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Deux actrices

Directed by Micheline Lanctôt
Canada, 1993 (fiction, 94 minutes, colour, French)
Also known as "Two Can Play"

Film Description [in French] :
"Deux soeurs qui ne se connaissent pas, apprennent, devenues adultes, à s'accepter. Parallèlement, les deux actrices qui jouent le rôle de cette fiction dans le film parlent des personnages qu'elles interprètent, se racontent, inventant de troubles correspondances entre leur vie réelle et fictive."
-- Cinémathèque québécoise (source)

Film Description:
"Deux actrices [...] casts Pascale Paroissien as Fabienne, who unexpectedly turns up to announce that she is the older sister of Solange (Pascale Bussières)."
-- Bill Marshall (source)


Film Credits (partial):
Produced by: Micheline Lanctôt
Principal Cast: Pascale Bussières, François Delisle, Suzanne Garceau, Louise Latraverse, Pascale Paroissien
Cinematography: André Gagnon, Dominique Ricard, Jocelyn Simard
Film Editing: Emmanuelle Forget, Micheline Lanctôt, Werner Nold, Pascale Paroissien
Music: Lucio Dalla, Anna McGarrigle, Kate McGarrigle
Production Company: Stopfilm
(sources)

Award won by Deux actrices

Notes about Deux actrices

(sources)

Quote by the Director

"It came about from an idea I had a long time ago. I teach 'Directing Actors' at Concordia University in Montréal—I always had trouble explaining what 'character' is on a screen to my students, and how actors approach a character. And I had long been tempted by the notion of doing something involving an actor and his character to try—not to illustrate or demonstrate—but just get the feeling of what the relationship is between an actor and a character."
-- Micheline Lanctôt (source)

Quote by the Director [in French]

"Les soeurs, les mères, les filles, ce sont des relations qui préoccupent les femmes et tiennent une place énorme dans leur vie. On vit toutes dans ces relations, souvent riches en événements. Et il me semble que les gens reviennent de plus en plus à la famille, comme à une valeur en point d'interrogation dans leur vie."
-- Micheline Lanctôt (source)

Quotes about Deux actrices

"The theme of disguise, of masquerade, of performance is at the heart of this film as, to a degree, it is a the heart of all of Lanctôt's work."
-- Peter Harcourt (source)

"[The] narrative is interrupted by video segments in which the actors discuss their roles with the director and make links with their own personal experiences: relations with parents and partners, feelings of emotional and cultural estrangement when moving to another country."
-- Bill Marshall (source)

"Lanctôt also blurs barriers between 'reality' and 'acting' through the use of video footage of the actors chewing the fat about their performances, their lives, and the points of contact between them. These sequences are the most jarringly anti-narrative part of the film, and in no small part are what distinguish it from a conventional family melodrama. This self-referentiality, aside from being distancing, however, serves as an echo of the subject of the narrative that it is interrupting."
-- Jerry White (source)

Quotes about Deux actrices [in French]

"Il y a [...] deux films dans cette oeuvre hybride de Micheline Lanctôt: la fiction filmée en 16 mm et le documentaire vidéo des répétitions. Les deux s'entremêlent admirablement, faisant avancer le récit en apportant un éclairage nouveau ou en surprenant par des confessions intimes. Il est intéressant de constater que la vidéo, médium bidimensionnel par excellence, donne ici de la profondeur au film en plus de lui donner son rythme, par ses ruptures et ses changements de ton."
-- Mario Cloutier (source)

"Un charme extraordinaire se dégage de ce film [Deux actrices] où tout est jeu et exploration de l'imaginaire."
-- Yves Lever (source)

"Deux actrices est un film inclassable. Intéressant et inclassable. Il est comme ces poupées russes gigognes qui s'emboîtent. Film dans le film. Fiction et réalité se répondant et se complétant."
-- Odile Tremblay (source)

Bibliography for Deux actrices

Book Chapters

Brief Sections of Books

Journal Articles

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Web Sites about Deux actrices


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