Leolo [1992]

This strange and highly unusual film, with its startling impressionistic camera work,combines gritty down to earth reality with fantasy and imagination, to stunning and often shocking effect. The film centres on the eponymous Leolo, a lonely and sensitive 12 year old boy living in a Montreal slum with his dysfuncional and damaged family. Desperately trying to hold on to his sanity, he finds solace in his daydreams and he outlines his feelings. hopes and desires in a notebook, which also contains some very candid observations about his life and about the people around him. It is this notebook, narrated in a series of flashbacks, that forms the basis of Leolo's story. Despite many humourous episodes, the general tone of the film is dark and surreal. As Leolo gradually spirals deeper into the abyss, one senses an atmosphere of impending doom, fully realised in the harrowing and heartbreaking finale. This film won't appeal to everyone as its not exactly light entertainment, but love it or hate it, you won't easily forget it! It will make an impression on you and that, as they sat, is the mark of a good movie.

This French-Canadian is a classic that once you see it you will never forget it. It is about the harsh side of life of a poor family living in Montreal. It is hard to watch at times but is very down to earth and shows the result of solvent abuse can do something that teenagers should be aware. What lifts this film from its seriousness is the music which I have never heard any better in a film. Sadly, the director is no longer with us You will get this one with English subtitles suitable only for teenagers upwards.

Saw this many years ago and now returned for a further viewing and it's still an unsettling experience. The traumas, joys and confusion of the young boy as he moves towards adolescence. Clearly an influence on Guy Maddin and some of the peculiar family "relationships" in his films.

this is the perfect anti-dote to the films we usually see on the tv and in the local cinema. enjoy.

Great story, sad ending.

Leolo is a visionary film, one that completely fulfils the primary definition of film as a moving image, for it is above all a dazzling montage of images of the most intense kind. It is not always easy to watch, but holds your interest for its sheer visual poetry, even if much of its meaning remains obscure. Leolo, the main character, often repeats in a voice-over from much later in his life, given in a basso profundo in Canadian French: `I dream; I am not'. Everything that follows mixes dream and reality in such a way that they blur into each other. Nothing is quite real, yet everything illustrates a deeper current in life. Thus the main character's brother, Fernand, goes from being a bullied 16-year-old to a built hunk overnight, while Leo remains the same, but his brother, to whom he is very close, still cannot face his tormentor, muscles or no muscles. He ends up lying on the ground by the rubbish bins crying as his young brother leans over him consolingly, like a strangely re-configured Pieta. Leo falls in love with a young woman in a neighbouring flat who presumably exists, but may not. But one is compelled by the conviction of the images that are never less than striking, and often unforgettable, like the above. It is the study of one dysfunctional family, but it takes a much more extreme stylistic stance than Mike Leigh, and is quite sexually graphic, not to say perverse, by implication, which is particularly bold given the young age of the protagonist. To say too much is likely to put potential viewers off, but really it is a film which casts a spell with its deep male choral singing on the soundtrack and saturated light, with stark contrasts. It is set in a poor area but there is not a mundane shot in the whole film. It literally glows with the fierce imagination of the director Jean-Claude Lauzon, and it is small wonder that it was shortlisted for the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It was no doubt considered too left-of-field even for that admirably boundary-pushing context.

when i first got this film a while back i did not know what i was in for and it is a very well made film and it has everything that does make a great film and it is one im glad i made as part of my collection. and it has everything the funny and sad times and moments and for many others like me this is the film they should see and it has english subtitles but dont let that put you off. and it is how a great film like this should be made and done and it is a shame many other film directors cant and will not see that when they make there movies about boys childhood and familys and i give this film full top marks and i still have not seen the rest of this directors films so i need to look them out if any. a fab great film and weldone to everyone in it and it is for that time in us boys childhood.

Wonderful portrayal of boy’s descent into insanity as he reaches puberty and joins the rest of his family in the local psychiatric hospital. Great portrayal of his father’s motto: a s**t a day keeps the doctor away! Watch it and remember it for ever.

🙂👍parfait

Un film culte qui me touche énormément. Voyage au cœur de l'italie avec un petit garçon qui nous emmène dans l'antre d'une vie aimée et à la fois redoutée. Léolo est un enfant très attachant et je ne me lasse pas de le redécouvrir à chaque fois.

Un film onirico,bellissimo,mai volgare.Bravissimo il ragazzo che impersona Leolo.Un film che metto trai miei preferiti ,peccato non trovare la traduzione in italiano.

