Marc-André Brunet

This French-German-Belgian thriller, reminiscent of Misery (1990) and The Collector (1965), begins after Fred Astaire-fan Clement (Jean Rochefort) invites comic-book artist Luc (Guillaume Canet) to Sunday dinner with Clement and his wife Violette. Luc's girlfriend Margot announces her pregnancy, prompting Luc to forget about the invitation, but Clement insists that Luc join him. After Luc arrives and sees that Violette is only a life-size plastic doll, he decides to leave but gets clobbered on the head. Awakening, he finds he's been handcuffed to the bathroom sink and gagged. Cruelties ensue, with crazed Clement getting visionary advice from both Astaire and Violette. Award-winning composer-arranger-orchestrator Philippe Haim made his feature directorial debut with this drama, and music is very much a part of the film from Haim's score and music-box melodies to tap dancing, honky-tonk piano, and a full musical comedy production number.

Would-be filmmaker Sophie left Africa for Canada as a child. After graduating, she films the daily doings as part of a summer job at a fair. When pointing the camera at herself, she reveals painful secrets from the past.

Life on an offshore oil drilling rig is becoming a burden for one of the riggers, who feels lonely and is frequently visited by a lone black dog that appears from nowhere.

As a civil war shakes the Quebec province of Canada, Valerie is the sole survivor of a mass execution where her boyfriend is killed. Years later, she’s in a close relationship with her new partner, Gabriel. At the Long Term Care Center where she works as an orderly, she befriends Jeanne, an erudite and funny woman, dealing with an important physical handicap. Mixing realism and worrying strangeness, The Laugh presents a humane exploration of the survivor’s syndrome, the grieving process, the distance of time, the power of love, and the joy of being alive.

Coming out from jail, Lucas has decided to change his life and behave like a good citizen. But when he is taken hostage in a bank by a hare-brained robber, no cops can believe he is not part of the action.

An ambitious teaching student's finals studies are interrupted by a passionate affair with a jazz musician.

Frédérique Lessard, three-time Olympic medalist, is retiring. She decides to leave her spouse, with whom she had planned to start a family. Faced with emptiness, she will discover that life is not a race and will have to learn to live without performing. Freely inspired by the life of Marianne St-Gelais, but also by several Olympians.