Claude Jutra Movies
Originally planning to honor family tradition by becoming a physician, Canadian director Claude Jutra opted instead for filmmaking. Jutra won a prize at age 19 for his short film Movement Perpetuel, then wrote and directed for Quebec television. Together with fellow Canadian Norman McLaren, Jutra became one of the foremost avant-garde moviemakers in his native land (both he and McLaren are amply represented in the 1963 compilation film Seven Surprizes). After time spent in France and Africa, Jutra shot his first feature-length film, the award winning 1961 documentary Le Niger - Jeune Republique. The director's career took a dive upon the financial failure of his first non-documentary feature, A Tous Prendre (1963), but Jutra made a 1971 comeback with Mon Oncle Antoine, a semi-autobiographical account of growing up in a French mining town in the 1940s. Dismissed by Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide as "not bad, but nothing special," Mon Oncle Antoine nonetheless won eight prizes at the Canadian Film Awards, and has since been voted by a panel of film journalists as the best Canadian film ever made. Alas, there was nowhere to go from this triumph but downward for Jutra; in the '80s he learned he was in the early stages of Alzheimers'. In November of 1986, Claude Jutra wandered away from his home, never to return; four months later, his body was found floating in the St. Lawrence River. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
La Dame en Couleurs was the last film completed by mercurial Canadian director Claude Jutra (it was originally titled in the singular: "Couleur" rather than "Couleurs"). The director's rapidly deteriorating mental state-he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's--required him to take more time than usual in production. Despite his illness, Jutra was able to draw on his own memories as a medical intern to weave a credible tale of life in a Quebec mental institution. The film concentrates not on the patients but on a group of orphans who take refuge in the institution because they have no other home. As the story progresses, the catacombs beneath the hospital serve as a combination playground and "escape" for the kids. Perhaps being in close contact with mental illness had a profoundly injurious effect on Jutra: he retreated deeper into "himself" after the film's completion, leading to his ultimate mysterious death in 1986. La Dame en Coleurs was released in English-speaking provinces as Our Lady of the Paints. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge, Ariane Frederique, (more)
- 1983
In this thriller three troubled couples attend a two day marital retreat in hopes of saving their marriages. Unbeknownst to them, their psychiatrist is a psycho slasher. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
- R
This heavy-duty literary drama is about the burdens faced by one family during the end of the Great Depression in the late 1930s and is based on a novel by Gabrielle Roy. The oldest daughter in the family works in a diner to help make ends meet, giving her paycheck to her mother and keeping her tips for herself. After a few encounters with a fast-talking womanizer at the diner she spends one night with him and ends up pregnant and abandoned. At the same time or in short succession, her father loses his job, they move to a miserable, damp location, and the youngest brother contracts tuberculosis -- numerous tragedies that ultimately stem from poverty. The pregnant daughter connives to get engaged to a decent, shy young man who then goes off to war. But because of their engagement, the daughter now has access to a new and large house, and in spite of everything, the family's fortunes may be improving a little. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mireille Deyglun, Marilyn Lightstone, (more)
- 1981
- R
Looking for the perfect biological father, a lesbian couple attempts to have a child after they are refused adoption privileges. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patty Duke, Sara Botsford, (more)
- 1981
- R
Based on a novel by Margaret Atwood, this suspenseful psycho-sexual drama chronicles a young woman's quest through the wilderness to find her father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Bottoms, Kathleen Beller, (more)
- 1978
This drama examines the tensions felt between French and English speaking Canadians after WW I as it tells the story of a town squire interested in promoting industry in his village. Unfortunately, his son betrays him and with the help of another, he reveals his father's true, antireligious motives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Pierre Aumont, Stacy Keach, (more)
- 1977
Dreamspeaker was one of several TV movie projects directed by Claude Jutra after his first flush of success with Mon Oncle Antoine (1971). As with most Jutra films, the story involves an emotionally fragile young boy, unable to cope with the cruelties of the world. The lad achieves inner peace through the help of Dreamspeaker, an Indian shaman (or "medicine man"). It would be nice to relate that the central character's self-discovery was reflected in Jutra's own life. Unfortunately, at the time Dreamspeaker was filmed, Jutra was undergoing another of his periodic bouts of depression; perhaps he'd hoped that this film would serve as therapy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
In this eccentric French-Canadian comedy, the entire history of a battling but loving couple's long marriage is enacted in the space of what appears to be a few days. Despite this time distortion, there is time for their daughter to grow from infancy to maturity. In one episode, the husband suspects his wife of having an affair and quits his job in order to devote his full energies to investigating this belief of his. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Jutra, Monique Miller, (more)
