Québec-Montréal

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".

Québec-Montréal (Ricardo Trogi, 2002)Being a part of what I call some kind of a "Québec Nouvelle Vague", Ricardo Trogi is a X generation director that directed three films that had a major success so far within the public and the critics: Québec-Montréal, Horloge biologique, and 1981. The first film by Ricardo Trogi is one of my favorite film from Québec, it depicts the story of different groups of people traveling from Québec City (my hometown by the way) to Montréal for different reasons. With a cast of young and unknown actors at the time with now respected names like: Patrice Robitaille (Horloge Biologique), Isabelle Blais (Borderline), Jean-Philippe Pearson, François Létourneau, Julie LeBreton, Stéphane Breton, Pierre-François Legendre, Tony Conte,. Benoit Gouin, and many others Québec-Montréal earned its respect of a low-budget, road-movie that works and that makes you believe in those characters.

The different stories are told simultaneously during the journey from Québec to Montréal. First, the young couple of Julie (Julie LeBreton) and Pierre-François (Pierre-François Legendre) that quarrels all the time about everything. You sure have a couple of friends like that in your entourage I'm pretty confident about that. Then you have the three guys or dudes that are going to take the plane in Montréal to head to the south for a all included resort. In that car you have Rob (Patrice Robitaille), J-P (Jean-Philippe Pearson), and Rivard (Stéphane Breton) discussing about a girl Rivard used to got out with and that J-P always secretly loves. In an other car you have Cossette (François Létourneau) who goes to Montréal for affairs with his collegue Katherine (Isabelle Blais) who he is madly in love with but is to shy to make a move. Finally, there's the hilarious Michel "Mike" Gauvin (Benoit Gouin) who goes to Montréal for his business. What is interesting here is the fact that not every story comes referenced in the other and the only thing that relate all these people is the trip they embark on.

The interprets of the many roles of this film are just right and since they are in the X generation category they portray their characters with reality. You d'ont have a fifty-something guy who plays a young man. Even the direct, Trogi himself is from this generation of young talent widely influenced by the works of Quentin Tarantino, the Coens, and their contemporaries. The subtle "mise en scène" let's to the viewer the time to connect and relate to the many characters. Just the journey of traveling between those two cities is a part of our cultural landscape but the location don't really influence it here, it could be any road: it's the human interactions that are exposed and exploited. The regional canvas identifies it for us Québécois.

In sum, this is one of the most interesting films from Québec not only to discover the talented cast but also because it represents a youth and a generation in the making of the film and also the portraying of the characters. A must see.

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