User reviews

Black-haired, big-eyed, lithe-limbed, soft-spoken and kind at heart: Chantal is all a world-weary road warrior might be looking for and more. Pardon my agitation, but I just fell totally in love with Fanny Mallette, the French-Canadian actress who plays Chantal, the night-shift receptionist at the roadside hotel that is the quiet center of "Continental". But worry not: she is only one of many attractions in this melancholic movie. Outrageously sad and strange as the events we witness may seem, in total they ring surprisingly true and closely resemble that greatest miracle of all: so-called real life. There is very little dialog, but you don't really miss it. Rookie director Stéphane Lafleur is so good at setting the mood with lights, camera, and action that his script works almost without words. I keep wondering though whether the eerie sound that marks both the beginning and the end of this episodic film is a ring tone imitating a night owl, or a night owl imitating a ring tone.

"Continental--un film sans fusil" has a character who's a night clerk in a exurban highway motor-hotel. "Do you get bored", she's asked. "I like it quiet." And similarly in this film of hotel rooms, houses, kitchens, teeth, dances, buses, things are tidy, it's "nice," even when there's a risk of being a bit wild. The police have nothing to report, don't call. What do you do when a baby is being goo-gooed and it starts to cry? When a bed is thumping in the next room? Everybody's getting older, and at the end of the subdivisions, where the bus line ends, there are woods.

The story, the widescreen framing by Sara Mishara, the dialogue maintain the aesthetic of reduction. Is this a Canadian aesthetic? Look up a painting from English Canada by Alex Colville called "Pacific," where there *is* a gun on a table, and also a ruler.

I can't by the way see the "sibling connections" someone else claims. There's one couple together, another that phones, a third that may get together again, some who may need life insurance, and people who go out to practice the Continental.

This is a perfect movie for what it is.

Just a few words to say of much I love this film!! I recently watched it for a second time and I liked it even more!! The acting is excellent, the writing is flawless (in a realistic kind of way) and the directing is very sober (the camera is very static with very minimal editing).

It's such a shame that this film did so little at the box office. I can easily understand why the average John Doe didn't bother but what about all those cinephiles out there ??

As far as I am concern, "Continental - Un Film Sans Fusil" ranks among some of the great French Canadian films such as "Les Ordres", "Mon Oncle Antoine", "Les Bons Débarras", etc...

Please do yourself a favor and go watch it right now!!

I read nothing of this movie before going in and I'm glad I didn't. I think I would have been put off by any reviews.

This is a great story of human interaction and sibling connection. Beautifully filmed and containing some truly amazing dialog, Lafleur manages to create an insightful, sometimes funny story of man's struggle with life.

Lafleur is a great talent. He brilliantly wrote and directed this great low budget movie. I think many will miss this one which is really sad. Movies like this should really be part of everyone's regular viewing. We'd all be much more enlightened characters if that was the case.

10/10

A man wakes up alone on a bus in the middle of nowhere. In this black comedy, his sudden and unexplained disappearance affects the lives of four people: Lucette (Marie-Ginette Guay) his wife, Louis (Réal Bossé) a traveling salesman, Chantal (Fanny Mallette) a bored hotel receptionist and Marcel (Gilbert Sicotte) a failed gambler. Their stories are told separately but eventually intertwine.

This film begins promisingly and has some funny lines in the opening 20 minutes but never quite hits those heights again. Quebec cinema set a high standard at SIFF last year and Continental doesn't quite leap over it scriptwise although the acting is of a very high quality.

The name refers to a line dance popular in North America where each dancer evolves alone. In the dance, you do your own thing aware that others are nearby.

This film was an Official Selection at Venice and Toronto's festival in 2007.