Taglines: Hitchcock would have been proud of this.
The Confessional movie storyline. The year is 1952, in Quebec City. Rachel, 16, unmarried, and pregnant, works in the church. Filled with shame, she unburdens her guilt to a young priest, under the confidentiality of the confessional. In the present year of 1989, Pierre Lamontagne has returned to Quebec to attend his father’s funeral.
He meets up with his adopted brother, Marc, who has begun questioning his identity and has embarked on a quest for his roots that would lead them to the Quebec of the 1950s. Past and present converge in a complex web of intrinque where the answer to the mystery lies.
The Confessional (French: Le Confessionnal) is a 1995 mystery-drama film directed by Robert Lepage. The film is set in Quebec City, in two distinct time periods. In the present day, Pierre Lamontagne (Lothaire Bluteau) searches for his brother Marc (Pierre Goyette) to help unravel a family mystery. The mystery itself unfolds in flashbacks set against the backdrop of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1952 filming of I Confess in the city.
The cast also includes Ron Burrage as Hitchcock, Kristin Scott Thomas as his assistant, and Jean-Louis Millette as Raymond Massicotte, Marc’s lover who also holds the key to unlocking the Lamontagne family’s secrets.
The Confessional won the Genie Award for Best Canadian Film of 1996, as well as the Claude Jutra Award for the best feature film by a first-time director. The film was selected as the Canadian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 68th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
The Confessional (1996)
Directed by: Robert Lepage
Starring: Lothaire Bluteau, Patrick Goyette, Jean-Louis Millette, Kristin Scott Thomas, Ron Burrage, François Papineau, Marie Gignac, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Suzanne Clément
Screenplay by: Robert Lepage
Production Design by: François Laplante
Cinematography by: Alain Dostie
Film Editing by: Emmanuelle Castro
Costume Design by: Barbara Kidd
Set Decoration by: Monique Dion, Ken Meany, Real Ouellette
Art Direction by: François Laplante
Music by: Sacha Puttnam
Distributed by: Alliance Vivafilm
Release Date: August 24, 1995 (Italy), August 16, 1996 (United States)
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