Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha’s life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul (Félix Antoine-Bénard), a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life …
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- 5/13/2024
- by Janel Spiegel
- Horror News
2023 was an excellent year for Quebec cinema, and it's great to see more of these films getting release outside my province. And it's especially great to see more genre fare, lending new twists to old tropes. Coming in with a lengthy yet apt title, Ariane Louis-Seize' Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person is not your average vampire film, nor comedy, nor romance. It finds the humour in some of the more mundance logistics of how vampires have to life, while looking at two teens who are still figuring out if life is worth living at all, especially if one is immortal. Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 5/9/2024
- Screen Anarchy
"Your daughter's compassion is triggered when she sees humans dying." Drafthouse FIlms has debuted an official US trailer for an acclaimed dark comedy vampire horror film titled Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person hailing from Quebec. This one originally premiered at the 2023 Venice & Toronto Film Festivals last year, and has been playing at more festivals this year. Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she's too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply (literally), Sasha's life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul, a lonely teen willing to give his life to save hers. Their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfill Paul's last wishes before day breaks. Starring Sara Montpetit as Sasha, with Félix-Antoine Bénard as Paul, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, and Noémie O'Farrell. I raved in my Venice review: "What a great, bloody vampire gem, easy to watch and fall for,...
- 5/9/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Boasting one of the longest yet most intriguing titles of the year, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person marks the debut feature from Ariane Louis-Seize. An acclaimed selection at Venice Film Festival, where it picked up the Giornate Degli Autori Director’s Award, as well as TIFF and beyond, Drafthouse Films will now release the tender horror feature in theaters starting June 21. Ahead of the release, the first trailer has arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha’s life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul (Félix Antoine-Bénard), a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfill Paul’s last wishes before day breaks.”
Jared Mobarak said in his review,...
Here’s the synopsis: “Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha’s life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul (Félix Antoine-Bénard), a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfill Paul’s last wishes before day breaks.”
Jared Mobarak said in his review,...
- 5/9/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
With the 2024 Overlook Film Festival now officially in the rearview mirror, the annual New Orleans celebration of all things horror has announced the winners of its audience and jury awards.
The festival’s top prize, the Audience Award for Feature Film, went to “Oddity,” Damian Mc Carthy’s home invasion horror flick that was a breakout from the SXSW 2024 midnight lineup.
“’Oddity’ delivers a brilliant, bespoke, and tightly entertaining string of ideas that work stronger as a collection — with even these missteps feeling like they branch from a unified center,” IndieWire’s Alison Foreman wrote in her Overlook review of the film. “Similar to Mc Carthy’s earlier ‘Caveat,’ this 98-minute treat demands to be reassessed a second time. Thank the wooden boy it’s coming to streaming: a triumphant addition to the director’s growing filmography and a standout in Shudder’s carousel of kick-ass ghost stories.”
Keep reading...
The festival’s top prize, the Audience Award for Feature Film, went to “Oddity,” Damian Mc Carthy’s home invasion horror flick that was a breakout from the SXSW 2024 midnight lineup.
“’Oddity’ delivers a brilliant, bespoke, and tightly entertaining string of ideas that work stronger as a collection — with even these missteps feeling like they branch from a unified center,” IndieWire’s Alison Foreman wrote in her Overlook review of the film. “Similar to Mc Carthy’s earlier ‘Caveat,’ this 98-minute treat demands to be reassessed a second time. Thank the wooden boy it’s coming to streaming: a triumphant addition to the director’s growing filmography and a standout in Shudder’s carousel of kick-ass ghost stories.”
Keep reading...
- 4/11/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
"It's an acquires taste. You'll end up enjoying it." Madman Films in Australia has revealed their trailer for an acclaimed dark comedy vampire film from Quebec titled Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. This is a very good film! It premiered at the 2023 Venice and Toronto Film Festivals last year, and is still playing at fests this year including Wisconsin, Cleveland, and Miami coming up. Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she's too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply (literally), Sasha's life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul, a lonely teen willing to give his life to save hers. But their friendly agreement soon becomes a nocturnal quest to fulfill Paul's last wishes before day breaks. Starring Sara Montpetit as Sasha, with Félix-Antoine Bénard as the boy Paul, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, and Noémie O'Farrell. I raved in my Venice review: "What a great,...
- 3/27/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
It’s been a robust year for genre film. Horror’s continued dominance at the box office has effectively spilled over into fantasy, thrillers, and sci-fi in ways that defy easy classification. So much so that it’s difficult to overlook the 2023 genre movies that employ horror techniques, draw inspiration from our favorite genre, or simply dabble in it.
These horror adjacent movies may not fully plunge into the genre, but they’re also not afraid to wear their horror influences on their sleeves, whether through style or bloodletting.
