''The Apprentice'' (french: Fleur bleue) is a 1971 Quebec-made

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

film directed by Larry Kent, starring

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...

and Steve Fiset.

Gerald Pratley Gerald Arthur Pratley (September 3, 1923 – March 14, 2011) was a Canadian film critic and historian. Piers Handling"Gerald Arthur Pratley" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', September 18, 2011. A longtime film critic for the Canadian Broadcasting Cor ...

, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 164. Although the original title literally translates to English as ''Blue Flower'', it is better known in English as ''The Apprentice'', which is a better translation of the

idiom An idiom is a phrase or expression that typically presents a figurative, non-literal meaning attached to the phrase; but some phrases become figurative idioms while retaining the literal meaning of the phrase. Categorized as formulaic language, ...

used in the title. It is one of the very few Canadian films that is functionally

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

, shot in both English and French, with the appropriate dialogue dubbed for the appropriate audience.

Plot

Jean-Pierre (Fiset) is a working class young

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

with big dreams. He comes under the tutelage of his older best friend, a

con-man A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have de ...

and

bank robber Bank robbery is the criminal act of stealing from a bank, specifically while bank employees and customers are subjected to force, violence, or a threat of violence. This refers to robbery of a bank Branch (banking), branch or Bank teller, tell ...

named Dock ( Jean-Pierre Cartier), who starts teaching him the secrets of his trades, and making him an accomplice in his crimes. He is dating Dock's virginal sister, who is also active in the

Quebec separatist The Quebec sovereignty movement (french: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the sovereignty of Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867, including in all matters related to any provision of ...

movement. To make ends meet, Jean-Pierre works a series of menial jobs. While doing clean-up on a

commercial Commercial may refer to: * a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television) ** Radio advertisement ** Television advertisement * (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...

shoot, he meets Elizabeth (Sarandon), a beautiful

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

model. After he is fired from the shoot for explaining the English meaning of the French name of the product she is supposed to be selling, she starts going out with him out of a sense of guilt, and they soon become lovers. However, she is a sexual

libertine A libertine is a person devoid of most moral principles, a sense of responsibility, or sexual restraints, which they see as unnecessary or undesirable, and is especially someone who ignores or even spurns accepted morals and forms of behaviour ob ...

with no intention of being

monogamous Monogamy ( ) is a form of Dyad (sociology), dyadic Intimate relationship, relationship in which an individual has only one Significant other, partner during their lifetime. Alternately, only one partner at any one time (Monogamy#Serial monogamy, ...

, and this soon strains their relationship. Eventually, the strain of keeping up with his two girlfriends wears on him and he decides to break up with Elizabeth. However, his clumsy attempts to break up in English (of which he does not have a fluent command) merely results in their spending the night together. He then decides to break up with Dock's sister, who realizing that he is going back to Elizabeth because of their sexual relationship, throws herself at him. Eventually, Jean-Pierre's criminal activities catch up with him, and everything ends tragically.

Place in Canadian film history

''Fleur bleue'' is one of the very few films to deal with the strain between Anglophone and Francophone relationships in the city of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time the film was made, Montreal was largely segregated into French speaking areas in the east, and English speaking areas in the west, with the two groups rarely interacting with each other. Jean-Pierre and Elizabeth both are from Montreal, but neither has a working command of the other's language - Jean-Pierre's English is non-fluent, and Elizabeth's French is non-existent. In addition to the strain of his relationships and his criminal career, Jean-Pierre is also dealing with a society which, while marginally under French political control, was largely under English economic control. This film was made just after department stores such as

Eaton's The T. Eaton Company Limited, later known as Eaton's, was a Canadian department store chain that was once the largest in the country. It was founded in 1869 in Toronto by Timothy Eaton, an immigrant from what is now Northern Ireland. Eaton's grew ...

required their Francophone clerks to converse with customers in English only, even if the customer was a Francophone as well. Jean-Pierre, rightly or wrongly, blames his economic circumstances on Anglophones, who are the only ones who can provide him with an honest, but low paying, job. His girlfriend has come to the conclusion that separation from Canada is the only solution to the problems plaguing Francophones. Dock is convinced that it doesn't matter who is in charge - people like him will suffer nevertheless, so it's everyone for themselves. Elizabeth, who is relatively well off, doesn't acknowledge the problems that exist for all the Francophones with whom she shares her city .

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Apprentice, The 1971 films Quebec films 1970s French-language films 1970s English-language films Canadian comedy-drama films 1971 comedy-drama films Films set in Montreal 1971 multilingual films Canadian multilingual films Films directed by Larry Kent 1970s Canadian films