The best Gabriel Arcand’s movies

When a dead newborn is found, wrapped in bloody sheets, in the bedroom wastebasket of a young novice, psychiatrist Martha Livingston is called in to determine if the seemingly innocent novice, who knows nothing of sex or birth, is competent enough to stand trial for the murder of the baby.

Four very different Montreal university teachers gather at a rambling country house to prepare a dinner. Remy (married), Claude (a homosexual), Pierre (involved with a girlfriend) and Alain (a bachelor) discuss sex, the female body and their affairs with them. Meanwhile, their four female guests, Louise (Remy's wife of 15 years), Dominique (a spinster), Diane (a divorcée) and Danielle (Pierre's girlfriend) are spending the time at a downtown health gym. They also discuss sex, the female body and, naturally, men. Later in the evening, they finally meet at the country house and have dinner. A ninth guest, named Mario, who used to know Diane, drops in on the group for some talk and has a surprise of his own.

Maria Chapdelaine tells the story of a young woman having to choose between three suitors promising each a different life. Faced with events that jostle her, Maria must then take his destiny into her own hands and decide what her future will be.

Matthieu, a 33 year old Parisian who finds out that the father he never knew has died and decides to go to his funeral in order to meet his two siblings in Quebec. But once in Montréal, he realizes that nobody is aware of his existence or even interested in it. He is alone, in hostile territory…Filled with secrets, this story about one man’s coming to term with the foreign family he never knew he had is complex with interconnected themes such as masculinity, family, paternity and filial devotion coiling in the layers underneath.

Gaby owns a farm on which he raises lambs: Bouchard & Sons Farm. But he has no sons. Rather, he has two daughters that he raised like princesses and who live far away, in the big city. One day, the oldest asks him for some financial support so she doesn't end up losing her house...

Pierre, a retired professor in his early sixties ends up making a short, unsettling trip around Okinawa with Junko, a 40-year-old runaway wife. The confused intellectual would rather not get involved with this unlikely and unexpected lover but decides to follow his destiny, wherever it (she?) may take him.

This historical drama with music examines the life and times of Émile Nelligan, one of the major Canadian poets of the 19th century who struggled through a difficult childhood with the help of his loving mother, only to see his career cut short by tragic circumstances.

Suspecting that the cecassion of the tides may indicate an impending earthquake, Seismologist Alice arrives in her hometown of Baie-Comeau, Quebec to commence her investigation. Soon confronted by numerous figures from her past, the unusual weather and inexplicable behavior of the citizens lead Alice to believe that something beyond her comprehension is occurring to her old hometown...

Ovide Plouffe has married Rita. She still tries to attract other men even after their marriage. Unhappy Ovide feels for Marie - a young French woman he had met. But his catholic background and surrounding can't let him love another woman or divorce from his wife. So Ovide finishes with Marie and plans a trip with Rita hoping for reconciliation. At the last instant he announces to Rita that he can't make the trip. She goes alone. The plane explodes, and Ovide is suspected and arrested for this horrible crime.

Although he is something of a layabout, and is still living with his mother, her death comes as something of a shock to Louis Pelletier (Gilbert Sicotte). Still, he has hopes of some sort of legacy and believes that his relatives will help him find a job. All his hopes are dashed when, before the funeral, his three aunts come to Quebec City to settle their sister's estate. As grasping and efficient a crew as ever strode a parlor, by the time they leave, the estate has been cleaned to the bones, as if by vultures.

In this Canadian character study, a petty thief steals $5,000 from a marching band and heads to the US with his ditzy girl friend and another couple.

In this tough French-Canadian drama, two outsiders -- one who works with the law, another who lives outside it -- come together with unfortunate consequences. Linda (Sylvie Moreau) is a devoted single mother who will do anything to support her five-year-old daughter, Charlotte (Sarah Lecompte-Bergeron). Unfortunately, a lot of what Linda does best isn't exactly legal, such as luring well-to-do men into the park and then mugging them. One night, Linda is trying to coax a visitor from America into the shadows when the situation starts to go wrong. Meanwhile, Ghislain (Gabriel Arcand) is a shy, lonely fellow who works at the morgue and likes to listen to the blues late at night. In time, we discover that Linda and Ghislain met at one time, leading to an ugly encounter for both of them.

This French-Canadian crime/action drama, which satirizes U.S. crime films, was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1972 and was well received. In the picture, perfectly ordinary people murder, steal, and torture one another with casual abandon in order to solve their everyday problems.

A dropout gets the margins of society and resists his father’s pressure to return to the bosom of the village. The film transcends anecdote by diving into a wacky and unusual universe, full of fantasy, imagination, and visual and sound gags.