Movies at the Mont

>>The Tremblant Film Festival presents
choice flicks in Laurentian surroundings

by MARK SLUTSKY

Film festivals and country excursions: truly two of the summer’s sweeter pleasures. So hats off to whoever dreamed up Tremblant Film Festival, which, in its third edition this year, is offering 29 features from around the world in a sylvan setting. Okay, the Tremblant resort isn’t exactly rustic—quite the opposite, in fact—but still, a film festival in the Laurentians when the weather is warm is a pretty sweet proposition.

Twenty-seven of the festival’s feature entries this year are premieres, and the theme for the programming is apparently “road trips” and “interior voyages,” although the interpretation appears to be fairly loose. Brian Petersen’s Coyote tells the story of a pair of Americans who realize there’s a profit to be found in smuggling illegal Mexican immigrants into their country, with unpredictable results.

Directed by and starring Stanley Tucci, Blind Date also features Patricia Clarkson in a story about two parents getting over the loss of a child by pretending to meet each other again as strangers and reconstruct their marriage; it’s based on a film by murdered Dutch director Theo Van Gogh.

Steve Lawrence’s Down the Barrel takes viewers on a watery road trip, as it follows surfers around the world. Tabarly, another aquatic doc, follows the exploits of sailboat racer Eric Tabarly, from director Pierre Marcel.

In a more literal take on the festival’s theme, Jordi Vidal’s Road Spain follows a guy who loses everything and takes a trip around the Iberian peninsula. Italian comedy Don’t Think About It, from director Gianni Zanasi, tells the story of a punk guitarist who returns home to find his family in shambles.

Closing night sees the North American premiere of Jean-Paul Salomé’s Les Femmes de l’ombre, about a team of Allied female fighters in occupied France. The festival’s opening film, Sans arme, ni haine, ni violence, from French director Jean-Paul Rouve (who also stars) tells the story of real-life heist master Albert Spaggiari, who robbed a bank in Nice in 1976 and escaped the country, taking off to South America, where he confides in a journalist. Similarly, What Happened to Dulce Veiga, from Brazilian director Guilherme de Almeida Prado, tells of a reporter tracking down a mysterious lost singer.

Outdoor screenings are always a bonus. The selection here is a bit odd, but the idea is nice. Check out Olivier Dahan’s celebrated Piaf pic La Vie en rose, Claude Lelouch’s ’60s new wave romance Un homme et un femme, Frank Oz’s 2007 Death at a Funeral (strange choice), Philippe Falardeau’s celebrated Congorama or Denys Arcand’s L’Âge des ténèbres, among others.

An NFB-powered selection of shorts and one feature aimed at the kiddies rounds out the program for visiting families; long player La Rivière aux castors plays with a handful of animations, each around five minutes long. Another cool thing for the youth is a student workshop featuring animator Patrick Bouchard, who will be showing three of his shorts and demonstrating animation techniques.

The Tremblant Film Festival runs June 18–22
at Mont-Tremblant; for more info, tix and
reservations see www.tremblantfilmfestival.org

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