The Possession of Virginia
Cinema is a screen onto which we can project our fears, torments and the monstrosities of the world. The screen protects us from what we see, but cinema has also permanently anchored our nightmares around a few powerful images (empty houses, hostile attics and basements, demonic masks, bloodcurdling grimaces, disturbing postures). Throughout the summer, the Cinémathèque québécoise will be presenting a series of films encompassing more than one hundred and twenty years of horror, reminding us that what scares us most is to make the deepest of our fears tangible and credible.
The story of a man, 2 women and an inescapable pact made with the Devil. Following a friend's apparent suicide, Paul (Donald Pilon) begins to believe that something strange is going on. Following a series of harrowing events, Paul finds himself at a Black Mass where the truth will finally be discovered.
Jean Beaudin
Jean Beaudin received a diploma from Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Montreal and studied at the School of Design in Zurich. He first joined the National Film Board of Canada in 1964, working initially in the animation studios, then subsequently directing educational films. He made a number for a mathematical series, then Vertige, a psychological study, before he directed his first feature, Stop, in 1971. Although Beaudin took a few shots at wild and visionary moviemaking, he was best known for the restrained performances and fastidious visuals of pictures such as his 1977 masterpiece J.A. Martin, photographe, which has been consistently nominated by critics as one of the best Canadian features ever made. Since J.A. Martin, Beaudin’s career was focused exclusively in Quebec with Cordélia, Mario, the film version of the stage hit Being at Home with Claude, and the hugely popular television series, Les Filles de Caleb.
