Mon oncle Antoine

Mon oncle Antoine (1971) is a dramatic film by Quebec director Claude Jutra. It examines life in the Maurice Duplessis-era Asbestos region of rural Quebec prior to the Asbestos Strike of the late 1940s. Set at Christmas time, the story is told from the point of view of a 15 year-old boy (Benoit, played by Jacques Gagnon) coming of age in a mining town. The Asbestos Strike is regarded by Quebec historians as a seminal event that led to the Quiet Revolution. Jutra's film, thus, is viewed as an examination of the social conditions in Quebec's old, agrarian, conservatve and cleric dominated society that gave birth to the dramatic social and political changes that transformed the province a decade later. The film has twice been voted the greatest Canadian film ever in the Sight & Sound poll, which is conducted once each decade.

External links

• Mon oncle Antoine (1971) IMDB entry
• Close-up: Mon oncle Antoine critique of the film and its legacy
• Mon oncle Antoine article by Barry Keith Grant published in the June-September 2004 issue of Take One