''The Heavenly Bodies'' (french: Les Corps célestes) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

- French comedy film, directed by

Gilles Carle Gilles Carle, (July 31, 1928As fully funny, Carle had pleasure to always give himself one year less, and to let people think wrongly that he was born in 1929, "The Year of the Big World Crash": see on the Quebec French newspapers that many writer ...

and released in 1973.

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 Corp ...

, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 96. The film stars Donald Pilon as Desmond, a pimp in

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

in 1938 who moves to a rural mining town with a group of prostitutes to open a brothel in a decrepit old hotel, amid the early warning signs about the approaching outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

.Charles-Henri Ramond
"Corps célestes, Les – Film de Gilles Carle"
''Films du Québec'', January 2, 2009. The cast also includes

Micheline Lanctôt Micheline Lanctôt (born May 12, 1947) is a Canadian actress, film director, screenwriter, and musician. Biography Lanctôt was born in Frelighsburg, Quebec. Her post-secondary education was in music, fine arts, and theatre at ''Collège Jésu ...

Carole Laure Carole Laure O.C. (born August 5, 1948) is an actress and singer from Quebec, Canada. Career Throughout most of her career, Carole Laure primarily collaborated with Anglophone singer, songwriter, producer, and director Lewis Furey, whom she ...

, Jacques Dufilho and

Yvon Barrette Yvon Barrette (born September 16, 1946) is a Canadian actor from Alma, Quebec. He is best known for his portrayal of goaltender Denis Lemieux in 1977's ''Slap Shot''.Mike Mastovich"‘Slap Shot’ at 40: Goalie Denis Lemieux still a Johnstown fav ...

. Due to the film's temporal setting, recordings of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

are heard on radio broadcasts at various points in the film, although the conclusion transcends time to communicate a message of hope by incorporating audio clips of much later political figures such as

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

and Pierre Trudeau. The film was positively reviewed by critics.

Dane Lanken Dane Lanken (December 9, 1945 – March 3, 2023) was a Canadian journalist and author. Career Lanken was a film critic for the ''Montreal Gazette'' from 1967 to 1977, and was then a freelance journalist who wrote regularly for ''Canadian Geogr ...

of the ''

Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'' called it Carle's best film, while critics in France reviewed the film favourably but called it a creative step down from Carle's ''

The Death of a Lumberjack ''The Death of a Lumberjack'' (french: La Mort d'un bûcheron) is a 1973 Canadian drama film directed by Gilles Carle. The film was entered into the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. Plot A young woman (Carole Laure) from rural Quebec comes to Montre ...

(Le Mort d'un bûcheron)''."Paris critics praise movie from Quebec"
''

The Province ''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the '' Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they are British Columbia's on ...

'', February 12, 1974. However, the film fared poorly with audiences, making far less at the box office than ''The Death of a Lumberjack''.

References

External links

* 1973 films Canadian comedy films French comedy films Films shot in Quebec Films directed by Gilles Carle 1973 comedy films 1970s French-language films French-language Canadian films 1970s Canadian films 1970s French films {{1970s-Canada-film-stub