La Vie rêvée | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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La Vie rêvée

In La Vie rêvée (1972), the first Québec dramatic feature to be directed by a woman, Mireille DANSEREAU offers a refreshing perspective on the politics of liberation.

La Vie rêvée

In La Vie rêvée (1972), the first Québec dramatic feature to be directed by a woman, Mireille DANSEREAU offers a refreshing perspective on the politics of liberation. Two young women - Isabelle (Liliane Lemaître-Auger) and Virginie (Véronique Le Flaguais) - work in a film production company, and dream, sexually and otherwise, of finding the ideal man. As they become increasingly aware of the oppression and marginalization of women within popular media, and within Québec history and society, both women recognize that battles must be fought for respect and recognition.

Consistently intelligent, the film is by turns lyrical, polemical, playful, sensual, amusing and ferocious. It uses a variety of techniques including dream sequences, home movies and mocking reversals of traditional images. While its Godardian influences are numerous, La Vie rêvée is a breezy, satirical detonation of Québec machismo and a convincing call to arms for a generation of women left out of the cinematic articulation of their own experience of Québec's emergent cultural nationalism. It won the CANADIAN FILM AWARD for best editing and the WENDY MICHENER AWARD for outstanding artistic achievement.