''Cruising Bar'' is a 1989 Canadian comedy film, directed by

Robert Ménard Robert Ménard (born 6 July 1953) is a French far-right politician, currently serving as Mayor of Béziers. Formerly a journalist, he was a co-founder of the Paris-based international non-governmental organisation Reporters Without Borders, actin ...

. The film stars Michel Côté as four separate characters – Serge, a shy nerd; Patrice, a drug-addicted film and television stuntman; Jean-Jacques, a pompous

yuppie Yuppie, short for "young urban professional" or "young upwardly-mobile professional", is a term coined in the early 1980s for a young professional person working in a city. The term is first attested in 1980, when it was used as a fairly ne ...

; and Gérard, an unhappily married man – who are each out on Saturday night hoping to hook up with a woman. The film's cast also includes Louise Marleau,

Geneviève Rioux Geneviève Rioux (born 3 November 1961) is a Québécoise television host and actor in theatre, television and film. Biography Geneviève Rioux graduated from the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Montréal in 1983. In 1987 Rioux was nominat ...

Véronique Le Flaguais Véronique Le Flaguais (born 30 November 1947 in Paris, France) is a French actress who has acted in many Canadian productions. Her work includes a Genie Award nomination for her supporting role in ''Surviving My Mother'', '' Rumeurs'', '' Je ...

Pauline Lapointe Pauline Lapointe (May 12, 1950 - August 30, 2010) was a Canadian film and television actress and singer from Quebec.

, Marthe Turgeon,

Linda Sorgini Linda Sorgini (born 1955) is a Canadian actress who works primarily in Quebec.Gaetan Charlebois"Sorgini, Linda" ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', October 25, 2021. She is most noted for her performance in the 1983 film ''The Tin Flute (Bonheur d ...

and Tony Nardi. The film was highly successful in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

, setting the province's then-record gross box office for its first week in theatres, and later reaching the highest box office ever received in the province by a homegrown film with a gross of C$3.36 million in Canada. It was not Quebec's most successful film of the year overall; although its box office in Quebec exceeded that of

Denys Arcand Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film '' The Barbarian Invasions'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three ...

's ''

Jesus of Montreal ''Jesus of Montreal'' (french: Jésus de Montréal) is a 1989 French Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by Denys Arcand, and starring Lothaire Bluteau, Catherine Wilkening and Johanne-Marie Tremblay. The film tells the story of a g ...

'', the Arcand film was more successful in English Canada and internationally. The film received three

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for sc ...

nominations at the

11th Genie Awards The 11th annual Genie Awards were presented March 20, 1990, and honoured Canadian films released in 1989. For this year, CTV had negotiated to serve as broadcaster and the academy formed a wholly-owned subsidiary, ACCTV Productions, to independen ...

in 1990:

Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

(Côté), Best Cinematography (

Pierre Mignot Pierre Mignot (born February 23, 1944, in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian cinematographer. He is a four-time Canadian Film Award and Genie Award winner for Best Cinematography, winning at the 28th Canadian Film Awards in 1977 for '' J.A. Martin Ph ...

) and Best Costume Design ( Louise Labrecque). It did not win any of those awards, but Jacques Lafleur and Pierre Saindon were presented with a Special Achievement Genie for Make-Up. A sequel film, ''

Cruising Bar 2 ''Cruising Bar 2'' is a Canadian comedy film, directed by Robert Ménard and Michel Côté, and released in 2008. A sequel to the 1989 film '' Cruising Bar'', the film stars Côté as the same four separate characters he played in the original f ...

'', was released in 2008."Older but not much wiser; The guys from Cruising Bar are back after 20 years, and the laughs are bittersweet". ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', June 21, 2008.

References

External links

* 1989 films Canadian sex comedy films 1980s French-language films Films set in Quebec Films shot in Quebec Films directed by Robert Ménard 1980s sex comedy films 1989 comedy films French-language Canadian films 1980s Canadian films {{1980s-Canada-film-stub