Great movie? No way.


This is a nice little movie. It has its moments and pleasures for sure.
Slow paced. Amateurish is some ways (e.g. the cinematography).
I would not call it great. (I won't even get into the whole "best Canadian" movie thing.) But suffice it to say, I don't feel it's a great movie even if Ebert thinks it is.
I'd welcome anybody who wants to make the case.

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It's a very nice coming-of-age movie, and also the most honest and realistic depiction of rural Quebec which isn't a documentary. Cinematography is supposed to serve a film's subject, and the subject here is a curious, agitated boy trapped in the figuratively cold world of adults and quite literally cold winter of rural Quebec, which would explain the nervous zoom-ins and some of the most well-constructed and interesting POV shots in the history of cinema. Overall, it's a great film about the discovery of sex, death and love, and the great lack of mutual understanding between the adults and children and the total absence of psychology which affected Quebec before the quiet revolution.

Also, I doubt that the legendary Michel Brault could be qualified as an amateur. Just look at some of his previous works with Jutra or Perrault, on For those who Will Follow especially, or Kamouraska... He was a master if anything. I think you do have to understand rural Quebec in order to fully enjoy the experience.

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This should be on lists for best Christmas movies.

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It's not a christmas movie.

Later that day, after tea... I died, suddenly.

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Why argue about a lovely, sweet movie for consumption any time of the year? It's not grand, the production values are economical, done with the same simplicity of scale as the folks in the rural Quebec village who toil, celebrate, despair, rebel, dream, love, fight, hide, brag, escape, and march on with the same determination and hope that we humans universally share. Not grand, but spot on.

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Agreed.. I was disappointed because of the hype as "possibly greatest Canadian film ever"

Mediocre movie that is worth viewing but borders forgettable...

5 / 10

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