Michel Rivard

Mon amie Max

Catherine, a concert pianist, is surprised one night by the arrival of her best friend from childhood, Marie-Alexandrine (Max), whom she hasn't seen for 25 years. Catherine and Max were Québec's most promising young pianists in the mid-1960's when the adventurous Max gets pregnant. She wants to keep the child, but her mother forces her to give him up for adoption; afterwards, Max leaves Québec and music. Now, years later, she returns, obsessed with finding her son. She locates the adoption records, and social services contacts her son to ask if he wants to see her. He refuses, but she keeps trying. Is a relationship with him possible? And what about her musical talent?

Singles

Abandoned by his wife, Bernard struggles to overcome his grief and settles in a residence for singles. Employed by "SOS Doctors", he provides night guards to occupy his insomnia. That's how he is brought one night to help a neighbor, Nadine Foulon, victim of discomfort in the elevator. It turns out that Nadine is also going through a difficult time, since her companion, Terry, a singer-guitarist, has left her. A professional photographer, she can not forget it and has since oscillated between depression and bulimia. Gathered by their pains of heart, these two beings will, with the wire of the confidences, become more intimate ...

The Last Glacier

A docudrama on the closing of the town of Schefferville. When Raoul loses his job at the mine because the operations are ending, he's been settled there for ten years with Carmen and their son. They're now forced to leave the town, leaving behind the traces of an ephemeral prosperity.

Days of Darkness

Jean-Marc is a man without qualities living in times that are out of joint. His wife and children ignore him; he's a mid-level government functionary in Montreal doing his job without care. He has an active imagination of sexual conquest, but his only real feelings come when he visits his aged mother, whose health is failing. When his wife leaves abruptly to work in Toronto, Jean-Marc sets out to reorder things with his daughters, his social life, and at work. In a world that at best is a farce, does he stand a chance?

Pourquoi l'étrange monsieur Zolock s'intéressait-il tant à la bande dessinée?

"Why is the strange Mr. Zolock so interested in comics?" is a Canadian docufiction film, released in 1983. A documentary about comic books and graphic novels, the film features interviews with comics illustrators wrapped by a fictional frame story in which Monsieur Zolock (Jean-Louis Millette), an evil supervillain, hires private investigator Dieudonné (Michel Rivard) to investigate the cultural influence of comics as part of his plot to take over the world. The film won the Genie Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 5th Genie Awards in 1984.

Maria Chapdelaine

A young woman, living with her parents and siblings on a remote farm in harsh, picturesque northern Québec, has three suitors: a steady and unimaginative farmer, Eutrope, the Americanized and wealthy Lorenzo, who has sought his fortune in Boston, and François Paradis, a rough and virile logger who captures her heart despite the warnings of her parents and the village priest. For a year, marked by seasonal change in an atmosphere charged with the strangeness of Indians and the demons of the woods, we see Maria at work and prayer, struggling with decisions, choosing to stay in Canada, in love with François, seeking to change his rough behaviors, and dealing with extraordinary loss.

At the End of Nothing at All

Every morning, Marcel confides in his tape recorder. It is from his reflections on life that this film takes us into the wake of his story.

La crème des Bleu Poudre

REDISCOVER the best moments of: Bob Binette, Jacques Chevalier Longueuil, Raymond Beaudoin, Ginet Robidoux, Dave Ash, Ludger, Corporal St-Gelais, Chose, Yasser Arafat (Québec version). LES BLEU POUDRE on Taquinons la planète was: disobedience (they got kicked in the balls), indecency (they walked around naked), recklessness (they went to chat with the Mohawks), and mischievousness (they loved new rhymes). LES BLEU POUDRE was also politically very incorrect — and damn, it felt good. ENJOY IT WHILE IT NO LONGER EXISTS.

T'étais où Serge?

An intimate look into the life and career of actor Serge Thériault, a prominent figure in Québec culture.