Films: Curling

Curling

Canada, 2010, 96 Minute Running Time
Genre/Subjects: Drama, Family Issues, French/French Canadian, Social Issues
Program: Contemporary World Cinema
Language: French English Subtitles

DIRECTOR: Denis Côté
Producer: Denis Côté, Stéphanie Morissette
Editor: Nicolas Roy
Screenwriter: Denis Côté
Cinematographer: Josée Deshaies
Principal Cast: Emmanuel Bilodeau, Philomène Bilodeau, Roc Lafortune, Sophie Desmarais, Muriel Dutil

Canadian director Denis Côté’s fifth feature film is a chilling drama that takes place on Québec’s frozen prairie. Introverted Jean-François Sauvageau lives a quiet life in a wintery rural area with his 12-year-old daughter, Julyvonne (played by real-life father-daughter team Emmanuel and Philomène Bilodeau). It’s so quiet, in fact, that Julyvonne is plotting ways to escape her carefully controlled home environment and make contact with the world outside while her father works in maintenance at a bowling alley. Its owner, a boisterous French-Canandian with a penchant for Western shirts, and a goth-rock princess round out the oddball crew.

Fearful as he is of the outside world, there’s one thing that brings Jean-François out of his shell: the opportunity to go curling at the local recreation center. Despite being played on the ice, curling is a warm sport, glowing with life, in contrast to the impenetrable cold around and inside him. When curling, he is able to be the person he would rather be—outgoing and successful.

Back at home, however, Jean-François obsessively tries to protect his daughter from the horrors of life—including her mother, Rosie. But his attempts backfire when she discovers a group of bodies frozen in the woods near their home. Starved as she is for human contact, she develops a strange fascination with the corpses and spends her days among them. Though Jean-François has his own secret—one that threatens to shatter his world—he must face his fears before he loses Julyvonne forever.
—REBECCA CARO

Sponsored by Consulate General of Canada in Denver, Quèbec Government Office in Los Angeles

(Unsubtitled trailer)

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