Once Upon a Time in the East (1974 film)

Once Upon a Time in the East
FrenchIl était une fois dans l'est
Directed byAndré Brassard
Written byAndré Brassard
Michel Tremblay
Produced byPierre Lamy
StarringDenise Filiatrault
CinematographyPaul Van der Linden
Edited byAndré Corriveau
Production
companies
Canadian Film Development
Les Productions Carle-Lemy
Release date
  • 27 February 1974 (1974-02-27)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench
Budget$300,000
Box office$1 million (Canada)[1]

Once Upon a Time in the East (French: Il était une fois dans l'est) is a 1974 Canadian drama film directed by André Brassard. The film stars Denise Filiatrault, Michelle Rossignol, Frédérique Collin, Amulette Garneau, Béatrice Picard and Rita Lafontaine. It was entered into the 1974 Cannes Film Festival.[2]

Synopsis

The film is based on several plays by Michel Tremblay, weaving characters from the plays Les Belles-sœurs, Hosanna, La duchesse de Langeais and À toi, pour toujours, ta Marie-Lou into an original ensemble cast story.[3]

Some of the characters include: Helene who quits her waitress job and goes back to the club; Pierrette has been dumped by her boyfriend and turns to the bottle to drown her sorrows; Lise ends up having an abortion, rather than bringing a baby into a world she can't stand; Carmen sings in the drag club; and Hosanna, who is the recipient of her "sisters" fury, because they want to get even with her for all the things she has done to them, so after discovering what she is wearing to the big bash, everybody copies her outfit.

Cast

Reception

Film critic Martin Knelman was not impressed with the movie, saying the film "is a nervy, nasty exercise which works too hard at being a knockout; the result is an exasperating, eclectic mess of a picture; surely one of the most astonishing failures ever produced in Canada."[6] Likewise, critic Lowell Cohn didn't care for the film either, stating that "there is an amateurism which pervades all parts of the movie; the photography is grainy, sometimes unclear, and the acting, such as there is, seems largely improvised and unsure of itself."[7] The Chicago Tribune called the film a "transvestite turkey; a drag in more ways than one."[8]

Author Monica Sullivan wrote "the ending is a downer, as it drains the humor and energy out of the 100 minutes that went before it; perhaps Brassard didn't know how to wrap up this rich slice of life."[9] Canadian film critic Gerald Pratley commented the film has "a good deal of truth, a knowing insight into hearts and minds, and some rousing performances make the sensational aspects of the activity depicted very real and touched with tragedy."[10]

The Bay Area Reporter observed that "it's a very interesting if somewhat depressing film; we meet various interesting characters yet never really learn too much about them."[11] American film critic Vincent Canby wrote the film "has more busy moments than affecting ones; the characters all seem to be related to one another or, at least, to know one another, but there is very little sense of community in the movie; it's like a Broadway tribute of some sort, composed entirely of big moments from other shows."[12]

Film critic Thomas Quinn Curtiss said it is a "film of unusual quality; female impersonators perform and temperaments clash bitterly; the actors give gripping, intense performances; this is a promising film debut for Brassard."[13] Canadian film critic Thomas Waugh opined that "this story and the other plots woven in and around the universe of the drag queens, waitresses, lesbians, housewives, and drunks of the 'East' – dissolve in rejection, bitterness and rage."[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Canadian Films Grosses". Variety. 24 November 1976. p. 32.
  2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Il Était Une Fois Dans L'est". Festival de Cannes. Archived from the original on 5 November 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2009.
  3. ^ Rist, Peter Harry (2001). Guide to the Cinema(s) of Canada. Greenwood Publishing. p. 100. ISBN 978-0-313-29931-5.
  4. ^ Il était une fois dans l'est (1974) - Denise Filiatrault as Hélène - IMDb. Retrieved 3 February 2026 – via m.imdb.com.
  5. ^ Il était une fois dans l'est (1974) - Denis Drouin as Maurice - IMDb. Retrieved 3 February 2026 – via www.imdb.com.
  6. ^ Knelman, Martin (3 May 1975). "The World of Michael Tremblay On The Screen". Movies. The Globe and Mail. p. 31.
  7. ^ Cohn, Lowell (22 October 1974). "Most Atrocious Film Of The Year Arrives". Palo Alto Times. p. 20.
  8. ^ Van Matre, Lynn (8 November 1974). "Once Upon A Time In The East". The Chicago Tribune. p. C1.
  9. ^ Sullivan, Monica (1998). VideoHound's Independent Film Guide. Foreword by Mare Winningham. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. p. 300. ISBN 1-57859-018-3.
  10. ^ Pratley, Gerald (1987). "Canadian Films 1945–1984". Torn Sprockets: The Uncertain Projection of the Canadian Film. Newark: University of Delaware Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-87413-194-9.
  11. ^ Montezuma (October 1974). "Film Festival Madness". Entertainment – Films. Bay Area Reporter. Vol. 4, no. 22. p. 13.
  12. ^ Canby, Vincent (14 April 1975). "Brassard's Once Upon a Time". The New York Times. p. 41.
  13. ^ Curtis, Thomas Quinn (24 May 1974). "Conversation Rates Its Advance Notices". International Herald Tribune. No. 28414. p. 8.
  14. ^ Waugh, Thomas (Fall 2001). "Fairy Tales of Two Cities or Queer Nations". Canadian Journal of Film Studies. 10 (2): 102–125. doi:10.3138/cjfs.10.2.102.

Further reading

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