REVIEWS • • The-Hell, He'll Have Another One

REVIEWS • • the-hell, he'll have another one. Sitting during an afternoon encounter in a rue Jean-Pierre Lefebvre's in a snack bar, he muses at some length St-Denis tourist room with his ex-Wife, Philippe de Broca's while choosing between a small, Louise, that he need no longer be uneasy medium or large Coke to go with his hot about what might have been ; the spark Le .Jour S dog (he takes a large). In another is gone from that relation : it is now over. Louisiana director's hands, this kind of anecdote This frees Jean-Baptiste from the subtle would need a gag. line to work. But pressures of the past, and he can now Lefebvre relies on a relaxed pace - and a whole-heartedly embrace his perky girl sense that he really cares - to make the friend, Carole, played, of course, by Le Jour S is a title which made me viewer care, too. Marie Tifo. Louisiana, a Canada-France co-produc suspect that Jean-Pierre Lefebvre's But 'Ie jour 5' is not, of course, a "jour Le Jour 5 recalls many French roman latest film might be tense and apocalyp nee comme les autres" ; Jean-Baptiste is tion funded partly by Telefilm Canada's tic comedies, stories in which a brief Broadcast Fund and destined for even· tic, perhaps political, like Z or The Day haunted all day by echoes and ghosts, time somehow becomes the focus for a tual release as a television mini-series, of the Jackal. But film titles can be de memories of what he might have been welling-up of feelings, a quiet coming-to opened Aug. 2 in both French and ceiving and, luckily, Le Jour 5 follows in and women he might have known. terms with the changes in one's sen ·English in various Montreal theatres. Lefebvre's own tradition of low-key, There is no epiphany in Le Jour 5 , but timental life. Tavernier's Une 5emaine Quite the cultural event, truly bilingual, highly personal film-making; this film the '5' element of feelings and dreams de vacances comes to mind, but in that and the premiere, at the Champlain is as far removed from a thriller or intrudes everywhere. On opening a film, a sense of crisis underlies the pro theatre, was certainly one of the social blockbuster as it is possible to be. letter from his son, Jean-Baptiste is so tagonist's week of reflection and change. events of the month : Denis Heroux Instead, Le Jour 5 is subtle and fluid taken by the lyricism of child's writing a Le Jour S, on the other hand, gains its Iproducer), Pierre Trudeau lex-prime work, full of cheerful romanticism. I"It is autumn now, and the leaves are charm through being wholly unforced, minister) and Margot Kidder Ileading Lefebvre prefers to sooth rather than to falling"), that he begins reading it never proposing to teach lessons or , actress) spiced up the audience With shock, and he has the special talent of aloud on the bus, to the great bewilder correct one's behaviour. The viewer, too, their presence. This gathering, at 15$ a making us see the small changes that ment.of everyone seated nearby. Today, finds that a space is somehow cleared ticket, also had a specific charitable occur as relationships evolve. Jean-Baptiste tells the underwear 'l.mong the shower of contingent details . mission since the benefits went to the In the opening scene of Le Jour 5, salesman at the shopping centre, "I feel in everyday life, and the essential rela Canadian Association of Mental Health Jean-Baptiste (played by Pierre Curzi), like a caterpillar who has become a tions which sustain and justify life are - a premiere for the Canadian film an amiable TV producer approaching butterfly" . brought clearly into view. This is the industry. The heart of Le Jour S, however, is in poetry of Lefebvre's vision, a cinema of 40, is lying in bed and, speaking to who If the organizers of the benefit w ere Jean-Baptiste's relations With women. clarity, subtlety and fine touches. And Le ever is on the next pillow, he recounts extremely pleased with this venture of a :his is a day of premonitions and intui Jour 5 is one of the most (quietly-) several contradictory versions of his new kind and expressed their gratitude tions and, somehow, every contact with accomplished films in his repertory. first sexual experience. As the camera to the generosity of the film industry, a woman seems especially acute. A very angle widens, it turns out that Jean how we ignore that Louisiana, the film, Baptiste is actually holding forth to his pregnant matron smiles glowingly at David Winch • simply reinforces the same old patterns tape recorder. Lefebvre is not just J·B's poetic outburst on the bus, a porno of international co-production ? fishing for laughs, however ; today, 'Ie theatre ticket-taker takes immediate LE JOUR S d. Jean·Pierre Lefe bvre a.d. Josee Beaude t se. Barbara Easto, J.