LE RING
Canada, 2007, 90 minutes, Colour.
Maxim Desjardines Tremblay.
Directed by Anais Barbeau Lavalette.
At the centre of this drama, set in some of the poorer, run-down neighbourhoods of Montreal, is a 12 year old boy, Jessy, played believably and engagingly by Maxime Desjardins Tremblay. One reason is that he is so convincing is that he is a non-professional who lives in the area and knows the kind of life that is portrayed on screen.
Director Anais Barbeau Lavallette has made a number of documentaries and brings this sensibility to her story of a sadly dysfunctional family. While the focus is on the children, we see an ineffectual father who has no joy out of life and a depressed mother who leaves home to work as a prostitute. The older boy, Sam, is pressurised by his peers to work as a drug courier and spends time in jail for stealing a car. Kelly, just older than Jessy, is quite strong-minded as she enters puberty. There is also a young baby.
Jessy is bored at school and is a truant, going to see his wrestler friend, Killer, and to play with his old dog, Clomp. It is the wrestling world that makes Jessy come alive – the film opens vividly with his eager arrival at the ring, his shouting his lungs out with the vigorous crowd, cheering the local hero Firestorm and booing the loser, Killer. If he could plan his life, Jessy would become a wrestler. He does get a chance to do a little training. He is also astute enough to live through a possible disillusionment when he learns that all the bouts are fixed.
Jessy is underpriviliged in terms of family, home, possessions, education, even healthy food. But, he has something of decency and principles which are tested when he goes to see his mother, when he visits his brother in prison and refuses to deliver drugs, when he questions Killer why he always accepts defeat in the ring and decides that a person does not have to lie down just because the crowd expects it and wants it. It is a squalid world that Jessy lives in – but there is hope in the film that he can move beyond it.
1.The impact of the drama? The documentary background and style? Realism?
2.Montreal, the poorer suburbs, the dinginess, the squalid apartments? The wrestling centre? The streets, the surrounding wasteland, the bridge, the river? School? The musical score?
3.The credits and the wrestling: Jessy and his entering, his age, his love for wrestling, the fighters, the artificiality, the boss, the referee, the details of the bouts, staged? The audience reaction, winners and losers?
4.Jessy and his place in the family, Sam as the older brother, his being mixed up in gangs and drugs? Going to the wrestling with his brother? The challenge by the dealer? At home, the bonds in the family? With Sam, Sam taking the car, letting Jessy drive, the crash? Sam going to prison, Jessy and Kelly and their visit, inability to communicate? Sam’s return, the fried chicken meal and Jessy’s delight? The drug dealing, forcing Jessy to do deliveries? His delaying, the killing of the dog? His relationship with Kelly, her age, their clashing, the bike, Kelly’s menstruation, their sharing the room, their love for their mother, her absence? Jessy seeing his mother in the street? Kelly’s encounter? The baby, looking after the baby, the meals? A dysfunctional family?
5.Jessy, his room, Bruce Lee, opening the window and looking across the way, the person dying, listening to the music? His mother, her staying till he went to sleep? Her moroseness? Leaving? The meals with the father, his sternness, the money for the wrestling? Jessy telling his father he was hungry? The poor quality of the meals? The teacher criticising and suggesting he had a bath? His upset but having the bath? Going to school, truancy? His going to see Killer, their friendship, talk? Klop, the dog? At school, bored, the teacher, picking out verbs? Talking to the teacher about the bath? His bonds with the dog, the bond with Killer? Wanting to roll his cigarettes for six dollars? His shoplifting from the Korean? His young friend, the collecting the bottles? His wetting the bed? Drying the mattress? Going again to the wrestling, wanting to be a wrestler, discussions with the boss, being allowed to watch, his lessons in the ring? The friend revealing that everything was fixed? His continuing to watch, discussions with Killer, asking him why he was always a loser, Killer saying he enjoyed the bouts? His not delivering the drugs? Going to see his mother, the visit? His sadness at the dog’s death, the burial? The final wrestling bout, urging Killer not to be a loser, Killer standing up and upsetting the fixed match? A final moment of happiness as he rode his bike?
6.A portrait of a young boy, happiness, relative happiness, relative success, issues of conscience, stances? His future?
7.His parents, his father and the drinking, neglect, the meals? The mother and her listlessness, departure, on the street as a prostitute? Her encounters with Jessy, the shock encounter with Kelly? Her not returning?
8.Killer, in himself, his friendship, his dog, rolling the cigarettes, always being the loser, what the public wanted? His final self-assertion? Jessy’s encouragement?
9.The boss, the fixed matches, the stars, Firestorm and his always winning? The audience and their shouting, wanting the winners, condemning the losers? The boss’s discussions with Jessy about what the public wanted?
10.Life, quality of life, the lack of quality? Issues of home and parents? Siblings and peers? Possibilities in education – and loss of educational opportunities? Meals and hygiene? A young boy and his personality and development?
