Marie-Claire Blais

Louise, a widow, lives with her son Patrice and her daughter Isabelle-Marie in a house in the country. All her affection is directed towards her son, who is socially dysfunctional but very handsome. In contrast, Louise neglects her daughter, whom she considers ugly. However, their small, obsessed universe is soon interrupted by a blind boy and an elegant fop from the outside world.

The folks who populate the rundown hotel in this story have all come there from someplace which offered a modicum of hope. Gloria, who runs the place, earns most of her money as a stripper. She lives there with her two daughters and a son with an untreated brain tumor. Charlie, who is forever in and out of jail, is Gloria's sometime lover. A recent check-in is there hoping she can work up the courage to commit suicide, since her rich doctor husband ran off and left her. Another resident is Tim, who keeps company with his dog and his booze in equal measure. A schoolteacher comes by from time to time, hoping to do these people some good, but in choosing this lot to work with, she proves to be just as much of a loser as the rest of them.

The Director reflects upon and seeks to understand the causes and the events that lead to her drug-addicted prostitute daughter being murdered at the age of 26.

The lack of material evidence left behind by Expo 67 is staggering. So remarkable, in fact, that we felt impelled to explore the site of the world’s fair in detail, searching for clues that throw light on its past – a kind of material archaeology à la Walter Benjamin, who sought in materiality the remnants and rejects, the traces of an ancient history that might reverberate down to the present.

Short film by Marie-Claire Blais.