Patricia Nolin
A photographer sets off toward a mysterious forest to find Boychuk, witness and victim of the Great Fire that swept through Northern Ontario at the turn of the 20th century. But before she arrives, she learns that Boychuck has just perished. Survivors of the long-ago fire, Tom and Charlie, two elderly men who have chosen to live out their last days in the woods, are introduced to Marie Desneige, whose 60 year institutionalization has only fueled her passion for life. Meanwhile, the photographer is discovering that Boychuck had been a painter, whose life’s work had been entirely inspired by the Great Fire. The story immerses us in a historical drama while captivating us with the strange lives of these men of the forest. Three men who, in choosing freedom above all else, made a deal with death.
In this melodrama, Marie and Pierre (Danielle Proulx and Marc Messier) are a comfortably middle-class couple who want the ultimate accessory: a baby. Their efforts to conceive naturally have been unsuccessful, so they decide to try using the newest artificial methods of conception. Unfortunately for them, the clinician they contact for help is also given to conducting unauthorized experiments on the human lifespan, cloning, etc. Eventually the fertilization effort is successful, and Marie has conceived quadruplets. The couple discusses this situation while driving, and are killed in an auto accident.
In Quebec 40s, orphans or abandoned children are placed in a gigantic psychiatric hospital where children were locked. Were they sick? No, they simply had no family. To escape this oppressive universe, they created a parallel world: the institution's basement where, in a maze of tunnels, they founded an independent company, with its rituals, spells. A young girl, Agnes, reigns over this underground world that adults seem to tolerate.
La quarantaine is a Canadian film comedy-drama first released in 1982, directed by Anne Claire Poirier. The film stars Monique Mercure, Caroline Beaudoin, Roger Blay, Benoît Pellerin and Louise Rémy. It has also been released under the title: Beyond Forty.
Robert decides to drop everything and go back to his homeland, accompanied by his daughter and a couple of friends.