·P. Lefebvre p. Yves The moment for the release of this jour 5', Will be a day for reflection and offense at his quite innocent queries, Rivard d.o.p. Guy Dufa ux ass!. cam. Robert film was well chosen. Summer, vacation recollection. It will be a day, as Jean and - incredibly - when Jean-Baptiste Guertin, Miche l Girard sd. Claude Hazanavicius sd. time, a period of the year when w~ are Baptiste self-consciously writes in his has a small accident and bumps into asst. James L.ouis Thompson mho Michel Cha rron thirsty for stories, when we are ' just jourmll, . for accenting "sel(ualiuL. another car, th'e driver turns out to be elect. Jean·Maurice de Ernsted, Gilles Fortie r grips Marc de Ernsted, Ste phane de Ernsted cont. Clau· aboy! ready to dive into the longest, sensualittL. sentiments.. :" his long-estranged wife, Louise .. And dette Messier stills Gilles Corbeil make-up Diane thickest best-selling novel on the. mar From ' ~here, the story takes a decep each of these women - dressed in dif Sima rd p. assts. Edo uard ·Faribault. Sara Mills, ket, searching out new characters, land tively aim~ess turn: Jean-Baptiste has ferent guises - is played by Marie rifo. Marcel Royer lab. Be llevue Pa the Quebec 1972 scapes, and passions. In the windows of nothing in particular to do, nowhere This is a curious move by Lefebvre, grader Pierre Ca mpeau titles Yves Ri vard mu ~ . Jean·Pierre Lefebvre, Barbara Easto ed. Barbara many bookstores, Maurice De nuziere's really to go, no urgent needs or desires. although it must be tempting to play the Easto optical Groupe Film Optical (Que.J Inc. p.c. three novels Louisiana, Fausse Riviere He gets up, reads the morning mail, very adaptable Tifo opposite beWildered, Cin'ak Llee, with the fi n an ~ ial assistance of I'lnstitut and Bagatelle stand ready to reveal, one quebecois du cinema a nd Be ll evue Pathe Quebec takes a bus out to a shopping mall to buy errant Jean-Baptiste. She plays every by one, their worlds. some underwear, and sai1s. through a role that a woman has played in his life : 1972. color, 16 and35mm running time : 88 min. dist. (world) As tral Bellevue, (514) 747·2441 Lp. Louisiana the movie, based on the bachelor's Saturday with no ' pressing the un~ttainable woman, the happy Pierre Curzi, Jean·Baptiste Beauregard, Marie Tifo, first two volumes of Denuziere's ima agenda. But Lefebvre and Curzi catch mother, the 'bad' girl, the friend, and the Simon.Esterez, Benoit Caste l. Adrien Morot, Mi chel ginary world, promised much for lovers myriad little details, and Curzi is par adversary. She plays t~e woman he has Daigle, Pierre Brisset Des No s, Roger H. Gue rtin, of fictionalized history - not only ticularly good as the put-upon little guy lost forever, and the woman he is com Guillaume Chouinard, Re jean Gauvin, Brigitte Lecours, Gregory Keith, Michel Vi a la, Anne Lecours, characters, landscapes and passions, just trying to get through the day. He pletely devoted to. On 'Ie jour 5', more Berenard Fortin, Vincent Gra ton and with the but the grandeur of big-screen specta takes out his pack of Player's Lights, over, each of these relations is felt to be friendly participati on of Marcel Sabourin and cle. The saga of Virginia and her strug pauses a moment and decides, what- at ~ critical point : Jean-Baptiste realizes, Marthe Na d eau. gle to secure Bagatelle, her childhood home, in the explosive years of the mid- • "A caterpillar who's become a butterfly" : Marie Tifo and Pierre Curzi in Le Jour S 19th Ce ntury, offered to seduce us w ith its settings, costumes a nd lavish images, bathed in soft light by the cinem a to graphic expertise of Miche l Brault. He/as - big, yes, a nd visua lly beautiful but this is by no means a seducti ve film. " New Orleans, 1836" is superim posed over the first images of the film . Thus time and space simply declare the m selves, as, unfortunatelv w ill a ll of the other elem ents of the film - character, plot. em otio n, etc., a re simply pl'esented on the screen w ithout ever being reall,' developed . Arrivi ng from France, \ 'ir· ginia (Margot Kidderl tells her maid, Mignette, that she is d e te l'mined to get Bagatell e back at all costs.

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