Heads or Tails (1971 film)

Last updated
Heads or Tails
French Pile ou face
Directed by Roger Fournier
Written byGérald Tassé
Produced by John Dunning
Gérald Tassé
André Link
StarringNathalie Naubert
Diane Arcand
Jean Coutu
Patricia Foster
Cinematography René Verzier
Edited byJean Lafleur
Music by Stéphane Venne
Production
company
Release date
  • February 11, 1971 (1971-02-11)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

Heads or Tails (French : Pile ou face) is a Canadian sex comedy film, directed by Roger Fournier and released in 1971. [1] The film centres on a group of friends who live in various places around the world and see each other once a year when they gather for a swingers weekend, but whose social equilibrium is upended when one of the circle cancels, sending in her place Stéphanie (Nathalie Naubert), a woman who is unwilling to participate in their sex games. [2]

Contents

The cast includes Diane Arcand, Jean Coutu, Patricia Foster, Monique Bélisle, Jean-Denis Leduc, Jérôme Tiberghien, Jacqueline Fellay, Patrick Peuvion, Georges Carrère and Claudia Hen. [3]

Critical response

Martin Malina of the Montreal Gazette panned the film, writing that "the laughter is forced, the action, frenetic and aimless, and no one (least of all the audience) appears to be really enjoying himself." [2] He further opined that the film would have been more appropriately titled "Pile ou fesses", or "Face or Asses". [2]

His colleague Dane Lanken was a bit more charitable, writing that "it all comes out a little fuzzy. Russ Meyer can mix morals and absurdity and keep it all blissfully silly, whereas this crew bogs down a little. Consequently, Pile ou Face remains a nice nude romp with more than a few pretty faces and funny moments — and a lot of promise of good things to come." [4]

Related Research Articles

Claude Jutra was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate & Anna McGarrigle</span> Canadian singer-songwriter duo

Kate McGarrigle and Anna McGarrigle were a duo of Canadian singer-songwriters from Quebec, who performed until Kate's death on January 18, 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claude Fournier (filmmaker)</span> Canadian film director (1931–2023)

Claude Fournier was a Canadian film director, screenwriter, editor and cinematographer. He is one of the forerunners of the Cinema of Quebec. He was the twin brother of Guy Fournier.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Montreal World Film Festival</span> Defunct annual film festival formerly held in Montreal, Canada

The Montreal World Film Festival, commonly abbreviated MWFF in English or FFM in French, was an annual film festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from 1977 to 2019. Founded and run throughout its lifetime by Serge Losique, it was the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF..

<i>The Brotherhood of Satan</i> 1971 film by Bernard McEveety

The Brotherhood of Satan is a 1971 American supernatural horror film directed by Bernard McEveety, produced by L. Q. Jones and Alvy Moore, and starring Jones, Strother Martin, and Ahna Capri. Its plot follows a widow, who, while traveling through the American Southwest with his young daughter and girlfriend (Capri), arrive in a small California town where a coven of Satanist witches are kidnapping the local children with the intent of transferring their own souls into the children's bodies as a means of achieving immortality.

Steve Galluccio is a Canadian screenwriter and playwright, most noted for his play Mambo Italiano and its feature film adaptation Mambo Italiano.

<i>Heads or Tails</i> (1997 film) 1997 Canadian film

Heads or Tails is a 1997 Quebec comedy film directed by Claude Fournier and starring Roy Dupuis and Patrick Huard.

Heads or Tails refers to coin flipping.

Goodbye, Norma Jean is a 1976 film by Larry Buchanan based on the life of Marilyn Monroe. Misty Rowe plays the title role.

John Dunning was a pioneering Canadian film producer from Montreal who co-founded the Canadian film production company Cinépix and produced early works by notable Canadian directors David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman. Dunning launched Cinépix with partner André Link in Montreal in the early 1960s. Their biggest commercial success—and the first Canadian box office hit—came with Reitman's Meatballs (1979).

Roger Fournier was a Canadian writer and television director. He was most noted for his novel Le cercle des arènes, which won the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction and the Prix France-Québec in 1982, and his screenplay for the film A Day in a Taxi , for which he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcel Sabourin</span> Canadian actor and writer from Quebec (born 1935)

Marcel Sabourin, OC is a Canadian actor and writer from Quebec. He is most noted for his role as Abel Gagné, the central character in Jean Pierre Lefebvre's trilogy of Don't Let It Kill You , The Old Country Where Rimbaud Died and Now or Never , and his performance as Professor Mandibule in the children's television series Les Croquignoles and La ribouldingue.

The Revolutionary is a Canadian satirical film, directed by Jean Pierre Lefebvre and released in 1965. The film stars Louis St-Pierre as a radical university student in Quebec who wants to launch a revolution to overthrow the Canadian government, only to have his efforts to recruit and train fellow revolutionaries in a rural compound derailed when he meets and falls for a young woman staying in another cabin nearby.

Rainy Day Woman is a Canadian drama film, directed by Ron Hallis and released in 1970. The film stars Ashley Murray and Helen Keenan as an unhappily married couple whose relationship is tested when the husband begins having an affair with a younger woman.

Love in a Four Letter World is a Canadian softcore pornographic film, directed by John Sone and released in 1970. The film stars Michael Kane and Helen Whyte as Harry and Vera Haven, a wealthy couple whose lives are turned upside down when a group of hippies move into a commune in the house next door, drawing first their daughter Susan, and then Helen herself, into their bohemian free love philosophy.

René Verzier was a Canadian cinematographer, who worked predominantly in the cinema of Quebec. He was most noted as a Genie Award nominee for Best Cinematography, receiving dual nods at the 8th Genie Awards in 1987 for his work on the films The Morning Man and Toby McTeague.

Hold on to Daddy's Ears, also known as What the Hell Are They Complaining About?, is a Canadian comedy film, directed by Jean Bissonnette and released in 1971. A satirical allegory for Quebec nationalism, the film stars Dominique Michel as Suzanne David and Yvon Deschamps as Jacques Martin, two French Canadians working for the Montreal office of a large English Canadian insurance company from Toronto.

Enuff Is Enuff is a Canadian comedy film, directed by Denis Héroux and released in 1973. The film stars Jean Lefebvre as Jean-Louis Cartier, an insurance company employee from Quebec who is undertaking a road trip across Canada with his family after receiving a promotion to the company's head office in Vancouver, only to run into various complications that are giving him second thoughts about whether he wants to take the job.

The Great Ordinary Movie, or Joan of Arc is Alive and Well and Living in Quebec is a Canadian improvisational docudrama film, directed by Roger Frappier and released in 1971. Created in collaboration with the Grand Cirque ordinaire, a Montreal theatre troupe active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the film blends documentary scenes about contemporaneous life in Quebec with a filmed staging of the troupe's theatrical play T'es pas tannée Jeanne d'Arc, about Joan of Arc living in Quebec.

References

  1. Gerald Pratley, A Century of Canadian Cinema. Lynx Images, 2003. ISBN   1-894073-21-5. p. 95.
  2. 1 2 3 Martin Malina, "Hijinks in the Laurentians". Montreal Gazette , February 12, 1971.
  3. Charles-Henri Ramond, "Pile ou face – Film de Roger Fournier". Films du Québec, March 5, 2009.
  4. Dane Lanken, "Free souls romping in pristine waters". Montreal Gazette , February 13, 1971.