Though we speak English at McGill, the rest of the city and province speaks mostly French. One of the idiosyncrasies of Montreal is the “Franglais” that you’ll hear walking around downtown. It’s not at all uncommon for Montrealers to switch languages multiple times in one conversation. Being students at McGill, we have a rare opportunity to immerse ourselves in the unique culture of Quebec and maybe even learn some French while we’re here! Watching French-Canadian movies are a great way to practice your French comprehension and familiarize yourself with the particular qualities of the language in Quebec. Here are a few Quebecois titles to add to your Netflix queue this summer:
C.R.A.Z.Y. recounts the life of Zac, a young gay man growing up in Quebec during the Quiet Revolution. With four brothers and an extremely conservative father, Zac’s adolescence is a constant struggle between embracing his sexuality and pleasing his father. If you have no idea what the Quiet Revolution is, this is a good movie to learn about that time period in Quebec’s history. Moreover, I recommend watching this movie because it will give you major feels and teach you so much about life, love, loss, and family.
This film, which was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2011 Oscars, tells the haunting story of twins Jeanne and Simon as they fulfill their late mother’s dying wish to find their long-lost father and brother. This request takes the siblings on a long journey from Canada to the Middle East, where they discover secrets of their mother’s life and of the family members they never knew. This movie will stay with you long after its conclusion. However, be aware that there are a few frightening scenes in the film.
Les Amours imaginaires (English title: Heartbeats)
Xavier Dolan, born and raised in Montreal, has a reputation for making artsy films that mess with your mind. Les Amours imaginaires is no exception. In this flick, best friends Francis (played by Dolan) and Marie both begin crushing on the same guy, Nicolas, who then proceeds to wreak havoc by playing with the feelings of his admirers. Francis and Marie’s friendship is questioned as the two passive-aggressively – and sometimes just aggressively – compete for Nicolas’s affection and attention. This film will make you question everything you think you know about love and friendship.
Using the pseudonym “Starbuck,” David Wozniak made 693 donations to a sperm bank over a period of just under two years. Twenty years later, he discovers that he is the biological father to 533 children, who have filed a lawsuit to learn his identity. We watch David as he anonymously gets to know his biological children while attempting to earn back his pregnant girlfriend’s trust. If this plot sounds familiar, that may be because the 2013 movie Delivery Man, starring Vince Vaughn, was a remake of Starbuck. Even if you’ve already seen the remake, I recommend watching the original simply because it’s full of feel-good comedy that just can’t be replicated.
This picture, which won the Prix du Jury at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, is another Xavier Dolan creation. In Mommy, a new Canadian law allows parents to abandon their troubled children in a psychiatric facility. Upon bringing her teenage son, Steve, back home after a stay in such an institution, single mother Diane struggles to deal with his emotional instability and bouts of violent behaviour. After Kyla, a new neighbour to Diane and a teacher on sabbatical, joins the mother-son duo, we see that there may still be hope for Steve… Xavier Dolan is honestly a film genius, so I highly recommend watching any of his works.
Images obtained from:
http://offqc.com/tag/keep-calm-and-parlez-franglais/
http://www.impawards.com/intl/canada/2005/c_r_a_z_y_ver3_xlg.html
http://www.impawards.com/intl/canada/2010/incendies_ver4.html
http://delaculture.com/2012/01/05/les-amours-imaginaires-mais-pas-reves/
http://www.liveforfilms.com/2015/02/09/xavier-dolans-mommy-gets-a-uk-poster/