And the Birds Rained Down | |
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French | Il pleuvait des oiseaux |
Directed by | Louise Archambault |
Written by | Louise Archambault |
Based on | Il pleuvait des oiseaux by Jocelyne Saucier |
Produced by | Ginette Petit |
Starring | Rémy Girard Gilbert Sicotte Andrée Lachapelle Ève Landry |
Cinematography | Mathieu Laverdière |
Edited by | Richard Comeau |
Production company | Les Films Outsiders |
Distributed by | MK2 Mile End Indie Sales |
Release date |
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Running time | 127 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | French |
And the Birds Rained Down (French : Il pleuvait des oiseaux) is a 2019 Canadian drama film, directed by Louise Archambault. [1] An adaptation of the novel by Jocelyne Saucier, the film centres on a group of senior citizens living off-the-grid in a wilderness setting, whose orderly and quiet lives are threatened by changes in their personal group dynamics after the death of the group leader and the arrival of a new outsider. [2]
The film's cast includes Rémy Girard, Gilbert Sicotte, Andrée Lachapelle, Ève Landry, Louise Portal, Éric Robidoux, Marie-Ginette Guay and Kenneth Welsh. It was Lachapelle's final film role before her death, and one of the last film roles for Welsh before his.
Ted (Welsh), Charlie (Sicotte) and Tom (Girard) are three elderly men who have withdrawn from society, and are living off-the-grid at a wilderness cabin. Their only connection to the outside world is Steve (Éric Robidoux), the manager of a hotel in the nearby town who visits weekly to bring them food and supplies in exchange for a share of the marijuana that they illegally grow onsite.
One morning, however, Ted dies in his sleep; as he was effectively the group leader, this leaves Charlie and Tom a bit out of sorts. Soon afterward, their lives are further disrupted when Steve brings his aunt Gertrude (Lachapelle), who does not want to return to the assisted living facility where she has been living for many years, to live with them; she further decides to break from her past by dropping the name Gertrude and going by Marie-Desneige. At the same time Raf (Landry), a local photographer who is trying to document the relatively few remaining survivors of a forest fire that devastated the region decades earlier, arrives in search of Ted. Meanwhile, there is the threat of another forest fire nearby that may further disrupt their lives.
The film premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival, [3] and was commercially released to theatres in September 2019. [4]
Jonathan Holland of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that "The stage is thus set for an On Golden Pond -style, comfortable third-age drama with a light comic edge, but Birds ends up going much deeper and darker than that as the script, driven along by beautifully nuanced performances from its central trio, leads us into some quite unexpected areas. The first, wonderful exchange of glances between Gertrude and Charlie (on arrival, she symbolically casts away her troubled institutionalized past by renaming herself “Marie-Desneige”) indeed develops into a tremulous octogenarian love affair as Charlie takes her under his wing and shows her a whole new life, not just of stolen, old-folk kisses but of full-blown sensuality. Their nighttime conversations across a darkened room — like those of kids in summer camp, except they're 80 — are among the pic's most memorable scenes as their inevitably painful back stories start to emerge." [5]
Norman Wilner of Now rated the film four N's, writing that "It’s muted and moving, patiently assembling its characters and gliding alongside them, offering us a sense of individual stories coming together. The narrative balances its familiarity with texture and feeling there aren’t too many surprises, but Archambault offers a specificity – a sense of people and place – that grows richer and more moving as her film unfolds." He particularly praised the performances of Sicotte, Girard and Lachapelle, writing that "Sicotte and Girard are enthralling as the aging heroes, who treasure their shared solitude but are willing to welcome people in need, and Lachapelle – who died last fall – delivers an exquisitely felt valedictory performance as a woman experiencing life for the first time." [6]
Janet Smith of The Georgia Straight wrote that "what stands out most is the fully fleshed old folks here—figuratively as well as literally. With few words, Sicotte and Lachapelle show stirrings rarely portrayed in the elderly, and not just the erotic kind. The octagenarians’ subtle lessons about living in the moment should translate easily to anyone decades younger." [7]
In December 2019, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list. [8]
The film was nominated for five Canadian Screen Awards, with Girard winning for Best Supporting Actor.
Andrée Lachapelle, was a French Canadian actress. Born in Montreal, she trained at age 14 at the Studio XV theatre school under Gerard Vleminckx, later attended teacher's college and taught elementary school for a few years. In 1952 she met actor Robert Gadouas, performed with him, and had three children before his death in 1969. She later appeared in plays by Michel Tremblay, Samuel Beckett and Tennessee Williams and in the films Rope Around the Neck , YUL 871, Laura Laur, Léolo, Cap Tourmente, Route 132, The Last Escape and Don't Let the Angels Fall.
