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CULTURE

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Lena in Entre Nous: discovering boredom.

The power of
friendship

Entre Nous, by director Diane Kurys is stunningly emotional.
The young French actress turned director has dramatized
another page out of her personal history adding on to the success
of her 1977 Peppermint Soda. The entanglements are again purely
human but frightening as they expose the fragility of relationships
we mostly take for granted.

Left orphaned by World War II Lena, a young Belgian wom-
an, accepts a marriage offer from a stranger, Michel (Guy Mar-
chand) to escape a detention camp for Jews. While the war
continues to hound them, Madelaine (Miou Miou) marries in
formal white and continues her art education. The war is only
brought to her when her young husband is killed in her arms by
the Germans.

Enter the early 1950s. Lena and Michel’s unlikely beginnings
have formed into a relatively happy marriage and two daughters.
Emerged from widowhood, a brief encounter left Madelaine with
a son and husband.

The children’s school play brings the two women together and
what develops is a friendship so powerful they eventually leave
their husbands. They are not however, early or unconscious
feminists but have mierely exercised their options without the
rationalizations which would accompany such a move today.

Despite Michel’s accusations it is ambiguous whether their
actions are motivated by sexual desire. A classic explanation is
probably more likely. An impressionable character becomes
mesmerized and follows a more dominant one.

Although Madelaine’s bumbling, entrepreneurial husband has
not kept her in the good life, money and status are her back-
ground. As such, she oozes the confidence and has the expec-
tations of the upper middle class. Her training in art was a luxury,
not a means of livelihood.

Before her introduction to Madelaine, Lena never indicates
she is dissatisfied. In fact for a working class girl she hasn’t done
bad. Michel may be unsophisticated and a trifle crass, but if not a
good lover he is at least an affectionate husband. His daughters
adore him and his hours spent as a garage mechanic/owner have
given them a comfortable life complete with live-in housekeeper.
Not to say Lena should find the life of a housewife rewarding, but
she had appeared content if not stimulated.

Madelaine offers that stimulation. Lena picks up her interest in
literature and theatre. They dress up, flirt, experiment with
lovers. Ten years later Lena does many of the things she might
have done if war had not robbed her adolescence.

Given that Entre Nous is the story of her parents’ estrange-
ment, it is a mark of Kury’s talent that she is an advocate for
neither side. Michel is honorable yet pathetic. His world is
flowing away but try as he might he can’t stop it from trickling
through his fingers. His violent outbursts, while not condoned,
are justified in so far as Lena has used him unkindly.

The wrenching closing scene is seen through Kury’s
five-year-old eyes. Her father sobs, ‘‘what about me?’’ You must
go, her mother replies. This is the last time her parents saw each
other, we’re told. Implied is that it was also Kury’s last encounter
with her father. What monumental decisions we adults make for
our children.

&

10 e PACIFIC TRIBUNE, MARCH 21, 1984

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Cruise model ‘buried’
by Cold Lake marchers

By CHRIS FRASER

COLD LAKE, Alta. — The announcement of
the first cruise missile test had been made 48 hours
earlier. Peace groups across Alberta called urgent
meetings to discuss their course of action. By the
morning of Tuesday, Mar. 6, cars and buses filled
with peace activists wound their way northward,
determined not to quit the fight against the Cruise
missile.

for fighting the cruise missile: “I’m a farmer. 1f@
people, I don’t kill them.”

While the rest of the protestors were “burying”
Cruise, 10 members of Edmonton Youth for
(EYP) were busy setting up their own counter-
cade to that maintained by the Military Police.

The temporary counter-barricade hap
spontaneously when James Galbraith of EYP:
down in front of the MPs, refusing to move. S008
was joined by the rest of EYP.

Although the establishment media has portray
the Cold Lake action as unsuccessful, the acti
feel quite differently. :

“I was angered at the fact the government
doing something like this,” said Galbraith, “It
good just to do something about it.” Galbraith ft
was important to let the government know that!
peace movement won’t quit.

