ROBERT LEPAGE

Bil’s rating (out of 5):  BBB.5. 

Canada, 1998.  Alliance Communications Corporation, In Extremis Images.  Screenplay by Robert Lepage, Andre Morency.  Cinematography by Pierre Mignot.  Produced by Bruno Jobin.  Music by Michel F. Cote, Bernard Falaise.  Costume Design by Marie-Chantale Vaillancourt.  Film Editing by Aube Foglia.  Toronto International Film Festival 1998.

Wonderful film about the turbulent moment in history when the Fronte du Liberation Quebec took over Montreal, forcing Pierre Trudeau to send in the Canadian army to keep the peace. Anne-Marie Cadieux plays a theatre actress who escapes the bedlam for a while by performing in a play during the Japanese World Exposition and, while there, befriends political liaisons. Her boyfriend, meanwhile, is a guerilla fighter back home keeping residents of Montreal in constant terror. The title is a pun on both Quebec’s feeling to the endless referendum regarding its political fate, and the elegant style of Noh Theatre that the characters experience while visiting Japan.