Character List |
Alphonse
Lamoureux:
Felicite Lemieux: Alphonse's daughter
Giuseppe Moschella: Alphonse's tailor and friend
Ninetta Moschella: Giuseppe's wife
Pasquale Lopinto: the musician who has an argument with Theo, Felicite's
husband.
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Director
and his words
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Paul Tana--born in Italy in 1947; came to Quebec in 1958
Tana not only subscribed to the aesthetic of daily life so characteristic
of Quebec cinema, he also made it his own by using immigrant characters.
[Tana's words]
For the Italians of Quebec, the growing of fig trees is one way to
tame a country which is still not entirely theirs--appropriate this land
by transplanting here something familiar to them...
We have placed Ninetta Morchella, our Saracen, in the blinding white
snow of this land; she seems but a black stain--on herself, on us.
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Story
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set in Montreal, 1904
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based on a real story
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What has the story to do with the story within the story; What does
the title of the film mean?
story within the story--the puppet play
Trancred, battled against Saracen warrior, fatally wounding him. In
raising the warrior's helmet, Tancred discovered Clorinda, the woman he
loved.
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Issues for iscussion
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The presentation of Montreal at the turn of the century: with a
bar, muddy and unpaved road, some houses, called a cesspool
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Race relations:
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between Alphonse and Giuseppe: business relationship, friendship, jokes,
letters.
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between Pasquale and Theo: lack of understanding of the customs,
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racial stereotypes: "from Sing Sing to Canada"; the habit of keeping
guns, music in the wedding ceremony, "macaroni"
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institutionalized racism: the court trial; ten witnesses on the victim's
side
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the Italian as a minority group then--their customs (the puppet
show, pignolata), different sorts of Italians
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the general(?)
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the boarders--who cannot speak French
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Giuseppe's brother
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the places they appear: e.g. Giuseppe's house
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Gender relations
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between Ninetta and Giuseppe --
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before the tragedy -- about the boarders, the joke
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and after
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between Felicite and the Catholic father
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between Felicite and Ninetta -- survival
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Related Links:
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