Coma and Where the Boys Are
This first Canadian retrospective of the cinema of Bertrand Bonello, co-presented with the FNC on the occasion of the premiere of his new film La bête, offers a glimpse into one of the most singular and inventive universes of contemporary auteur cinema. Many of the films on the program have never been seen before in Quebec.
A few girls in an apartment. Across the street men are building a mosque.
A teenaged girl’s inner world during lockdown is the starting point for this dreamlike musing on modern-day anxieties that uses confinement as a springboard to creativity.
Bertrand Bonello
Bertrand Bonello, born on September 11, 1981 in Nice, is a French director, producer, screenwriter and composer. A classically trained musician, he has accompanied many artists such as Françoise Hardy, Elliot Murphy, Gérald de Palmas or Daniel Darc. His first feature film, Quelque chose d'organique (1998), presented at the Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section, immediately placed him in the new generation of filmmakers seeking to untangle the skein of carnal and mental relationships. In 2011, the film L'Apollonide: Souvenirs de la maison close was released, a daring fiction about a brothel, with a prestigious cast for a limited budget, acclaimed by the press, in official competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. 2014 was the filmmaker's banner year. After the success of L'Apollonide, Bonello was commissioned by the producer brothers Eric and Nicolas Altmayer to direct a biographical film about the famous fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent. Saint Laurent was released in 2014, with Gaspard Ulliel in the title role. Bertrand Bonello wanted to show what "it cost the couturier to be Yves Saint Laurent every day," between creation, depression and personal life setbacks. The film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival. Bertrand Bonello does not give up his great passion for music. In 2014 he released his third album, Accidents (Nuun Records), a quasi-instrumental album between classical and synthesizers. He is co-president of SRF from 2018 to 2020. As well as co-president of BLOC in 2020.
Presented in collaboration with
