Eileen
$10
Dir. Mireille Dansereau
1972, Canada, 90 min
French with English subtitles
After starting a new job at a local film production company, Isabelle (Liliane Lemaître-Auger) meets animator Virginie (Véronique Le Flaguais) and the two become fast friends. Over the course of a freewheeling, sun-dappled Montreal summer, the pair supports each other through evolving experiences of love, loss, labor, and politics. A fleet-footed and generous filmmaker, Mireille Dansereau’s debut feature (and the first feature film directed by a woman in Quebec) moves breathlessly through several films’ worth of aesthetic ideas and narrative modes. A path-breaking portrait of female friendship, Dream Life (La vie rêvée) is high-water mark of Seventies Canadian cinema and a spritely hidden gem primed for rediscovery.
Arbelos is proud to present this new 50th anniversary 2K restoration by Éléphant – mémoire du cinéma québécois.
“In Dream Life, Dansereau gives her characters the opportunity to explore their desires through this mix of fantasy, flashback, montage, and conversations over cigarettes and coffee.” – Shelagh Rowan-Legg, ScreenAnarchy
