Cinema
The Confessional
Le Confessionnal
Robert Lepage · 1995
Synopsis
Quebec, 1989. Pierre Lamontagne returns from three years in China, where he was studying painting, for his father's funeral. He meets again Marc, his adoptive brother, the son of Rachel, who does not know his father and is searching for him. Their inquiry takes them back to 1952: that year, Rachel, sixteen, a servant at the presbytery, pregnant and ashamed, had confessed to a young priest whom the parishioners afterwards suspected, while Alfred Hitchcock was shooting I Confess in the city. An influential man, Massicotte, seems to hold the key.
Context
The first feature film by a theatre man of thirty-seven, shot in June and July 1994 and co-produced by Canada, the United Kingdom and France, it opened the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 1995. Hitchcock's film, shot in Quebec City in 1952, is about a priest bound by the secrecy of the confession. The two periods often share the same shot, through transitions without a cut. The cinematography is by Alain Dostie, cinematographer of the portrait of Glenn Gould shot two years earlier.
Who it is for
One hundred minutes, in which two eras constantly echo one another; it is better to know I Confess before starting.
Prizes and reception
Genie Award for best film and best direction, and Claude-Jutra Award for best first feature.
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