COMÉDIE
Running Time: 7:00
Year: 1994
Format: BetaCam SP, b&w, stereo
This video in two parts is a newcomer's portrait of Montréal and focuses on two of my architectural obsessions: the Hydro Québec building and the Métro. I spent my first winter in Montréal in a cold, dark, first-floor apartment. I sat in the kitchen beside the electric heater, drinking coffee and watching the disk on the electric meter spin faster and faster, all the while wondering how I would manage to pay the bills. At night, I laid in bed and looked at the enormous illuminated "Q" on the Hydro Québec building and wondered how much it cost to keep it lit every night. A quote from a physics text brought this first section into focus. The second section is less autobiographically-based. In it, an man searches for the meaning of life in the tile patterns of Champ-de-Mars metro station. Though I did spend a great deal of time at that particular station asking some of the same questions he does, I took his search to an end much more absurd than anything I could hope to enact. The moral of these two tales is: "Don't lose you sense of humour". It's from this cliché that the piece derives its title.
COMÉDIE: Production credits Director: Nelson Henricks Voice: Charles Cousins Voix: Pierre Beaudoin Music: Riz Ortolani and Nino Oliviero Interprèt: Mrs. Miller Montage: Gisèle Trudel Son: Martin Hurtubise Production Facilities: PRIM Thanks to: STCUM Paul Davies Don Goodes Concordia Audio/Visual Concordia Cinema, Fine Arts Funding: Canada Council, Media Arts Section