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Florence Longpré has brought “Empathy” to Series Mania.

“The whole show is built around it,” she tells Variety.

“If you haven’t experienced mental issues, it’s difficult to understand what these people are going through. I try to put myself in their shoes. What does it feel like when it’s fucked up in your head, when you’re panicking? How can medication and therapy help? Or maybe they don’t?”

She confesses: “When I was very young, I suffered from depression. When you finally leave this dark place, it’s like an explosion of light. You have a second chance at life. You rediscover so many things and so many emotions.”

In “Empathy,” which she created, Longpré plays Suzanne – a former criminologist turned psychiatrist, trying her best to help her patients. But for the longest time, she can’t help herself.

“It’s so much fun to see...

Most writing on Christian Desmares and Franck Ekinci‘s April and the Extraordinary World speaks as though they’ve adapted one of revered Frenchman Jacques Tardi‘s graphic novels. This isn’t quite the case. What they’ve actually done is bring his unique “universe” to life with help from previous collaborator Benjamin Legrand (writer of Tardi’s Tueur de cafards) instead. Legrand and Ekinci crafted this alternate steampunk version of Paris as something inspired by the artist’s work rather than born from it. Tardi in turn helped by drawing original work later brought to life by Desmares’ animation team. The whole is therefore a culmination of its six-year production schedule populated by multiple creative minds working in tandem throughout. It may look familiar, but it’s very much brand new.

Their world is built on steam and coal because the best scientific minds have disappeared. Electricity wasn’t...

For a second week-end in a row, Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon is still leading Quebec's box-office. Quebecker film Le sens de l'humour followed Michael Bay's action film at the box-office, which is a good performance.

During its third week in Quebec, Transformers: Dark of the Moon made $534,138 between Friday, July 8 and 10. In total, this American film got $3,296,312 at the Quebecker box-office.

Number one comedy

As for the close-runner, which is Quebec's Le sens de l'humour, it made during this week-end $463,324. However, given that this film starring Michel Côté, Louis-José Houde and Benoît Brière came out on Wednesday, July 6, it got $711,176 during its first week.

Given that Transformers: Dark of the Moon is an action film, this performance from Le sens de l'humour at the Quebecker box-office makes it the number one comedy in Quebec.

As a matter of fact, some films who found their place...

After De père en flic, here's another attempt by over-rated director Émile Gaudreault to hit Quebec's box-office with what should look like a summer comedy. As a result, we get a rather average film.

Gaudreault's film follows two second-rate comedians, Marco (Benoît Brière) and Luc (Louis-Josée Houde), who are on tour around Quebec. Marco is the sympathetic guy while Luc seems obnoxious on stage. During a show at L'Anse-au-Pic, a remote village, the two comedians decide to pick on a random spectator in the form of Roger (Michel Côté), the cook at the local snack bar, "until it's no longer funny".

Unfortunately for them, Roger takes their jokes very personally. After their show, Roger captures Marco and Luc to torture them. However, in order to buy some time, Marco and Luc will teach Roger how to be funny.

While Gaudreault laughs at most Quebecker comedians' incapacity to be original, he...

Yesterday, the winners at the 25th Gemini Awards, the Canadian equivalent of the Emmy Awards, were revealed as Corey Monteith (Glee) was hosting that night. Moreover, Degrassi Junior High/Degrassi: The Next Generation was crowned by the public as the best Canadian TV series of the last 25 years.

Without further ado, here's the list of winners.

Best Animated Program or Series:

Glen Martin, Dds

Best Children or Youth Fiction Program or Series:

Overruled!

Best Children's or Youth Non-Fiction Program or Series:

Canada's Super Speller

Best Comedy Program or Series:

Less Than Kind

Best Cross-Platform Project - Children’s and Youth:

Taste Buds

Best Cross-Platform Project - Fiction:

Being Erica Webisodes

Best Cross-Platform Project - Non-Fiction:

Kraft Hockeyville 2010

Best Documentary Series:

Licence To Drill

Best Dramatic Mini-Series:

The Summit

Best Dramatic Series:

The Tudors

Best General/Human Interest Series:

Tosca: Flexing at 49

Best History Documentary Program:

Paris 1919

Best Original Program or...

Production on the upcoming film Le sens de l'humour has been over since last month. While no trailer isn't available, we've got a visit on the set of this film. Moreover, Le sens de l'humour will be released in Quebec on July 8, 2011.

This film is the second collaboration between Michel Côté, Louis-José Houde and director Émile Gaudreault. In fact, we remember them for having worked together on the comedy De père en flic, which holds the box office record for the most profitable Canadian film in Canada (not the world, mind you) with $11 million.

