Le matou (1985)

Florent Boissonneault and his young wife Elise always had one dream: own a restaurant. When they meet a strange old man, Egon Ratablavasky, their dream become reality, but only to quick ... See full summary »

Director:

Jean Beaudin

Writers:

Yves Beauchemin (novel), Lise Lemay-Rousseau

Stars:

Serge Dupire, Monique Spaziani, Jean Carmet

4 wins & 6 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Serge Dupire	...	Florent Boissonneault
Monique Spaziani	...	Elise Boissonneault
Jean Carmet	...	Egon Ratablavasky
Julien Guiomar	...	Aurélien Picquot
Guillaume Lemay-Thivierge	...	Monsieur Emile
Miguel Fernandes	...	Slipskin
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Pierre Beaudry	...	Priest
Paul Berval	...	Monsieur St-Onge
Rita Bibeau	...	Mme. Meloche
Sylvain Boucher	...	Copain d'Émile
Yvan Canuel	...	M. Boissoneault
Johanne Fontaine	...	Loretta Chuinard
Isabel García Lorca	...	Rosine (as Isabel Lorca)
Robert Gravel	...	Policier
Christian Joli	...	Philippe

Storyline

Florent Boissonneault and his young wife Elise always had one dream: own a restaurant. When they meet a strange old man, Egon Ratablavasky, their dream become reality, but only to quick turn into a nightmare when they sadly discover they had been tricked by him, and lost everything. But their dream is not dead, and a strong desire of avenging soon bring them back in business, with the help of an homeless kid, a french cook and a friendly journalist. But the old man still had trick on for them his bag...

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Plot Keywords:

restaurant | female nudity | cat | absent mother | stripper | 

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Details

Country:

Canada France

Language:

French

Release Date:

28 August 1985 (Canada)

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cine Le Matou, Films A2, Initial Groupe

Technical Specs

Runtime:

141 min

Color:

Color

User Reviews

over 20 years later

It's really unfair to movies to vote for them after over 20 years. But I must give it a high score based on the impact it had on my life. I grew up in a French community in rural Québec within an English speaking family with a Nova Scotian mother (married to a Québecois) who hated EVERYTHING about Québecois culture, which tainted me for many years. However along came college and bigger cities with bigger cinemas and many Québecois movies on the big screen instead of on television, within a family context, this was my coming of age time.

Le matou represented a very important turning point in my life. It was my first time coming out of a movie theatre from seeing a Québecois movie saying WOW what a wonderful movie that was, uplifting, emotional, inspiring and artfully put together. It was the beginning of my love affair with Québec cinema and Québec culture in general. It was like coming alive finally at age 18, and relearning to love that which I'd been thought to despise. Often Québec cinema is best enjoyed when freeing one's head of Hollywood expectations, going in with an open heart, because that's the ultimate goal, is to reach the cinephiles' heart. This movie reaches that objective quite nicely.