We see a lot of movies, most of them Americans as we are fed a steady stream of Hollywood blockbusters. Once in a while, we pick a French flick so that I can catch up with French culture—the most popular comedies are usually available at Jumbo Video. Once in a while, we watch classic movies of the 1990s, such as Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction or Trainspotting.
My story with Canadian cinema didn’t start very well. When I first came here, Feng dragged me to see Men with Brooms. Keeping in mind I barely spoke English and didn’t know much about Canada, I automatically assumed it was a comedy about… guys doing housekeeping, a bit like Mrs. Doubtfire. Well, turned out it was a movie about curling. I didn’t even know curling was a sport.
Fortunately, over the years, we saw other movies that I actually understood this time, notably the excellent Eastern Promises (directed by David Cronenberg), The Barbarian Invasions (directed by Denis Arcand), and The Trotsky (by Jacob Tierney).
But I must admit I have a fondness for bilingual comedies.
When I watched Bon Cop/Bad Cop in 2006, I laughed so hard I must have missed half of the lines. So I watched it again. And Again. And it still makes me laugh. This is the story of an Ontarian and a Québécois police officer who reluctantly join forces to investigate on a body found hanging on top of the sign demarcating the Ontario-Quebec border. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French—literally, as both characters are bilingual. The movie plays on stereotypes Québécois and English Canadians have about each other’s. As Kevin Tierney, the script writer of the movie explains: “The francophones said that while the French characters were a bit clichéd, we had really got the anglo characters down. Yeah, everyone in English Canada wears a turtleneck and is constipated. In English Canada, people said we had overused anglo stereotypes, but congrats on getting those French characters down.”
I recently went to see another bilingual comedy by the same script writer: French Immersion. This time, four anglo Canucks and a New Yorker head to the fictional northern Quebec town of Saint-Isidore-du-Coeur-de-Jésus for, guess what, French immersion and intensive language classes. A barrage of culture clashes ensues between the rural folks in Quebec, the Indian restaurant owner, the Jewish anglophone, an ambitious politician and many other characters.
These movies are very fun because they revolve around Canadian culture and stereotypes: the two loneliness between Quebec and the so-called ROC (Rest of Canada), religion, politics—and yes, hockey.
In another category, Rob Spence, a film maker based in Toronto, is another interesting Canadian to follow. I got to know his work through Let’s All Hate Toronto, a tongue-in-cheek documentary exploring the reasons why everyone in Canada seems to hate Toronto (and the Maple Leafs).
Rob Spence lost an eye as a kid after gun backfired on him. He eventually had his disfigured eye removed a few years ago and decided to take the opportunity to become Eyeborg. Inspired by science fiction, he vowed to replace his prosthetic eye by a video camera, not to regain sight but to record the world from a new perspective. He also dabs into cybernetics, human augmentation, bionic parts and our surveillance society with a great sense of humour. Over the years, the eyecam prototype built by his slightly insane team was improved and frankly, it’s both scary and fascinating to watch him watch you. You can watch a bunch of videos about “the eyeborg” here.
So if you are a prospective immigrant, a newcomer or simply interested into Canadian culture, check out these movies and these directors. They will surprise you!
By the way, I was not paid to write this article. But if anyone wants to cast me for a new bilingual comedy…je speak franglais!
I’d love to see French immersion, I wonder why we don’t have more bilingual commedies? It’s nice to see that bilingual reality transposed to cinema.
They definitely should! Bilingualism is something all Canadians have an opinion on!
Have noted the movie titles – I could do with seeing some great Canadian comedies & some laughs!
I think you would like them!
The way u described the movies makes me wanna watch them now! I like movies that poke fun on cultural stereotypes – they provoke discussions and thoughts, which i like. 😀
I’m sure you can find them, maybe online. At least Bon Cop/Bad Cop came out in video long time ago.
I’m Canadian and I need to check out these movies 🙂 I’m terrible for watching Canadian cinema, but when I do watch it, it’s usually French-Canadian (with English subtitles). My favorite though is Sharkwater, a documentary about shark finning by Ron Stewart.
Never heard of Sharkwater, I will check it out!
We also watch all the movies in with English subtitles, although you don’t really need those for bilingual comedies. I skip a lot of Quebec movies because I just have no idea what they are about…!
I’ve never seen any Canadian movie, if they are available here, I’d love to watch it! 😀
I’m sure you can find them online 😉
I don’t know that I have seem many bi-lingual Canadian films and found this post very interesting. But I find most all of your posts interesting. Boo! Happy Halloween.
😆 Thank you! You should definitely give these movies a shot, no need to speak French to get them.
I’ve read in the local couchsurfing forum that Bon Cop/Bad Cop was really good, but I haven’t seen it yet.
Some of my favourite movies are Canadian — here’s a list off the top of my head:
Maelstrom: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0220627/
The Hanging Garden: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0125128/
Kissed: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116783/
The Sweet Hereafter: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120255/
Last Night: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0156729/
New Waterford Girl: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0213121/
These are mostly older titles (’90s) because my film-watching has taken a total dive lately. I’m sure I can think of more, once I get my head out of the editing cave.
Thank you for the links! Will check these movies out.
Hope the editing cave isn’t too deep…
I love movies that play with cultural stereotypes… I think the french and the spanish manage to do this really well! I recently saw “Volver” (for the second time) and even though its a dark movie, I had my laughs! Are the bilingual movies in Canada with subtitles? I’d love to watch some of them! I think my french is still not good enough to follow fast speakers 🙂
All of these movies have subtitles, and there are usually two versions: French with EN subtitles, and EN with French subtitles.