Monique Mercure

At 47, Julien is an eternal misfit with no real job. But now that he has published an autobiography recounting his childhood memories, a complicated relationship with his mother and troubling family secrets, success is knocking on his door. Julien and his mother have cut ties a long time ago and she doesn't know about the book. Living a sad and miserable life in a retirement home, she renews contact with her son to make up for lost time. But is that all there is to it?

In the old industrial neigbourghood St-Henri, the young and colorful Clara meets a clueless Latino-american man searching for the house of the book Bonheur d'occasion, written by Gabrielle Roy.

To save his best friend, Louis-Bernard Lapointe has to transport himself to a parallel world to find the 'Key of Possibilities', a magical and legendary object that allow his user to visit an infinite numbers of universes where everything is possible.

When Madeleine is diagnosed with Alzheimers, she makes two important decisions. One is to keep it from her family. The other is to revisit her beloved Gaspésie and relive, for one last time, the memories this evokes. Encountering Zoë, an emotionally disturbed young musician, Madeleine asks her to be her driver for the trip.

A reporter goes to a mysterious village to investigate mysterious disappearances until one night, his friend gets abducted and every citizen wants him dead.

In the mid-18th Century, as England and France battle over control of Canada, an epic romance between a peasant woman and a trapper unfurls

A detective (Jeff Fahey) investigating the murders of two sex offenders gets involved with a beautiful district attorney (Marlee Matlin) who becomes a main suspect.

A coming-of-age tale centered around Hannah, a young girl who is living a troubled family life. Set in 1963, Hannah develops a fascination with Jean-Luc Godard's then-recent film "Vivre sa vie". As she begins to model herself after the film's lead role, Hannah slowly begins to explore the confusing nature of her sexuality.

300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

British-Canadian light romantic comedy film set in a dying Saskatchewan town. Bank branch manager, Pincer Bedier, dreams of reviving the town when one day a beautiful young woman's car breaks down and she becomes stranded until it can be repaired. She is convinced by the banker to take on the duties at the local hardware store to pay for the parts for her car and soon a romance between the two develops.

One of Canada's most remarkable families works tirelessly to aid displaced persons and refugees during the Second World War.

Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

Six stories about Montreal. 1: A young housewife from Toronto samples the nightlife using basic French. 2: The tale of a painting of Montreal's first mayor, Jacques Viger. 3: During a hockey game, Madeleine tries to tell Roger she wants a divorce after forty years of marriage. 4: A visitor to a conference on pictographs arrives at the airport, where the female customs officer steals a momento from each person. 5: As she is being driven to the hospital in an ambulance after an auto accident, Sarah recalls her life. 6: At a diplomatic reception, an older woman reminisces about her grand love in Montreal.

The title of this French-Canadian film translates to In the Belly of the Dragon, but don't assume that it's just another kung fu epic. Rather, the film is a likeable mixture of science fiction and humor, centered around the money-making schemes of star David La Haye. Unable to make ends meet with his minimum-wage job, La Haye hires himself out as a guinea pig to genially loopy scientist Marie Tifo. It is the doctor's contention that a person's intelligence can be artificially increased. La Haye proves her right...up to a point, that is. Extremely popular in Canada, Dans le Ventre du Dragon has yet to receive proper distribution in the States.

A drama of manners, spiced by light moments, describing the "love stories" of a mother and her daughter. The two women spend a summer together. Madeline, the mother, a professional, independent woman, begins a romantic relationship with an engineer after ending a previous relation. For her part, Renée, her 20-year old daughter, tries to see her father again and dreams of stable love.

In Quebec 40s, orphans or abandoned children are placed in a gigantic psychiatric hospital where children were locked. Were they sick? No, they simply had no family. To escape this oppressive universe, they created a parallel world: the institution's basement where, in a maze of tunnels, they founded an independent company, with its rituals, spells. A young girl, Agnes, reigns over this underground world that adults seem to tolerate.

In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.

Continuing a saga that began with his previous, 1978 film, Vautours director Jean-Claude Labrecque returns with the French Canadian, Louis Pelletier and puts him in the context of the growing separatist movement in the late 1960s in Quebec. At that time, supporters of an independent Quebec began to consolidate their power under the Parti Québecois -- and the story of Louis and his wife Claudette are meant to illustrate this watershed in Quebec's history. As the film begins, Claudette and Louis are about to get married -- and their wedding day significantly coincides with preparations for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. Years later, they are well-established in Montreal and are enjoying visits from their family -- and then their lives start to deteriorate. Louis is suddenly out of work, and as he faces the difficulties of finding another job -- and of living precariously -- he becomes more radical, less accepting of the status quo.

