What’s new in Canadian cinema? Find out this week as the Cinematheque (1181 Howe St.) presents New (Canadian) Cinema, including two Vancouver premieres.
From Jan. 9-15, the downtown Vancouver arthouse theatre presents four movies released last year. They range from a film about a Quebec teenager to a woman trying to reconnect with her father to a wife and mother with a secret life. Find out more below.
Les Salopes or the Naturally Wanton Pleasure of Skin (Les salopes ou le sucre naturel de la peau)—Women’s sexual pleasure is the subject of Quebecois writer-director Renée Beaulieu’s second feature. The synopsis at tiff.com reads, “A happily married wife and mother (Marie-Claire, played by Brigitte Poupart) with a promiscuous secret life must confront the consequences her choices have for her family and career when a scandal threatens to shed light on her affairs, in this introspective drama about the nature, limits, and consequences of desire.”
Roads in February (Les routes en février)—Montreal-based writer/director Katherine Jerkovic’s debut feature won Best Canadian First Feature at the Toronto International Film Festival. In it, a young woman mourning the death of her father travels from Montreal to a village in Uruguay to reconnect with her paternal grandmother, Magda. However, tension arises as Magda realizes her son will never return to see her. “Delicate, intimate, and thoughtfully realized… Jerkovic is a gifted, intuitive storyteller,” says Norman Wilner of Now Magazine.
The Fireflies Are Gone (La disparition des lucioles)—The Vancouver premiere of Sébastien Pilote’s latest was named Best Canadian Feature at TIFF. “An appealing, break-out performance by young lead Karelle Tremblay … Pilote’s films are beautifully crafted and emotionally effective,” (says Screen Daily. Preceded by Vancouver cinematographer Norm Li’s Under the Viaduct.
