Word: benoit
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...ROBERTO BENOIT...
...unfolding in an ever-so-smooth progression from the distancing narrative of the opening scenes (in many of which the main characters do not even appear) to the intensified, more-than-immediate state at the end. By then we feel not only the emotional stresses and joys of young Benoit (Jacques Gagnon) but also the depth of emotion and the lives of all these people, even in the implied emotions from off-screen scenes we never see -- and these are strong impressions for any film to leave...
...first released, many critics complained about this unusual procedure, saying Poulin should not figure so prominently near the beginning of the film since he is not a "major" character in any conventional sense. His presence is somewhat confusing, to be sure, because most of the film centers around Benoit's experiences as a stock boy in his uncle's general store. But Poulin returns at the very end of the film, mourning over his dead son, and his presence seems intensely powerful at that point. His presence is felt so strongly because he has been out of the picture...
...BULK of the film is both lively and straightforward. Scenes of Benoit's often playful, often serious life at the general store (where Jutra himself plays another worker), the warm portraits of Antoine (Jean Duceppe) and Aunt Cecile (Olivette Thibault) drinking together--these could be excised and shown separately and would still be sensitive scenes. But a film made of these scenes would be one-sided, and this film is not. The gentleness of the store contrasts with Benoit's harsh winter ride with Antoine on an undertaking job far from the town. Antoine's jovial drinking in his store...
...works of such increasingly sophisticated artists as Rigaud Benoit, Andre Normil and Prefete Duffaut are already selling at hundreds and even thousands of dollars. But bargains can still be had if tourists are willing to search out true primitives like St. Pierre, who works as a caretaker at a large home on the road to Kenscoff and paints in his spare time. He sells his characteristic bird-and-leaf designs for as little...