Jacques and November (1984)

Original title

Jacques et novembre

Directed by

François Bouvier

Genre

drama film

Country

Canada

Runtime

1h 15m

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A man in his 30s with a terminal disease makes a video diary about his thoughts on mortality. His friend tries to make a feature documentary about him at the same time. The film looks at what friends and family bring to life.

contemplativepoignantwarmreflectivegentlepersonalaffirmingslow-burn

What happens

Jacques and November (French: Jacques et novembre) is a 1984 Canadian drama film directed by Jean Beaudry and François Bouvier. The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 58th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee. The film stars Beaudry as Jacques Landry, a man in his early 30s who is dying of an unspecified incurable disease and documenting his thoughts on mortality in a video diary; simultaneously, his friend Denis (Pierre Rousseau) is trying to make a higher-budget documentary film about him. Critics largely analyzed the film not as focusing on death as such, but as an affirming and uplifting look at the meaning that friends and family bring to life. Although Jacques Landry's terminal illness was not specified in the film, the LGBT magazine The Body Politic reviewed it as an HIV/AIDS allegory, directly comparing and contrasting its views of mortality with the contemporaneous HIV/AIDS-themed documentary film No Sad Songs. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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