Lilies - Les feluettes

This film is proof that some of the most iridescent, incredible films never make it to mainstream America. Barely anyone I know has even heard of this movie, and it's quite saddening. Although it has won numerous awards and lots of prestige in Canada, where it was made, I've often seen it lying on the shelf untouched at Blockbuster or gay film shops.

The movie begins with a prisoner named Simone who requests that a specific priest come to hear his confession. The priest, perplexed as to why he has been summoned, arrives at the prison, not knowing what to expect. It is soon divulged that the priest has some confessing of his own to be done when the prisoners trap him in his confessional box and begin to perform a play. This play is about Simone's childhood, when Simone was attending a Catholic all-boys boarding school and was in a gay relationship with his schoolmate, Valier. They keep their love clandestine until another schoolmate, Bilodeau (the priest as an adolescent), unearths something of what the two lovers have been doing. He confronts them about it, calling them a "disease," when it is revealed later that he is more insidious than they are.

Things take another dramatic turn when Simone's father discovers his son has kissed a boy and mutilates his body with a whip. Out of searing rage, Simone succombs to arson. A Parisian woman (who is portrayed by a male actor because the play is being performed by male prisoners) visits the schoool and falls in love with Simone. Despite the distinctely male features on her which expose the actor's gender, the he does an excellent job of emulating a pristine, romantic woman desperately seeking love.

Simone repudiates Valier, saying "it's time he started thinking about girls" and that he plans to marry the Parisian woman. Valier is devastated and runs to his mother, who is scorned by the rest of society because she believes herself to be a countess. She is shockingly compassionate and supportive when she learns of Valier's homosexuality. At the engagement banquet for Simone and his fiancee, Valier sabotages the celebration by dressing like a Greek God and reciting a monologue from the romantic Greek play he and his beloved were rehearsing together in the beginning of the film. And I can't tell you the rest. It'll ruin it. All I know is everyone should see this movie-especially gay Catholics. Incredible directing, eloquent dialogue, wonderfully abstract scenary-there's no way this movie could have been done better!

I have seen Lilies on more than one occasion, and am amazed each time at the intricate and ingenious use of the "theatrical" in the movie. When watching the movie from the beginning, it doesn't take a moron to realize that the "play" is being put on by inmates at a prison.

Staying true to the "setting" of the play, the movie uses males to play all roles, including the roles of women. It is unique as the characters in the "play" react and respond to the female roles as if they were women and not men playing women's roles.

There is an incredible depth to the movie that chronicles the life and love lost by Simone through the deception and lies of the "church." There is much more meaning here than just the plight of one man. The movie tell the story of many men and women around the world who are persecuted, imprisoned, and often sacrifice their lives for being true to their love of the same sex. It is good to see a movie that does not portray a same sex relationship as one of casual sex or one-night stands. The relationship is one of committment, of trust, of pain and caring, of going through the good and the bad together. Heterosexuals do not have the corner on good relationships. This movie tries to portray the love between two people and the struggles they faced, largely due to the intolerance and rigidity of the church.

After a spate of disappointing gay films in the mid 90's, Lilies appeared from Canada as a fresh bouquet presenting a refreshing change of pace. Improving upon the play its based on, Lilies uses various cinematic conventions to its advantage, with cuts between prison re-enactments and the actual events given seamlessly and often artisticly breathtaking. The use of cross gender casting (this is an all male film) is humorous to a degree, but never in a mocking drag queen tone. We come to believe these men are really women. And the coming of age love story at the center of the plot, done to death by so many other films, is achingly tender.

It was once said that gay work has to have someone die in it and this film is no exception. But the deaths portrayed here and the long hidden betrayal finally revealed are handled quite effectively. The artifice involved only adds an extra layer of beauty upon the story. A remarkable acheivement.

LILIES, based on a Canadian play 'Les feluettes' by Michel Marc Bouchard, has been adapted to the screen by Bouchard and placed in the sensitive hands of director John Greyson, an artist who is able to indulge in surrealism with reality and make it work well. This very beautiful film is cast entirely with men despite the fact that there are women roles in the story. How does he make that work successfully without pandering to artiness? View this little film and make the discovery for your self.

Set in Quebec in a prison, Bishop Bilodeau (Marcel Sabourin) has been summoned form the outside to hear the confession of 'a very sick man' who has been imprisoned for 40 years for a murder. Upon the Bishop's arrival the audience knows something is amiss: despite the atmosphere of the prison as a stage accompanied by choral singing of plainsong (The Hilliard Ensemble) there are props and images that seem out of place in a grim prison. The Bishop is ushered into the confessional booth and when he opens the window to hear confession, the person in the seat is Simon (Aubert Pallascio) the 'very sick' man who has planned for the bishop to watch a play depicting the 40 year old crime - a reverse on the confessional stance.Through a small aperture in the bishop's now locked confessional, the Bishop is forced to watch a reenactment of the incident 40 years ago when two young boys, Simon (Jason Cadieux) and Vallier (Danny Gilmore) were in love and the young future Bishop (Matthew Ferguson) was jealous of Vallier's attention from Simon and played a key role in 'murder' of Vallier that resulted in Simon's being accused and imprisoned. The atmosphere leading up to this act includes the reaction from the small town's homophobia and to Simon's sexual ambiguity that involves a strange lady Lydie-Anne (Alexander Chapman) who arrives form Paris via an air balloon. It is the interaction of the boys with the townsfolk, the new lady arrival who desires Simon's affections, and Vallier's understanding and self-sacrificing mother Countess De Tilly (Brent Carver) that leads to the fateful death of Simon. How the story ends in the confessional booth reversal is the beauty of the film that must be left unsaid for the drama to affect potential audiences of this movie.

The cast is all male because the whole story is a mise-en-scene, a play within a play, where all parts are acted by the prisoners for the sake of displaying truth to the Bishop. There is no pretense at making the men look like women except for the costumes and this enhances the message of the story. The actors are excellent and the impact of the story is powerful. Yes, this is a highly honored gay-themed film, but it is really more about the power of love both in youths and in thwarted adults that makes it a film for all audiences. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp

"Lilies" is an achingly beautiful work. The acting, cinematography, music and sets are stunning. The use of only male actors, including for female characters, seems right here. And in the final analysis, the best and worst of human emotion (especially concealed jealously) becomes so vividly portrayed that one is not sure whether to laugh, cry, or yell out with anger at the characters' actions. Anyone who considers themselves a "cinema buff" should put this one one their "must see" list. So, when does the DVD come out???