- 1973
Elizabeth (Genvieve Bujold) lives in a small French-speaking village in early 19th-century Canada. She was widowed once, thanks to the kind offices of an American royalist doctor. Her first husband's death was arranged by Elizabeth and the doctor, but after a crisis of conscience, the doctor returns to America without marrying her. Her story is told in flashbacks as she sits at the deathbed of her current, second husband. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geneviève Bujold, Richard Jordan, (more)
French Canadian director and actor Claude Jutra enjoyed his greatest critical success with this evocative and loving (but unsentimental) look at a few memorable days in the life of a boy on the verge of manhood in a small Quebec mining community in the 1940's. Benoit (Jacques Gagnon) is an orphan just edging into his teens. He works part-time for Antoine (Jean Duceppe), his uncle who owns the local general store and moonlights as an undertaker; Antoine takes the boy under his wing for a few days while the shop is busy during the holiday rush. Benoit helps set up the store's annual Christmas window display, spies on the most beautiful woman in town (Monique Mercure) as she tries on some specially ordered lingerie, finds his feelings for teenage co-worker Carmen (Lyne Champagne) changing from indifference to attraction, and joins his friends for a snowball raid on the owner of the town's mining operation as he contemptuously distributes gifts to the poor. But when Benoit joins his uncle to collect the body of a boy who has recently died, he confronts mortality for the first time and comes to realize what sort of a man his uncle really is. Mon Oncle Antoine won eight Genie Awards (the Canadian Oscar) and was honored at seven international film festivals, but it wasn't until the film was broadcast on Canadian television that it was widely seen in its home country; since then, a poll of Canadian film writers named it the Best Canadian Film of all time in 1984, and similar polls in 1994 and 2004 found Mon Oncle Antoine still at the top of the list. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1971
In this French Canadian film, the lives of young people (basically teenagers) are examined in fantasy sequences and through the use of documentary interviews. The fantasy sequences make creative use of animation, unusual film developing techniques, and stills. The movie is available with English subtitles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1968
When a young girl is raped, she becomes pregnant and ends up going to her doctor. She soon takes up with an Arab who pockets her abortion money and disappears. Two teenage boys offer to take the girl away to find and beat up the man who raped her, but instead, the three pick up another girl down the road and proceed to rape the rape victim. She struggles in vain before being subdued by the brutal teens, never to be seen in the film again. No clue is given to her fate. The three young sociopaths then drive on until they meet a Frenchman who claims to have raped the girl. The two boys beat the man before taking off to an unknown destination. The feature is mostly a disturbing display of brutality and violation, but occasional humor manages to color this otherwise depressing film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie La Chapelle, Jacques Cohen, (more)
- 1967
A young man (Claude Gauthier) sets out from his hometown of Quebec and travels to Montreal to seek his fortune. He takes a succession of odd jobs before hitting it big as a singer. He has eyes for a waitress (Genevieve Bujold) in a greasy spoon diner before his crooning career takes him to hang out in more upscale restaurants. The young man falls for another girl who leaves him, and he is just as lonely as he was in his small town in Quebec before he found success. All the money in the world won't bring back his girl in this independent feature with the backdrop of burgeoning speeches of Quebec declaring independence from the rest of Canada. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geneviève Bujold, Claude Gauthier, (more)
- 1963
7 Surprises is an irresistible collection of award-winning cartoon subjects. Each was carefully selected for this compilation by Canada's National Film Board. Among the major talents represented herein are Norman McLaren, Evelyn Lambert and Gerald Potterton. The best of the batch is 1952's Neighbors, an exhilarating and ultimately poignant antiwar allegory directed by McLaren and starring (in the "human cartoon" leading roles) fellow animators Paul Ladoucer and Grant Munro. In the original Canadian prints, the title is spelled Seven Surprizes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
Canadian producer/ director/ writer Claude Jutra also cast himself as the star of his Take It All. He plays a writer who has an affair with gorgeous black model Johanne. She becomes pregnant, but Jutra wants nothing to do with marriage. Johanne loses the baby, "solving" the problem. When Jutra filmed Take It All (originally A Tout Prendre) in 1962, he was allegedly going through a personal situation much like the one in the film. The dialogue was reportedly made up by the actors as they went along; that we can believe. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claude Jutra, Victor Desy, (more)
- 1957
Claude Jutra and Norman McLaren co-direct A Chairy Tale. In this ten-minute animated Canadian short from 1957, a chair that detests being sat upon attempts to evade the maneuvers and machinations of a young boy determined to use it as a resting place. A Chairy Tale boasts a score authored and performed by sitar godfather Ravi Shankar. Evelyn Lambart co-animates the piece, with Maurice Black providing additional musical accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
