Sunday, April 05, 2009

Love letter

There's a great moment in Don McKellar's doomtastic Last Night where the main character's friend (played superbly by Callum Keith Rennie) is trying to burn through all his sexual fantasies before time eternal comes to an abrupt and finite halt. When McKellar's character pays him his final visit, he is just in time to see one fantasy leaving and it happens to be the French teacher the pals had in their youth. She addresses him in French and the joke is pure Canadiana as anybody who took French (mandatory in elementary school) and then nearly completely abandoned it would easily recognize the stumbling, uncomfortable nature of his broken reply. But there's an even better and deeper piece of shared experience in the scene as the teacher is played by Geneviève Bujold who would clearly hold the title of fantasy French teacher for any and all the Canadian boys of the era and persuasion of the characters.

Re-watching Entre La Mer et L'eau Douce last night left me understanding this ideal even more than I thought I had before. She is just so sublimely perfect. The ultimate Canadian girlfriend. It's nearly heartbreaking.












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