Le confessionnal

I work in a video store, and when people ask me if I know a great movie, I am inclined to recommend Le Confessional. This film has got it all: drama, comedy, sex and mystery. Lepage has written an amazing screenplay, which is greatly compelling for the viewer. As a film student, I was also very appealed by the visual aesthetics of Le Confessional. Lepage has used a lot of color symbolism, which is truly eye candy. On the downside, the story is at times confusing, namely because of the two different time frames, but hey, it's Canadian. Overall, I highly appreciated this film and I think you should see it.

Visually, this is one of the best films ever made. There are 3 elements, one in 1952 Quebec, one in 1989 Quebec and one actually from Alfred Hitchcocks "I Confess", of which this movie seems to be a realy loose remake of.

The way the film moves seamlessly between 1952 and 1989, and the odd dreamlike sequences that occur a couple of times, and the continous sequence of brilliant images is the best things of the film. The plot, however, does take a bit of a back seat,although the ending is excellent, and the Kristen Scott Thomas character is unneccesary.

...but it was so confusing, so boring and without a real plot leading.

"I Confess" by Hitchcock is one of my favorite movies and it made me visit Québec City 4 times in my life.

I even stayed over night at the Château Frontenac Hotel (it was with $ 700 per night my most expensive hotel ever).

And I took the guided tour through this famous hotel twice, once in English and once in French.

So I would have expected to enjoy this film, but I didn't.

Actually I'm amazed it got 7 stars in the imdb.

My advice: rather watch "I Confess" with Montgomery Clift. That's true movie art. This one is chaos without a real story line.

Strange, gray and power. Chain of stories. Puzzle in cruel colors. A mother. Twoo priests. A movie. A great director. A taxi driver. Twoo brothers. A hotel. And a sick boy. Slices of universes and feeling of a rain circle. A museum with very old objects. A labyrinth with a lot of mirrors. A flavor of lost carnations. A piano song in a very deep room. The story is not very important. The point are emotions. Searches. Slices of hope. And the warm expectation. A film in which the spectator is part. Not another actor but a small bone of show. A show who exists in himself. So, it is not possible to be the outsider. Beautiful in a form without words,"Le confessional" is a interesting lesson about appearances and masks. About the cruelty of past and the red of present. About run and the Japanese refuge. About the death like huge shadow and the truth as oil drop.

"Le Confessionnal" is nothing if not ambitious: playing out in 2 time zones about 40 years apart simultaneously, AND going to the extra trouble of recreating a faux "making-of" feature for Alfred Hitchcock's 1953 drama "I Confess", which was set and (partly) shot in Quebec. The film has an intriguing plot but loses momentum after a while and at times becomes exceedingly muddled, though it mostly clears up by the end. The best thing about it are the transitions between the present and the past, which are smooth and sometimes purely magical. The actor who plays Hitchcock bears an almost uncanny physical resemblance to the real man, the only thing he doesn't get quite right is the voice. **1/2 out of 4.