Polytechnique

From the opening scene of students busy doing their copying in front of an array of copying machines, and the sudden disruption caused by a burst of gun fire, Polytechnique grabs the viewers by the collar and placed them right in the middle of this horrific event that took place in Montreal in 1989.

The film claimed to be a fictionalized account of the massacre, in which 14 women were killed and many others were wounded, and I don't know to what extent it adheres to facts. But that does not matter. As far as story telling goes Denis Villeneuves did it with skill and without fanfare. B/W images, and a restraint use of dialogue and music add to the mood of this film, which is not an uplifting experience by its very nature. Acting was good by the several male and female leads. Editing was excellent.

Overall, I look at this films as Canadian cinema at its best - despite the depressing nature of the subject matter.

Since I'm really really looking forward to seeing Dune in the future, I felt like checking out this early film from Denis Villeneuve's filmography. This movie's based on a real-life tragedy that occurred at the Polytechnique Montreal engineering school in 1989, and it dramatizes the event in a way that feels very humanistic. It doesn't make any comments or draw conclusions about the event and still leaves you feeling for most of the people involved. It does a great job of being ambiguous, something Villeneuve has mastered throughout his filmography. My heart goes out to the survivors, and my thanks go out to Villeneuve for being so great at making films like this.

I've read many comments by people stating that this film is bias because it only reflects the point of view of the victims who were mainly female and that is just giving support to the feminist movement but that is not the case.

This film isn't about the shooter, it isn't about the families...it's about the victims/survivors of this horrific ordeal. It does not focus on the background of the killer, it does not explain in great detail why he committed this terrible act of violence... it depicts what the victims/survivors went through.

Some people tend to feel empathic for the shooter, commenting on the fact that he felt prosecuted for his gender and that he felt threatened and hatred for females who in his own opinion were taking jobs away from males who deserved them... Kind of like the two shooters from Columbine who to some people became a icon for anti-bullying, thinking that the only reason they committed these crimes was because they were prosecuted by their peers and the community. It doesn't change the fact that both the Columbine shooters and Marc Lepine took innocent lives and then so cowardly take their own.

Some people liken this movie to "Elephant" and I agree but it also reminds me of "April Showers" since both movies did not focus on the killer but on the people who suffered through the event.

In contrast to the perpetrator's actions at the École Polytechnique in 1989, Denis Villeneuve's interpretation of the events is graceful, tactful and meaningful. Filmed in black and white, ostensibly in order to give the presence of blood a less invading quality, Polytechnique begins in the hours leading up to the attack and parallelly follows the killer and three of the affected students: two female victims and one male bystander who desperately tries to find the right course of action in the midst of the chaos. The film is narratively economical and passes no judgement explicitly. Instead Villeneuve lets the characters' actions speak volumes, and he gives his picture an extra zest by including some subtle jumps between timelines. An artistically fulfilled movie with a hard-hitting subject matter which would be Villeneuve's first stepping-stone towards larger projects.

As a piece of cinema, this is truly a sight to behold. The filming is beautiful in its ability to tell the story of a horrific shooting in Montreal in 1989. The black and white filming and the direction remind of the "Dekalog" by Krzysztof Kieslowski.

The acting is exceptional. The performance by a young Karine Vanasse is powerful in its understated subtlety.

The story is deeply moving. This type of plot isn't for everyone, but if realistic drama is enjoyable to you, as it is to me, then you will be impressed by the quality of this movie.