The story follows two comedians who decide to work together. Needless to say that these two guys will have success. One day, they make fun of a member of the audience. However, that person turns out to be a serial killer.

Finally, the film also stars Anne Dorval, Pierrette Robitaille, Benoît Brière, Zaccari-Charles Jobin, Luc Senay,...

Alliance Vivafilm, a Canadian distributor, has released the first poster of the upcoming comedy Le sens de l'humour. While it is currently in production, the film will be released in Quebec on July 8, 2011.

First of all, director Émile Gaudreault, actor Michel Côté and comedian Louis-José Houde team up for a second time after the success of De père en flic, the highest-grossing Canadian film of all time.

The story follows two comedians who decide to work together. Needless to say that these two guys will have success. One day, they make fun of a member of the audience. However, that person turns out to be a serial killer.

Finally, the film also stars Anne Dorval, Pierrette Robitaille, Benoît Brière, Zaccari-Charles Jobin, Luc Senay, Pierre Collin, Marilyse Bourke, Alexandre Goyette, Sonia Vachon, René Richard Cyr and Éveline Gélinas.

Fans of procedural dramas, have in mind that Musée Eden, a TV series created by Gilles Desjardins, will come out on DVD in Canada on October 26. The show was aired this spring, after the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, on Radio-Canada, a French Canadian public TV network.

In this TV series that takes place in the Montreal of the 1910s, we follow Camille (Mariloup Wolfe) and Florence Courval (Laurence Leboeuf), two sisters who hail from Manitoba. They both decide to come to Montreal in order to inherit the Musée Eden, a crime museum, from their deceased uncle, Félix Courval. However, it appears that Mr. Courval got murdered under very fishy circumstances. Needless to say that the Courval sisters will take interest in solving their uncle's murder.

This will lead the two sisters to come across many people who are interested by the investigation on Félix Courval's murder. In the Montreal police department,...

Alliance Vivafilm, a film distributor, announced ([1] and [2]) that L'enfant prodige (aka André Mathieu - Le dernier des romantiques) will have a world premiere on May 9 in Shanghai during the Expo 2010 Shanghai. Afterwards, L'enfant prodige will hit theatres in Quebec on May 28, 2010.

The biopic about Canadian pianist André Mathieu (1929-1968) was produced with a budget of $6 million by Daniel Louis (Les invasions barbares) and Denise Robert (Maurice Richard). It was directed and written by Luc Dionne.

The story follows André Mathieu (Guillaume Lebon plays the child and Patrick Drolet, the adult), a Montreal-born pianist who was described as the "Canadian Mozart" during his childhood. Because of his talent, he will travel in Europe in order to study piano with different great teachers like Arthur Honneger (Marc Béland) and Jacques de la Presle (Patrice Coquereau) just to name a few. Moreover, André Mathieu will also come across Russian pianist Sergei Rachmaninov (Itzhak Finzi...

In one week, the TV series Musée Eden, which is a nine-episode crime drama, will premiere on March 16 at 9 Pm (10 Pm in the Maritimes) on Radio-Canada.

While the show is a crime thriller, it also casts a look at the condition of women during the 1910s. It was written by Gilles Desjardins, directed by Alain DesRochers and produced by Sophie Deschênes.

The story takes place in 1910 in a poor neighbourhood of Montreal where criminality reigns. Camille (Mariloup Wolfe) and Florence (Laurence Leboeuf) Courval leave the province of Manitoba and arrive in Montreal. They inherit from their murdered uncle a museum of wax statues specialized in criminal history. Moreover, the Courval sisters will try to solve the murders that take place in their neighbourhood with the help of Dr Boyer (Paul Doucet), a forensic expert, and Étienne Monestier (Éric Bruneau).

Moreover, as they explore the underbellies of Montreal, Camille and Florence will come across corrupted policemen,...

Alliance Vivafilm has released online the trailer of L'enfant prodige (aka André Mathieu - Le dernier des romantiques), a biographical drama about the Canadian pianist André Mathieu. The latter will be played by Patrick Drolet (Le grand départ).

The film is shot with a budget of Cdn$6 million and is directed by Luc Dionne (Monica la mitraille).

It follows the life of the Montreal-born André Mathieu (1929-1968) who was referred to as "the little Canadian Mozart". Given that he composed his first musical work at three years old and had an obvious talent in piano, his father, Rodolphe Mathieu (Marc Labrèche), will be his first teacher. Furthermore, as he gets older, André Mathieu will travel to Europe to study the art of playing piano with the greatest masters such as Jacques de la Presle (Patrice Coquereau) or Arthur Honnegger (Marc Béland) just to name a few. However, Mathieu died at...