Archive of films Laurentia / Laurentie

Canada
2011, 120 min

Section: Official Selection - Out of Competition
Year: 2011

A youth named Louis lives in Montreal. He has no interests, real friends, or even dreams. His only hobby is perusing porn for the purpose of pleasuring himself. Louis’s frustration grows. The young man’s internal and external drama is told by means of an elegant style that employs long shots.

Synopsis

A youth named Louis lives in Montreal. He has no interests, real friends, or even dreams. His only hobby is perusing porn for the purpose of pleasuring himself. Louis begins to show signs of frustration. After moving to a new apartment he discovers that his new neighbor is his exact opposite: surrounded by friends, the good-looking young man is entertaining and obviously happy. His encounter with this guy evokes new impulses in obsessive Louis that eventually change his life. Laurentia is a drama which lays bare the absolute emptiness of life in contemporary society. The internal and external drama of Louis’s existential path is told through a refined, ascetic style employing long shots and a bare minimum of dialogue. Thanks to its formal aspects, Laurentia can be classed as spiritual cinema in that it offers a complex look at sex, death, and life’s spiritual dimension. In terms of its tone, the work is reminiscent of Carlos Reygadas’s Battle in Heaven (Batalla en el cielo, 2005).

About the director

Mathieu Denis, who studied film in Montreal and editing in France, and also worked with directors Pierre Schoendoerffer and Claude Miller. Prior to this, Denis was an editor on short films, and his feature editing debut came with Le déserteur (2008), directed by Simon Lavoie. In addition to editing, he has shot two short films, Silent Remains (2006) and Code 13 (2007), which received multiple prizes. He wrote and directed Laurentia with colleague Simon Lavoie, who was born in Québec. For his first short film, Nearness (2003), he was awarded best short film of the year by the Québec Film Critics Association. Then followed the short film Until Down (2004) and the medium-length A White Chapel (2005). His feature directing debut came in 2008: Le déserteur. Laurentia is his second feature.

Contacts

FunFilm Distribution
5146, boul. St-Laurent, H2T 1R8, Montreal, Quebec
Canada
Tel: +1 514 272 495 6
Fax: +1 514 272 984 1
E-mail: [email protected]

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About the film

Color, DCP
World premiere

Section:	Official Selection - Out of Competition

Director:	Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
Screenplay:	Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
Dir. of Photography:	Nicolas Canniccioni
Editor:	Mathieu Denis
Producer:	Nancy Grant, Sylvain Corbeil, Pascal Bascaron
Production:	Metafilms
Cast:	Emmanuel Schwartz, Eugénie Beaudry, Guillaume Cyr, Martin Boily, Jade Hassouné, Simon Gfeller, Erin Agostino
Contact:	FunFilm Distribution

Guests

Brigitte Hubmann

Film Institution Rep.

Simon Lavoie

Film Director

Mathieu Denis

Film Director

Emmanuelle Dessureault

Sales Agent

Nancy Grant

Producer

Carolle Brabant

Film Institution Rep.