La femme qui boit (The Woman Who Drinks)

La femme qui boit (The Woman Who Drinks)

La femme qui boit (2001) is the first full-length feature by career documentary filmmaker Bernard ÉMOND. With simple cinematography that skims over the scenes, Émond draws a moving portrait of a forty-something woman who recalls the journey of a turbulent life between her bouts of drunkenness. From a working-class environment, she is able to escape her condition for some time thanks to the kindness of her lover. However, when she leaves him for an impossible and brutal love, she slips into a bottomless pit. Alcohol causes her to lose everything - even her child. Proceeding through the course of her life, the film is a portrait of Québec in the 1940s, 50s and 60s that supports the situation of this tormented being. Stolid in her silence, Élise Guilbaut makes the suffering appear real and on her shoulders carries the character of a woman with a wounded soul, on death's doorstep, who casts a last sharp and lucid look at her life.

La femme qui boit has been awarded numerous prizes, and its cinematographic recognition continues. In 2001, the film received the Grand Prix in Portugal's Festival Figueira da Foz. For her performance, the amazing Élise Guilbaut won the Bayard d'or for best actor at the Festival international du film francophone de Namur in Belgium (2001), as well as the PRIX JUTRA (2002), and the PRIX GÉNIE (2002). In addition, the industry classed La femme qui boit among Canada's Top 10 films in 2001.