''My Friend Max'' (french: Mon amie Max) is a 1994 Canadian
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
, written by
Guy Fournier
Guy Fournier, Order of Canada, CM (born 23 July 1931 in Waterloo, Quebec) is a Quebec author, playwright, and screenwriter.
From 8 September 2005 to 19 September 2006 he was chairman of the board of directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporati ...
and Jefferson Lewis, and directed by
Michel Brault
Michel Brault, OQ (25 June 1928 – 21 September 2013) was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the National ...
. The film premiered in February 1994 at the
Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois.
Plot
The film is set in contemporary
Quebec City
Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...
,
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 ...
.
Catherine (
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
), a concert pianist, is surprised one night by the arrival of her childhood friend Max (
Geneviève Bujold), whom she hasn't seen for 25 years. Catherine and Max were students together at the Music Conservatory in Quebec City, and were the most promising pianists. While still in her teens, the adventurous Max gets pregnant. She wants to keep the child, but her domineering mother forces her to give him up for adoption. The rebellious Max then leaves Quebec and the music world. Now, years later, she returns, obsessed with finding her son. With the help of Catherine, she locates the adoption records and social workers contact her son to ask if he wants to see her. He refuses, but she keeps trying until they are reunited.
Cast
*
Geneviève Bujold as Marie-Alexandrine Brabant
*
Marthe Keller
Marthe Keller (born 28 January 1945) is a Swiss actress and opera director. She is perhaps best known for her role in the film '' Marathon Man'' (1976), for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe Award.
Career
Early years
Keller studied ba ...
as Catherine Mercier
*
Johanne McKay as Marie-Alexandrine (adolescente)
*
Marie Guillard as Catherine (adolescente)
*
Michel Rivard as Denis Lajeunesse
*
Rita Lafontaine
Rita Lafontaine (8 June 1939 – 4 April 2016) was a Canadian theatre, film, and television actor. Born in Trois-Rivières, Quebec. She has been described as the muse of playwright Michel Tremblay and director André Brassard. Her career span ...
as Madame Brabant
*
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 ...
as Mme Michaud
*
Jean-Louis Roux
Jean-Louis Roux, (May 18, 1923 – November 28, 2013) was a Canadian politician, entertainer and playwright who was briefly the 26th Lieutenant Governor of Quebec.
Biography
Born in Montreal, Quebec, he originally studied medicine at the Univer ...
as Père Berube
*
Patrice Bissonnette as Michael Simard
Awards
At RVCQ, Bujold won the award for Best Performance, McKay won the award for Most Promising Actor, and
Guy Fournier
Guy Fournier, Order of Canada, CM (born 23 July 1931 in Waterloo, Quebec) is a Quebec author, playwright, and screenwriter.
From 8 September 2005 to 19 September 2006 he was chairman of the board of directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporati ...
and
Jefferson Lewis
Howard Jefferson Lewis (born 1951) is a Canadian screenwriter and film producer from Montreal, Quebec.John Griffin, "French director, anglo script-writer generate marital bliss with Paper Wedding". ''Montreal Gazette'', April 29, 1990. He is most n ...
won the award for Best Screenplay.
The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film at the
67th Academy Awards
The 67th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) took place on March 27, 1995, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the cer ...
, but was not accepted as a nominee.
It received six
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
15th Genie Awards in 1994, for
Best Picture
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
,
Best Actress
Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...
(Bujold),
Best Supporting Actor (Rivard),
Best Supporting Actress (McKay),
Best Cinematography (
Sylvain Brault
Sylvain Brault (born 1958) is a Canadian cinematographer from Quebec. He is most noted as a two-time Genie Award nominee for Best Cinematography, receiving nods at the 15th Genie Awards in 1994 for ''My Friend Max (Mon amie Max)'', and at the 17th ...
) and
Best Editing
This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards.
Best Actor/Best Actress
*See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress# ...
(Jacques Gagné).
[John Griffin, "Exotica dominates Genie nominations". '']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 ...
'', October 20, 1994.
See also
*
*
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:My Friend Max
1994 films
1994 drama films
Canadian drama films
Films directed by Michel Brault
Films set in Quebec City
1990s French-language films
French-language Canadian films
1990s Canadian films