Gilbert Sicotte Movies

First-time Canadian helmer Stephane Lafleur's offbeat French-language comedy-drama Continental, un film sans fusil (AKA Continental: A Film Without Guns) 2007) commences with a bizarre event: a man who falls asleep on a bus awakens to find the vehicle suddenly vacant, hears unidentifiable sounds emanating from a nearby forest, and treks off to investigate. Lafleur then proceeds to crisscross several stories, concerning idiosyncratic characters who are both acquainted with the vanished gentleman and have no discernible connection to him. In one, the man's wife feels torn violently between accepting his disappearance and accepting the idea that he may never again turn up; at a complete loss to make this call, she opts instead to visit a ballroom and do the continental of the title. In another, a young insurance salesman (Real Bosse) spends the evening in a hotel and finds himself listening intently to a woman and her partner who make love in a nearby room - until the lady crops up and asks the salesman to visit the room and watch. In a third, a butterfingered young executive assistant (Fanny Mallette) at a packed bridal shower accepts an offer to hold a woman's baby - but drops it, to everyone's horror; and in a fourth, a pawn shop worker (Bernard Sicotte) with a serious dental problem begs his ex-wife for the money necessary to have the procedure - and proceeds to whittle it away on gambling bids. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

A 12-year-old girl finds herself stranded on a lonely Caribbean island with a 20-year old retarded man in this sensitively rendered Canadian drama from Quebec. Emile and Cedrine are first seen during their rescue in which both are nearly in a coma. Their story of how they got there and survived is told via flashback. The two were the only survivors of a plane crash and at first Cedrine is terrified of Emile, thinking he might lose control and rape her. Fortunately, Emile is gentle and the two become friends, playmates, and eventually lovers in scenes that exploit neither character. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A couple are forced to get to know one another after they've gotten married in this drama. Claire (Genevieve Bujold) is a 40-ish college professor who lives and teaches in Montreal, supplementing her earnings by writing textbooks. Claire isn't especially satisfied with her career, and her on-going affair with a married man seems to be leading her into a emotional dead end. One day, Claire's sister Annie (Dorothee Berryman), a lawyer, asks a rather large favor of her -- one of her clients, Pablo (Manuel Aranguiz), is a political activist from Chile who illegally escaped to Quebec rather than face certain death in his homeland. Bouchard (Gilbert Sicotte), a Canadian immigration official, has taken it upon himself to find and deport Pablo, and Annie is trying to keep him in the country. Annie tells Claire that she could save Pablo's life by marrying him so he could stay in Canada; while Claire bristles at the notion of this in-name-only marriage, she eventually relents and weds Pablo in a brief ceremony. However, Bouchard is certain something is fishy about Pablo's sudden nuptials, and sets up an interview with the couple to determine that theirs in a "real" marriage, which gives Claire and Pablo two days to learn the small details about one another which would be second nature for a married couple. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

With an unlikely hero who apparently excels at almost anything, this confused saga of survival in the wilderness and accidental murder starts out hard to believe and stays that way. C.H. (Luc Matte) used to be a star player for the Montreal Canadiens and has turned in his puck and hockey stick for the pursuit of women -- as well as a good game of chess (he is a master at that too). He supports himself by waiting tables and one day takes some time off to go on vacation in the Quebec wilderness, where some local thugs give him a hard time. From that point onward, things get worse after one of the hooligans is accidentally killed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Strict behavior codes and the struggle to eke out a living provide a backdrop to this romantic drama set at the turn of the 20th century in rural, northern Quebec. Maria Chapdelaine (Carole Laure) returns to the home of her parents in a remote village, and during the period of one year, has her heart-strings pulled in three different directions at once -- though only one of those directions is what she really wants. She had been promised in marriage to the shy neighboring farmer (Pierre Curzi), whom she has known since they were children, but a suave man-about-town wants to marry her (Donald Lautrec), and a handsome trapper (Nick Mancuso) has fallen in love with her. Maria fluctuates between the trapper and the urban aristocrat, and as events unfold, her indecision leads to tragic consequences. Also filmed by Julien Duvivier in 1934, this story first became popular when published as a novel (by Louis Hemon) in 1913. ~ 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

In this Canadian character study, a petty thief steals $5,000 from a marching band and heads to the US with his ditzy girl friend and another couple. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Before his death in 1993, director Francis Mankiewicz was Canadian television's premiere filmmaker. One of his rare theatrical films, Les Bons Debarras, was also among his best (despite its overlength); certainly the judges of Canada's Genie Awards thought so when honoring the film with their "Best Picture" award for 1981. Set amongst a middle-class Quebec family, the film concerns itself with a love triangle, consisting of Charlotte Laurier, Germaine Houde and Marie Tifo. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi