Familiar Ground

Familiar Ground

This film from Quebec is one of the most unusual pictures I have seen. I can almost picture the actors and director having fun behind the scenes making this unusual picture. If you crave excitement go somewhere else. Nothing much happens in the 89 minutes. If you enjoy vibrancy this is not your picture. The film takes place mostly in winter in a small community in Quebec. The people wear no makeup. They are doer and sad looking. The background is muted tones of grey winter land. Even the interior of the houses is bleak and somber.
Films can be great for different reasons. The cinematography is spectacular. It must have been hard to act in such a sterile way showing little emotion and lacking facial expression. There is character development and that moves the film along to its conclusion.
Maryse looks so much like the great actor Genevieve Bujold. Maryse is married to a nice man who seems to care for her. She is internally questioning her marriage and is going through a rough time. She had witnessed an accident in the factory where she does office work. The accident made quite an impact on her and she appears depressed and unsettled.
Maryse’s brother, Benoit, lives with his aging father. Benoit is one angry man. He never shows expression. He tries to have a relationship with a divorced woman. She also is plain and unattractive. Her vicious son does everything in his power to turn Benoit away. It is funny but very disturbing.
Benoit always has trouble getting the skidoo to start. One evening he has to drag his ailing aged father out to a winter field to start the skidoo that had faltered on a trip home from visiting his girlfriend. I had the feeling that everything he tried presented a problem for him.
Maryse and Benoit drive in mid winter up to the family cottage. Even though the film moved slowly I was sitting on the edge of my seat. A car salesman in the area had predicted to Benoit that his sister would be killed in an accident.
The plan was to bring back a trailer that was to be used to haul away a backhoe stuck in front of Maryse’s house.
The film takes us along on the road trip. Initially the brother and sister have nothing to say to each other. Their stern staring glances made me very uncomfortable. Benoit is unable to heat the cottage and the two spend a night in the frigid cottage. Through all the trials and tribulations Maryse and Benoit begin to understand one another.
This is a most peculiar film. I was attending with a friend who hails from Montreal. She laughed in many situations when the translation in English was quite different from the French.
There were few people in the audience but rather loud laughs in several spots. It is a quirky film. It is slow moving. It is different. I liked it a lot.