Le bonheur c'est une chanson triste

It's a hot summer period in Montreal for Anne-Marie, who has just given up her job with an advertising agency (she looks cool and fierce in a suit). She wants to explore life a bit before taking on new work, so she starts man-in-the-street interviews with a camcorder she finds in the street; the question is what is happiness? Some of the interviewees are dull, some are pretty interesting. The most engrossing encounter takes place in a parked car with a man she knew in school--he is newly divorced and looking for a place to stay, visibly ill at ease with the situation he's in. The two sit in the car, belting down vodka and wine and laughing, crying... great scene.

Anne-Marie Cadieux has a striking face: broad planes, a big mouth and lovely eyes. I first saw her in a photographic installation by her elder sister Geneviève Cadieux: those enormous eyes in a painful, sorrowful emotion just riveted me (circa 1995).