GAZ BAR BLUES

Canada, 2003, 115 minutes, Colour.
Serge Theriault, Gilles Renaud, Sebastian Delorme, Danny Gilmore.
Directed by Louis Belanger.

The first local film to win the main awards at the 2003 Montreal Film Festival and winner also of the Ecumenical Award.

I am not sure what the French would say about the title of the film. Their purist attitude towards Quebecois French has the touch of the censorious. So, a Gaz Bar is a place where you would fill up with gas in the US, a Service Station for petrol in other parts of the world.

It is 1989 in Montreal. Times are changing and Gaz Bars with garage work are slowly dying, lost to Self-Service? stations and streamlined repair and service auto centres. It is also the time that the Berlin Wall is coming down - and the eldest son of the owner of the gaz bar goes off to photograph this historic event but finds himself in sympathy with the East Germans, bewildered by what is happening and the changes they will have to face up to.

This is a moving and humane film, chronicling the end of an era in Montreal but highlighting the changes that globalisation have forced on small business people, highlighting how, to survive, everyone has to go with the flow. The father of the household is kind, gives credit to customers, allows the locals to sit round, drink coffee and yarn. He is stricter on his sons: the angry Rejean who tries to do the right thing and then disgraces himself in Berlin, Guy the middle son who takes his responsibilities too lightly and prefers to play his harmonica in a group and Alain, the youngest, who looks up to his brothers, tries to emulate them, but is still in school.

It is a film which gradually draws its audience into the life of its characters, has a fine emotional impact and invites us to reflect on the crises of day-to-day life.

1. The title of the film, its tone? The old-style service station, the troubles, the hopes?

2. Montreal, the service station, the environment, the street, the local shops, homes? A microcosm of Canada, French Canada, 1989-90?

3. The Berlin Wall, 1989-90, seeing it on television, the wall coming down, the response of West Germany, of East Germany? Differing attitudes, fears? The East Germans and the isolation, fearing change, locked in the past, the possibility of rebuilding the wall? As a symbol of the isolation of Montreal?

4. The title of the film, the focus on music, the blues?

5. The portrait of a family, the father, the dead mother, the sons and the daughter, the opening with the hold-up of the service station, the father with the gun at his head, his reflections? His managing the station, his attitudes, patriarchal? Getting his sons up in the morning, the oldest son and the accounts, his diligence and anger? Letting him go to Berlin? With Guy, unreliable, his music, old cars, the accident and his absence, his concern, ousting Guy? Alain, his trust, his not being at school, held at gunpoint? Reunited with his sons, listening to his daughter's stories, reconsidering his situation? His friendship with Savard and the other neighbours, Joe and his idling at the service station, the customers who didn't pay, the other men who used to hang around, robberies? His decision to close? His going to hear Guy at the club, listening to Natalie's story about her running and his running with her and encouraging her? Re-establishing the bonds with his family? A portrait of an ageing man, ill, the oncoming of Parkinson's, his reluctance to go to therapy and his finally going?

6. Father, sons and daughter? The sons and their age, experience, relationships with each other, at home, at work, tensions and love?

7. Rejean as the oldest, his working diligently, keeping the accounts, his angers with Guy and his not turning up for his shifts, the robberies and his fighting the thief? The build-up of angers? His taking photos? The Berlin Wall, his wanting to go? The discussion with his father, the letters and the photos? Relationship with the girl, watching the wall coming down? His feeling more at home in East Germany, his wanting to rebuild the wall, the drunken binge, on television, being shipped home? The effect of the experience? Facing his father?

8. Guy, staying out all night, his music, listening to music in the early hours and disturbing Alain? Playing the harmonica, working with the groups? The types in the group? Always late, irresponsible about his shifts, the phone calls? Buying old cars, their collapse, the accident? His not phoning his father? The return after three days, his father not sleeping, his father ousting him? His father finally coming to see him perform and affirm him?

9. Alain, his age, not at school, his continued baseball pitching motion, his father's exasperation with this? Smoking in the toilet? His father trusting him, getting him to open up in the morning? With the people who hung around the service station? The hold-up, at gunpoint? His father offering him the cigarette?

10. Savard, the good neighbour, concern for the family, concern for Alain? The farewell?

11. Joe, idle, having no other place to go, cups of coffee, smoking and talking, blurting out the truth, reading the newspapers? His dismay at the end to find the station was closed? Going off to another coffee shop?

12. Michaud, his stealing, the group putting him in the freezer and his accepting this as punishment and reparation?

13. The drivers, the old men, the delivery man and his hurtful remarks to Joe about his sexual relationships_? The ease with which the people came to the service station and stayed there?

14. The customers, the man who owned the club, trying to get guy to peddle the drugs? The girls in the car and Alain seeing them? Savard warning against these crooks?

15. The thieves, wanting credit on the petrol, going to other service stations when they had money?

16. The hold-up, the criminal being familiar, the siege, the father at gunpoint, the policeman shooting the robber dead? The hold-up as a catalyst for change? The father discussing the situation with his sons and deciding to close?

17. The film and its attention to detail, the sense of realism, old-fashioned ways and change, the challenge of the future? Portrait of a family, hopes for its future?