Léolo
| Léolo | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Jean-Claude Lauzon |
| Produced by |
Aimée Danis Lyse Lafontaine |
| Written by | Jean-Claude Lauzon |
| Starring |
Gilbert Sicotte Maxime Collin Ginette Reno Giuditta del Vecchio Julien Guiomar |
| Distributed by |
Alliance Films Fine Line Features |
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Release date
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Running time
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107 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | French |
| Budget | $5 million |
Léolo is a 1992 Canadian coming of age-fantasy film by Québécois director Jean-Claude Lauzon. The film tells the story of a young boy named Léo "Léolo" Lauzon, played by Maxime Collin, who engages in an active fantasy life while growing up with his Montreal family, and begins to have sexual fantasies about his neighbour Bianca, played by Giuditta del Vecchio. The film also stars Ginette Reno, Pierre Bourgault, Andrée Lachapelle, Denys Arcand, Julien Guiomar and Germain Houde. Gilbert Sicotte narrates the film as the adult Léolo.
Initially released in the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, Léolo won three Genie Awards, including Best Original Screenplay for Lauzon, losing Best Motion Picture to Naked Lunch. It later benefited from a resurgence of interest, leading to critics and filmmakers adding it to the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time in 2015. It was Lauzon's final film, as he died in a plane crash in 1997 while working on his next project.
In Mile End, Montreal, Léo Lauzon is a young boy living in a tenement with his dysfunctional family, who serves as the unreliable narrator. He uses his active fantasy life and the book L'avalée des avalés by Québécois novelist Réjean Ducharme to escape the reality of his life. He feels his father is insane and denies being his son. After having a dream revealing his mother was impregnated after falling into a cart of tomatoes contaminated by an Italian man's semen, Léo identifies as Italian rather than French Canadian and adopts the name Léolo Lozone.
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Wikipedia