''Night Zoo'' (french: Un Zoo la nuit) is a 1987 Canadian film. It is

directed Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''Di ...

and

written Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols. Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...

Jean-Claude Lauzon Jean-Claude Lauzon (September 29, 1953 – August 10, 1997) was a Canadian filmmaker and screenwriter. Born to a working class family in Montreal, Quebec, Lauzon dropped out of high school and worked various jobs before studying film at the Unive ...

. It made its debut at the

1987 Cannes Film Festival The 40th Cannes Film Festival was held from 7 to 19 May 1987 in film, 1987. The Palme d'Or went to the ''Under the Sun of Satan (film), Sous le soleil de Satan'' by Maurice Pialat, a choice which was considered "highly controversial" and the prize ...

. The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

60th Academy Awards The 60th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on April 11, 1988, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time Zone, PDT. During the ceremon ...

, but was not accepted as a nominee. It was also the most successful film in the history of the

Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is a Canadian non-profit organization created in 1979 to recognize the achievements of the over 4,000 Canadian film industry and television industry professionals, most notably through the Canadian Scre ...

's film awards program, winning a record 13

Genie Awards The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scu ...

in every single category where it was nominated. The film garnered 14 nominations overall; the film's only nomination that failed to translate into a win was

Gilles Maheu Gilles Maheu (born 1948 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadians, Canadian actor, playwright and director from Quebec.

's nod for Best Actor, as he lost to the film's other Best Actor nominee,

Roger Lebel Roger Lebel (June 5, 1923 – June 18, 1994) was a Canadian actor. Career Label was born in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec, Canada. A Québécois character actor, Roger Lebel began his career on stage and in radio. He started to show up movies in the ...

Plot

Marcel (Gilles Maheu) is released from

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

, hoping to reconcile with his dying father, Albert (Lebel). Marcel is also harassed by a corrupt

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...

cop. Marcel returns to his father who reveals that he has

money Money is any item or verifiable record that is generally accepted as payment for goods and services and repayment of debts, such as taxes, in a particular country or socio-economic context. The primary functions which distinguish money are as ...

and

drugs A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalat ...

stashed away for him. Marcel and his gay former cellmate both corner the corrupt cop and get their revenge on him. Julie (Adams) is Marcel's former girlfriend who works in a

sex club Sex clubs, also known as swinger clubs or lifestyle clubs, are formal or informal groups that organize sex-related activities, or establishments where patrons can engage in sex acts with other patrons. A sex club or swinger club differs from a brot ...

peep show A peep show or peepshow is a presentation of a live sex show or pornographic film which is viewed through a viewing slot. Several historical media provided voyeuristic entertainment through hidden erotic imagery. Before the development of the ci ...

Reception

The film grossed $1 million in Quebec within three months of its release. The film won the most

in history, with thirteen awards.

Awards

The film set a record by winning 13

Genie Award The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scu ...

s. *

Genie Award for Best Motion Picture The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Motion Picture to the best Canadian film of the year.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishin ...

- Roger Frappier, Pierre Gendron *

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design The Canadian Screen Award for Best Achievement in Art Direction/Production Design is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian film art direction/production design. 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s ...

Jean-Baptiste Tard Jean-Baptiste Tard is a Canadian production designer, art director and set decorator The set decorator is the head of the set decoration department in the film and television industry, responsible for selecting, designing, fabricating, and sourcin ...

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Cinematography The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Achievement in Cinematography, to honour the best Canadian film cinematography. The award was first presented in 1963 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, with separate ...

Guy Dufaux Guy Dufaux (; born July 18, 1943, in Lille, France) is a French-born Canadian cinematographer. The majority of his works have been in Canadian cinema; he immigrated to Canada in 1965 and became a Canadian citizen in 1971. He is also the father of ...

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design The Canadian Screen Award for Best Costume Design is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian costume designer. It was formerly called the Genie Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design before the Genies wer ...

Andrée Morin Andrée or Andree may refer to: People * Andrée (given name) * Andree (surname) Places * Andree, Minnesota, unincorporated community in Stanchfield Township, Isanti County, Minnesota * 1296 Andrée, asteroid * Andrée Land (Svalbard) * Andrée La ...

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Direction The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Achievement in Direction to the best work by a director of a Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards ...

