Canadian Masters: Denis Côté

Thursday, March 17 / 6:30pm / Ottawa art gallery

Talk with Denis Côté / Social Hygiene

The Canadian Masters career-spanning conversation with Denis Côté will begin at 6:30pm and conclude at 7:20pm. This conversation will be held in English. The screening of Social Hygiene, introduced by Côté, will begin at 7:30pm.

CANADIAN MASTERS: IN-DEPTH ENCOUNTERS WITH CANADA’S GREATEST MOVING IMAGE ARTISTS \

“Denis Côté’s genre-blending, hybridized works combine low-budget ingenuity with daring formal experimentation to forge one of the most distinctive cinematic signatures in contemporary Canadian cinema.”

When I wrote that in 2011 for the CFI publication, Entre Nous: The Cinema of Denis Côté, it was true. Eleven years later, its truth has been elaborated upon by the many films the protean and prolific Denis Côté has made since, up to and including the film we are presenting at IFFO this year, Social Hygiene.

Arriving on the Montreal film scene in 2000 with his short, Second Valse, Côté has in 22 years made over a dozen features (in fiction, documentary, and hybrids of both), as well as well many short films. He has amassed a considerable number of awards and honours at prestigious Canadian and international film festivals. As one of the most inventive of his generation of Quebec filmmakers, Côté has consistently expanded the range of his storytelling styles, from formalist to realist to fascinating fusions of fiction and non-fiction.

It is a great honour for us to welcome Denis Côté to the Canadian Masters series.

Tom McSorley
Executive Director

Feature presentation \

philosophy \ absurdist humour \ mischievous anti-hero

Winner of the Best Director awards in the Encounters section of the Berlin International Film Festival and at the Fajr International Film Festival in Teheran, Social Hygiene is a droll absurdist comedy pitch perfect for our strange times. Revolving around the loquacious and relentlessly philosophical Antonin - thief, screenwriter, husband, and lover – the film unfolds its minimalist magic through a series of lively, contentious conversations he has with his sister, his lover, his wife, a government bureaucrat, and a theology student (who’s also been a victim of his robberies). As these sprawling dialogues range from existential questions to Antonin’s own sometimes dubious behaviour, the dramatic and comedic tensions inherent in Côté’s static camera and long takes emerge in startling ways. Shot entirely outdoors in natural settings, Social Hygiene explores and illuminates that paradoxical combination that underlies human relationships and the cinema itself: intimacy and distance. “The cinema of Denis Côté has always been a legitimate rarity, and this mysterious Straubian comedy filmed during the pandemic is not only not an exception, but the very confirmation of the singularity of his cinema.” - Roger Koza (Viennale: Vienna International Film Festival)

- Tom McSorley

Récipiendaire des prix du meilleur réalisateur à la section Encounters du Festival international du film de Berlin et du Festival international du film de Fajr, à Téhéran, Hygiène sociale est une comédie drôle et absurde des plus adéquates en cette période étrange. Racontant l’histoire du personnage très volubile et infiniment philosophique d’Antonin – voleur, scénariste, mari et amant – le film dévoile sa magie minimaliste par une série de conversations animées et litigieuses qu’il a avec sa sœur, sa maîtresse, sa femme, une bureaucrate du gouvernement et une étudiante en théologie (qui est aussi une victime de ses vols). Alors que ces dialogues étendus passent de questions existentielles au comportement parfois douteux d’Antonin, les tensions dramatiques et humoristiques inhérentes à la caméra statique de Côté et aux longs plans fixes émergent de surprenantes façons. Tourné entièrement à l’extérieur dans un cadre bucolique, Hygiène sociale explore et illumine cette combinaison paradoxale qui soustend les relations humaines et le cinéma en soi : l’intimité et la distance. « Le cinéma de Denis Côté a toujours été d’une rareté légitime, et cette mystérieuse comédie straubienne filmée pendant la pandémie est non seulement une exception, mais la confirmation ultime de la singularité de son cinéma. » - Roger Koza (Viennale : Festival international du film de Vienne)

- Tom McSorley (traduit par Jacinthe Grenier-Albert)

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