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Crying Out

Crying Out

À l'origine d'un cri

Robin Aubert

  • Country: Canada
  • Year: 2010
  • Language: French
  • Producer: Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal
  •  
  • Screenplay: Robin Aubert
  • Runtime: 115
  • Programmes:

Three generations of men from the same family drunkenly careen across the Québécois countryside in an emotionally powerful journey through the past from one of Québec’s most intriguing young filmmakers.

screening times


official description

Heartbroken and unable to accept his second wife’s death, a disturbed, alcoholic widower digs up her corpse and heads for the Quebec countryside. He wanders from one cheesy, rundown motel to the next in a drunken haze. Anxious about his well-being, the women in his family send two relatives in his pursuit – his blustery buzzard of a father (the great Jean Lapointe) and his combative, possibly suicidal son (Patrick Hivon). Trouble is, stubbornness, belligerence and alcoholism seem to run in the family.

Primal and baroque, Robin Aubert’s À l’origine d’un cri challenges some of the more cherished myths and assumptions of Québécois cinema. Since coming into its own in the fifties and sixties, Québécois cinema has largely clung to the myth of a countryside which replenishes and renews. But in À l’origine d’un cri, the countryside is more hellish than redemptive. Within a seemingly bucolic landscape, the characters meet with disappointment and confront memories they would prefer to have kept suppressed. The son is particularly devastated when a traumatic childhood memory re-emerges. (The film is more about the burden of history rather than its benefits, building on the themes in Aubert’s underrated debut Saint-Matryres-des Damnes.) The grandfather, meanwhile, is appalled by his descendants’ sensitive natures.

This is a film about relationships – a study of a highly dysfunctional family (at least on the male side) that melds the tragic with the comedic. Aubert is painfully aware of the absurdity of aging men who haven’t resolved their relationships with their fathers; in a brilliant cut, we see the women inside devising practical strategies, while the men stand outside drinking beer, smoking and staring silently into space. With À l’origine d’un cri, Aubert establishes himself as heir to the territory mined by Québécois icons Andre Forcier and Jean-Claude Lauzon.

Steve Gravestock

director bio

Robin Aubert is a Quebec-based actor, director and screenwriter. He has directed several short films, including Maudit criss (99) and Lila (00), which was named best short film by the Association québécoise des critiques de cinema. He has written and directed the feature films Saints-Matyrs-des-Damnés (05), À quelle heur le train pour nulle part (09) and À l’origine d’un cri (10).

full credits

Principal Cast: Jean Lapointe, Michel Barrette, Patrick Hivon, Véronique Beaudet
Producer: Roger Frappier, Luc Vandal
Cinematographer: Steve Asselin
Editor: Carina Baccanale
Sound: Stéphane Houle, Olivier Calvert, Stéphane Bergeron
Music: Yves Desrosiers
Production Designer: David Pelletier

Canadian Distributor: TVA Films  
International Sales Agent: Max Films International Inc.
Production Company: Max Films Inc.
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