The fall vintage of Quebec cinema will be particularly refreshing and abundant this year. We will discover many young filmmakers there and we will find others, more established, in unknown lands. On the menu: film adaptations of surprising works and pleas for social justice, among others.
It is indeed not every day that a romantic comic strip is adapted to Quebec cinema. But it is the bet that the actress and illustrator wanted to take up Charlotte Good with Falcon Lake, her first feature film as a director. This one will certainly mark the season, with its dreamlike images of the Laurentian forest, its sensitive treatment of a bewitching initiatory story and its soundtrack by Klô Pelgag. With Sara Montpetit, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman and Monia Chokri. At the opening of the Festival du nouveau cinema on October 5, in theaters in Quebec from October 14.
Also adapted from a literary work, but in a completely different register, the latest feature film byAnaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, Dog White, is set in the tumultuous California of the 1960s, in the midst of the civil rights movement. This is an original autobiographical story by Romain Gary, published in 1970, when he lived in Hollywood with his wife, actress Jean Seberg. At the opening of the Cinémania festival in Montreal on November 2, in theaters in Quebec from November 9.
Exploded scenes
Filmmaker Stephane Lafleur(You sleep Nicole) dares to approach unexplored genres and places in Quebec cinema with viking, a sci-fi comedy-drama set in the Alberta desert. Five people recruited to collaborate on the first manned mission to Mars are testing their limits behind closed doors. The filmmaker and musician of Avec Pas d’Casque reconnects with the style of comic and absurd dialogues that we know him, as well as with the director of photography Sara Mishara, who delivers magnificent images here. With Steve Laplante and Larissa Corriveau. In world premiere in Toronto on September 11, in theaters in Quebec from September 30.
A more modest favorite production, but just as successful in terms of staging, The dream and the radio of Renaud Despres-Larose will not leave anyone indifferent. Staging a marginal revolutionary group reminiscent of Those who make revolutions halfway… (2016), the film is first and foremost a beautiful story of friendship. In theaters in September at the Cinéma Moderne, the Cinémathèque and the Cinéma Public, as well as on video on demand.
Set in the heart of the Adirondacks, the feature debut of Marianne Farley, North of Albany, which hits theaters on December 2, looks darker and more serious, but looks just as promising. The film follows Annie (Céline Bonnier), a Montrealer who hastily flees her city for the United States, with her two children. Tensions rise with his teenage daughter, Sarah (Zeneb Blanchet), when the little family breaks down and gets stuck. In theaters from December 2.
Focusing on the psychology of a protagonist with a troubled past, The switchof Michael Kandinsky, addresses the post-traumatic stress experienced by soldiers of the Canadian Armed Forces. François Arnaud plays a soldier who tries to reintegrate into society on his return from Afghanistan. The heavy secrets he carries clash with the peaceful life he wants to lead in northern Ontario. This film, shot near Sudbury, also stars Lothaire Bluteau and Sophie Desmarais. In theaters from November 11.
On the side of comedies
The dramatic comedy you will remember meofEric Tessier, is certainly one of the most anticipated films of the season, its release having been postponed due to the pandemic. Adapted from the eponymous play by François Archambault, the film features Édouard (Rémy Girard), a retired history teacher with worsening memory problems. This one is placed under the care of Bérénice (Karelle Tremblay), who will lead him to revisit his personal history. In premiere on October 29 at the International Film Festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and in theaters from November 4.
Another comedy will be even more humorous and absurd. These are the 12 works of Imeldaof Martin Villeneuve (March and April), brother of Dennis. First conceived as a short film, this film unfolds like a series of sketches inspired by the director’s paternal grandmother, who also has fun playing her. The film counts on an imposing cast, friends of the director, including Robert Lepage, Ginette Reno, Michel Barrette, Antoine Bertrand, Anne-Marie Cadieux and Yves Jacques. At the Quebec City Film Festival on September 9, and elsewhere in Quebec from October 28.
Innovative documentaries
Documentaries are not to be outdone this fall, with proposals just as innovative as those of fiction. Many of them highlight new policies. Rojekby the Canadian filmmaker of Kurdish-Turkish origin Zayne Akyol (Gulistan, land of roses), should prove particularly hard-hitting. The film introduces us to incarcerated members of the Islamic State group and their wives, held in prison camps. Premiere at the Montreal International Documentary Meetings in November.
With a Quebec subject, but no less necessary, the documentary To run away of Carole Laganiere was filmed in a home for women victims of domestic violence. Victims testify to their resilience with their faces uncovered, supported by their workers, from whom we learn all the need for work. In theaters from September 16.