Ode to Joy
Laughter without borders, smiles without limits! From April 1 to May 27, the Ode to Joy film cycle invites you to dive into a jubilant panorama of European humor through six irresistible comedies.
From slapstick to biting satire, through bittersweet comedy, this cycle offers a varied and original look at our lives, oscillating between lightness and depth. Discover Chiennes de vies (Belgium, April 1st), a work with an incisive tone, Wild Mouse (Austria, April 9) and its scathing humor, Il reste encore demain (Italy, starting April 15) with its poignant reflections, Ciao-ciao Bourbine (Switzerland, April 29) and its irresistible tenderness, the sweet carefreeness of À l’abordage (France, starting May 13), and finally When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before (Germany, May 27), tinged with amused nostalgia.
These screenings are part of the contemporary European film cycle organized by the EUNIC Montréal cluster, in partnership with several European cultural institutions and consulates, based in Montreal and Ottawa: the General Delegation of Wallonia-Brussels in Quebec, the Goethe-Institut Montréal, the Consulate General of Switzerland in Montreal, the Italian Institute of Culture in Montréal, the Austrian Cultural Forum Ottawa, the Consulat général de France à Québec and the Alliance Française de Montréal.
Ode to Joy
À l’abordage
A warm summer evening in Paris: Félix meets Alma by chance. But she is about to go on a family vacation and their time together is cut short. On an impulse, Félix decides to surprise her where she is holidaying and enrols a friend in the adventure.
Guillaume Brac
France
language: French
95 min
Ode to Joy
Chiennes de vies
Three stories involving people and their dogs. The dogs are the unwitting protagonists of this human comedy, because it’s on men and women that the filmmaker focuses his lens, scrutinizing their interactions, their frustrations, their impulses and their loneliness.
Xavier Seron
Belgium
language: French
92 min
Ode to Joy
Ciao-ciao Bourbine
Switzerland shall from now on have only one national language: French. Many German and Italian-speaking Swiss are in a state of crisis. Including Walter, who works for the federal police and has to ensure that the transition to monolingualism is carried out properly.
Peter Luisi
Switzerland
language: Swiss-German
subtitles: TBD
88 min
Ode to Joy
Il reste encore demain
In postwar Rome, a working-class woman dreams of a better future for herself and her daughter while facing abuse at the hands of her domineering husband.
Paola Cortellesi
Italy
language: Italian
subtitles: French
118 min
Ode to Joy
When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before
Growing up in a psychiatric clinic, Paul’s childhood is populated by psychiatric patients who become his extended family.
Sonja Heiss
Germany, Belgium
language: German
subtitles: French
116 min
Ode to Joy
Wild Mouse
Kings should be treated courteously! At least, that’s what famous music critic Georg thinks. But he finds himself counting pennies when his chief editor suddenly fires him from the Viennese newspaper for which he has been writing for decades.
Josef Hader
Austria, Germany
language: Austrian German
subtitles: English
103 min
