Léolo (1992)

Calificación de los usuarios:

7.3/10   

Director:

Jean-Claude Lauzon

Guionista:

Jean-Claude Lauzon (writer)

Release Date:

2 abril 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Young Leo Lauzon is torn between two worlds - the squalid Montreal tenement that he inhabits with his...

Plot Keywords:

Masturbation Scene | Vulgarity | Young Boy | Semen | Urination Scene

Awards:

8 wins & 8 nominations

Comentarios de los usuarios:

By body betrayed, by poetry saved...

Cast

Gilbert Sicotte	...	Narrator (voice)
Maxime Collin	...	Leolo
Ginette Reno	...	Mother
Julien Guiomar	...	Grandfather
Pierre Bourgault	...	Word Tamer
Giuditta Del Vecchio	...	Bianca
Andrée Lachapelle	...	Psychiatrist
Denys Arcand	...	Director
Germain Houde	...	Teacher
Yves Montmarquette	...	Fernand
Lorne Brass	...	Fernand's Enemy
Roland Blouin	...	Father
Geneviève Samson	...	Rita
Marie-Hélène Montpetit	...	Nanette
Francis St-Onge	...	Leolo, age 6

También conocida como:

Léolo (Spain) [es]

Duración:

107 min

País:

France | Canada

Idioma:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sonido:

Dolby

Clasificación:

Australia:MA (cable rating) | Iceland:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | South Korea:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-16 | Germany:16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Italy

Company:

Alliance Films Corporation

Trivialidades:

The book which appears in the movie is "L'avalée des avalés" (translated as "Swallow of the Swallowed") by Canadian writer Réjean Ducharme.

Quotes:

Narrator: Because I dream, I am not.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche (2004) (TV)

Soundtrack:

L'orange

By body betrayed, by poetry saved...

Which came first, the disturbing or the disturbed? This is a difficult film for me to assay. Certainly I did not enjoy "Leolo" but then there are many films I have appreciated which I did not enjoy. Despite being tagged as such, this film was never a comedy for me, outlandish scenes too often were tainted by a ring of tragic truth. Well, I should clarify and say "at least an emotional truth."

This film reminded me of Baudelaire and Rabelais. I remember in my late teens, seeking out those poets feeling that I should appreciate them from the little I had heard about them. Someone probably mentioned Iggy Pop in the same breath with 'em. Anyways, their poems never did connect with me, I remember thinking that something in translation or in the transatlantic crossing was lost upon me. This film has many moments like that (despite a shorter journey down from Canada), but cast amidst shining gems of genius. One example, the recurrent use of the refrigerator light, and other illumination, shining over Leolo's shoulder.

This film slips and dips into the "rabelaisian" in the reduced definition, i.e. a fecal focus. A childhood is deprived more than depraved, but a little of both. If any sexual appetite is offensive for you, than this film is not for you... Spend your time on some counseling instead.

And yet for me, much of the film was grotesque...and I think that's a nearly perfect word for it, what with its stylish franco-suffix... gracefully covering over its seamier stewings. Like a sauce over spoiled meat.

But as I think more about this film: the merd, the bugs, the dead dog in the canal...all of that waste, is not wasted. Instead the images, the reviling of an earthly existence drive us off the screen and into the voiced-over poetry of Leolo. Even in translation and subtitle, the words had a precise beauty. A beauty I feel was intentionally and successfully accented by the sordid scenarios stitched together.

It would be an interesting test for someone to read the poetry from the screenplay first and then watch the film. Would the words be strong enough without the sights, sounds and implied smells of Leolo's world to suffice?

While I cannot honestly recommend this film (too many times I found myself hoping that a fade-to-black was final), it would be interesting to hear/read others' comments. I'll come back to the reviews here, and maybe the film in the future.

Til' then, I 'll give it a 6/10

PS Interesting. In posting my review the "s-word" now appears to be banned...so let them read "merd."