REVIEWS • • Lea Pool's Anne Trister

f feminism in the '60s consisted, in part, of a rejection of mothers and Itheir roles in the social structure, the '80s have brought a return to the mother, if not to the domestic and fam­ ilial values of the '40s and the '50s. Anne Trister, Lea Pool's second fea­ ture, seems to be concerned with this new feminist position which echoes the concerns of other feminist films of the '80s, such as The Bad Sister, made for British television by Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen, and Kay Armatage's Storytelling. These films try to find some kind of alternative position for women that is outside the classical Oedipal text. Much of this work is based on the post-Lacanian psychoanalytic theory of such French feminists as Cix­ ous, Irigaray, Lemoine- Luccioni and Montrelay, concerned witj1. the rela­ tionship to the mother, the return to the mother and the need to accept the mother if one is to produce a feminist • Symbolizations of desire in Anne Trister: Louise Marleau as Alix with Albane Guilhe as Anne discourse outside the patriarchal (Oedi­ pal) cycle. daughter's despair over the death of her and sensitively played. Albane Guilhe other films financed in part by televis­ The first shot in Anne Trister is that father and how the mother was never portrays Anne as a lost, young woman ion, the visuals seem to be constructed of a young woman's naked back,- she's able to give her daughter the love she looking for herself in her art and in her specifically for the small screen and a' lying on a bed and crying. The camera needed. relationship to another woman. Al­ sense of claustrophobia develops. In pulls back and we see an older woman Loud, draIpatic music now and a though she's believable enough in the this case this is doubly disappointing. dressed in black sitting rigidly on a jerky pan over the skyline of Montreal. role of a sensitive girl in need of the First, because the concept of the film bench a few feet in front of her. She It's Anne's point-of-view. She has ar­ care and affection of an older woman, it and some of its parts promise much does ~ot move to comfort her. The next rived in Montreal and here she looks up is hard to see her as conscious or more, but also because Lea Pool's ear­ shot is of the young woman walking two people. One is an old Jewish man sophisticated enough to create the lier films show such a wonderful mas­ around in a desolate, half-built building who runs a cafe, a friend of her father. complex art work which becomes the tery of the cinematic language as a whose grey walls are covered in graffiti. As they sit talking about her father (in a central symbol of the film. means of poetic expression. We hear the sounds of water and wind. conventionally shot scene consisting of Simon, her father'S friend, and an ob­ On one wall is scribbled, "Adam and close-ups and shot-counter-shot edit­ vious father substitute, gives her a La femme de l'hotel (1984) also Eve" On another there is a huge draw­ ing) there is a sudden cut from Anne's studio. There is a long pan around the deals with the parallels between the art­ ing of a naked man and woman and two face to a video-screen shot of a little girl peeling grey walls, which echoes the ist and the neurotic personality. But in small children. As she walks around this bandaging a teddy bear. She is being pan through the deserted building at that film there is no separation between labyrinth-like structure we see another treated by a therapist at the Sainte Jus­ the beginning. Anne takes the whole the real world and that of the artist's graffiti of a raised fist, some written tine Hospital. The woman therapist, studio as her canvas and turns it into an imagination. A soft, muted light echoes obscehities, and the words "La loi" ap­ Alix, is the other person who Anne intricate architectural environment the muted lives of the women, and pear on another wall. Cut to her face as looks up. She moves into her apartment whose obsessive all-over patterning, the deadness of the city in winter be­ she walks forward. A woman's voice is and the continual and rather awkward and mUltiple false perspectives, crossed comes an ever-expanding metaphor for raised in the Hebrew prayer for the cross cutting between Anne and the with a strong linear play of shafts of the deadness and alienation that they dead and we see a corpse, wrapped in a child, Sara, whom Alix is treating makes light and painted shadows, is reminis­ struggle with. The inter-relationship of white sheet, being carried through the it obvious that we are to draw a parallel cent of the expressionist sets of The the artist/filmmaker and the neurotic desert on a stretcher. A funeral proces­ between their two cases. Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, the 1920 si­ woman who resembles her fictive sion follows, and the young woman is One of the virtues of the film is that it lent film classic. In some ways the character is carefully woven out of one of the mourners. The titles appear is rather hard to tell what will be the studio comes to look like a mausoleum, chance encounters. In other words the over a close-up of moving sand; the outcome of this plot. But one of the dis­ a tomb, and Anne's own precarious bal­ inner and outer realities of the film mir­ sound of water is beard_ appointments is that eventually we ance is echoed in that of a falling red ror and echo each other in a more sub­ The ' opening scenes are highly realize that this ' is a conventional chair she paints on the wall. There is a tle and evocative way than in Anne dramatic and their lack of a realistic I dramatic story, with its usual narrative beautiful scene where she is lying on Trister where the continual straight context .makes them seem to be sym- tension and climax. However, here the the scaffold with her eyes shut and an cuts between Anne and her counter­ bolic. O{ What, we do not know yet. roles have been switched and instead of overturned pot of red paint at her side. part, Sara, are jarring and heavy-handed. A h PaintS a red line on a window, the tension between a m.an · and a She awakes to find that a pigeon has EJKept for some wintry exteriors, the the ca 1'a back and we are willi ~Is woman leading to the climax of their' somehow flown into the studio. It flaps ph~s ical reality of the city does not the you '. woman in an art class. From eventual coupling, we find ourselves in- ! around the room trying to find a way seem to be used in any metaphoriC or this po'3, OR the film takes a realistic volved in a love story between two out, knocking against the real and the even mood-inducing manner. Alix's turn and' the emphasis is (}n' the women. One begins to wonder if we'll false windows but finding no exit. apartmeQt', wkh its soft greys and blues Psycholo~cat drama. of the young be subjected to the usuaf titillating, Unfortunately (except for the pro­ and its multiple windows that look out to woman, ~ . TriSler,. trying come to exploitative scenes of lesbian foVe-mak­ logue) the rest of the film does not into the peal world, does seem to func­ terms with her father'S death. She de­ ing. Fortunately the film avoids this and come up to the imaginative height of tioR as an alternative symbol to the cides to leave her lover and go to Louise Marleau's performance as the this central symbol. Instead it becomes mausoleum-like studio. But, like most of Montreal. At the airport, her mother therapist caught between her male a psychological drama with an emphasis the other locales in the film, it looks like (the woman who was watching her cry) lover and her concern for and attraction on the character's emotions, shot a stage set and I ended up feeling that I sneaks to Annp's lovpr. Pierre. of her to the young painter is both believably mostly in sharp, well-lit close-ups. Like was watching a play filmed for televis-

April 1986 - Cinema Canada/21 F I L M R E v I E w 5 • ion.• The filmmaker must have also felt a lows her to find her way back to the botched security truck robbery. The lack because her use of music becomes mother through her relationship to Yves Simoneau's thieves, a pair of down-and-out ex-cons, over-emphatic, making sure we under­ Alix. In her role as therapist Alix also the son of one of them and the stand the dramatic emotions involved plays the part of the mother, mediating girlfriend of the other, act under the il­ in her story and threatening to turn the between the imaginary and the sym­ Pouvoir lusion that they are working for them­ whole thing into a melodrama. When bolic, dream and reality, past and pre­ selves, for Big Money. Actually they are the chords started plunking at every sent. intime mere pawns in the hands of a powerful kiss of the climactic scene I definitely However, like the tragic hero, Anne, and mysteriOUS civil servant and his squirmed in my seat. The non-diegetic in her hubris, brings about her own fall. seedy go-between who are after secret use of the song "La main gauche" This is already implied in the falling red documents inside the truck in question. seemed rather excessive. Especially as chair she paints on the wall. As in the Only the ring-leader, Theo, is aware of its message was already present in the original childhood conflict, she stands "God, that was good! But, uh... what's the game_ conflicting emotions passing across between the father and the mother, in the point?" Through an unforseen turn of events, Louise Marleau's wonderfully expres­ this case Alix and her lover, Thomas. It - overheard after screening a guard is left still alive inside the truck sive face. That the intricate and painful is after Thomas comes and tells her that after it has been successfully taken and emotions of such a relationship