Montreal Main (1974)

A photographer finds himself falling for a 14 year-old boy.

Director:

Frank Vitale

Writers:

Stephen Lack, Allan Moyle,

Stars:

Frank Vitale, Allan Moyle, Stephen Lack

Cast

Credited cast:
Frank Vitale	...	Frank
Allan Moyle	...	Bozo
Stephen Lack	...	Steve
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Anthony Booth
Peter Brawley
Leonard Colfman
Maggie Gunston
Jackie Holden
Suzy Lake
Nye MacIukas
Pam Marchant
George Mckenzie
Esther Ormianer
G.E. Rogers
Anne Sutherland

Storyline

In Frank Vitale's autobiographical study, he plays a photographer living among the assorted outcasts, junkies, and artists populating Montreal's Main. Quieter and more introspective than most of his friends, Frank becomes smitten by Johnny, a fourteen-year-old from the suburbs. But the relationship is doomed by the startling degree of hypocrisy and possessiveness that boils over among the group when they discover the intensity of Frank's feelings about the boy.

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Plot Keywords:

intergenerational love | montreal quebec canada | gay interest | photographer model relationship | boy in underwear | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 March 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Boulevard Saint-Laurent Montréal

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

CAD 20,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), Videograph of Montreal

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Followed by The Rubber Gun (1977)

User Reviews

A love story between a man and a boy

Why is it so difficult to say what the film was about? Because we have made no progress since that time. It is the story of a man and a boy who are in love but whose love is not allowed to come to fruition because the "hip" counter culture has not actually freed itself from the obsessions and repressions of the main-stream culture. It is an excruciatingly painful story that is honestly and beautifully told. As soon as we can get over the notion that love between a man and a boy is somehow ontologically different than love between a man and a woman or two men or two women or two young boys or whatever our theorizing about what the film is about need not be so convoluted and oblique. As to whether it is a "gay" film, that seems to me to be an irrelevant question. It is a human film. We are not gay or hetero or bi or pedo. We are just people with our Eros wandering where it will, and each with his or her own highways and byways. Some highways lead to grief. That doesn't make them evil. Just tragic. Don't know whom I am talking with. Just felt cranky and decided to post my thoughts. It is certainly a film that is worth seeing.