Film Lamo

1976-1989, 24 min

A documentary about the life and career of Maurice Pialat produced by his widow, the accomplished film producer Sylvie Pialat. The film interweaves clips from his films with interview footage of Pialat, who speaks of growing up as an only child, his interest in painting, his early influences in cinema from Yasujiro Ozu to John Ford, his disaffection with the French New Wave, and the theme of abandonment in his films. Pialat’s remarks offer insights into his aesthetic strategies and hint at his reputation as a challenging, irascible director, known for having pushed his actors to deliver raw and powerful performances.

For a long time now, we have been seeing outrageous attempts at tackling the 'woman problem' (and the 'man problem') by pretentious and old-fashioned 'professors' or 'revolu-tionaries,' related to the Nazis or Stalinists, who have just as outrage-ously exalted the proletariat, race or nationality, leading to racist and imperialist crimes. Such excessive behavior can only lead to the exploita-tion and destruction of the very gender concerned. In any case, the basic components of simple love and simple friendship (and a fortiori of Super-Love and Super-Friendship), that we have explored in depth (as evoked in my film, What is Love?), are still so poorly understood today by our contemporaries that even those who claim to be happily experiencing these run the risk of being quickly proven wrong by Life itself."

Intimate portrait of four 70-year-old Quebec snowbirds who migrate every winter to Florida in search of sun, warmth and companionship. Behind their quest for love lies a desire to take advantage of this second and ultimate youth that comes with retirement.

Robert Lepage’s dreamlike production, with its thousands of twinkling LED lights stretching across the stage to represent the sea, encapsulates the mystic feeling of L’Amour de Loin, Saariaho’s haunting opera of distant love. Eric Owens is Jaufré Rudel, a troubadour in 12th century France who has become tired of his hedonistic life and longs for an idealized love. Enter the Pilgrim (Tamara Mumford) who tells him his perfect love does, in fact, exist, far across the sea. She is Clémence, Countess of Tripoli (Susanna Phillips). The magic of the characters’ inner lives as they explore the meaning of love, longing, life, and death is heightened by Saariaho’s hypnotic and bewitching score, conducted by Susanna Mälkki.

A curious meditation on the pleasures and terrors of s/m, in which interviews with enthusiasts collide with choice porn clips, Fleisher cartoons, Hans Bellmer poupees and a couple of sphincter-tightening routines. The results are compelling, this film lingers, never once slipping into hype or deadly cool.’ – Manohla Dargis, Reel To Reel, Village Voice, 1992.

How to film a word? How to hear a photograph? How to tell a lifetime of love in just 26 words? In searching out the sense of beauty, the border between the real world and that of reverie, fascinated by the dreamlike universe of the French photographer Guillaume Poussou -and who knows- maybe also by the photographer himself, Anahit Simonian takes up her camera for the very first time and begins to dance with her eyes closed. So is born “L'Abcdaire de l'amoureuse d'un photographe”, her first film.

In a dehumanized world, where emotions are rationed and measures, Pipo, a factory worker, falls in love with a woman sitting on a bench. He’ll try anything to get her attention and seduce her.

Every love, no matter how happy, sooner or later ends unhappily; either due to loss, due to death, or due to a broken bond. These are all sides of the same medal. Why do we love others if love can hurt us so much? Wouldn’t it be safer not to love? In this documentary, several people who have been profoundly confronted with love and death in their lives, provide glimpses of the enigma of love, based on their personal stories. On Freud’s famous couch, they are questioned about their experiences. Their stories are interwoven with timeless works from the history of painting and music. When words are not adequate, there is art and music.

Viola Léger. The 86-year-old actress is famous for her performance of La Sagouine, a character of Antonine Maillet, whom she has lived for more than 45 years. As a tribute to this exceptional career, we invite you to watch the newly released Simpson Viola by Rodolphe Caron for free on NFB.ca. In this touching and intimate work shot last year, the filmmaker immortalizes the daily life of Viola, at 85 years old, while she was preparing - again and again! - for new shows.

Jeremy, a young art photographer, needs money to finance an exhibition of his work. He turns to Maurice, a lonely bachelor who will do almost anything to buy Jérémy’s company. When his relationship with his girlfriend starts to fall apart, the young photographer visits a peepshow and is at once struck by the beauty of one of the performers, Otie. He uses the money Maurice gave him to pay for further visits to the sex shop...

Documentary about Polish-American pianist, Arthur Rubinstein.

For her anniversary, Brigitte tries everything to get the attention of her husband, former undertaker. After discovering that the latest construction of her neighboor Martha looks like a coffin, the sole purpose of Brigitte is to steal this coffin as a gift for her husband.

It's summer in Gironde. Mélissa, 15, has just moved into a residential housing estate. She meets Océane and Jessie with whom she befriends. The 3 girls invite a group of 5 boys to Mélissa's: Fred, the leader, Arthur, Omar, Bruce, with whom Mélissa falls in love and Tom, Bruce's little brother.

This is the 2004 version of Kaija Saariaho's opera performed by the Finnish National Opera and conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen.