By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.75 cats
Director: Philippe Falardeau
Starring: Arnaud Mouithys | Claudia Tagbo | Janine Sutto | Jean-Pierre Cassell | Olivier Gourmet | Paul Ahmarani
Country: belgium, canada, france
Year: 2007
Running time: 105
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0810809/
Beth says: “I have to confess that I succumbed to that festival affliction – eyes falling shut midfilm – during this film, but thankfully figured out rather quickly what I missed, and that it wasn’t a significant plot point, whew! This was a different kind of Quebecois film – it’s about a Belgian sadsack of a man who is about to get washed out of his company if he doesn’t come up with a must-have invention. He’s sent to Canada for business, and just before he goes finds out that he’s adopted and that his
parents were Canadian. Meanwhile, in Canada a ne’er-do-well son of a brilliant scientist who’s been MIA for years and presumed dead (the father, that is), comes back home to try to reorganize a new life. That’s all I’ll say – it’s a very odd, very endearing film and I loved the guy who played the Belgian sadsack. The director was there, and when asked how he came up with this story, and what made him make the man Belgian, he said that he felt an affinity with the place and the people when he first went there – ‘they speak French funny, we speak French funny’. 3 1/2 cats
“This film screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.”
Bruce says: “Director Philippe Falardeau describes CONGORAMA as a playful film built like a puzzle. Fitting then that the first image we see on the screen is a tag reading ‘Two Years Earlier.’ From the start we know that the director is toying with his audience. Congorama was the name of the exhibit from the Congo at the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels.
“Olivier Gourmet stars as Michel Roy the head of innovation for a big Belgian manufacturer. Michel’s division has not come up with anything the president of the company deems worthwhile for a new product introduction, and Michel is given two months to come up with a marketable invention. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Louis Legros (Paul Ahmarani) a young man in Sainte-Cecile, a rural Quebec village, is having a life crisis. Archival footage provides flashbacks to the World’s Fair. Sister Lafrance (Janine Sutto), a Canadian nun, collapses in the Congorama exhibit during a power outage. She is rescued by Hervé Roy (Jean-Pierre Cassell) and his wife and they subsequently develop a friendship.
“Michel lives with his Congolese wife (Claudia Tagbo) who runs her own bar/restaurant and son (Arnaud Mouithys) who wants to be a tennis star. Recently they have added Michel’s infirmed father to the household. Michel worries that his son might not be his since his skin is as dark as his mother’s and Michel feels it should be a shade in between. One night Hervé tells Michel that he was actually adopted and was born in a barn in Sainte-Cecile, Quebec. While on a business trip to Montreal, Michel decides to look for his biological parents in a small town in rural Quebec. He canvases the area for clues to his family origins
but has little luck until he stumbles upon a priest who knows more than he lets on. What Michel ultimately finds is a new layer of coincidences that tie things together is ways he did not dream possible. And Louis Legros is a missing piece in the puzzle.
“CONGORAMA is a hard film to take seriously but it is fun to watch and is competently put together. The recently underutilized Olivier Gourmet finally gets a chance to be the central character and display his talents. 4 cats
“CONGORAMA screened at the 2007 New Directors/New Films festival co-sponsored by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MOMA.”