Tit-Coq

Note: this a new series of reviews I'm installing on Le Mot du Cinephiliaque. Since I was born and raised in the Province of Québec I've decided to present and review some of the films that populate my culture and that represents the Cinema of here. The feature will be called after our license plate motto: "Je me souviens" for "I remember". 


Tit-Coq (René Delacroix & Gratien Gélinas, 1953)

After returning home from war, an ill-tempered young soldier must deal with his sweetheart having married another man. 

One of the greatest plays ever written in Quebec by Gratien Gélinas who also co-directs and stars as the title character, it is his most acclaimed work. Of course, the film version of the play is shot in the same way that the writing is played on the stage.

Tit-Coq (Gratien Gélinas) is a French Canadian soldier and we follow his story before and after going to the Second World War. Before being sent in Europe, he falls in love with Marie-Ange (Monique Miller) but being a bastard weights on his head. His fiancée promises him that she’ll wait for him to return after the war. However, when he comes back, Marie-Ange married another man and he falls into complete desperation.

I believe this is a hard film to find and not a masterpiece but still a very good depiction of the French Canadian of the time and a story that is very moving and that can be compared to a Classic Tragedy. Gélinas was one of the many writers who understood the people of the Province of Quebec. It proved to be a very popular film and the Toronto International Film Festival honoured it in 2000.

While doing my researches for this post I discovered that at first Gélinas wrote Tit-Coq  in 1947 to adapt it to film but he didn’t had the financing and this is why it began on the stage doing more than 500 representations. In the 1940’s Quebec’s Cinema wasn’t very much developed and financing was harder. Just as the lack of studios except for the public television producers there wasn’t many options for storytellers.  

Having had to read and write about the play in College, it was interesting for me to discover many years later the movie that was adapted with the original material. This is a very good Historical Film to discover about the Quebec sentiment and one of our great writers. Recommended.