Pascale Bussieres as Alys Robi in Denise Filiatrault's Ma vie en cinemascope

TAKE ONE, March-June, 2005 by Maurie Alioff

Compared to last year's dazzling successes, 2004 was a routine year for Quebec movies. Several films were critical and box-office successes, but none attracted the international attention, or rave reviews, of Les Invasions Barbares, Seducing Doctor Lewis or Gaz Bar Blues. Of the 36 Quebec features eligible for Les Prix Jutra (the Quebec film awards) Denise Filiatrault's true-life portrait Ma vie en cinemascope and Jean Beaudin's Nouvelle-France were 2004's most highly anticipated releases.

While the storylines of these two pictures are worlds apart, both are period pieces about women whose star--crossed passions lead them to disaster: madness in Ma vie and violent death in Nouvelle-France. By revisiting the past, these two films--configured as mainstream hits--endorse commonly held notions about Quebec history and its collective psyche, The protagonist of Ma vie embodies an arab valence about pursuing success beyond Quebec's borders while the heroine of Nouvelle-France is an obvious metaphor for a culture irrevocably damaged by the British the French and especially--in the view of the movie--the Catholic Church. By the end of February, Ma vie won five Jutras, including Best Actress for Pascale Bussieres, while Nouvelle-France took only one.