Love in the Time of Civil War (French: L’amour au temps de la guerre civile) is a 2014 Canadian drama film directed by Rodrigue Jean. It was selected to be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. The film stars Alexandre Landry as Alex, a male hustler and drug addict in Montreal, Quebec
Love in the Time of Civil War (2014)
“L’amour au temps de la guerre civile” (original title)
Director: Rodrigue Jean
Writers: Ron Ladd (screenplay), Ron Ladd
Genre: Drama
Country: Canada
Language: French
Duration: 120 min
Year: 2014
Stars: Ana Christina Alva, Catherine-Audrey Lachapelle, Alexandre Landry
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Calling this film ‘two hours in hell’ is not meant as a put down. This is an accomplished film in most ways. The actors are good, even excellent at times and the director captures a sure sense of place and knows how to depict situations with great realism.
This is the type of film that pulls the viewer into its world, using a semi-documentary style. Filmed in a frigid, grey Montreal, it’s an unpleasant world, with no humor or true pleasure. The inhabitants are desperate drug addicts who continually pay for their next fix by selling their bodies or stealing. The title is ironic: there does not seem to be any love in this world either. There is sex, but it’s rough and without tenderness. We only glimpse the possibility of love between Alex and Bruno at the start, when the film looks like it might be going to tell their story as a desperate couple. But the real focus of the film is Alex. We spend a few days with him, watching him waste time with demanding abusive friends, or selling himself, or stealing. The film works because Alex is played by a handsome and charismatic actor, Alexandre Landry. Throughout, we feel that Alex is a good kid who has gone terribly wrong somehow, and has wound up in a treacherous, possibly deadly downward spiral. The film is a series of realistically presented scenes, showing Alex’s world. It’s a world we are probably very happy not to inhabit ourselves. The film isn’t perfect–the final section, with Bruno, is somewhat confusing to follow–but it works because of Mr. Landry and a cinematically effective style.
Directed by Quebec filmmaker Rodrigue Jean, this is a movie that celebrates the gritty realism of everyday life in a big city where people do whatever they have to do in order to get by.
