Marcel Sabourin Movies

In this French Canadian drama, a man going through some difficult life experiences find things become even more complicated when his ex re-enters his life. Max (James Hyndman) is an artist who has lost the use of his legs and is confined to a wheelchair. Fortunately, he still has many close friends and his loft serves as a salon for a variety of like-minded bohemians, including a self-centered sculptor, Mortimer (Yves Jacques); the slightly dim Julius (Michel Charette); and Maggie (Jacynthe Rene), who has no qualms about posing for Max in the nude. However, Max's well-ordered existence is upset when he hears from Lucie (Pascale Bussieres), his former girlfriend before an ugly breakup. Lucie has taken it upon herself to punish Max for their acrimonious parting, and she bombards him with a variety of obscene or annoying phone calls, taunts him as a cripple, and has sex with another man in an apartment across the street, clearly visible to Max through his window. Meanwhile, Max's best friend Laurel (Pierre-Luc Brillant) has his own ghosts from the past to deal with; he's recently discovered the identity of his birth mother, who gave him up for adoption when he was still an infant. Laurel would like to meet her, but his adopted mother, Pauline (Louise Portal), would prefer that the biological mother stay in his past. Director Jean Beaudin collaborated with novelist Monique Proulx for this adaptation of Proulx's book Homme Invisible a la Fenetre. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jean Pierre Lefebrvre directed this Canadian drama, the final film in a trilogy that began in 1967 with Don't Let It Kill You and continued in 1977 with The Old Country Where Rimbaud Died. All three feature Abel Gagne (Marcel Sabourin), a 55-year-old pilot who stopped flying after a friend died in a crash 15 years earlier. Abel and his friend Antoine (Jean-Pierre Ronfard) operate a small Quebec airfield. Acquiring a vintage Tiger Moth biplane, Abel plans to fly once again, but problems arise: a bank will seize his assets if a debt goes unpaid, and his father Napoleon (Claude Blanchard), who deserted the family decades earlier, suddenly turns up, creating friction. Filmed in farmlands south of Montreal. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Canadian defense attorney Gina Antonelli (Lolita Davidovitch) takes on her most unusual case--and her biggest professional challenge--when she agree to defend Pauloosie (Paul Gordon), a 19-year-old Inuit living in a remote Arctic village. Accused of sexual assault of a minor, Pauloosie has by the standards of his people alrady done penance for his crime (which in his eyes was not a crime), pleading unconditional guilt and offering a gift of atonement to the girl's family. But ambitious prosecutor Daniel Metz (Henry Czerny) intends to make an example of Pauloosie by demanding the maximum sentence under Canadian law, a move that has divided the region's political interests straight down the middle. It is up to Gina to burrow through a maddening maze of cultural conflicts and arrive at a legal decision that will satisfy both the government and the natives--and also will assure the fairest amount of justice for the stoic Pauloosie. Produced for Canadian television in 1994, Trial at Fortitude Bay first aired in the US over the Lifetime cable network on March 15, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Love, jealousy, revenge and forbidden homosexual passion color this alternately campy and dramatic adaptation of a play by Michel Marc Bouchard. Operating at different levels, the story begins in 1952 inside a Quebec prison chapel where hard-core convict Simon Doucet offers confession to Bishop Bilodeau who has come especially to see him. But no sooner does the Bishop enter the confessional than he is locked in by other inmates and forced to watch them enact gay love scenes from the play The Death of San Sebastian. The story moves backwards to 1912 when Bilodeau and Simon were lusty young boys. Their affair falls apart when Simon takes up with Vallier. This angers Bilodeau who does something terrible in retaliation. Meanwhile, back in the present, Simon attempts to force Bilodeau into owning up to his actions. In keeping with the film's gay themes, all roles, male and female, are portrayed by men. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Chuck Norris stars in this derivative action film (directed by his brother, Aaron Norris) which bears more than a passing similarity to Steven Seagal's Marked for Death. Norris plays Cliff Garret, a Seattle cop who is mortally wounded in a drug bust. Garret's condition is grave but he manages to pull through. However, the Seattle police have plans for him and put out the word that Garret has died. When Garret regains his strength, he is given a new identity as hit man Danny Grogan and is assigned to go undercover and infiltrate the crime family of Marco Luganni (Al Waxman). "Grogan" must bring both Luganni and rival gang-lord Andre Lacombe (Marcel Sabourin) into police custody. But his past comes back to haunt him in the person of Ronny Delany (Michael Parks), a goon from Grogan's Garret days, who threatens to blow his cover. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Thomas (Guy Thauvette) has returned to Montreal from South America with some memories he would rather not have. He would like to stay where he is, and put all that behind him. At a strange, chic cafe, he meets Sylvie (Marie-Josee Gauthier). Though they are attracted to each other, and go to bed with each other, it would seem that their goals are irreconcilable. Sylvie is very restless, and wants to go anywhere to get away from Montreal. When a stranger threatens to kill Thomas, his memories rush in on him, and he reluctantly tells Sylvie about them. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this biographical film which completely intermingles dramatic reenactments with documentary footage and interviews, the life of the Quebeçois sculptor Alfred Laliberte (whose works can be seen throughout the city of Montreal and the province), is told by the Quebeçois filmmaker whose 1982 drama (Les Fleurs Sauvage) won the international critic's prize at Cannes that year. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

One day Jean-Baptiste Beauregard (Pierre Curzi) does not go out to face work or daily activities, instead he daydreams about the women in his past, about his teenage years, his failed marriage, and even his boyhood desires. His mental images follow each other across the screen, revealing that the women in his life are all the same (different wigs and costumes on the same actress), and his love life never changes either. This sameness can have a dulling effect on the viewers, indicating that if Jean-Baptiste's reminiscences were trimmed and his daydreams more varied and exciting, he would hold interest a little longer. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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, Rovi

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, Rovi

This Canadian film stars Marcel Sabourin as J. A. Martin, journeyman photographer. Several times per year, Martin packs his bulky equipment and goes on the road in search of photogenic subjects, leaving his wife (Monique Mercure) behind. On this occasion, however, Mme. Martin insists upon accompanying her husband. She soon discovers that the truculent, inner-directed M. Martin may have been making ooh-la-la with some of his more attractive female portrait subjects. Director Jean Beaudrin adds a dash of topicality to J.A. Martin, Photographer with some genteel lobbying in favor of Quebec's Separatist movement. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This meditative French-Canadian film tells the story of a young woman's search for the father she has never known. Marie Chapelaine (Carole Laure) grew up in a remote area of Quebec without ever knowing her father, a lumberjack. She moves to Montreal, settles in there with a job as a topless dancer and begins her search for him. Eventually, with the help of his former mistress, they find the lumber camp he was working in, only to discover that he was killed in a labor dispute. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi