Title: Mon Oncle Antoine
Year: 1971
Director: Claude Jutra
Country: Canada
Language: French
Language: French
Though our southern neighbour’s “Hollywood” movie industry
is more well-known across the world, Canada certainly doesn’t lack in our
quality of pictures. Among the greatest of our films are Jesus of Montreal, Dying at
Grace, Away From Her and Mon Oncle Antoine. The latter has been
named the greatest Canadian film of all time three decades in a row by a
critics poll held every decade at the Toronto international Film Festival.
Claude Jutra’s adolescent melodrama is set in a cold rural
mining time in Quebec during Christmas time. The camera follows a young boy and
the life of his family. They own the town’s convenience store and are currently
undertaking business, meanwhile the miners are getting unruly.
The story opens with a funeral, an atmosphere of death and a
loss of innocence. Young Benoit is transitioning from childhood to adulthood;
throughout the picture he will have miraculous and heartbreaking experiences
that will shape his emotional development. We are given the great opportunity
to see Benoit’s psyche unfold as he first encounters love, sexual passion and
spiritual depression. Each character in
Jutra’s masterpiece is well written, we care for all of them and enjoy seeing
them grow before our eyes.
Mon Oncle Antoine is also a parable regarding the coming of
age of the Quebec province itself. Set
in the Maurice Duplessis era, the film bears witness to the historical mining
strikes and the plight of the workers who wanted to be treated fairly. The
miners were able to gain support from priests, media and the general public and
eventually a great shift occurred in Quebec, this shift created an ideology of
separatism which still exists to this day.
In conclusion, Jutra’s film is wonderfully made and profoundly
entertaining. While I personally don't believe that it's the greatest Canadian picture of all time, though perhaps I'll start to believe it the more I watch it, Mon Oncle Antoine is certainly one of the best. It can be depressing at times, but there are many lessons to
be learned and people to meet. Praise it! 5/5
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