Daily Archives: September 1, 1989

Au Clair De La Lune

Andre Forcier’s whimsical 1982 curiosity from Quebec follows the unusual nurturing friendship between an albino street person (Michel Cote) and a former bowling champion with arthritis and a sandwich board (Guy L’Ecuyer) during an exceptionally cold winter in Montreal. Tinged with a sense of fantasy as well as an unsentimental pathos, this oddball comedy about outsiders is distinctive in both its quaintly theatrical look, decked out with snow and bright neon colors, and its loose, episodic narrative. It certainly creates a world of its own, but whether you respond to the film’s poetry and magic depends a great deal on how you respond to the two leading characters. I felt excluded. (JR) Read more

The Adventure Of Faustus Bidgood

A decade in the making, this flaky Walter Mitty-like satire from Canada, by Michael and Andy Jones, follows the dreams of a minor and mouselike functionary (Andy Jones) in Newfoundland’s department of educationa revolution has transformed the province into a benign dictatorship, with Jones as the benign dictator. Jumping back and forth between ersatz TV news reports, humdrum humiliations, and assorted delusions of grandeur, the film seems both spurred along and ultimately undone by its highly fragmented structure. With Greg Malone, Robert Joy, Brian Downey, and Maisie Rillie (1986). (JR) Read more