Der passenden Worte wurden schon zahlreiche von den Vorrezensenten für diesen wunderbaren Film gefunden, so dass es mir schwer fällt noch wesentlich Neues hinzuzufügen. Für mich am treffsichersten und schönsten hat von ihnen wohl "ger 2007" ausgedrückt, was auch mir zu diesem Film einfällt oder auch nur gerne eingefallen wäre und was mich an ihm fasziniert.Leo, der Träumer, der darauf besteht, dass er eigentlich Leolo Lozone heiße, weil er überzeugt ist, dass sein Erzeuger nur ein unbekannter Italiener sein könne, da seine übrigen Familienmitglieder mit Ausnahme seiner Mutter ja alle verrückt sind und er folglich nicht vom selben Vater abstammen könne, wächst in ärmlichen Verhältnissen im Montreal der 50er oder 60er Jahre in einer Welt auf, in der für Träume kein Platz zu sein scheint und in der die Zukunftsaussichten trübe sind.Erzählt wird seine Geschichte in einer Art bruchstückhafter und unchronologischer Rückblende von einem unsichtbaren Sprecher, dessen Stimme dem längst erwachsenen Leo zu gehören scheint. Nie ist in diesem Film wirklich klar, was tatsächliche Erinnerung ist und was dem Reich der Phantasie angehört, in welches sich Leolo vor allem immer dann begibt, wenn er beim Schein des Lichtes aus dem halb geöffneten Kühlschrank das einzige im Haus existierende Buch in die Hand nimmt und zu lesen oder auch zu schreiben anfängt. Da ist er plötzlich in Sizilien, in Taormina, seinem Paradies, im Hintergrund der Ätna, er ruft Bianca, das Mädchen von nebenan in Montreal, welches "Il mondo mio ..." zu singen anfängt, seine Bianca, der er gern viel näher wäre und die er in der Landschaft seiner Sehnsucht nicht finden kann. Und der Bruder Fernand, der unablässig trainierende Muskelprotz, den man in der Schule, schmächtig noch, für einen Versager hielt, dem seine Muskelmassen nichts nützen, weil er Angst hat und weil er nicht gelernt hat zurückzuschlagen, ist er wirklich dieser Muskelberg, oder ist er es doch nur in der Phantasie Leolos?Den Gegenpol bildet der reale Familienalltag, in welchem der Vater, ein armer Wicht, der zwischen Knochenarbeit und Fressgier pendelt, die Parole "Gesundheit kommt vom Scheißen" ausgegeben hat. Folglich lässt er seine Familie allwöchentlich zum Verzehr eines Abführmittels antreten, die Scheiße wird zur Obsession und Quelle skurriler innerfamiliärer Verstrickungen.Am Ende muss auch Leolo vor den immer mächtiger werdenden Phantasien kapitulieren, er träumt nicht mehr, um den Preis, sich in die Reihe der übrigen Verrückten seiner Familie einreihen zu müssen, und nur der Zuschauer ahnt, dass er dennoch lebt, nun angekommen in der Realität.Der Film ist ein absolutes Meisterwerk, einerseits in seiner Struktur modern, andererseits überaus poetisch, für mich der beste Film der 90er Jahre und definitiv mein Lieblingsfilm aus dieser Zeit.Die ziemlich schlechte Qualität der DVD möchte ich an dieser Stelle nicht mit in die Bewertung einfließen lassen.

LeoloThis is a dark comedy that has much in common with the wonderful French film by Patrice LeConte entitled The Hairdresser's Husband. Certainly the two films are in the same genre. The film is a backwards and forwards look at the life of a gifted young lad named Leo, unlucky enough to be born a Silk Purse in a family of Sow's Ears, to complete the metaphor. Leo has the soul of a poet, and we hear his exquisite thoughts weaving the film together. The voice-overs are in French, of course, which makes them even more beautiful.Leo is a dreamer, and his story is about the importance of dreams, and of love. The film is full of premonitions and gives many clues about events to come. It's a journey into the agonies and longings and ordeals of coming-of-age, but it's also much more. It's at times zany, playful, tragic, poetic, pensive, and thoughtful. It's filled with contrasts: innocence and depravity, sweetness and brutality, melancholy and etheriality, images of beauty and squalor, picturesque, warm vistas of Sicily and the cold starkness of tenements in Canada, a loving family cavorting on a Sunday outing and the craziness existing within that same family, just to name a few. The wonderful sensitivity and beautiful poetic quality of this film are exquisite to savor. It is a film that takes its time to tell its story, and finding that wonderful quality in a film is a true delight. So many films made in this country and in the world are compacted into staccato images that hit one's psyche like a machine gun. This one lingers on the images it presents, and imparts its message in its own time, on its own terms, and in its own unique way.This is a film that needs to be seen more than once. It's complex and deep and wide-ranging and ambitious in scope. It's full of many-sided emotions and it's about more than just what happens in the plot. Purchase it, and savor it, and contemplate the wonderfully told story of a truly amazing life. Highly, highly recommended!!