Here are the top ten best horror adjacent movies of 2023.
10. A Haunting in Venice
Director and star Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot gets reeled into another whodunnit, but this time Branagh leans into the Halloween setting with stunning style to infuse this murder mystery with atmospheric mood. A Haunting in Venice looks and feels like a vintage ghost story, complete with nods to Edgar Allan Poe.
These horror adjacent movies may not fully plunge into the genre, but they’re also not afraid to wear their horror influences on their sleeves, whether through style or bloodletting.
Here are the top ten best horror adjacent movies of 2023.
10. A Haunting in Venice
Director and star Kenneth Branagh’s Hercule Poirot gets reeled into another whodunnit, but this time Branagh leans into the Halloween setting with stunning style to infuse this murder mystery with atmospheric mood. A Haunting in Venice looks and feels like a vintage ghost story, complete with nods to Edgar Allan Poe.
- 12/24/2023
- by Meagan Navarro
- bloody-disgusting.com
The traditionally celebrity-heavy Toronto Film Festival has unveiled its list of Canada’s best indie films for 2023, which includes a host of first-time directors that have come to the fore as the Hollywood actors strike put local movies and talent front and center at TIFF last September.
Canadian filmmakers were able to grab the spotlight after SAG-AFTRA members barred from promoting studio or streamer projects allowed them to fill the vacuum on TIFF red carpets and at industry events.
New directors were also favorites of Toronto programmers as a shifting TIFF film market with few American celebrities in town also allowed the marquee festival to double down on finding new creative voices.
So here’s the top Canadian feature films of 2023, as decided by film pickers in Toronto.
1. BlackBerry
Matt Johnson’s drama about the meteoric rise of the world’s first smartphone, before its competitive collapse, bowed in Berlin.
Canadian filmmakers were able to grab the spotlight after SAG-AFTRA members barred from promoting studio or streamer projects allowed them to fill the vacuum on TIFF red carpets and at industry events.
New directors were also favorites of Toronto programmers as a shifting TIFF film market with few American celebrities in town also allowed the marquee festival to double down on finding new creative voices.
So here’s the top Canadian feature films of 2023, as decided by film pickers in Toronto.
1. BlackBerry
Matt Johnson’s drama about the meteoric rise of the world’s first smartphone, before its competitive collapse, bowed in Berlin.
- 12/20/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: Following the successful Venice debut of her first feature, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, French-Canadian filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize has taken on new reps at WME and Curate Management.
Louis-Seize’s French-language dramedy, which she co-wrote and directed, tells the story of the teenage Sasha (played by Sara Montpetit), who unlike other vampires, needs to feel a personal connection to her chosen prey. The narrative takes an unexpected turn when she crosses paths with Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a disenchanted young man convinced that life has nothing left to offer him.
As Sasha befriends Paul, an unusual proposition emerge, with Paul willingly stepping into the role of her next meal. But the bizarre arrangement hits a snag due to Sasha’s unique struggle with empathy.
After winning the Best Director award in the Giornate degli Autori program of the Venice Film Festival, Humanist Vampire went on to make its North...
Louis-Seize’s French-language dramedy, which she co-wrote and directed, tells the story of the teenage Sasha (played by Sara Montpetit), who unlike other vampires, needs to feel a personal connection to her chosen prey. The narrative takes an unexpected turn when she crosses paths with Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard), a disenchanted young man convinced that life has nothing left to offer him.
As Sasha befriends Paul, an unusual proposition emerge, with Paul willingly stepping into the role of her next meal. But the bizarre arrangement hits a snag due to Sasha’s unique struggle with empathy.
After winning the Best Director award in the Giornate degli Autori program of the Venice Film Festival, Humanist Vampire went on to make its North...
- 12/12/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
A vampire with qualms about killing to survive is no longer a figure exclusive to the “Twilight” franchise, when a Canadian French-language debut places a teenage girl in a tricky situation, torn between what the world demands of her and what she herself wants. The film’s title is eloquent enough — “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person” — and it already won Ariane Louis-Seize the best director prize at this year’s Venice Days, and was praised for a “strong directorial vision.” The film screened as part of the main competition at the Thessaloniki Film Festival last week.
“Humanist Vampire” is a contemporary gothic tale, a coming-of-age story, and a comedy-drama all at the same time. It stars Sara Montpetit of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight entry “Falcon Lake” as the fanged protagonist, Sasha, and Félix-Antoine Bénard as the consenting suicidal person, Paul. Louis-Seize co-wrote the script together with Christine Doyon and the...
“Humanist Vampire” is a contemporary gothic tale, a coming-of-age story, and a comedy-drama all at the same time. It stars Sara Montpetit of Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight entry “Falcon Lake” as the fanged protagonist, Sasha, and Félix-Antoine Bénard as the consenting suicidal person, Paul. Louis-Seize co-wrote the script together with Christine Doyon and the...
- 11/14/2023
- by Savina Petkova
- Variety Film + TV
Sasha (Sara Montpetit) in Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person. Ariane Louis-Seize: 'Sara really had something mysterious about her and I could picture her as a vampire from the beginning' Photo: Shawn Pavlin Being a vampire is rarely an easy job in the movies but the one in French-Canadian coming-of-age film Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person has it harder than most. Teenager Sasha (Sara Montpetit) - at least in vampire years - just can’t bring herself to go in for the kill. In fact she feels so sorry for humans that her fangs haven’t even grown in, so she relies on her family bringing home the blood she needs to survive, sucking it noisily from bags the way regular teens would slurp a Coke. Things look as though they might be set to change after Sasha unexpectedly encounters suicidal teenager Paul (Félix-Antoine Bénard) - could they help one another out?...
- 11/3/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Drafthouse Films takes US; deals also close in France, Australia, Latin America.
Quebec-based sales outfit h264 has reported out of AFM a US deal and multiple territory sales on Venice Giornate Degli Autori Director’s Award winner Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.
‘Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person’: Venice Review
Drafthouse Films has acquired US rights to Ariane Louis-Seize’s directorial debut about a vampire unable to kill for blood who may have found the answer to her problems in a lonely young man. Sara Montpetit and Felix Antoine-Benard star.
h264 has closed sales in more than 30 territories,...
Quebec-based sales outfit h264 has reported out of AFM a US deal and multiple territory sales on Venice Giornate Degli Autori Director’s Award winner Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.
‘Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person’: Venice Review
Drafthouse Films has acquired US rights to Ariane Louis-Seize’s directorial debut about a vampire unable to kill for blood who may have found the answer to her problems in a lonely young man. Sara Montpetit and Felix Antoine-Benard star.
h264 has closed sales in more than 30 territories,...
- 11/1/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Stars: Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noémie O’Farrell, Marie Brassard, Patrick Hivon, Marc Beaupré | Written by Ariane Louis-Seize, Christine Doyon | Directed by Ariane Louis-Seize
The feature debut of director / co-writer Ariane Louis-Seize, this splendidly titled French-Canadian vampire flick is a blackly comic coming-of-ager that’s basically a cult movie waiting to happen. With a genre-savvy script, a terrific cast and buckets of charm, it’s a fang-tastic treat that deserves to find a devoted audience.
Set in Montreal, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person stars Sara Montpetit as Sasha, a 62-year-old vampire who still has the body of a teenager. As a young girl (played by Lilas-Rose Cantin) in the 1980s, Sasha was left appalled at her birthday party when she suddenly realised that she was supposed to kill the clown her parents (Steve Laplante and Sophie Cadieux) had ordered for her, and she refused.
Years later,...
The feature debut of director / co-writer Ariane Louis-Seize, this splendidly titled French-Canadian vampire flick is a blackly comic coming-of-ager that’s basically a cult movie waiting to happen. With a genre-savvy script, a terrific cast and buckets of charm, it’s a fang-tastic treat that deserves to find a devoted audience.
Set in Montreal, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person stars Sara Montpetit as Sasha, a 62-year-old vampire who still has the body of a teenager. As a young girl (played by Lilas-Rose Cantin) in the 1980s, Sasha was left appalled at her birthday party when she suddenly realised that she was supposed to kill the clown her parents (Steve Laplante and Sophie Cadieux) had ordered for her, and she refused.
Years later,...
- 9/21/2023
- by Matthew Turner
- Nerdly
The unkillable vampire legend gets one of its frequent cinematic resurrections with Québécois director Ariane Louis-Seize’s sweetly gothy Venice Days winner, a film wittily — if too comprehensively — described by its title: “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person.” The idea of a vampire who doesn’t want to kill is hardly without precedent. But Louis-Seize’s eager debut, intentionally or otherwise, plays to a relatively vamp-starved demographic, providing continuity to kids who have long outgrown the “Sesame Street” version, but are still a bit young for the emo lustiness of the “Twilight” franchise. It’s more fairy tale than scary tale.
It is, however, a fine showcase for the witchy charisma of star Sara Montpetit who, after playing the doom-fixated object of a first crush in Charlotte Le Bon’s terrific “Falcon Lake,” seems hellbent on cornering the market in gloomy Francophone teenagers navigating an entree into adulthood in which sex and death are intertwined.
It is, however, a fine showcase for the witchy charisma of star Sara Montpetit who, after playing the doom-fixated object of a first crush in Charlotte Le Bon’s terrific “Falcon Lake,” seems hellbent on cornering the market in gloomy Francophone teenagers navigating an entree into adulthood in which sex and death are intertwined.
