Merrily prancing into the 1960s, my next film turns out to be something completely different and very unlike anything I’ve watched so far. The Merry World of Leopold Z is a very French-Canadian, very ‘60s arthouse picture set and filmed in the beautiful, snowy province of Quebec, specifically Montreal. I once visited the city in mid-December and can happily confirm that it is one of the most festive, awe-inspiring places to be at Christmas time. This one was commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada as a documentary about the guys whose job it is to plough snow, but it was eventually evolved into a fictional comedy by director Gilles Carle. In a humorous twist of irony, the production took over a year to complete due to a bizarrely almost entirely snowless winter.
The movie has a breezy, slight, straightforward plot as we follow Leopold (Guy L’Euyer), a happy-go-lucky snowplough operator who ducks and dives throughout his Christmas Eve shift, trying to get his wife (Monique Joly) an expensive mink coat and get off in time to see his gifted choir-singing son perform at Midnight Mass. But it turns out to be one of the worst snowstorms in years, Leopold keeps getting asked to run errands and he’s been asked to squire his attractive cousin Josette (Suzanne Valery) around town.
Leopold slowly realises he’s got the hots for Josette, a free-spirited, flirtatious singer in town to do a nightclub Christmas show. His best pal, supervisor and all-round chauvinist Theo (Paul Hebert) puts bad ideas in Leo’s head, causing him to fantasise naughty thoughts about Josette, leaving us wondering if he’ll blow off his kid’s performance in favour of her saucy late night show. But come on - it’s a Christmas film. Though happy endings in these sorts of things aren’t always a given, early scenes establish just how much Leopold dotes on his wifey, so the events of the film’s climax come as no huge shock.
It’s a pretty looking film, capturing some beautiful, dream-like shots of a postcard-perfect Montreal at its wintery best. It also feels like an authentic snapshot of working class life from the swinging sixties, an age when seemingly every second North American filmmaker decided to be influenced by the French New Wave.
Oh yeah - and everyone speaks French, the native tongue of Quebec. The film makes some interesting observations about how English is understood in Montreal, though the people favour French, which seems to hamper a lot of people’s job prospects. Leo bemoans his lack of opportunities as his English isn’t so hot and a scene where a shopkeeper drones on at Leo in English would probably carry more weight, except the version I watch has been dubbed into English. D’oh! Wikipedia describes this as a film with ‘a strong political point of view, with Carle intending his central character to be a "pre-revolutionary" figure, representing how the Québécois people were being exploited by a capitalist, English-speaking power structure.’ To be honest, I don’t get a big impression of “pre-revolutionary” from nonchalant horndog Leopold, but I appreciate the film is trying to say something about the experiences of the Québécois that I’ve never given much thought to.
It’s a short film at just 68 minutes but effectively captures that feeling or pressure most of us inevitably feel around Christmas as we try to juggle a million different things at once. This also captures just how tempting it can be to simply blow off your responsibilities for a few minutes to just roll around in the snow for a bit and have a laugh. It’s a film about an average, merry man with average, merry dreams and it’s suitably stylish and obscure if ultimately uneventful. This month I’m finding a lovely mix of old-school films that really challenge my idea of what a Christmas movie can be and that’s no bad thing. I’d been worried that watching festive films day-in day-out would become pretty tedious and repetitive, but it’s been anything but. Distinctive little pictures like this one really help to keep things interesting and enlightening, as well as going a long way towards helping me hang on to my sanity.
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