Starring Jacques Gagnon, Claude Jutra, Jean Duceppe, Monique Mercure, Lynne Champagne, Olivette Thibault

(6-Good Film)

Measured. Bitter. Foreign.

Jos Poulin: To hell with them all! The English, Euclid, the undertaker, the priest, the boss, the whole gang. I’m getting the hell out.

Neither the whimsical jaunt nor the blissfully nostalgic piece I expected based purely on its title, Mon Oncle Antoine is surprisingly bitter. Sure, there are light moments and, at times, it takes on elements of the slice-of-life drama, which is what I anticipated goin in, but this film more accurately is about a young boy’s harsh coming-of-age in a harsh environment (Quebec, 1949). He lives with his Aunt and Uncle who run an undertaker business and flirts with the young shop girl, Carmen, that boards there. The story is quiet; the drama understated. By its end, all taken into account, you’ll notice that a lot actually does happen in this movie and there’s so much more that I feel that I missed or didn’t understand. There’s almost no context given by the film and I have no context of Canadian history, so Mon Oncle Antoine is especially foreign with very little to relate to. I wouldn’t be surprised if it grows with each viewing, but my first impression is that Mon Oncle Antoine is cold and bleak.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

(1,095)