- 9/16/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
It’s such a wonderfully simple yet utterly unique premise. Ever since Sasha (Sara Montpetit) was a young vampire, she’s been unable to bare her fangs. Maybe it’s the product of Ptsd (after a hilarious “clown incident”). Or maybe it’s a result of her body chemistry triggering her compassion center at the sight of human duress rather than hunger like the rest of her species. Thus sustenance comes only from the blood bags others provide her.
Dad (Steve Laplante) is sympathetic. Mom (Sophie Cadieux) is frustrated. He wants to give their daughter time to grow into her own skin. She wants to stop having to be the only one who hunts out of the three of them. So after a few decades pass and Sasha’s more heartless aunt (Marie Brassard) bends their ears towards tough love, the time to kick her out of the nest arrives.
Dad (Steve Laplante) is sympathetic. Mom (Sophie Cadieux) is frustrated. He wants to give their daughter time to grow into her own skin. She wants to stop having to be the only one who hunts out of the three of them. So after a few decades pass and Sasha’s more heartless aunt (Marie Brassard) bends their ears towards tough love, the time to kick her out of the nest arrives.
- 9/12/2023
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
The simple but enjoyable set up for Ariane Louis-Seize’s comedy coming-of-age film asks what happens to vampires when they think that killing for blood sucks? That’s the predicament teeanger - at least in vampire years - Sasha (Sara Montpetit) finds herself in. A brief prologue involving a birthday clown shows us this has been an issue for Sasha since she was a kid, just as well then that the rest of the family are good at the hunt.
The thought of hurting humans holds such horror for Sasha that her fangs haven’t even grown in and Louis-Seize plays this for gentle coming-of-age laughs as we see and hear her noisily sucking on bags of blood as though they were slurpies. Louis Seize and her co-writer Christine Doyon play around with teenage/parent comedy in general with a decent hit rate, not least when, in a cry of frustration that will strike.
The thought of hurting humans holds such horror for Sasha that her fangs haven’t even grown in and Louis-Seize plays this for gentle coming-of-age laughs as we see and hear her noisily sucking on bags of blood as though they were slurpies. Louis Seize and her co-writer Christine Doyon play around with teenage/parent comedy in general with a decent hit rate, not least when, in a cry of frustration that will strike.
- 9/9/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Vampirism has many metaphorical possibilities. In the quirky Quebecois vamp-com “Vampire Humaniste Chereche Suicidaire Consentant” (“Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person”), the bloodsucking undead — more specifically, their eating habits — stand in for troubled teens, developmental delays, sexual coming-of-age, and even vegetarianism. The film opens with a darkly comedic scene of a family presenting a little girl with her birthday present: A party clown, which the girl’s parents have locked inside of a wooden trunk in the living room. Go ahead, they tell her. Eat him. You’re old enough now.
But Sasha (Sarah Montpetit) doesn’t want to kill the clown — which is a problem because, as a vampire, someday she’s going to have to learn how to murder humans for sustenance. Mom (Sophie Caideux) and Dad (Steve Laplante) take Sasha to a vampire pediatrician, who tells them that Sasha has a neurological defect that makes her feel...
But Sasha (Sarah Montpetit) doesn’t want to kill the clown — which is a problem because, as a vampire, someday she’s going to have to learn how to murder humans for sustenance. Mom (Sophie Caideux) and Dad (Steve Laplante) take Sasha to a vampire pediatrician, who tells them that Sasha has a neurological defect that makes her feel...
- 9/3/2023
- by Katie Rife
- Indiewire
Canada-based movie distributor and aggregator H264 is launching a world sales arm with the acquisition of “Red Rooms,” which has its world premiere next week in the Crystal Globe Competition of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. The company is focused on festival-driven, innovative films.
“Red Rooms,” directed by Quebec filmmaker Pascal Plante, is a cyber-thriller questioning the collective fascination with murderers. It will screen at Karlovy Vary on July 4, and will then open the Fantasia Film Festival on July 20 for its North American premiere.
Montréal-based H264 is also ramping up its international slate by adding “Mademoiselle Kenopsia,” from filmmaker Denis Côté, who won awards at Berlin with “Vic + Flo Saw a Bear” and Locarno with “Curling.”
The company is also representing the dark comedy “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person,” directed by Ariane Louis-Seize, starring Sara Montpetit (“Falcon Lake”) and Steve Laplante.
Jean-Christophe J. Lamontagne, founder and president of H...
“Red Rooms,” directed by Quebec filmmaker Pascal Plante, is a cyber-thriller questioning the collective fascination with murderers. It will screen at Karlovy Vary on July 4, and will then open the Fantasia Film Festival on July 20 for its North American premiere.
Montréal-based H264 is also ramping up its international slate by adding “Mademoiselle Kenopsia,” from filmmaker Denis Côté, who won awards at Berlin with “Vic + Flo Saw a Bear” and Locarno with “Curling.”
The company is also representing the dark comedy “Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person,” directed by Ariane Louis-Seize, starring Sara Montpetit (“Falcon Lake”) and Steve Laplante.
Jean-Christophe J. Lamontagne, founder and president of H...
- 6/30/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The eerily contemplative opening frames of “Falcon Lake” depict an idyllic lake on a summer night, a scene so calmly off-putting that you just know something has to be amiss. The shot remains unchanged for so long that when a body finally rises out of the water, it feels more like an inevitable moment of catharsis than a jump scare. That ominous serenity continues throughout “Falcon Lake,” yet the first truly startling moment in Charlotte Le Bon’s directorial debut is the sight of a Nintendo Switch.
Thanks to Le Bon’s dreamlike pacing and Kristof Brandl’s grainy cinematography, the film’s opening scenes of a nuclear family heading out for a lake house vacation come across as a long-buried memory unfolding before our eyes. The establishing shots would seamlessly fit into an ABC-era “Twin Peaks” episode, and the fashion could be ripped straight from a mid-90s Vineyard Vines catalog.
Thanks to Le Bon’s dreamlike pacing and Kristof Brandl’s grainy cinematography, the film’s opening scenes of a nuclear family heading out for a lake house vacation come across as a long-buried memory unfolding before our eyes. The establishing shots would seamlessly fit into an ABC-era “Twin Peaks” episode, and the fashion could be ripped straight from a mid-90s Vineyard Vines catalog.
- 6/2/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
Going on holiday with parents who are wrapped up in their own experiences can feel like being a ghost. Adolescence can inspire similar feelings. Bastien (Joseph Engel) is old enough to get along with older kids, old enough to experience sexual desire, but not able to compete with kids just a few years older whose bodies now look adult. An intense bond with the older Chloé (Sara Montpetit) seems to welcome him into the adult world, yet when she looks away, when she gives her attention to somebody else, it’s like he doesn’t exist.
“A boy drowned in the wild part of the lake,” claims Chloé, who likes telling ghost stories. Is it childish to make things up? She isn’t fully adult yet. There are things she doesn’t feel ready for, despite what the older boys want. Surrounded by trees, the lake makes a good setting for fantasies of various kinds.
“A boy drowned in the wild part of the lake,” claims Chloé, who likes telling ghost stories. Is it childish to make things up? She isn’t fully adult yet. There are things she doesn’t feel ready for, despite what the older boys want. Surrounded by trees, the lake makes a good setting for fantasies of various kinds.
- 5/31/2023
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Every cinematic cabin in the woods suggests a place out of time. If you believe the movies, they’re either a) a dread-inducing home to all manner of spirits and masked killers which directly tie the cabin back to its haunted past; or b) an idyllic getaway for a teenager during a formative coming-of-age experience. The directorial debut of Canadian actress Charlotte Le Bon is an unusual, immediately arresting combination, grounding its deeply sincere account of first love within the realm of gothic horror––here the urban myth of a girl who drowned in the nearby lake many summers prior.
This is a tale with which Chloé (Sara Montpetit) is obsessed. Throughout the course of Falcon Lake we see Chloe elaborately stage her own death, floating face-down in the lake only to turn upright and keep swimming like nothing happened. She may be, at 16, the oldest of the kids on the family holiday,...
This is a tale with which Chloé (Sara Montpetit) is obsessed. Throughout the course of Falcon Lake we see Chloe elaborately stage her own death, floating face-down in the lake only to turn upright and keep swimming like nothing happened. She may be, at 16, the oldest of the kids on the family holiday,...
- 5/31/2023
- by Alistair Ryder
- The Film Stage
Loosely based on a graphic novel by Bastien Vives, Falcon Lake is another in a long line of coming-of-age tales about the discovery of first love. But Charlotte Le Bon, an actor making her feature directing debut, cloaks her take on youthful summer romance in an aura of ominous foreboding. The titular Quebecois lake is the setting for the budding relationship between Bastien (Joseph Engel) and Chloé (Sara Montpetit), which is complicated by the latter’s insistence that the place is haunted by the ghost of a boy who drowned there.
It’s this macabre tale that informs the tenor of Falcon Lake, as Le Bon blurs genre to craft a bildungsroman whose deeply pensive tone and eerie sound design and visual compositions lend it the rhythms of a ghost story. But Le Bon’s genre-bending maneuvers also prove to be frustrating at times, as the film feels just as...
It’s this macabre tale that informs the tenor of Falcon Lake, as Le Bon blurs genre to craft a bildungsroman whose deeply pensive tone and eerie sound design and visual compositions lend it the rhythms of a ghost story. But Le Bon’s genre-bending maneuvers also prove to be frustrating at times, as the film feels just as...
- 5/28/2023
- by Wes Greene
- Slant Magazine
Whether it’s Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo, Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, The Hundred-Foot Journey, Anthropoid, The Promise, or last year’s Fresh, chances are you’ve seen Charlotte Le Bon’s work as an actor. She’s now helmed her feature with Falcon Lake, which premiered at Cannes Film Festival and will now arrive in theaters next month from Yellow Veil Pictures.
Following a shy teenager on a summer vacation who experiences the joy and pain of young adulthood when he forges an unlikely bond with an older girl, the cast features Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Monia Chokri, Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine, Lévi Doré, and Jeff Roop.
The director also touched on the ghostly element of the film, saying, “I am a fan of horror films. They are my first visceral memories of cinema. When I was younger in Quebec, my friends and...
Following a shy teenager on a summer vacation who experiences the joy and pain of young adulthood when he forges an unlikely bond with an older girl, the cast features Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Monia Chokri, Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine, Lévi Doré, and Jeff Roop.
The director also touched on the ghostly element of the film, saying, “I am a fan of horror films. They are my first visceral memories of cinema. When I was younger in Quebec, my friends and...
- 5/3/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"Some ghosts don't realize they're dead." First love will haunt you. Yellow Veil Pics has revealed an official trailer for a mysterious little indie film titled Falcon Lake, directed by the Quebecois actress Charlotte Le Bon making her feature directorial debut. A shy teenager on a summer vacation experiences the joy and pain of young adulthood when he forges an unlikely bond with an older girl. This premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section last year, and is arriving to watch in the US in June this summer. Bastien and Chloé spend their summer vacation with their families at a lake cabin in Quebec, haunted by a ghost legend. Ready to overcome his worst fears to earn a place in Chloé's heart, the holiday becomes a pivotal moment for him. Falcon Lake stars Joseph Engel, Sara Montpetit, Monia Chokri, Arthur Igual, and Karine Gonthier-Hyndman. This is quite an alluring trailer,...
- 4/27/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
The Canadian Screen Awards has unveiled nominations for the national film and TV prize-giving, and the CBC civil rights drama The Porter leads the film and TV field with 19 mentions in all, including for best small-screen drama.
The first Canadian drama series from an all-Black creative team, which also streams on BET+, centers on the lives of Black train porters and their families as they launch North America’s first Black labor union in the 1920s.
The TV categories, voted on by around 3,000 Canadian industry insiders, also sees the CBC series Detention Adventure and Sort Of – a Peabody award-winning show about a gender fluid young Muslim in Toronto played by Bilal Baig — nab 15 nominations each in an awards show shaping up to be a major showcase for people of color.
That follows Canadian film, and TV industry efforts to ensure diversity and inclusivity in the country’s indie production sector and prize-giving process.
The first Canadian drama series from an all-Black creative team, which also streams on BET+, centers on the lives of Black train porters and their families as they launch North America’s first Black labor union in the 1920s.
The TV categories, voted on by around 3,000 Canadian industry insiders, also sees the CBC series Detention Adventure and Sort Of – a Peabody award-winning show about a gender fluid young Muslim in Toronto played by Bilal Baig — nab 15 nominations each in an awards show shaping up to be a major showcase for people of color.
That follows Canadian film, and TV industry efforts to ensure diversity and inclusivity in the country’s indie production sector and prize-giving process.
- 2/22/2023
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Only two projects into her already solid filmography, Maria Chapdelaine and Falcon Lake star Sara Montpetit will sink her teeth into Ariane Louis-Seize‘s Vampire humaniste cherche suicidaire consentant. A filmmaker who has preemed her shorts at TIFF and Berlinale, Louis-Seize’s feature debut has Félix-Antoine Bénard in the co-lead and the rest of the players include Viking‘s Steve Laplante, Sophie Cadieux, Noémie O’Farrell, Marie Brassard, Marc Beaupré, Patrick Hivon, Micheline Bernard, Ariane Castellanos, Madeleine Peloquin, Gabriel-Antoine Roy, Emma Olivier, Arnaud Vachon and Isabella Villalba. Production begins today in Montreal until the first week of December. Viking helmer Stéphane Lafleur is onboard as the editor.…...
- 10/25/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Yellow Veil Pictures has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Canadian director Charlotte Le Bon’s “Falcon Lake” which world premiered at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight.
The coming-of-age tale, handled by Memento International, marks the feature debut of Le Bon, an actor-turned-filmmaker who notably starred in Sean Ellis’s “Anthropoid,” Lasse Hallström’s “The Hundred Foot Journey” and Terry George’s “The Promise.”
“Falcon Lake” follows two teenagers, Bastien and Chloé, who spend their summer vacation with their families at a lake cabin in Quebec which is haunted by a ghost legend. Despite the age gap between them, they form a singular bond. Ready to overcome his worst fears to earn a place in Chloé’s heart, the young boy experiences a turbulent pivotal moment during this holiday.
Following Cannes, the French-language film played at Toronto and Deauville, where it won the d’Ornano-Valenti prize. It will have its U.S.
The coming-of-age tale, handled by Memento International, marks the feature debut of Le Bon, an actor-turned-filmmaker who notably starred in Sean Ellis’s “Anthropoid,” Lasse Hallström’s “The Hundred Foot Journey” and Terry George’s “The Promise.”
“Falcon Lake” follows two teenagers, Bastien and Chloé, who spend their summer vacation with their families at a lake cabin in Quebec which is haunted by a ghost legend. Despite the age gap between them, they form a singular bond. Ready to overcome his worst fears to earn a place in Chloé’s heart, the young boy experiences a turbulent pivotal moment during this holiday.
Following Cannes, the French-language film played at Toronto and Deauville, where it won the d’Ornano-Valenti prize. It will have its U.S.
- 10/12/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The TIFF Platform comp title, official selection for Canada for Best International Feature Film category and sophomore feature by Ivan Grbovic was crowned Best Film at the Gala Québec Cinéma ceremony last night. Drunken Birds (aka Les oiseaux ivres) picked up a total of ten Iris awards including top categories Best Director, Best Screenplay (co-written with cinematographer Sara Mishara) , Best Actress (Hélène Florent), Best Supporting Actor (Claude Legault) and Best Cinematographer also went to Mishara who would end up competing against herself with Maxime Giroux’s Norbourg also getting a nom in that category.
Florent was the first actress in the event’s history to double down and win two awards – she also nabbed Best Supporting Actress for her part in Sébastien Pilote’s Maria Chapdelaine — that film also won Best Newcomer award for Sara Montpetit who was recently featured in Cannes in Falcon Lake — a film that will surely...
Florent was the first actress in the event’s history to double down and win two awards – she also nabbed Best Supporting Actress for her part in Sébastien Pilote’s Maria Chapdelaine — that film also won Best Newcomer award for Sara Montpetit who was recently featured in Cannes in Falcon Lake — a film that will surely...
- 6/6/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
There’s a reason so many horror films — specifically the classic slashers of the ’70s and ’80s — make teenagers their imperiled protagonists. It makes for fun, squirmy viewing to see the relatable vulnerabilities of that age, with its fumbling sexual encounters and peer-pressure anxieties, sliced open by whichever knife-wielding maniac or mask-wearing ghoul happens to be lumbering about. But Charlotte Le Bon’s striking, stylish, sweetly scary debut reverses the polarity, putting the wittily observed tale of a teenage crush front and center of a ghoul-free horror film, where all that goes bump in the night is an embarrassed kid trying to clean his sheets after a wet dream. Coming-of-age movies are usually, like growing up itself, some combination of funny, sad, rueful, awkward or frightening, but rarely are they so successfully all those things at once as in “Falcon Lake.”
This ambitious yet nimbly assured tonal mash-up is introduced in the opening shot,...
This ambitious yet nimbly assured tonal mash-up is introduced in the opening shot,...
- 6/4/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Memento International has boarded “Falcon Lake,” the feature debut of Quebec-born artist and actor Charlotte Le Bon which will world premiere at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
Penned by Le Bon, François Choquet and Karim Boucherka, “Falcon Lake” is adapted from Bastien Vivès’s graphic novel “A Sister.” The story follows Bastien, a 13-year old boy who moves with his family from Paris to a lakeside chalet in Quebec where he bonds in an unexpected way with Chloé, 16.
Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit (“Maria Chapdelaine”) star in the film alongside Monia Chokri (“A Brother’s Love”), Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine and Jeff Roop.
“When we are teenagers, our love life becomes the center of everything and it is easy to find ourselves in a turmoil of euphoria, fear and pain,” said Le Bon who has starred in films by Michel Gondry (“Mood Indigo”), Jalil Lespert (“Yves Saint...
Penned by Le Bon, François Choquet and Karim Boucherka, “Falcon Lake” is adapted from Bastien Vivès’s graphic novel “A Sister.” The story follows Bastien, a 13-year old boy who moves with his family from Paris to a lakeside chalet in Quebec where he bonds in an unexpected way with Chloé, 16.
Joseph Engel and Sara Montpetit (“Maria Chapdelaine”) star in the film alongside Monia Chokri (“A Brother’s Love”), Arthur Igual, Karine Gonthier-Hyndman, Thomas Laperrière, Anthony Therrien, Pierre-Luc Lafontaine and Jeff Roop.
“When we are teenagers, our love life becomes the center of everything and it is easy to find ourselves in a turmoil of euphoria, fear and pain,” said Le Bon who has starred in films by Michel Gondry (“Mood Indigo”), Jalil Lespert (“Yves Saint...
- 4/21/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Among authors who didn’t live to witness their own success, Louis Hemon is a particularly unfortunate case — his novel “Maria Chapdelaine” was published in 1913, the same year as his train-struck death. Thus he didn’t see it become an early Quebec-lit classic taught to generations of schoolchildren, published in translation worldwide or adapted into many other media over the past century. Among prior screen versions were two made in his native France, the 1934 one notable as Julien Duvivier’s first collaboration with Jean Gabin.
The slim book, drawing on adventure-seeking Hemon’s own experiences briefly working as a farmhand in the Lac Saint-Jean region, has been treated with less-than-strict fidelity by previous dramatists. Sebastien Pilote’s new film is probably the most faithful to date by far — though that isn’t entirely a plus. . It’s a well-produced episodic tale whose incidents and personalities remain too modest to sustain nearly three hours’ illustration,...
The slim book, drawing on adventure-seeking Hemon’s own experiences briefly working as a farmhand in the Lac Saint-Jean region, has been treated with less-than-strict fidelity by previous dramatists. Sebastien Pilote’s new film is probably the most faithful to date by far — though that isn’t entirely a plus. . It’s a well-produced episodic tale whose incidents and personalities remain too modest to sustain nearly three hours’ illustration,...
- 9/11/2021
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
With a full year of creative pauses and improvisational workflow behind them, Canadian producers hit the 2021 Toronto festival bullish that in-person screenings and heightened fall fest excitement will focus critics and sales buzz to connect their films with audiences beyond their home turf.
Luc Dery and Kim McCraw of Montreal’s micro_scope, who introduced Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies” and Philippe Falardeau’s “Monsieur Lazhar” to North American audiences at TIFF, return with Ivan Grbovic’s “Drunken Birds” (pictured), one of eight titles screening in Platform, the festival’s juried competition program.
Jorge Antonio Guerrero (“Roma”) stars as a Mexican drug-cartel worker who falls in love with his boss’s wife and whose pursuit of her lands him in rural Quebec, where he gets mixed up in his host family’s troubles. The film is exec produced by Nicolas Celis (“Roma”), with Wazabi Films selling.
“The marketplace is quite brutal right now,...
Luc Dery and Kim McCraw of Montreal’s micro_scope, who introduced Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies” and Philippe Falardeau’s “Monsieur Lazhar” to North American audiences at TIFF, return with Ivan Grbovic’s “Drunken Birds” (pictured), one of eight titles screening in Platform, the festival’s juried competition program.
Jorge Antonio Guerrero (“Roma”) stars as a Mexican drug-cartel worker who falls in love with his boss’s wife and whose pursuit of her lands him in rural Quebec, where he gets mixed up in his host family’s troubles. The film is exec produced by Nicolas Celis (“Roma”), with Wazabi Films selling.
“The marketplace is quite brutal right now,...
- 9/10/2021
- by Jennie Punter
- Variety Film + TV
Roster includes Lantern’s Lane, Flee The Light.
Montreal-based WaZabi Films will launch sales on Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) world premiere selections Maria Chapdelaine from Sébastien Pilote and Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds (Les Oiseaux Ivres).
Maria Chapdelaine will screen in Contemporary World Cinema and takes place in rural Quebec in the early 20th century where a teenage girl must choose one of three suitors. Pilote adapted the screenplay from Louis Hémon’s 1913 novel. WaZabi represents worldwide rights excluding Canada, where MK2|Mile End will distribute.
Pierre Even (War Witch) of Item 7 and Sylvain Proulx produced the film, which...
Montreal-based WaZabi Films will launch sales on Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) world premiere selections Maria Chapdelaine from Sébastien Pilote and Ivan Grbovic’s Drunken Birds (Les Oiseaux Ivres).
Maria Chapdelaine will screen in Contemporary World Cinema and takes place in rural Quebec in the early 20th century where a teenage girl must choose one of three suitors. Pilote adapted the screenplay from Louis Hémon’s 1913 novel. WaZabi represents worldwide rights excluding Canada, where MK2|Mile End will distribute.
Pierre Even (War Witch) of Item 7 and Sylvain Proulx produced the film, which...
- 8/25/2021
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
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