pokoke film

On September 1, 2011, at 11:00 A.M., Quebecois director, Jean-Marc Vallée, the man behind the Canadian classic, C.R.A.Z.Y. , completed his latest film, CAFE DE FLORE . By 5:00 P.M. that same day, he was on a flight to Venice for the world premiere. “I don’t think I have the distance yet to talk well about it,” Vallée explains when we meet at the Toronto International Film Festival, the film’s second festival stop before it’s theatrical release. “In my humble experience, it usually takes a while before I know what words to use.” Vallee left, with Cafe de Flore lead, Kevin Parent To be fair, CAFE DE FLORE can be difficult to describe even after you’ve seen it a couple of times. There are two stories told simultaneously that take place far apart from each other in both time and space. In 1960’s Paris, Vanessa Paradis, looking dowdy and plain, plays a mother to a child with Down's syndrome (Marin Gerrier) and in contemporary Montreal, a DJ (Kevin Parent, in a surprisingly solid acting...

Written and Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée Starring Vanessa Paradis, Kevin Parent, Helene Florent and Evelyne Brochu When it comes to love, sometimes it feels as if there are greater forces at work and that we have no control over who we’re drawn to or how deeply we can feel. For some, a love as untamable as this is often considered to be destiny, as if it were written in the stars long before we were ever born. This sense of romance intertwined with fate runs rampant if Quebec filmmaker, Jean-Marc Vallée’s latest feature, CAFE DE FLORE , a love story that needs more than one lifetime in order to work itself out. With CAFE DE FLORE , Vallée finds a voice as a director he seemed to have lost in his last outing, THE YOUNG VICTORIA . While the period piece was certainly beautiful and had its moments, it played out as, well, already played out. None of the urgency or energy Vallée created with his previous feature and biggest hit, C.R.A.Z.Y. , was anywhere to be found. Perhaps it was a langu...