minou pitou

This is one of my all time favourite movies. I saw it in 1995 on VHS three years after it was released with some friends in Montreal. I loved it. I still think of it often. It has been years since I have seen it and I've been thinking about it lately. It might be time for me to try and find it on DVD. I looked on itunes - not there yet....

The film tells the story of Léo Lauzon (Maxime Collin), a young boy living in a Montreal tenement with his dysfunctional family. He uses his active fantasy life and the book L'avalée des avalés by Canadian novelist Réjean Ducharme to escape the reality of his life. After deciding that his mother (Ginette Reno) was impregnated not by his father, but by an Italian tomato, he rechristens himself Léolo, and begins to have sexual fantasies about his neighbour Bianca (Giuditta del Vecchio).
Gilbert Sicotte, as the adult Léolo, narrates the film. The cast also includes Pierre Bourgault, Andrée Lachapelle, Denys Arcand, Julien Guiomar and Germain Houde.
It was Lauzon's final film; he died in a plane crash in 1997 while working on his next project.

I did not know - but wikipedia says it was named one of the best 100 movies of all time in 2005. Yup. I can probably put it in my top 20.