''Don't Let It Kill You'' () is a 1967 French-Canadian feature from

Jean Pierre Lefebvre Jean Pierre Lefebvre (; born 17 August 1941) is a Canadian filmmaker. He is widely admired as "the godfather of independent Canadian cinema," particularly among young, independent filmmakers. Biography Jean Pierre Lefebvre studied literature a ...

. It is the first film in his "Abel Trilogy", followed by ''

The Old Country Where Rimbaud Died ''The Old Country Where Rimbaud Died'' () is a 1977 French-Canadian feature from Jean Pierre Lefebvre. The second film in his Abel Gagné trilogy, preceded by '' Don't Let It Kill You (Il ne faut pas mourir pour ça)'' in 1967 and followed by '' N ...

(Le Vieux pays où Rimbaud est mort)'' in 1977 and '' Now or Never (Aujourd'hui ou jamais)'' in 1998.

Synopsis

The story concerns a day in the life of Abel Gagné (

Marcel Sabourin Marcel Sabourin, OC (born March 25, 1935) is a Canadian actor and writer from Quebec.Gaetan Charlebois and Anne Nothof"Sabourin, Marcel" ''Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia'', October 20, 2015. He is most noted for his role as Abel Gagné, the centra ...

). Self-absorbed to the point of existential withdrawal, the gentle and mildly eccentric Abel confers upon all events a kind of mystical grandeur and perplexity. The film opens with a slogan on a blackboard: "I want to change the course of things – but it is things which change me". One day he makes breakfast, behaving in a somewhat odd manner as he prepares to go out. He visits his dying mother (Monique Champagne) in hospital and learns that his father (who had left them and is living in Brazil) has sent him $10,000. Later, by chance, he meets Mary (Suzanne Grossman), an old girlfriend he has not seen for five years. She is about to be married in Paris. He returns home to wait for Madeleine (

Claudine Monfette Claudine Monfette (nicknamed Mouffe; born on 31 January 1945 at Montreal, Canada) is a Quebec actress, screenwriter and lyricist. Biography A graduate of the National Theater School in 1966, Mouffe met Robert Charlebois and became his partner ...

), his current girlfriend, and the hospital calls to tell him his mother has died. This intimate, gently comic, ironic and poetic meditation on individualism and fatalism is the third feature from Lefebvre, the first to win him international praise, and is one of his most appealing.

Distribution

The film was screened at the 18th Berlin Film Festival in 1968 as part of Young Canadian Film, a lineup of films by emerging Canadian filmmakers. It was later screened at the 1984 Festival of Festivals as part of Front & Centre, a special retrospective program of artistically and culturally significant films from throughout the history of Canadian cinema. Carole Corbeil, "The stars are coming out for Toronto's film festival". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'', September 6, 1984.

References

External links

* 1967 films Films directed by Jean Pierre Lefebvre Canadian drama films 1967 drama films 1960s French-language films 1960s Canadian films French-language Canadian films {{1960s-Canada-film-stub