could he loves Alix and won't let her be de­ black screen: the darkness oppres­ hidden in an old theatrical warehouse. be so subtly portrayed in the acting and stroyed that she forgets to set the lock sive as the gritty sound-track in­ The plan for a quick getaway is foiled by then marred by the shortcoming of the on the wheels of the scaffold and this Asinuates itself into consciousness, the guard, who makes a courageous film is doubly frustrating. overSight is the occasion for her fall. then the story slowly unfurls with delib­ stand inside the locked vehicle despite In the end one is left feeling that the In mythic terms, the fall of the hero is erate, careful pace_ Now a unique visual every attempt the thieves make to dis­ film is taking a strong feminist stance. also the fall into time and reality, as in style washes over the screen: the first lodge him. The torment of each oppos­ But what is it? Certainly the men in the Adam's fall from Paradise. But it is also a characters you see are in eerily beauti­ ing faction as they strive against each mm seem silly and inconsequential (ex­ fall to the natural cycle and can imply a ful shadows reminiscent of the black other with courage, determination, vio­ cept for the dead father and he only sense of liberation, as well as a passage and white classics of the thriller genre, lence and the threat of slow death lives on as a ghostly presence). It is the from innocence to experience. Anne's yet made prosaic by a strange new makes for gritty scenes of incredible, women who are strong, interesting artistic creation is destroyed when the voice. As further characters are intro­ blood-curdling power. This cinematic characters and their dilemmas central building it was housed in is demolished. duced, each with a different and spec­ rendition of conflict is its purest, abject to the plot. That Anne is trying to get But this scene also suggests a sense of tacular cinematic device (overhead form, impliCit and realistic, is among the back to her mother through Alix is liberation as fresh air and sunlight are travels, back to cameras, low-angle strongest I've ever experienced in any made obvious in two passages in. the allowed into its closed world and we backward, etc.) you feel them gaining a Canadian film. film; the Petit Poucet story, and the let­ hear the sound of the bird escaping. physical existence with a control of ef­ The script, co-written by Simoneau ter she writes to her mother. At one The scene of Anne crying on the bed fects that belies this director's youth, and actor Pierre Curzi, handles action, point, Anne listens to a tape from her is re-enacted at the end of the film, but but not his talent. fear and tension better than it does the lover telling a story of the Petit Poucet this time the return to the mother is By the time the audience cries out in dialogue, which is adequate but unre­ finding his way back to his mother'S achieved through her relationship with unison at the flrst surprise fright, we're markable_ True to the genre, all the womb. And towards the end of the film, Alix. The film ends with a home-movie hooked. female roleS looked flat compared to Anne writes a letter to her mother of Anne -in Israel, besides her father'S It is, indeed, at the visceral level, their male conterparts. In an'unsuccess­ which sounds as if it's written to her grave, but the desert around it has blos­ where thrillers should act, that Pouvoir ful effort to add flesh to the Roxanne lover. Towards the end, the scene of somed into flowering plants. intime works so astonishingly well. Di­ character (played by Marie Tifo), the Anne crying in the bed with her mother If Anne Trister for me succeeds less rector and Genie-winner Yves script operates a stereotype-in- reverse. looking on is repeated with Alix in her well than La femme de l'hotel as a vis­ Simoneau, 30, manipulates tension and Instead of a chesty, squeaky-voiced mother'S place, but this time the ual, artistic whole, it provides deeper suspense using a triple-whammy com­ blond bombshell, we have a plain, an­ mother figure crosses the space be­ and more complex characterizations in bination of masterful pacing, original drogynous and square-boned woman tween them and holds her. This is the the two leads_ Unlike the earlier mm, visual style and a surprisingly effective who wanders into either men's or climax of the film. these characters do not remain static, soundtrack. Without resorting either to women's bathrooms indifferently, Thus Anne Trister can be seen as a re­ trapped in their neurosis, but achieve the genre's typical gore and car-chases, whose existence seems ill-defined and working of the Oedipus myth in both transformation and growth. or to stereotype over-kill, he tells his unrealistic. feminist terms. The fall of Oedipus, as a Mary Alemany-Galway • story - in fact, grinds it into you. The