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Sonatine
Sonatine
Directed by	Micheline Lanctôt
Written by	Micheline Lanctôt
Produced by	Pierre Gendron
Starring	Marcia Pilote; Pascale Bussières; Pierre Fauteux; Kliment Denchev; Pierre Girard
Cinematography	Guy Dufaux
Edited by	Louise Surprenant
Music by	François Lanctôt
Production; company	Corporation Image M & M
Distributed by	Les Films René Malo
Release date	24 February 1984;
Running time	91 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	French

Sonatine is a 1984 Canadian drama film written and directed by Micheline Lanctôt.^[1] The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 57th Academy Awards,^[2] but was not accepted as a nominee.^[3]

The film centres on two young girls, Chantal (Pascale Bussières) and Louisette (Marcia Pilote), who become disillusioned with the world of adults and plan a suicide pact.^[4] Lanctôt structured the film as a triptych, with one segment devoted to each of the two girls as an individual, going through the experiences that cause them to lose faith in humanity, before they plan the suicide pact in the third segment.^[5] Lanctôt admitted that she had written the screenplay at a time when she was very depressed.^[6]

The film premiered in February 1984 before opening commercially in March.^[7]

Cast

Marcia Pilote as Louisette
Yves Jacques as The Subway Station Janitor
Pierre Giard
Pierre Fauteux as Fernand
Kliment Dentchev as Bulgarian seaman
Pascale Bussières as Chantal

Awards

The film received five Genie Award nominations at the 6th Genie Awards in 1985, for Best Director (Lanctôt), Best Actress (Bussières), Best Screenplay (Lanctôt), Best Costume Design (Hélène Schneider), Best Original Score (François Lanctôt).^[8] Micheline Lanctôt won the award for Best Director.^[9]

The film won the now-defunct Silver Lion for Best First Film (1983-1987) at the 41st Venice International Film Festival.^[10]

References

^ "Canadian Film Encyclopedia: Sonatine". TIFF. Archived from the original on 3 November 2013. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
^ "Quebec's Sonatine enters Oscar race". The Globe and Mail, January 11, 1985.
^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
^ Gerald Pratley, A Century of Canadian Cinema. Lynx Images, 2003. ISBN 1-894073-21-5. p. 202.
^ Carole Corbeil, "Quebec films blessed with visual assurance". The Globe and Mail, September 12, 1984.
^ Jay Scott, "Prize-winning director hasn't given up acting". The Globe and Mail, September 12, 1984.
^ Charles-Henri Ramond, "Sonatine – Film de Micheline Lanctôt". Films du Québec, December 17, 2009.
^ Jay Scott, "Bay Boy reels in 11 Genie nominations". The Globe and Mail, February 15, 1985.
^ Bruce Bailey, "Daniel Petrie's 'Bay Boy' harbors six Genie Awards". Montreal Gazette, March 22, 1985.
^ "Lanctot wins award for Sonatine". The Globe and Mail, September 10, 1984.