Home Movies 2010s French Immersion

French Immersion

209

98 minutes – Comedy
Release date: October 7, 2011
DVD release date: January 24, 2012
Canadian Distributor: TVA Films

This movie is about exactly what the title says. A group of Anglo Canadians eager to learn the language of the other founding people, find themselves in small town Québec. The film centres on the imaginary Centre Linguistique Nationale, located in the imaginary Saint-Isidore-du-Coeur-de-Jésus (St. Isidore of Jesus’ Heart). The school with its pompous, politically charged name is the brainchild of director Sylvie Tremblay (Pascale Bussières), a woman devoted to bringing cash into her economically faltering town. Meanwhile the first clients, who have come to Saint-Isidore from all over Canada, are having trouble adapting to the Centre Linguistique’s and the town’s hardcore nationalist, French Only mindset. The school’s Vice-Principal Pierre-Emile (Yves Jacques) turns out to be a petty tyrant who penalizes students who break the cardinal No English rule by speaking it in their sleep. Full of in-jokes, French Immersion marks the directorial debut of producer Kevin Tierney.

Poster and still courtesy of TVA Films.

Watch Kevin Tierney talk about The Making of French Immersion.

French Immersion, movie poster,

Crew:

Producer:

Claude Bonin
Kevin Tierney

Director:

Kevin Tierney

Screenwriter:

Kevin Terney
Jefferson Lewis

Cinematographer:

Nathalie Moliavko-Visotzky

Editor:

Arthur Tarnowski

Composer:

Laurent Eyquem

Cast: Roles:

Pascale Bussieres
Yves Jacques
Karine Vanasse
Emmanuelle Vaugier
Colm Feore
Jacob Tierney
Laurence Leboeuf
Fred Ewaniuck
Martha Burns
Oluniké Adeliyi
Diane Lavallée
Marcel Leboeuf
Gavin Crawford
Robert Charlebois
Rita Lafontaine
Monique Spaziani
Amélie Grenier
Sylvain Marcel
Ali Hassan
Christopher Williams
Kevin Tierney

Sylvie Tremblay
Pierre-Émile
Julie Tremblay
Jennifer Yates
Prime Minister Pontifikator
Jonathan Hornstein
Chantale
Colin MacGonagle
Cathy
Aretha
Ghislaine
Mario
Bobby Sexton
Senator Tremblay
Grandmother
Ginette
Pat
Priest
Kumar
Mike
School Inspector