Paul Berval

Paul Berval

Profile

Paul Berval

Movies

Windigo
Odilas (Dilas) Paquette
Native Americans clash with the Canadian government as they struggle for independence in this factual Canadian drama set in Quebec during the summer of 1990. Eddie Laroche, a rebellious native leader spawned a national crises when he and his supporters declared the independence of Aki territory in a far-flung area of northern Quebec. He refused to negotiate without the presences of television cameras to record his people's plight. Jean Fontaine was the reporter assigned to the story and much of the film is told from his viewpoint. To reach Laroche's land, negotiators, government officials, and the film crew had to travel by boat. Fontaine is initially cynical and reluctant to do the story, but after he spends time on the boat interviewing it's passengers, his cynicism has dissolves and he realizes he is faced with the presentations of a terribly complex situation. His dilemma provides a main focus for the film.
Les tisserands du pouvoir
Clemm Tardiff
The Alley Cat
Monsieur St-Onge
Florent Boissonneault and his young wife Elise always had one dream: own a restaurant. When they meet a strange old man, Egon Ratablavasky, their dream become reality, but only to quick turn into a nightmare when they sadly discover they had been tricked by him, and lost everything. But their dream is not dead, and a strong desire of avenging soon bring them back in business, with the help of an homeless kid, a french cook and a friendly journalist. But the old man still had trick on for them his bag...
Maria Chapdelaine
Ephrem
A young woman, living with her parents and siblings on a remote farm in harsh, picturesque northern Québec, has three suitors: a steady and unimaginative farmer, Eutrope, the Americanized and wealthy Lorenzo, who has sought his fortune in Boston, and François Paradis, a rough and virile logger who captures her heart despite the warnings of her parents and the village priest. For a year, marked by seasonal change in an atmosphere charged with the strangeness of Indians and the demons of the woods, we see Maria at work and prayer, struggling with decisions, choosing to stay in Canada, in love with François, seeking to change his rough behaviors, and dealing with extraordinary loss.
The Plouffe Family
Onésime Ménard
The lives of the average Quebecois Plouffe family during the final years of the depression and through World War II.
Les chiens chauds
Benito Imbroglio
Mr. Clean (Harry Reems) is a police detective who heads a special task force of the vice squad. Clean's by-the-book attitude makes him none too popular with his underlings, so they try to fake a sex scandal that will cause him to be fired from the force.
C'est jeune et ça sait tout!
Le boucher
When Charles Le Braque learns that his boss' 17 years old daughter is pregnant, he fears that his 16 years old nice Joel from France, who's spending her vacation with them in Canada, might fall into the same trap. So he and his wife decide to give her the lecture of plants and bees... but it turns out that she's already well informed, gives them a lecture about simultaneous orgasms. She inspires the sexually repressed couple to start experimenting with "modern" forms of sex.
There's Always a Way to Find a Way
The Doves
Philippe
The lives of two families in Montreal.
The Apprentice
The priest
In Montréal, Jean-Pierre is fired on the set of a TV commercial where he's an apprentice technician. He's penniless, behind on his rent, with a thin resume and no college units. He has a fiancée, Michelle, but his head is turned by a free-spirited model, from the U.S., who saw him being fired and comes to his flat to apologize. She's Elizabeth, a combination of feckless innocence and sexual freedom. Jean-Pierre borrows money from his outlaw friend, Dock, and buys clothes to impress Elizabeth. Soon he's sleeping with her, and he pulls a theft with Dock to get money to take her to Acapulco. Michelle tries to bring him back to her orbit. Is there a way out for Jean-Pierre?
Les chats bottés
Le Commandeur
An example of 1970's Maple Syrup cinema from Quebec, this whimsical and sexy tale revolves around two trickster roommates and the women in their lives who want to see them settle down.
The Christmas Martian
Uncle Henry
A martian comes to a small town in Quebec and becomes friends with the town children. He gives them candy to get the children into his spacecraft. This alarms the parents but he wins them over and they have a great big Christmas party.
Two Women In Gold
Monsieur Tapis
Two bored Montreal housewives (Monique Mercure & Louise Turcot), with inattentive husbands (Marcel Sabourin & Donald Pilon), and lots of time on their hands, amuse themselves by paying the local tradesmen something extra to give them amorous attention. Their entertainment leads to frantic confusion, however, when one of the visiting gentlemen - shall we say - 'expires'. The housewives deal with their unpleasant situation quite energetically.
Straight to the Heart
An unemployed man with individualist and pacifist values is inevitably brainwashed by society and the mass media to conform to the dominant ideology and embrace war. His soul is destroyed but his heart cannot be conquered.
Les lumières de ma ville
Marcel Genest
A beautiful country girl and a seductive nightclub singer vie for the same good-looking man.
Le gros Bill
Arthur
A tiny Quebec community is thrown into an uproar when a tall young Texan named Bill arrives to claim a farm he has inherited. Bill's inability to speak French, and his apparent unwillingness to learn the language, foments plenty of ill will in the community. The story is resolved with an abundance of warmth and humor, sometimes hokey, sometimes hilarious.