03-14-2004, 10:41 AM
Went to watch this French-Canadian film yesterday and I absolutely recommend it to everyone. It was fantastic. It told the story of a dying French-Canadian who's son contacted as many of his old friends to help him happily pass away. Sounds grim but was wonderfully funny. Lots of self-examination of Canadian sociology, politics, etc.
In other words it was a typically European, or as I've come to discover, typically French-Canadian movie. Meaning it isn't a political movie at all, but a self-examination of French-Canadian culture by telling a funny story about friendship, sex, and life. The dying man, Remy, is an old Socialist (who's life revolved around sexual conquest) trying to come to terms with the fact that though he kept his ideals, he didn't ever achieve anything. He comes to love his son Sebastien (and vice versa) who is a very conservative millionaire who lives in London, doesn't read (therefore isn't "cultural"), and who's relationship with his fiance is depicted as a loveless good deal. The movie takes place in a hellish Canadian hospital filled with patients, corruption, union problems, and no hope of getting treatment. Sebastien gathers his fathers friends - all articulate French-Canadian intellectuals - to celebrate his fathers life, and help him into death at a lakeside house.
It's a very witty, and beautiful film. If you've seen "The Decline of the American Empire," then you'll adore this as it casts the same people 20 years on. In the first movie they went to the lakeside house to come to terms with the fact that their socialist revolutionary beliefs must be acoomodated to middle-class life. In this one they examine it, and relish in the fact they didn't give in to American cultural ideology, but realize that they shunned it absolutely despite it's benefits. This isn't an anti-American movie at all, even though it jokes about American cultural dominance and how it is choking French Canada. Even though it has startling references to 9/11 (including a scary shot of a plane hitting the 2nd tower that I'd never seen before) it has takes plenty of swipes at Canadian idealism, and how it feels itself to be above American life.
Just wonderful film. Go see it!!!
Then plan to go see Goodbye Lenin in a few weeks too.
In other words it was a typically European, or as I've come to discover, typically French-Canadian movie. Meaning it isn't a political movie at all, but a self-examination of French-Canadian culture by telling a funny story about friendship, sex, and life. The dying man, Remy, is an old Socialist (who's life revolved around sexual conquest) trying to come to terms with the fact that though he kept his ideals, he didn't ever achieve anything. He comes to love his son Sebastien (and vice versa) who is a very conservative millionaire who lives in London, doesn't read (therefore isn't "cultural"), and who's relationship with his fiance is depicted as a loveless good deal. The movie takes place in a hellish Canadian hospital filled with patients, corruption, union problems, and no hope of getting treatment. Sebastien gathers his fathers friends - all articulate French-Canadian intellectuals - to celebrate his fathers life, and help him into death at a lakeside house.
It's a very witty, and beautiful film. If you've seen "The Decline of the American Empire," then you'll adore this as it casts the same people 20 years on. In the first movie they went to the lakeside house to come to terms with the fact that their socialist revolutionary beliefs must be acoomodated to middle-class life. In this one they examine it, and relish in the fact they didn't give in to American cultural ideology, but realize that they shunned it absolutely despite it's benefits. This isn't an anti-American movie at all, even though it jokes about American cultural dominance and how it is choking French Canada. Even though it has startling references to 9/11 (including a scary shot of a plane hitting the 2nd tower that I'd never seen before) it has takes plenty of swipes at Canadian idealism, and how it feels itself to be above American life.
Just wonderful film. Go see it!!!
Then plan to go see Goodbye Lenin in a few weeks too.