Gilbert Sicotte, is a Canadian actor.
Louise Archambault is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. She is best known for her films Familia, which won the Claude Jutra Award in 2005, and Gabrielle, which won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Picture in 2014.
Jocelyne Saucier is a Canadian novelist and journalist based in Quebec.
Richard Comeau is a Canadian film editor.
Simon Lavoie is a Canadian film director and screenwriter from Quebec. He is best known as codirector with Mathieu Denis of Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves , which won the award for Best Canadian Film at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival and garnered several Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, including for Best Picture and Best Director.
The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019. The opening gala was the documentary film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, directed by Daniel Roher, and the festival closed with a screening of the biographical film Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi.
A Brother's Love is a 2019 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Monia Chokri. It had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It was released theatrically in Canada on 7 June 2019 by Les Films Séville.
The Song of Names is a 2019 drama film directed by François Girard. An adaptation of the novel of the same name by Norman Lebrecht, it stars Tim Roth and Clive Owen as childhood friends from London whose lives have been changed by World War II. The film was nominated for nine Canadian Screen Awards, winning five.
Antigone is a 2019 Canadian drama film directed by Sophie Deraspe. An adaptation of the ancient Greek play Antigone by Sophocles, the film transposes the story to a modern-day refugee family in Montreal. The cast includes Nahéma Ricci as Antigone, with Rawad El-Zein, Hakim Brahimi, Rachida Oussaada, and Nour Belkhiria. It was filmed in Greater Montreal in 2018.
The Twentieth Century is a 2019 Canadian surrealist comedy-drama film written and directed by Matthew Rankin in his full-length directorial debut. The film portrays a fictionalized portrait of the rise to power of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King as played by Dan Beirne. It won three Canadian Screen Awards.
Nahéma Ricci, also known as Nahéma Ricci-Sahabi, is a Canadian actress.
Mafia Inc. is a 2019 Canadian crime drama film directed by Podz and scripted by Sylvain Guy. Based on the non-fiction book Mafia Inc: The Long, Bloody Reign of Canada's Sicilian Clan by journalists André Cédilot and André Noël, the film stars Marc-André Grondin as Vincent Gamache, a man who gets drawn into Montreal's organized crime underground through his friendship with Giaco Paterno, the son of a major mafia boss. The cast also includes Sergio Castellitto, Gilbert Sicotte, Mylène Mackay, Tony Nardi and Benz Antoine.
14 Days, 12 Nights is a Canadian drama film, directed by Jean-Philippe Duval and released in 2019. The film stars Anne Dorval as Isabelle Brodeur, a Canadian woman whose grief over the accidental death of her adopted Vietnamese-born teenage daughter leads her to undertake a trip to Vietnam to meet Thuy Nguyen, the girl's birth mother.
My Boy is a Canadian short teen drama film, directed by Sarah Pellerin and released in 2018. The film stars Henri Richer-Picard as Louis, a shy, quiet teenager struggling with the rituals and codes of masculinity at his older brother's bachelor party.
Thanks for Everything is a Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Louise Archambault and released in 2019. Her second film to be released in 2019 following And the Birds Rained Down , the film stars Julie Perreault and Magalie Lépine-Blondeau as Christine and Marianne Cyr, two estranged sisters who reunite after the death of their father, and embark on a road trip to the Magdalen Islands to scatter his ashes.
Nicole Dorsey is a Canadian film director and screenwriter, whose debut feature film, Black Conflux, premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.
Mathieu Laverdière is a Canadian cinematographer. He is a two-time Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Cinematography, receiving nominations at the 3rd Canadian Screen Awards in 2015 for Henri Henri and at the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018 for We Are the Others , and a three-time Quebec Cinema Award nominee for Best Cinematography, receiving nominations at the 15th Jutra Awards in 2013 for The Torrent , at the 17th Jutra Awards in 2015 for Henri Henri, and at the 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards in 2020 for And the Birds Rained Down .
Drunken Birds is a Canadian drama film, directed by Ivan Grbovic and released in 2021. The film stars Jorge Antonio Guerrero as Willy, a Mexican drug runner in a crime cartel who travels to Canada in search of his girlfriend Marlena after she disappears, and takes a job as a migrant worker on a farm in the Montérégie region.