Lilies (1996)

reviewed by
Harvey S. Karten


LILIES By Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Turbulent Arts Director: John Greyson Writer: Michel Marc Bouchard Cast: Brent Carver, Marcel Sabourin, Jason Cadieux, Matthew Ferguson, Aubert Pallascio, Danny Gilmore, Alexander Chapman If you're a lover of theater, you might imagine Jean Genet, Bert Brecht, and Peter Brook meeting by a lovely lakeside somewhere in Quebec to fashion a new work of art. Genet, of course, insists on gender-bending, role-playing, and racial mixtures. Brecht want to distance the audience by having the actors announce each scene before playing it out. And Brook, well, he insists that there must be a least some mayhem and cruelty, though he realizes it will never equal that of "Marat/Sade." What emerges is "Lilies," a film that can hardly be a model of job-creation for women in the movie industry, one which underscores homosexuality, theatricality, religious hypocrisy; utilizing vivid imagery, some deliberately laughable acting at spots, and stark contrasts. "Lilies," based on the play with the same name by Michel Marc Bouchard--who adapted his staged drama for the wide screen--has already garnered heaps of awards at such events as the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and the San Francisco International Lesbian & Gay Film Festival, and has won four Genie Awards, which are the equivalent in Canada of the U.S. Oscar for best motion picture. As vivid a dramatization as it is, "Lilies" is also a mess, one which may have you unduly pondering the unfolding plot, a storyline which is tied together only at the very conclusion. You may leave the movie house wondering just how important the gay theme is--even though the characters' homosexuality is of paramount consideration--since one could imagine the story played out by heterosexual characters as well albeit without some of the edge which all-male casting affords. Filmed in Montreal which stands in for the town of Roberval in Northern Quebec, the movie shifts easily from 1952 to 1912, from the somber gray ambiance of a grim, well-guarded prison to a romantic setting of the kind that film-makers fondly position with gauzy lensing. When a Catholic bishop (Marcel Sabourin) visits the prison allegedly to hear a dying man's confession, he is locked into the confessional booth by the chaplain (Ian D. Clark) who invited him. Just opposite him in the prison-within-a-prison is not a dying man but a prisoner who was forty years earlier his friend, Simon (Aubert Pallascio). The startled bishop has essentially been given a free, front-row seat to witness a play put on by prisoners which recreates some seminal events which occurred in the year 1912. Moving back and forth in time, from 1952 to 1912, director John Greyson shows the bishop watching in mixed terror and sadness a tragedy which befell his young friend Simon (Jason Cadieux) in the early part of the century. Simon and Vallier (Danny Gilmore) are homosexuals who are involved with each other, until Simon decides "it's time to become interested in girls." Completing the male triangle is the bishop as a young man, Bilodeau (Matthew Ferguson), who is consumed with jealousy at the attraction of his two friends. When Vallier's mother, the Countess de Tilly (Brent Carver) encourages the relationship, a series of dire events transpires, leading ultimately to Simon's engagement to a woman, Lydie-Anne (who is played by a man, Alexander Chapman). Plays often do not translate well to the screen, but one could scarcely imagine a more stylized production of the staged work, known in French as Les Feluettes, than the one we witness on the big screen. The film has considerable metaphoric weight, not the least being its very title, "Lilies," which means everything from the lilies of the field (a Biblical reference) to the fleur de lys (symbolizing the royal Countess who is Valliere's mother), to sexual imagery. "Lilies" could have been a smashing production given its boldly imaginative romp, but its characters are strangely off-putting. In fact it would be difficult to sympathize or empathize with any of them, perhaps because the gender-bending is all too unsubtle. The 18-year-old Simon (Jason Cadieux) could pass for a young Peter Gallagher, representing perhaps the Brad Pitt of 1912 French Canada, his presence obviously stirring the envy and longings of the cast hub. In their relatively small roles, Marcel Sabourin as the bishop and Aubert Pallascio as the older Simon who is serving a term for murder perform their parts professionally. The remainder of the cast look just plain silly a good part of the time and should cause audience laughter at inopportune times. Rated R. Running Time: 95 minutes. (C) 1997 Harvey Karten


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