| Newsletter ... May 1999 |
A SPECIAL EVENT FOR QFA MEMBERS: IT'S YOUR TURN
The free end-of-year screening and party for members is an ideal finale for a film-loving audience that has developed a certain camaraderie during the regular season. It's a one-time opportunity to give full vent to those post-movie impressions and emotions that often drift out of the theatre and into the lobby, only to be cut short by weeknight obligations.At this year's members-only event (7 p.m, Wednesday, June 9th), the laughter and conversation are sure to be animated, as both spill over from the Famous Players 8 Cinema to the comfortable surroundings of The Belleville Club. The subject of discussion will be the hit French-Canadian comedy, It's Your Turn, Laura, a quirky slice-of-life of the sort that Canadians do so well -- and that Michel Tremblay, the legendary Quebec playwright and Laura screenwriter, does brilliantly.
Tremblay first wrote the story of Laura Cadieux twenty-five years ago, but its subject -- women, body image and all of the associated trauma -- has grown into even more of a contemporary preoccupation. The movie version takes place in a working class Montreal neighbourhood, where the decidedly obese Laura Cadieux shares a gynecologist's waiting room with a sharp-tongued, back-biting, gossiping gaggle of women who have been attending the doctor's (apparently ineffective) weekly weight-loss clinic for fifteen years. Although slapstick sub-plots have been added to the original story -- one already-frantic woman mistakenly searching the Montreal subway film for a boy who isn't really missing, another not suspecting that she is being betrayed by her butcher husband and her friend in the walk-in meat freezer -- it is really the knitting, the card playing, the coarse and politically incorrect gibing and joking of the waiting room that provide this film with its rich characterization and poignant humour.
Big-and-beautiful Quebecois superstar Ginette Reno, whose physical stature has always matched her reputation, is perfectly cast as Laura. Reno has been an international star for thirty years, and although she is best known for her concerts and countless recordings (an English album "Love is All" is her latest release), acting roles have included the movie Leolo, the CBC mini-series "Million Dollar Babies" and the France-Canada mini-series "Une Voix En Or." Audiences will hear Reno sing the title song of her most recent film, It's Your Turn, Laura.
-- Liz Mayer
A SPECIAL MAY PROGRAMMING NOTE
The QFA is proud to present two critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-nominated films during the month of May. Hilary and Jackie (May 12th) received nominations for Best Actress (Emily Watson) and Best Supporting Actress (Rachael Griffiths), while for Affliction (May 26th), Nick Nolte drew a Best Actor nomination and James Coburn won the award for Best Supporting Actor.