This sentiment was echoed by Doreen Caldwell
Edmonton’s CND who called the Cold Lake a
“uplifting.”

“It was a display of our determination
resolve,” said Caldwell. “We won’t stop — we ha
to work harder, we have to make the arms race,
the cruise, an election issue to get a government
will represent the interests of people.”

Indeed the next few months will be a flurry!
peace activity in Alberta as organization for
Peace Petition Caravan Campaign begins. Peat
groups here are hoping to use the PPCC as a tool
pressure on Members of Parliament to force!
opening in the federal government which will all
the peace movement greater opportunities to relu
the Cruise.

“As soon as we heard the announcement of the
Cruise test, we knew we would be going to Cold
Lake,” said Tim Firth of the Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament (CND) in Edmonton.

“It was mostly a question of making the arrange-
ments and finding out who could make the time to

”

Edmonton peace groups raised a busload and
joined activists from across Canada when they
arrived in Grande Centre, near the Canadian Forces
Base (CFB) at Cold Lake. People had arrived not
only from all over Alberta, but also from'the west
coast, Saskatchewan and Toronto.

Nearly 150 men, women and children then began
the march to the CFB Cold Lake, ignoring the
freezing weather and biting wind.

Before they could reach the base, however, they
were stopped by a military barricade. So, under the
watchful eyes of Military Police (MPs) the marchers
buried a model of the Cruise missile and pledged
themselves to continue the fight against the Cruise
missile and the arms race.

Cold Lake area farmer Paul Ulfsten summed up
the crowd’s resolve when he stated his own reason

ite ATTENTION

MUTARY POLICE BARR

|

Members of Edmonton Youth for Peace set up counter barricade on road leading to Cold Lake military base it
northern Alberta, site the Mar. 6 Cruise missile test. “‘Disposable Citizen’’ James Galbraith (I) is surrounded bt
military police. ! |

a

Soviets like Canadian cinema

— Kerry Sp anit

Les Plouffe made in 1981 by
Quebec director Gilles Carle after
the novel of the same title, was an
opening night hit at the Soviet-
Canadian Friendship Association
in Moscow.

“This is a humane film,”’ said
an engineer interviewed. ‘‘What I
like most, is that the authors,

‘dwelling on serious and dramatic

problems, never sound pathetic.
They show life as it is. This em-
phasizes its impact.”’

“The Canadian actors perform
sincerely and soulfully,’”’ said a
16-year-old schoolgirl. ‘“‘As for
Ovide and Cecile, they will be
long remembered for their fresh-
ness and fascination.

“‘The film dwells on the prob-

_ lems linked with the second world

war,’ said a retired woman.
“‘That is why it is so close to us

who experienced it. The Plouffes
seemed to be affected by the war
only slightly, their children are
growing and grandchildren are
born. Life gradually comes back
to._normal, but with what bitter-
ness does the mother waiting for
her soldier son stretch out her
arms to him in the final episode of
the film. This horror — mothers
waiting for their sons to come
back from war — must never be
repeated.” :
“Canadian film-makers,’’ said
Vladimir Ivanov, ‘‘have managed
to create their national authentic
cinema within a very short period
of time, and its position in the
world is growing stronger. Many
films, like, for instance, Les
Plouffe and The Tin Flute were
made by distinguished directors
based on national best-sellers.

The leading actors star in the
and their music has been writte?
by popular composers. Thi
makes them an important part!
Canadian society’s culture wil)
which we are glad to get #
quainted.”” ES |
More exchange is in the works
According to the informatiot
provided by the USSR stalt
committee for television
radio, an agreement on the pro
duction of a TV film about th
Soviet Union’s nature reserv
has just been signed by Soviet ant
Canadian film-makers. The Til
Flute will be shown here (dubbet
into Russian). Canadian film staf,
Marilyn Lightstone, who playel
the mother’s part in the film wa
awarded a special prize by th
Soviet Women’s Committee. _
— Nikolai Vishnevsk}