Being at Home with Claude is a 1992 Canadian drama film directed by Jean Beaudin and based on the play by René-Daniel Dubois.Noel Taylor, "Being At Home With Claude; An emotional pounding that stays in your mind". Ottawa Citizen, December 4, 1992. The film stars Roy Dupuis as Yves, a gay man who has just murdered his lover Claude (Jean-François Pichette), and is attempting to explain his reasons to the police investigator (Jacques Godin).
The film premiered at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in February 1992.John Griffin, "Rendez-Vous gives local films a moment of fame". Montreal Gazette, February 9, 1992. It was also screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.Craig MacInnis, "Cannes strikes up a new tune: Hooray For Hollywood". Toronto Star, May 7, 1992.
The film was co-produced by Les Productions du Cerf and the National Film Board of Canada.
Cast
Critical response Ray Conlogue of The Globe and Mail criticized Beaudin's decision to depict Claude's murder as the very first scene in the movie, writing that it robbed the movie of "the precious ambiguity of our feelings about Yves. Instead of letting him lead us - along with the police interrogator - slowly, carefully, with almost virginal reticence, into the interior world that dictated Claude's death, we are slapped in the face with it." He ultimately concluded that the film's success or failure "depends on whether you can persuade yourself that Dubois, self-styled 'transgressor of our fears' and gainsayer of God, succeeds in his project. If he does, then the film does. For my part, I found it a brilliant essay in moral myopia."Ray Conlogue, "In place of ambiguity a slap in the face: Film Review, Being at Home with Claude". The Globe and Mail, February 22, 1992.
Craig MacInnis of the Toronto Star criticized the casting of Dupuis in the lead role, calling him a "human side of beef" who was "not equal to the demands of the script", and compared his performance unfavourably to the performance of Lothaire Bluteau in the original stage play.Craig MacInnis, "Homoerotic thriller fails to live up to its promise". Toronto Star, November 6, 1992.
Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail identified the film's religious underpinnings, writing that "it's a short jump from Romance to religion ("He transfigured me. He's alive in me"), and Beaudin adds a few Catholic fillips to the tale - the judge's chamber comes with stained-glass windows, the Inspector is clearly a father-confessor, and the murder is filmed as a blood-and-wine sacrament. But that's really only ornamental. Beneath the ornamentation, there's a sturdier reason why this work has the power to cut across different audiences and survive its different castings (here, Godin is hard-working and wonderful; Dupuis is merely hard-working). And the reason is simple. For all its seamy, aberrant, amoral exterior, what we're actually seeing is a typically Keatsian lament "half in love with easeful Death," a classically blissful tragedy complete with star-crossed duo."Rick Groen, "Star-crossed lovers". The Globe and Mail, November 6, 1992.
Awards Award Date of ceremony Category Film Result Genie Awards 1992 Best Motion Picture Léon G. Arcand, Louise Gendron Christopher Harris, "Canadian films in the spotlight: Naked Lunch leads the way with 11 nominations at 13th annual Genies". The Globe and Mail, November 21, 1992. Best Director Jean Beaudin Best Actor Jacques Godin Best Art Direction/Production Design François Séguin Best Cinematography Thomas Vámos Best Editing André Corriveau Best Overall Sound Jo Caron, Michel Descombes, Michel Charron, Luc Boudrias Best Sound Editing Jérôme Décarie, Mathieu Beaudin, Carole Gagnon, Marcel Pothier Best Original Score Richard Grégoire Jay Scott, "Naked Lunch top fare at Genies: 8 awards for surrealistic fantasy, but some films ill-served by presenters". The Globe and Mail, November 23, 1992.
References
External links
Being at Home with Claude at the NFB collection catalog