La Florida
Year: 1993
Language: French
Format: 35mm Colour
Runtime: 111 min
Director:
George Mihalka
Producer:
Pierre Sarrazin,
Claude Bonin
Executive Producer:
Claude Bonin,
Jacques Bonin,
Pierre Sarrazin,
Suzette Couture
Writer:
Pierre Sarrazin,
Suzette Couture
Cinematographer:
René Ohashi
Editor:
François Guill,
Yves Chaput
Sound:
Douglas Ganton,
Jane Tattersall
Music:
Milan Kymlicka
Cast:
Marie-Josée Croze,
Rémy Girard,
Margot Kidder,
Pauline Lapointe,
Guillaume Lemay-Thivièrge,
Raymond Bouchard,
Michael Sarrazin
Production Company:
Pierre Sarrazin Productions,
Les Films Vision 4
Léo Lespérance (Rémy Girard), a retired bus driver, moves his family to Hollywood Beach, Florida, where he sinks his life savings into a ramshackle twelve-room motel. Things seem to go well at first. But Léo soon begins to experience problems with his teenage daughter Carmen (Marie-Josée Croze), his son Cyrille (Guillaume Lemay-ThiviPrge) and, most of all, with his wife Ginette (Pauline Lapointe), who has developed a romantic attachment to a has-been lounge singer named Romeo Laflamme (Michael Sarrazin). All the while, Léo must fend off the machinations of a determined local land developer (Margot Kidder) who has set her sights on Léo’s property. However, after several bad turns, things eventually work out for la famille.
La Florida is a somewhat simplistic comedy that blends the American Dream (financial independence) with the Québécois dream (a life of sunny luxury in Florida). The film was very popular in Quebec; the opening sequence, which shows the family packing up to leave during a Montreal blizzard, has a special resonance in Canadian cinema. La Florida failed to take home any Genie Awards, despite eight nominations, but won the Golden Reel Award for highest box-office gross.