characters form the spectrum of tragic hero, comes about because, in his Pouvoir intime contains scenes that the thriller format: 1) the manipulating hubris he kills his father and marries his ANNE TRISTER d_ Lea Pool sc. Marcel Beaulieu. reverberate in one's consciousness days bad guys, first lit in black and white mother. The girl-child also experiences L~ a Pool. from an original idea by Lea Pool p. Roger after viewing, as a distant echo of some shadows but moving on to artificial Frappier. Claude Bonin exec.p. Roger Frappier 1st lighting, which, much like their in­ her first erotic attachment to the a.d . Mireilk Goulet cont_ Monique Champagne d.o.p. forgotten horror. We live with these mother but in working out the conflict­ Pierre Mignot cam. Jean Lepine 1st asst.cam. Serge characters, their courage, their fears, terests, are preoccupied with exterior, ing emotions inherent in that relation­ Lafortune 2nd asst.cam. Michel Bissonnette video their limitations, their failures. And we modern, superficial desires; 2) the anti­ cam. Fran,ois Gill sp.efx.coord. Jacques Godbout curse their deaths_ heroic thieves, true "beautiful losers" of ship she rejects the mother and trans­ assts. Philippe Palu, Pierre Rivard, Antonio Vidosa. fers her eroticism to the father. How­ Gilles Rieupeyroux stills Bertrand Carriere sd. The premise of the story, the conflict Canadian lore, who wear their human­ ever this entails a rejection of solidarity Richard Besse boom Yvon Benoit sd.efx. Ken Page between power and the lack of it, be­ ness as a badge of glory and die with with her own sex and an acceptance of asst. Vital Millette sd.efx.rec. Claude Chevalier tween control and being controlled, is tears in their eyes; 3) the honest, good mUS.rec. Louis Hone mix. Jean-Pierre Joutcl, Hans her role as secondary to that of the Peter Strobl p.man. Michel Dandavino. Marie- Andree transmitted through the vehicle of a guy, security guard Martial, terrified, male. In Lacanian terms, it also entails Vinet p.assts. Norhert Dufour. Ghislaine Mathieu, an acceptance of patriarchal law and an Tristan Ro)' loc-man_ Pierre Houle. Pic:rre Plante unit man (Switz.) Gerard Ruey unit man (Isr.) Shlomo entrance into the symbolic; the codifi­ Paz admin. Monique Letourneau asst. Louise cation of reality by language. A return to Cousineau, Evelyn Regimbald p.sec Johanne Pelletier. the mother thus signifies a return to the Nicole Bernier p.acct. Daniel Demers. Louise Dupre tech. coord. Edouard Davidovici post-p.sup. imaginary, the pre-verbal world, that Suzanne Dussault painted environment concept & she is associated with. Although the d. Genevieve Desgagnes. Daniel Sirtley assembled by mother is the spokesperson for the sym­ Marie MaltaiS, Peter Hastings, Caroline Drouin assts. Greg Charlton, Georges Leonard. Paola Ridolfi art d. bolic order she bars total access to it. Vianne), Gauthier asst.art d . Patrice Bengle on-set The never-ending fascination of the re­ props Daniel Huysmans props Ian Lavoie. Pierre lation with the mother holds part of Gauthier cost. Gaudeline Saunol dresser Marie-Anne women in the imaginary order and for Carter make-up Diane Simard hair Gaetan No iseux. i yne Normandin hd.llghtlng Roger Martin elect. her to be able to speak for herself she Normand Viau , Jean Trudeau trainee Sylvaine Dufaux must acknowledge the permanence of key grip Yvon Boudrias grip Jean-Pierre Lamarche this relationship. loc.scout Michel Dandavino ed. Michel Arcand asst.ed. Alain Belhumeur orig.mus. Rent' Duperc, As Anne herself says as she rejects the with Daniel Deshairne mus. Sylvain Clavette, Claude standard forms of the still life to achieve Vendette mus.rights Evelyn Regimbald,"De la main the conception and actualization of her gauche" comp.& sung by Danielle Messia, "Kad­ disch" by Maurice Ravelinr.by Marie-Danielle Parent, imaginary architectural environment, soprano, and the Studio C chamber orchesira di­ "One has to be in an extremely serious rected by Richard Hoenich, "Ridiculous Love" compo situation to be able to move .. .1 would & interpreted by Daniel Lavoie. "Primadonna" by Gianna Nannini p.c. National Film Board of Canada, like to have the courage of my dreams." and Les Films Vision 4 Inc. produced with the par­ For her this situation is the death of the ticipation of the Societe Generale du Cinema du idealized father. It leaves her in a state Quebec, Teletilm Canada and the Societe de Radio­ of disarray clearly articulated by the Tel<,vision du Quebec disr. Cine 360 Inc. running time: 115 mins. I.p. Albane Guilhe, Louise Marleau, • Pouvoir Intime works at the visceral level: Jacques Godin holds Eric Brisebois as Marie multiple perspectives and dizzying im­ Lucie Laurier, Guy Thauvette, Hugues Quester, Nuvit Tilo and Pierre Curzi look on balance of her creation. But it also al- Ozdogru, Kim Yaroshevskaya

22lCinemaCaoadB- -:- Aoril1986 .