Father, Guns and the Most Popular Film in Quebec

If you visit almost any DVD retailer in Canada right now, you’ll see that the number one seller is the latest Star Trek film – except for in one province, in which the best selling movie is one you’ve only heard of if you’re from there. I spent this past weekend in Quebec City, where I visited the popular Archambault movie/music/video game/book seller, and the top seller on its DVD wall was a movie called De père en flic (a.k.a. Father and Guns). Ring a bell? It stars veteran actor Michel Côté and comedian Louis-José Houde. Right now you’re thinking either, “What? And who and who?” or “Of course I know this, you silly Anglo!” as you shake a cheese-and-gravy-covered French fry at your computer screen.

Father and Guns is the latest example of the gulf between French-Canadian culture and English-Canadian culture, the difference that sees French Canada supporting its film industry – hell, loving its homegrown cinema – and the average English Canadian running screaming from its homegrown cinema, as if just watching Paul Gross could give one swine flu (I’m 99 percent sure this can’t happen).

Trying to get your head around the success of French-Canadian cinema versus the failure of English-Canadian cinema – and I’m generalizing here; the 2006 drama Away From Her is a stunning exception, for example – can be trying to find your way through a cultural briar patch. (As The Dude says, “You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous.”) However, since I started dating a Quebecois girl and have been exposed to more Quebec cinema, I’ve come to better understand a few things about these differences, which are illustrated nicely by Father and Guns.

For starters – and again, I’m making generalizations here, so bear with me – compared to English-Canadian culture, French-Canadian culture knows what it is. From traditional food, to music, to film to, um, Bonhomme, there’s an encompassing distinctness you don’t find in Canada outside of Quebec. Spend some time in Quebec City or Montreal and this becomes apparent.

Naturally, this is reflected in its cinema. Instead of making self-conscious movies about its identity (One Week is a recent example), there are more Quebecois films that are steeped in its identity (of course, having a more distinct language doesn’t hurt) without having to be so friggin’ neurotic about it.

Father and Guns is a buddy/cop movie in which the main characters are an at-odds father and son, both cops, who go on a father/son relationship-building nature retreat together as a pretext to glean information from a lawyer (also having a troubled relationship with his son) of a biker gang that has kidnapped an undercover officer. The two men must overcome their differences and work together to succeed; it’s a very Hollywood-type plot, so no surprise that it’s already been picked up for a Hollywood remake. Director/co-writer Émile Gaudreault also made the 1994 film Louis 19, le roi des ondes (Louis the 19th, King of the Airwaves), which was remade in Hollywood as Edtv, and here he brings a very universal concept to the screen.

He’s also got star power. Because there are bigger homegrown stars in Quebec and they can help build audiences for films, films can actually be profitable. Côté is a very popular veteran of Quebecois cinema (he’s starred in Cruising Bar, In the Belly of the Dragon and C.R.A.Z.Y.) and comedian Houde is one of the province’s top stand-ups. And because there’s a language barrier, those stars are more likely to remain in Quebec instead of going to Hollywood like so many a famous English-Canadian actor who doesn’t make Canadian films. Côté actually had the time to become star within his market.

Father and Guns is genuinely funny, particularly when it puts its leads through the father/son team-building exercises, such as mud wrestling and therapy. That said, it definitely isn’t going to gather the acclaim of something like The Barbarian Invasions, as Gaudrealt’s film is a very populist, Hollywood-style product with plot and action sequences that are fairly by-the-numbers (not to mention that eye-roller of a title). But on the flipside, it’s exciting to see Canadians that excited about a Canadian film. And it does retain a distinct Quebec flavour in the form of cultural, geographical and social references. It’s just not obsessing about those things, or denying them altogether.

I like that both French and English Canada makes some very odd little anti-Hollywood films (Last Night, for example, is one of my absolute favourites). I prefer that over our watered down wannabe Hollywood films (think anything that tries to pass itself off as American on a small fraction of a Hollywood budget – such as the pathetic Ryan Reynolds heist movie Foolproof). I definitely prefer it over our obvious culture-building projects, such as Men With Brooms, which cram Can-con down your throat with the wide end of a hockey stick.

Those inclusive cultural, geographical and social differences that have helped Quebec form a rather thriving cinema can’t be translated to English-Canadian films, but there are still some lessons to be learned. Namely that people like Hollywood-style films – the form has gelled after over a century – and they don’t like having their culture dictated to them. Father and Guns has a very Hollywood sensibility to it but also casually integrates cultural touchstones into its plot (for example, Quebec biker gangs have long been a headline-grabbing problem in the province) and dialogue (Quebecois slang is very much present).

Or, rather, I should say it naturally integrates these things, because it is more natural. Quebec City turned 400 last year, so the culture has had a lot of time to gel, so maybe it’s more a matter of time. Regardless, where I see a lot of English Canadian films wonder, “Who are we, what are we doing here?” I see a lot of Quebecois films say, “This is us, and here’s where we’re going.” Certainly, one of those attitudes is more attractive than the other to the average Canadian, non?

-Dave Alexander