I went yesterday morning to the Beaubien cinema for Les États-Unis d’Albert’s only showing of the day at 11:30am. The Beaubien is a tiny local cinema, one of the few to have survived the Cineplex invasion, these huge complexes which have sprouted like mushrooms over the past ten years. A small theatre, seating barely 100. There were about 50 of us, fans of either Roy or Forcier, as well as one or two film students. This film won’t make any money, that’s for sure. Not with this kind of distribution. Two theatres in Montreal (the Beaubien and the Parisien), and two or three in the province. The saddest thing about it is that it’s a very good film! The most positive of all the Forcier films I’ve seen. Lovely cast and a great crew. The actors are all good, Quebecois and Europeans alike, and I’ll give special mention to the director of photography for his wonderful close-ups and shots of the desert. The colours are astounding. There’s a freshness about this film, something pure. Almost naïve. Partly due to Albert, but also all the others. This young man with noble aspirations, with dreams that are larger than life, was like a breath of spring.  The character of Albert is full of life and enthusiasm and doesn’t let himself be beaten easily by either man or nature. He stubbornly wants to become a film hero but he is ready to give up everything for Grace, this woman he falls madly in love with on the train to Los Angeles.  The same amazing frankness in the old actress who, despite her age and experience falls equally madly in love with Albert. The same innocent purity in Grace, the young Mormon midwife, a staunch activist who demands a new status for women. Grace carries on campaigning, but she doesn’t forget her beautiful Albert nonetheless.

And what can you say about Jack Dekker played by Roy? Jack has two passions in life; running after women and playing golf! Roy plays it in a way that we rarely have the opportunity to see. Stating his case pleasantly, making fun of everything, harmless despite his amorous escapades. He’s a charming dreamer who’s impossible not to like. Which is why Albert befriends him and together they cross the terrible desert, so magnificently filmed by Forcier. The blue skies that contrast with the soft gold of the dunes. Roy exhausted in the sand, trying to follow the carefree steps of his young friend, is well worth seeing! Not to mention the scene, which is unusual to say the least, following their first meeting and their arrest by the Arizona police. Jack standing tied to the prison bars, completely naked, having his intimate parts shaved by a shaky Albert kneeling in front of him, watched by sniggering policemen. Jack has been sentenced to such treatment because he has infected several of his lovers with crabs! Typical Forcier – irreverent but terribly romantic!

I offer as proof a scene between Jack and Noah’s wife (Hannah Steinway, played by Céline). Jack, who along with Albert is being looked after by this couple, is sitting in the kitchen with Noah’s wife. He is sitting facing her and is courting her in his way, looking at her lovingly, thirstily, desperately in need.  It’s quite a small scene but Roy pulls out all the stops and I defy any woman (or fan!) not to be totally enchanted. He adds this hardly noticeable little gesture, a subtle stroke of Céline’s wrist – typical Roy, 100%  pure!

Well, I’ll stop there. As far as the rest is concerned, I wasn’t in the least put off by the international French accent that Forcier gave all his characters except Albert. I thought it was a very clever way of making us understand that all the characters are American or English apart from the young man (who is from Quebec). Céline’s accent perhaps annoyed me a little because it made her character sound a bit stupid (that’s maybe a rather strong word), which doesn’t suit her at all. This woman (Hannah) is brave, loyal, loving and generous. This way of speaking spoils her image and she doesn’t deserve it. It’s the only negative point I took from the film.

I’m going to take pleasure in writing to dear André Forcier to tell him that I find it infinitely regrettable that the lure of profit for some distributors is so strong that they have chosen to deprive many people of one of he greatest joys of this spring, this film full of sweetness, love and dreams.