- Jean-Claude Lauzon *

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Editing Jinn ( ar, , ') – also romanized as djinn or anglicized as genies (with the broader meaning of spirit or demon, depending on sources) – are invisible creatures in early pre-Islamic Arabian religious systems and later in Islamic myt ...

- Michel Arcand *

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Overall Sound The Canadian Screen Award for Best Achievement in Sound Mixing is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best work by a sound designer in a Canadian film. Formerly known as Best Overall Sound, it was renamed to Best Sound Mi ...

- Adrian Croll, Hans Peter Strobl, Yvon Benoît *

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing The Canadian Screen Award for Best Achievement in Sound Editing is awarded by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best sound editor on a Canadian film. The award was first presented in 1970 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, befo ...

- Viateur Paiement, Marcel Pothier, Diane Boucher *

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Music - Original Score An annual award for Best Achievement in Music - Original Score is presented by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to the best Canadian original score for the previous year. Prior to 2012, the award was presented as part of the Genie Awa ...

- Jean Corriveau *

Genie Award for Best Achievement in Music - Original Song The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Achievement in Music: Original Song to the best original song in a Canadian motion picture. First presented at the 3rd Genie Awards in 1982, the award was presented as ...

- Jean-Pierre Bonin, Daniel DeShaime, Jean Corriveau, Robert Stanley For the song "Lost in a Hurricane" *

Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role to the best performance by a lead actor in a Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years o ...

Genie Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television presents an annual award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role to the best performance by a supporting actor in a Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 5 ...

Germain Houde Germain Houde (born December 14, 1952) is a Quebec Genie Award-winning actor. He is predisposed by his physique to playing tough-guy parts; his screen characters have ranged from cruel criminals to corrupt policemen. A graduate of the Conservatoi ...

Genie Award for Best Original Screenplay The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television presents one or more annual awards for the Best Screenplay for a Canadian film. Originally presented in 1968 as part of the Canadian Film Awards, from 1980 until 2012 the award continued as part of the Gen ...

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 ...

Best Canadian Film - Jean-Claude Lauzon *

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

International Critics' Award - Jean-Claude Lauzon *

Flanders International Film Festival Flanders (, ; Dutch: ''Vlaanderen'' ) is the Flemish-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture ...

Grand Prix - Jean-Claude Lauzon

Nominations

- Gilles Maheu

Availability

The film was released on videocassette in the United States in 1988 by

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

and in Canada that same year by Cinema Plus Video. In 1991, an EP-Mode tape of the film was released by Starmaker Video. After Lauzon was killed in the northern Quebec plane crash in 1997,

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 1952. Its French-l ...

Télé-Québec The Société de télédiffusion du Québec (; en, Quebec Television Broadcasting Corporation), branded as Télé-Québec (), is a Canadian French-language public educational television network in the province of Quebec. It is a provincial Crown ...

and

Showcase Showcase or vitrine may refer to: *Cabinet (furniture) *Display case Music * ''Showcase'' (Bill Anderson album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Patsy Cline album), 1961 * ''Showcase'' (Buddy Holly album), 1964 * ''Showcase'' (Philly Joe Jones album), 1959 ...

aired ''Night Zoo'' and ''

Léolo ''Léolo'' is a 1992 Canadian coming of age- fantasy film by director Jean-Claude Lauzon. The film tells the story of a young boy named Léo "Léolo" Lauzon, played by Maxime Collin, who engages in an active fantasy life while growing up with his ...

'' in August.Playback Staff,
Industry mourns Lauzon, Tougas
" '' Playback'', 25 August 1997, URL accessed 26 August 2016. To this day, ''Night Zoo'' has never been released on DVD and as of June 28, 2011, no plans have been made to release the film onto DVD. It was digitized and restored in May 2013 by Éléphant and is available for online rental on the

iTunes Store The iTunes Store is a digital media store operated by Apple Inc. It opened on April 28, 2003, as a result of Steve Jobs' push to open a digital marketplace for music. As of April 2020, iTunes offered 60 million songs, 2.2 million apps, 25,00 ...

References

Works cited

External links

* * {{Canadian submission for Academy Awards 1987 films 1980s crime drama films Canadian LGBT-related films LGBT-related drama films 1987 LGBT-related films Best Picture Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners Films shot in Montreal Films set in Montreal Films directed by Jean-Claude Lauzon Canadian crime drama films 1987 drama films French-language Canadian films 1980s Canadian films