Description 16 - Le Rocket

It's about a great hockey player, a guy who finds his voice and inspires millions to find theirs. We (yes, we) go to a movie that shows how much better the Quebecois are at telling and listening to their own stories, while the Anglos may be better at matching NHL team colours of paint.

Cliquez-ici pour abonnement!
Téléchargez ici!

Warning: I have no pretentions that my French is any good.

Associated links:
"Rocket" Richard exhibition at the Museum of Civilisation
The Rocket/Maurice Richard @ IMDB
Playback Magazine on the English Canada release
Roy Dupuis @ IMDB
Roy Dupuis @ Canoe (Francais)
Official Montreal Canadiens site
Les Pierrafeu!

Already I know I screwed up because I pronounced it "pierrefeu" when it's "pierrafeu," which is a truncation of "pierre à feu" which pretty much means "Flintstones". Yet Fred and Wilma (Délima) do not have the last name Flintstone, but Caillou! What the-?

I could go on for days on that one, and thankfully, I won't.

Okay, back to The Rocket. I want to give some props to the actors you hear in the clips. Of course, you have Roy Dupuis as Maurice. The Anglo actor Stephen McHattie plays legendary Canadiens coach Dick Irvin (whose son became just as legendary for calling hockey games on Hockey Night In Canada). And a guy even more ubiquitous in Quebec than Dupuis while looking entirely different, Rémy Girard, played Maurice's barber to provide the voice of the people. Art-film snobs may remember Girard as the dying professor in one of the most globally successful Quebec films ever, The Barbarian Invasions (a sequel to another massive Quebec film, The Decline of the American Empire). He was also the coach in the more-than-massive series of Les Boys movies, which made more money in Quebec than any Hollywood film up against them. I don't think anyone in Quebec is allowed to make a movie without Girard in it. Also, I totally edited out Julie LeBreton as Maurice's wife Lucille because I already had too much. She does a very good job for having not much to do, a there's a nice love story in there. Just letting you know it's not entirely a Guy movie.

That night after the film, I went to the GTA Podcasters Meetup, which was pretty fun. Big thanks to Craig of the Tangents podcast for putting it together. Some great people there I already have links to over on the right. I think what really struck me was how great the video podcasters were. Not that they weren't supposed to be great...I just haven't gotten into video podcasts (mainly because I'm such an audio person and I have a hard time with .m4v) and didn't know much about the people making them. Last week I finally got into Jim Dupree: Enthusiast, which is hilarious, and met "the other guy," Tristan, at the meetup. I also met Kim and Patrick from Cooking Kitty Corner and Michael from Life's a Journey, and now from what I've seen, both podcasts are as funny and real and - dare I say - sweet as their creators.

Awwwww...