Contrecoeur is a film using fantastic realism to talk about psychology, drift and love. Three characters must define themselves in an enclosed space, a truck trapped in a snowstorm, and dream of somewhere else to find each other.

Two children deal with the arrival of a foster brother, a Cambodian refugee. All three of them discover a hermetic retired railway engineer living in the woods. Then the children find an abandoned locomotive and, with the help of the engineer, bring it back to working order.

A group of friends reunite after thirty years of separation.

On a wedding day, women are confined to the kitchen to prepare the meal while the men wait to be served. While men talk politics and sports, women talk about their condition. A teenager observes the gap between the sexes. Co-directed by two actresses, Paule Baillargeon and Frederique Collin, The Red Kitchen is the birth of the Quebec women's cinema. The birth of the film was difficult, and funding has been largely achieved through donations from friends and a benefit concert. This war of the sexes takes place in a demanding formal research, based on the improvisation of the actors, whose preparation took place over long sessions in the workshop. The end result mixes black humour, horror and a very expressive fantasy that gave rise to heated debates.

Sergeant Boyd's police search to find a sniper who has been shooting hookers.

During a future ice age, dying humanity occupies its remaining time by playing a board game called Quintet. For one small group, this obsession is not enough. They play the game with living pieces, and only the winner survives.

Roland des Roncesvalles is a legendary knight from the age of chivalry in France. In the 11th-century epic La Chanson de Roland, he is depicted as a key figure in halting the advance of the Arabs into France. In this story, the 10th-century legend is staged by a group of 12th-century pilgrims using the 11th-century poem. Their acting is interrupted by a violent peasant uprising, which kills many of the pilgrims. However, one of the survivors, is converted to the peasant cause and later speaks out in favor of more just treatment for the downtrodden.

Twins Etienne and Andrew are separated at birth--an error that years later will wrench apart two loving families.

The wife of photographer J.A. Martin decides to go with him in his tour of the hard Canadian countryside at the turn of the century. She hopes the intimacy will revive their marriage.

Louise is a professional photographer and very successful in her job. But her father who had disappeared for many years resurfaced. He is very sick and would like to see his three daughters again. At the request of her father, Louise hesitates and then slips away. The reappearance of his father poses problems even in her life as a couple.

A television host tries to react to the process of alienation that the public is subjected to from variety shows.

An acerbic and surreal comedy about marriage and married life.

Although he is something of a layabout, and is still living with his mother, her death comes as something of a shock to Louis Pelletier (Gilbert Sicotte). Still, he has hopes of some sort of legacy and believes that his relatives will help him find a job. All his hopes are dashed when, before the funeral, his three aunts come to Quebec City to settle their sister's estate. As grasping and efficient a crew as ever strode a parlor, by the time they leave, the estate has been cleaned to the bones, as if by vultures.

Two women and a transvestite gay man cross paths in this French Canadian drama. The transvestite is preparing for a drag-queen beauty pageant, and has decided to present himself as Cleopatra. Of the two women, one was just fired from her waitressing job and seeks to go back to work at the nightclub where the beauty pageant is to be held. The other woman's mother has just won one million food stamps.

A young boy learns the rituals of what his father and his friends perceive as manhood on a weekend hunting trip.

Fictional character played by 24 different actresses, Françoise Durocher is altogether small time waitress, hostess and barmaid. Together, according to the author, they represent the archetypical Québec waitress that everyday waits on us with a smile, despite whatever problems she faces in her personal life. First cinematographic experience of the Brassard-Tremblay tandem, this film full of ironic joy details all the nuances of the waitress living conditions.

Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business.

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.

Short film about the underground part, both geographical and social, of the city of Montreal, through the obsession of a business magnate for a young woman.

An indecisive young woman with an abnormal devotion to her father can't decide on which of her two boyfriends she should end her relationship with.

The lives of a businessman and his family begin to spiral downward after he has an affair at an insurance convention.

A young Jesuit missionary reflects on his life and his faith while awaiting his execution at the hands of the Native Americans he came to convert.

A man struggles with his identity, his life choices, his interracial relationship, and his latent homosexuality. A portrait of some young intellectuals in early sixties Montreal.

Backyard Theatre is a documentary about playwright Michel Tremblay and director André Brassard’s flavourful brand of Quebec theatre, which captured the earthy wit and joual (slang) of Montreal's East End working-class neighbourhood. The film features impromptu improvisation by the cast of Les belles-soeurs and Demain matin, Montréal m'attend, two genre-defining plays.