants to write, but he exterminates bugs to pay the bills. His wife, Joan (Judy Davis), becomes addicted to Bill's bug powder dust, and soon he joins her in a world of unorthodox hallucinogens; he visits the kindly yet sinister Dr. Benway (Roy Scheider) and walks away with his first dose of the black meat -- a narcotic made from the flesh of the giant aquatic Brazilian centipede. Soon, monstrous beetles are whispering conspiracy theories in Bill's ears and his nebbish writer friends Hank (Nicholas Campbell) and Martin (Michael Zelniker) are sleeping with Joan under his nose. When a party trick involving a liquor glass and a gun goes awry, killing Joan, Bill flees to Interzone, a Mediterranean city full of talking insectoid typewriters, double agents, offbeat aesthetes, and plots within plots. As he navigates this paranoid landscape, Bill begins ingesting another drug called mugwump jism and writes fragments that Hank and Martin soon assemble into a novel under the title Naked Lunch. As beat literature aficionados know, Interzone is based on Tangiers -- the city where Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch. The incident in the film in which Hank and Martin appropriate Bill's writing and have it published closely approximates the real-life circumstances of the novel's publication, although it was Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac who helped out the real-life Burroughs. The William Tell incident that kills Bill's wife is also drawn from the author's real life. "William Lee" is both Burroughs' literary stand-in and the name under which he published his first autobiographical novel Junky. Ian Holm, who plays Joan Frost's husband, Tom, would appear in Cronenberg's similarly experimental eXistenZ several years later. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

This study of the feminist mystique and its underlying issues centers on Madeline (Monique Mercure), a middle-aged director set on conquests of any kind. Also featured are Madeline's relationship to her daughter Renee (Guylaine Normandine) and a few lovers. Madeline is working as a radio talk show host when her daughter comes home to stay with her for the summer. Madeline seems fired by inner demons that propel her to excel in one way or another, either by doing a good work-out at the gym, by competing with her daughter, or by changing lovers one day to the next. The relationships she has throughout the summer fluctuate and change, yet by the time Renee is ready to go off to school again there is some hope for happiness ahead. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Produced on behalf of the HBO cable service, The Blood of Others is a rare venture into English-language filmmaking by Claude Chabrol. Set during World War II, the film stars Jodie Foster and Michael Ontkean as a pair of French resistance fighters. If you can swallow that, then you'll accept New Zealand native Sam Neill as a German businessman. Chabrol's wife Stephane Audran costars as Gigi, while other prominent members of the cast include Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont and Micheline Presle. Oh, yes, the plot: based on a novel by Simone de Beauvoir, The Blood of Others concerns Jodie Foster's confused loyalties: should she continue in her underground activities, or succumb to the charms of the seemingly civilized Neill? This French-Canadian coproduction was originally telecast August 23, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

French filmmaker Robert Menard made his directorial debut with Une Journee en Taxi. Giles Renaud plays the imprisoned "fall guy" for a gang of bank robbers. Given a 36 hour parole, Menard is determined to track down and kill the man responsible for his incarceration. He hails a taxi, driven by lonely, garrulous Jean Yanne. As the friendship between fellow misfits Renaud and Yanne deepens, the convict begins to have second thoughts about vengeance. When Renaud does catch up with his quarry, Yanne finds himself "refereeing" the showdown. Une Journee en Taxi is highlighted by several jokes comparing Montreal with Paris, which most certainly raised a few chuckles in Canada and France but didn't play as well in English-speaking countries. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A potentially moving story about a Cambodian orphan and his quest to return home is trivialized by overacting and exaggeration in this fantasy tale meant for family fare. Toby (Jonathan Starr) and Liz (Anick) live with their aunt and uncle in bucolic happiness, and one day a Cambodian orphan adopted by the aunt and uncle joins the family. Han (Ky Huot-uk) has a dream of returning home (the murderous Khmer Rouge are not mentioned). So when the youngsters come across the eccentric King of Peru (Mickey Rooney) and his magic locomotive, Han gets the idea of jumping on board and riding it back to Cambodia. The intended poignancy of his wish is unfortunately lost among the weak story, cutesy children, and a caricatured interpretation by Mickey Rooney. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this drama, an elderly engineer living in an empty railway station takes in three homeless children. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Teri McLuhan, the daughter of theorist/philosopher Marshall McLuhan, was the producer/director/co-scripter of the Canadian The Third Walker. The story concerns a pair of twins, separated at birth (McLuhan was herself an identical twin). Nearly three decades later, the twins are reunited at their father's funeral. They become the closest of friends, totally shutting out a third, non-twin sibling. The adult twins are portrayed by William Shatner and Colleen Dewhurst. Teri McLuhan's celebrated father plays an "invisible cameo" as the voice of a judge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide