Life with My Father

Colour, 35 mm
Canada, 2005, 110 min
IP – International premiere
Section: Official Selection - Competition
Oficiální stránky: www.lavieavecmonpere.com

Synopsis

Paul, an impetuous 30-year-old and budding writer, sails blithely through life at his girlfriend’s side. The officious and numerically obsessed Patrick runs a pharmaceutical company while his private life falls about his ears. Paul and Patrick are chalk and cheese, linked only by their surname and by the father whose name they adopted. When the aging man returns home with an empty bank account and a worsening state of health, all three are forced to coexist in the crumbling family house. Canadian Sébastien Rose treats his second film as an intimate drama, viewing ordinary things in life with caustic humour and a subtle waft of operatic fervour. The tale is dominated by the bon-vivant figure of the magnanimous father, a lifelong lover of women and fine wine who sees his sudden sexual impotence as an opportunity to focus all his attention on his alienated sons.

About the director

Sébastien Rose (b. 1969, Montreal) studied and then taught philosophy. He wrote, directed and produced the short films Vous n’avez pas votre place ici (1997) and Petits maîtres (1999). He also produced Diane Gagnon’s short film La rage, and has made several TV commercials. In 2003 he wrote and directed his first feature film How My Mother Gave Birth to Me During Menopause (Comment ma mère accoucha de moi durant sa ménopause), which brought him a Claude Jutra Award from the Canadian Film and Television Academy for the most remarkable debut.