My Uncle Antoine (Mon oncle Antoine)
Directed by Claude Jutra
Written by Claude Jutra and Clement Perron from Perron’s story
1971/Canada
IMDb page
First viewing/Criterion Channel
Uncle Antoine: It takes a little punk like you to get me in a mess like this.
Beautifully shot film about growing up fast in rural Quebec.
It is Christmas time in rural Quebec sometime in the 1940’s. It is the busiest season of the year for Uncle Antoine’s general store/mortuary. The store includes living quarters. Uncle Antoine and Aunt Cecile also house Benoit, the 14-year-old at the center of the tale; shop assistant Fernand (played by Jutra); shop helper Carmen; and woodcutter Jos Poulin and his wife and many children. 
Benoit is just at the age to start a flirtation with Carmen. In other regards, he seems like a wide-eyed kid. That is until he volunteers to help his uncle the undertaker pick up a body some distance away on a very cold day. I will stop here.
Unfortunately coming of age is not always a fun-filled frolic but more an abandonment of childhood beliefs. This is an interesting, often amusing, slice-of-life type movie I liked it a lot. The outstanding aspect was the beautiful images that kind of make one nostalgic for a time one never knew.
