Canadian poet Leonard Cohen who now resides on the island of Hydra in Greece, is shown in his native city of Montreal. The program explores Cohens childhood and his subsequent development as one of Canadas leading new writers. The film takes viewers to the house Cohen was brought up in as well as to the places of Montreal he enjoys frequenting his favorite bistro, a three dollar-a-day hotel, the public park, the exclusive section called Westmount, and a Greek grocery store. Cohen himself is shown at a recording session, at public readings of his poetry, displaying home movies of his childhood, and commenting on university life. He also reflects on his visit to Cuba, his girlfriend in Greece, his obsession with danger and his friends and their personalities.
Tag: CANADA
Marie Chapdelaine leaves her rural Quebec village and travels to Montreal to find her estranged lumberjack father who disappeared seven years ago. She meets Armand St-Amour, a former friend of her father and the owner of a country-and-western bar called the Rodeo Club. Armand takes the opportunity to exploit the naive and innocent young girl and tells her that if she works for him as a topless singer he will put her in touch with her father’s mistress who will know where he is.
This documentary is a portrait of Point St. Charles, one of Montreal’s notoriously bleak neighbourhoods. Many of the residents are English-speaking and of Irish origin; many of them are also on welfare. Considered to be one of the toughest districts in all of Canada, Point St. Charles is poor in terms of community facilities, but still full of rich contrasts and high spirits – that is, most of the time.
A writer starts running into the characters he’s created in real life. Alberta is his fantasy woman, who starts out as a sexy rock singer. However, when the bad guy in his novel gets his hands on the manuscript and starts making changes of his own, they are all in for a wild ride.
Animated drawings illustrate the life and explorations of Samuel de Champlain, founder of Québec City. The film follows Champlain from his first ambitions to map the New World and discover a passage to the sea, to his later dreams for New France.
A father brings a young child to an emergency room to get treatment for a minor injury occurring in an innocent accident, but he gets accused of child abuse. Child welfare agencies commit grossly unfair over-reactions to remove the child forcibly from the father, who must brave the arcane system to reclaim his daughter.
Made as a tribute to the poet-painter Henri Michaux who died in 1985, this animated short film is inspired by one of his books, Mouvements (Gallimard, 1951), and offers an unusual rapprochement between an exceptional practice of writing and painting and the art of animation and cinema. Techniques: real shots and engraving on film.