''Gaz Bar Blues'' is a 2003 Québécois comedy-drama film written and directed by

Louis Bélanger Louis Bélanger (born 1964 in Beauport, Quebec) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He has a degree in communications from UQAM. He is a close friend and collaborator of filmmaker Denis Chouinard; both men created several short films ...

. The film is set in 1989 in the outskirts of an unspecified Québécois city.

Plot

François Brochu (

Serge Thériault Serge Thériault (born April 23, 1948 in Quebec City) is a Canadian comedian and actor from Quebec. He is best known for his collaborations with Claude Meunier, including the ''Ding et Dong'' comedy duo and the spinoff television series ''La Petite ...

), named "the boss", is the owner of a

gas station A filling station, also known as a gas station () or petrol station (), is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold in the 2010s were gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Gasoline ...

. He manages his relationships with his sons Réjean, Guy, the 13-year-old Alain, with which manages the station; and his daughter Nathalie (

Fanny Mallette Fanny Mallette (born September 5, 1975) is a Canadian actress. Biography She was nominated for a Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in ''Continental, a Film Without Guns (Continental, un film sans f ...

). The Gas Bar is also regularly attended by his friends as Gaston Savard (

Gilles Renaud Gilles Renaud (born 25 September 1944) is a Canadian actor who has starred in cinema and television in Quebec. In 1983, he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actor for the film '' A Day in a Taxi (Une journée en taxi)''. He is also a ...

), Jos, Normand Party, Yves Michaud, Claude, Nelson and Ti-Pit. Mr. Brochu, widower and suffering an initial

parkinson's disease Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms becom ...

, would like to keep his family united by the work at the station; but the dissatisfaction of the boys with the routine seems to send them away. Guy (

Danny Gilmore Danny Gilmore (born December 23, 1973) is a Canadian actor, who is best known for his role as Vallier in John Greyson's ''Lilies'' (1996), for which he received a Genie Award nomination for Best Actor at the 17th Genie Awards. He has also appear ...

) is a harmonica player that plays with a band and is often lacking during the turns, Réjean (Sébastien Delorme) is the most responsible but angry by rising crime and unhappy with his father's way to manage the station. He is an amateur photographer and decides to reach Berlin to see the imminent fall of

the wall ''The Wall'' is the eleventh studio album by the English progressive rock band Pink Floyd, released on 30 November 1979 by Harvest/EMI and Columbia/CBS Records. It is a rock opera that explores Pink, a jaded rock star whose eventual self-imp ...

. The film shows the incoming

Revolutions of 1989 The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...

in background but life goes on normally around the ''Gaz Bar'', which problems are the transition from

gallon The gallon is a unit of volume in imperial units and United States customary units. Three different versions are in current use: *the imperial gallon (imp gal), defined as , which is or was used in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Austral ...

s to

litre The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3). ...

s, the construction of new

self-service Self-service is the practice of serving oneself, usually when making purchases. Aside from Automated Teller Machines, which are not limited to banks, and customer-operated supermarket check-out, labor-saving of which has been described as self- ...

stations and the arrival of Gobeil (Daniel Brière), inspector of the company ''Champlain'' that owns the station. During the absence of Réjean, Alain starts working alone at the station, helped by Mr. Savard. Guy disappears for 3 days because of a car accident. When he come back, he has a quarrel with his father and leaves the home. Réjean writes quite often at home, telling of his experience and disillusion about the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

process. He sees the way in which the transition is managed as a kind of forced modernization, which suddenly clears the everyday life of

East Germans East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

, as well as the new self-services will replace filling stations. Arrested in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

while attempting to rebuild the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

(a symbolic gesture), and repatriated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, Réjean starts again working. One day he faces the inspector Gobeil, telling him he's a madmen and threatening him if he continues to torment his father. During the nth robbery, Alain is taken hostage and then exchanged with his father. Mr. Brochu, saved by police, begins to reflect on the fact that his desire to keep the family together with the work in the gas station is dismembering it. So he decides to start therapy against Parkinson in the hospital and to attend a concert of his son Guy in a pub. One day he decides to close the activity of the gas station and retires to be closer to his 4 kids. The day after Jos and Ti-Pit read the "End of Business" message of "The Boss": first perplexed, immediately go in search of the other friends of the group, sure to find them at ''the convenience store''.

Cast

Awards

*2003 Special Grand Prix of the Jury of the

Montreal World Film Festival The Montreal World Film Festival (WFF; french: le Festival des Films du Monde) was one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF (although the Toronto Internat ...

Awards of the 2003 Montreal World Film Festival
*2004

Jutra Award The Prix Iris is a Canadian film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in Quebec.Best Actor Best Actor is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actors in a film, television series, television film or play. The term most often refers to th ...

2004 Jutra Awards
at the

Internet Movie Database IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...

*2004

Jutra Award The Prix Iris is a Canadian film award, presented annually by Québec Cinéma, which recognizes talent and achievement in the mainly francophone feature film industry in Quebec.Best Music Best or The Best may refer to: People * Best (surname), people with the surname Best * Best (footballer, born 1968), retired Portuguese footballer Companies and organizations * Best & Co., an 1879–1971 clothing chain * Best Lock Corporation ...

to Guy Bélanger and Claude Fradette

References

External links

* * {{Louis Bélanger 2003 films 2003 comedy-drama films Canadian comedy-drama films Films directed by Louis Bélanger Films about the Berlin Wall French-language Canadian films 2000s Canadian films

Plot

Cast

Awards

See also

References

External links