Francophone cinema has certainly held a monopoly when it comes to foreign language filmmaking, as evident by the prominence of French and Belgian films that are widely consumed every year. However, an area that we tend to overlook are the movies produced in Canada by the French-speaking population. It’s certainly not a case of there not being too many strong films produced by those in the Québécois (especially in the earlier parts of the 20th century, since filmmakers like Xavier Dolan and Denis Côté have done good work in bringing attention to the artistic achievements of this portion of the population, standing as steadfast representatives of their province on an international stage), but rather that they are often hidden under layers of obscurity, known only to those who actively seek them out. Regardless of their status, many of these films carry an immense importance, since they not only represent a major part of the national history, but they’re incredibly artistically resonant. Few films embody this more than The Cat in the Bag (French: Le Chat dans le sac), which was written and directed by Gilles Groulx, who is undeniably one of the most important names in Québécois cinema, despite having produced a relatively small body of work. His working-class upbringing, as well as his experiences in the bureaucratic corners of society informed his very distinct worldview, which is firmly established throughout this film, which functions as his fervent manifesto against the misdeeds of a country that was slowly losing its identity, something that he (like many of his compatriots) saw as a major obstacle that needed to be addressed, which was the primary goal of this peculiar curio of a film.

Like many French films produced during this era, The Cat in the Bag was heavily inspired by the Nouvelle Vague, with the brooding tone and complex story being plucked directly from the influential work being done across the Atlantic by some of the most important storytellers of their generation, both in style and storyline. However, this is a film that stands firmly in defence of Québécois culture, with the entire story being centred on a couple navigating a series of challenges, whether it be their steadily declining relationship, or their position in a country that is gradually falling victim to outside influences, so much that their identity is starting to decline and instead be replaced by a hybrid nationalism that causes their cultural pride to erode. Groulx is working with a number of complex themes, which he seamlessly weaves into this narrative, focusing on the lives of these two young people as they navigate hostile socio-cultural terrain, all the while trying to find themselves amongst the rapidly changing landscape of Montreal, a city that is caught between tradition and modernity, struggling to find its identity despite being fiercely proud of its past. There is a lot of complexity found in Groulx’s vision, and his construction of several intricate tableaux leads to an engaging and compelling psychological drama that leaps into the lives of its characters, exploring their shifting mentalities and engaging with them on a profoundly powerful level, which is quite an achievement for a film that is seemingly impenetrable in terms of both its story and the underlying intentions.

As the protagonist boldly states, “I seem to be witnessing the birth of a new folklore of alienation”, which is a good way to establish the tone and direction of the film as a whole. The story deals primarily with characters who are hopelessly lost in life – they are comfortable in their surroundings (and would not dare venture beyond the confines of their home city, even if it meant developing beyond what Montreal apparently could offer them. However, the story is quite tenuous, and it takes some time for it to actually move in a particular direction. The Cat in the Bag is not a film in which the plot is particularly important, especially since there is seemingly very little cohesion in terms of developing it as a coherent, linear storyline. Instead, the film functions as a series of vignettes, brief snapshots of these characters in their daily lives as they ruminate on the philosophy of nihilistic depression, desperately trying to find a place in a city they were born to call home, but yet cannot find any sanctuary in. There’s always a virtue in slow films that know how to pace themselves, and Groulx effectively curates several moments in the lives of these characters as they bound between existential despair and outright manic episodes, which is contrasted with the bleak but strangely endearing depiction of a city that has grown hostile to their very existence. Montreal has never looked simultaneously so stunningly gorgeous and profoundly unsettling as it did in The Cat in the Bag, a film that has a very precise definition of existence, which it spends every one of its 74 minutes aggressively interrogating.

The Cat in the Bag is an oddity of a film. It seems like it is constantly skirting around being a satire, a kind of lighthearted social realism romp along the lines of Éric Rohmer and Jean Eustache in the early stages of their careers (and it is certainly indebted to their brand of minimalism), but it quickly becomes very clear that this is a film inspired less by the desire to tenderly describe the lives of these characters, who represent ordinary Québécois intellectuals, and more inspired by the forthright need to express the dissatisfaction with the terror that comes with realizing your surroundings are changing as a result of the march of time. Progress is inevitable, but at such a rapid pace, it can be disconcerting for those who have barely learned how to exist independently. There’s not much of a story here, but these well-constructed episodes in the lives of these characters convey a deep and poignant message that is certainly the work of someone with a deep passion for the material, and a group of artists (on both sides of the camera) willing to work laboriously with the director to assist in realizing his vision. Deeply unsettling but profoundly beautiful, both in terms of how it explores an iconic city undergoing a lot of change, as well as the details that form its theoretical foundation, The Cat in the Bag is a gem of a film that provokes a lot of thought, and shows us the importance of taking stock of reality, something that is gradually shifting with time.