CURLING

Denis Côté’s most accessible feature film to date, Curling is a fascinating work that revisits many of the preoccupations of his previous films Les États nordiques, Nos vies privées, Elle veut le chaos and Carcasses. But here, the celebrated Québecois filmmaker unfolds his minimalist narrative from the inside out, instead of his usual outside-in stories. The result is an impressively austere film that establishes an immediate emotional connection.
It is the dead of winter in a rural Québec village. Everyone in town knows Jean- François, a single father who works nights at a deserted bowling alley and days in a rundown motel. His daughter, Julyvonne, is mysteriously absent from the community. As it turns out, she never leaves their home. Jean-François home-schools and isolates her, fearing that contact with the outside world will scar her the way it has him.
As with Côté’s previous films, motivations and past history have little relevance here – what matters lies within the frame. Sensitive, expressive images are crafted to perfection by cinematographer Josée Deshaies (Tiresia, All That She Wants), while Côté masterfully distorts our perception of time, letting it linger in beguiling stillness as winter slowly seeps away. (Martin Bilodeau)

In the presence of Denis Côté.