Gina

I recently came upon this film and recognized the director Denys Arcand's name from the highly praised but controversial Jesus of Montreal, a movie about a modern telling of the Passion Play. This was made fourteen years earlier by Arcand and it is much different from his later work. A * named Gina is working at a club while at the same time a film crew is making a documentary about a labor dispute at a textile factory. I am aware of our union struggle here in the United States but I know very little of a similar history of our neighbors to the north. Some of the story uses black and white imagery during interviews with the textile workers and the style reminded me of John Sayles work in Matewan, another excellent film. Gina is an unexpected little gem.

Gathering up titles to view for an upcoming poll on IMDb's Classic Film board for the best movies of 1975,I spotted a gritty French- Canadian film which I had picked up a few years ago,but had somehow never got round to watching.With there only being a few days left for the poll to run,I decided that it was about time that I finally met Gina. The plot: Suspecting that the local tile factory is being controlled by mobsters,a film crew decide to do a documentary which will expose the dominance that the factory has on the towns job market.Filming interviews outside the factory,the crews cameras catch the attention of the police,who begin doing everything they can to stop the production from being seen.As the crew try in desperation to complete their film,a local * called Gina finds herself getting a lot of attention from a new bunch of gangsters that have recently arrived in town.Telling the gangsters in no uncertain terms that she is uninterested in them,Gina is followed to her flat,where she is brutally raped.Whilst the gangsters walk around town feeling like they have shown Gina whose in charge,Gina & a local gang of close-friend mobsters begin to plot their revenge. View on the film: Filmed on location,Oscar-nominated editor/ director Denys Arcand and co- writer/ (along with Jacques Poulin) cinematographer Alain Dostie give the title a strikingly raw moc-documentary appearance,with Arcand skilfully editing the film crews raw B&W footage into Gina's (played by a terrific,very pretty Céline Lomez) overlapping story,which slowly unleashes an atmosphere of deep dread,as Gina and the film crew both discover how deep the town has sunk into the dirt.Introducing a Rape-Revenge element in the final 30 minutes,Arcand shows incredible restrain in not using the scene in an exploited manner,but instead focusing on Gina's face,which shows the horrifying effect that the rape is having on her. Partly inspired by Arcand experience filming the documentary On est au coton (which was banned from being seen for 6 years!) the first hour of the screenplay paints an intimate portrait of the town,with the world weary attitude of the documentary crews interviewers being complimented by the dry,matter of fact manner that Gina talks to the gangsters in.With the sudden arrival of Gina's rape,the writers disappointingly appear uncertain in how to link this sudden plot twist to the mood which they have been delicately building,which leads to the whole revenge battles feeling extremely ill-fitting for what appeared to be a warm meeting with Gina.

In the 1970's, in Quebec, everybody's was making movies? Don't have a budget, don't have a story, don't have actors? Who cares? Let's make movies! There were good ones : Mon oncle Antoine, JA Martin photographe, Les Ordres. But there were the bad, and the very very very bad. The bad ones have all the elements of Gina : lousy French speaking, men drinking beer all the time, vulgarity, very cheap settings. Viewing this, it's hard to believe that Denys Arcand will become one of the finiest movie director of Canada in the 1980's. But it's got the elements of a Arcand film. Perhaps it was fine to watch this in 1974 : today, it's seems very old and very boring.

To the best of my knowledge, there is no English version of this film, aside from subtitles, which I had to find on the internet (my DVD was completely in French), thus dooming this film to a higher level of obscurity than it deserves. It's a good movie and, while some might write if off as an exploitation flick, it's a little more cerebral than that and deserves a little more credit. The general bleakness and crumminess of the hotel and the town itself were things I could really relate to and the way that all the characters are portrayed as victims of some sort of oppression beyond their control provides a nice commentary on the human condition that I appreciate seeing in a film. There are no real winners in Gina and it is not a feel-good film by any means, nor is it a bummer, either. Everyone is getting screwed by someone and everyone is making do with their lot in the best way they know how in a manner that I think rings true with a lot of people, and then you get the treat of an over-the-top shlock-fest of an ending that is the icing on the cake. They certainly don't make them like this anymore and, if you are like me and despise most of the garbage movies they put out these days but loved the trash from the 70's and 80's, this one will not disappoint. A great film and worth seeking out.

While Gina is a solid entry in the 70's film canon of chicks who get brutal revenge on men who rape them, it is also quintessentially Canadian (or, more accurately, Quebecois). All of the classic elements are there - the slow pacing which builds to the explosive last act, the electric guitar title music, the star getting naked, the gang-rape, the muscle car chase, the bloody finale...except in this case the setting is a town in Quebec in the middle of winter, the gang rides snowmobiles instead of motorcycles - and there is a film crew attempting to make a documentary expose on the local exploitive textile mill. Gina has a great socio-realist feel, AND a roaring purple Plymouth 383 Roadrunner. Yes!

I recently came upon this film and recognized the director Denys Arcand's name from the highly praised but controversial Jesus of Montreal, a movie about a modern telling of the Passion Play. This was made fourteen years earlier by Arcand and it is much different from his later work. A * named Gina is working at a club while at the same time a film crew is making a documentary about a labor dispute at a textile factory. I am aware of our union struggle here in the United States but I know very little of a similar history of our neighbors to the north. Some of the story uses black and white imagery during interviews with the textile workers and the style reminded me of John Sayles work in Matewan, another excellent film. Gina is an unexpected little gem.