Being at Home with Claude

Being at Home with Claude is a 1992 Canadian drama film directed by Jean Beaudin and based on the play by René-Daniel Dubois.[1] The film stars Roy Dupuis as Yves, a gay man who has just murdered his lover Claude (Jean-François Pichette), and is attempting to explain his reasons to the police investigator (Jacques Godin).

Being at Home with Claude
Video tape cover
Directed byJean Beaudin
Produced byLéon G. Arcand
Louise Gendron
Written byRené-Daniel Dubois
StarringRoy Dupuis
Jacques Godin
Jean-François Pichette
Music byRichard Grégoire
CinematographyThomas Vámos
Edited byAndré Corriveau
Production
company
Les Productions du Cerf
National Film Board of Canada
Distributed byAlliance Vivafilm
Strand Releasing
Release date
  • February 7, 1992 (1992-02-07) (RVCQ)
Running time
85 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

The film premiered at the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois in February 1992.[2] It was also screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.[3]

The film was co-produced by Les Productions du Cerf and the National Film Board of Canada.[4]

Cast

Critical response

Ray Conlogue of The Globe and Mail criticized Beaudin's decision to depict Claude's murder as the very first scene in the movie, writing that it robbed the movie of "the precious ambiguity of our feelings about Yves. Instead of letting him lead us - along with the police interrogator - slowly, carefully, with almost virginal reticence, into the interior world that dictated Claude's death, we are slapped in the face with it." He ultimately concluded that the film's success or failure "depends on whether you can persuade yourself that Dubois, self-styled 'transgressor of our fears' and gainsayer of God, succeeds in his project. If he does, then the film does. For my part, I found it a brilliant essay in moral myopia."[5]

Craig MacInnis of the Toronto Star criticized the casting of Dupuis in the lead role, calling him a "human side of beef" who was "not equal to the demands of the script", and compared his performance unfavourably to the performance of Lothaire Bluteau in the original stage play.[6]

Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail identified the film's religious underpinnings, writing that "it's a short jump from Romance to religion ("He transfigured me. He's alive in me"), and Beaudin adds a few Catholic fillips to the tale - the judge's chamber comes with stained-glass windows, the Inspector is clearly a father-confessor, and the murder is filmed as a blood-and-wine sacrament. But that's really only ornamental. Beneath the ornamentation, there's a sturdier reason why this work has the power to cut across different audiences and survive its different castings (here, Godin is hard-working and wonderful; Dupuis is merely hard-working). And the reason is simple. For all its seamy, aberrant, amoral exterior, what we're actually seeing is a typically Keatsian lament "half in love with easeful Death," a classically blissful tragedy complete with star-crossed duo."[7]

Awards

The film received nine Genie Award nominations at the 13th Genie Awards:[8]

Grégoire won the award for Best Original Score.[9]

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References
  1. Noel Taylor, "Being At Home With Claude; An emotional pounding that stays in your mind". Ottawa Citizen, December 4, 1992.
  2. John Griffin, "Rendez-Vous gives local films a moment of fame". Montreal Gazette, February 9, 1992.
  3. Craig MacInnis, "Cannes strikes up a new tune: Hooray For Hollywood". Toronto Star, May 7, 1992.
  4. "Being at Home with Claude". Collection (in French). National Film Board of Canada. June 15, 2012.
  5. Ray Conlogue, "In place of ambiguity a slap in the face: Film Review, Being at Home with Claude". The Globe and Mail, February 22, 1992.
  6. Craig MacInnis, "Homoerotic thriller fails to live up to its promise". Toronto Star, November 6, 1992.
  7. Rick Groen, "Star-crossed lovers". The Globe and Mail, November 6, 1992.
  8. Christopher Harris, "Canadian films in the spotlight: Naked Lunch leads the way with 11 nominations at 13th annual Genies". The Globe and Mail, November 21, 1992.
  9. Jay Scott, "Naked Lunch top fare at Genies: 8 awards for surrealistic fantasy, but some films ill-served by presenters". The Globe and Mail, November 23, 1992.
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