Straight for the Heart (French: À corps perdu) is a 1988 Canadian-Swiss French-language drama film directed by Léa Pool and written by Pool and Marcel Beaulieu. Adapted from Yves Navarre’s novel Kurwenal, the film follows a Montreal photojournalist who, on returning from a foreign assignment, finds that his ménage à trois relationship has ended. It won Best Dramatic Feature at the 1988 Atlantic Film Festival and was selected for competition at Venice and Chicago.
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Synopsis
Pierre Kurwenal, a photojournalist, returns to Montreal after an assignment in Nicaragua, where he has photographed scenes of political violence. He finds that Sarah and David, with whom he had lived in a long-term ménage à trois, have left him, and that Sarah is pregnant with David’s child. After confronting Sarah and David, Pierre wanders through Montreal and begins a relationship with Quentin, a deaf window washer.
Cast
The cast includes:
Matthias Habich as Pierre Kurwenal
Johanne-Marie Tremblay as Sarah
Michel Voïta as David
Jean-François Pichette as Quentin
Kim Yaroshevskaya as Noémie
Jacqueline Bertrand as the mother
France Castel as Michèle
Victor Désy as Dr. Ferron
Production
Straight for the Heart was a Canadian-Swiss co-production. It was produced by Denise Robert and Robin Spry, written by Léa Pool and Marcel Beaulieu, and adapted from Yves Navarre’s novel Kurwenal. The film had a budget of C$2.8 million.
Reception
Awards
At the 1988 Atlantic Film Festival, À corps perdu won Best Dramatic Feature. The film also received awards from the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma and the Société générale des industries culturelles in 1988.
Critical response
The New York Times described the film as a “visually compelling drama” and wrote that Lea Pool filmed Montreal with “exquisite sensitivity to the relationship among architecture, climate and the emotions”. The Los Angeles Times wrote that it was “ambitious and stylized” and described Matthias Habich as “the perfect actor for Pierre”.
Filmdienst praised the film’s sensitive use of visual montage to convey inner fracture. Filmbulletin wrote that it initially seemed at risk of fragmentation, but became clearer and denser as it progressed. It said the film’s stability and intensity came partly from Matthias Habich’s physical performance, and highlighted Pierre Mignot’s cinematography for its handling of visual contrasts.
Festival screenings
À corps perdu was presented in competition at the 1988 Venice Film Festival. It also screened in official competition at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1988.