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Un succès commercial ou Q-bec My Love ou Struggle for Love


Year: 1969
Language: French
Format: 35mm Black & White
Runtime: 77 min
Director: Jean Lefebvre
Producer: Marguerite Duparc
Executive Producer: Laurence Paré
Writer: Jean Lefebvre
Cinematographer: Thomas Vamos
Editor: Marguerite Duparc
Sound: Claude Hazanavicius
Music: Andrée Paul
Cast: Larry Kent, Raoul Duguay, Denis Payne, Anne Lauriault, Jean-Pierre Cartier, Judith Paré, André Caron
Production Company: Cinak Compagnie Cinématographique Ltée.

Un succPs commercial tells the allegorical tale of a woman named Q-Bec (Anne Lauriault). It focuses on the intricate dynamics of the different relationships she has with the men in her life, including her husband, Jean-Baptiste Bilingue (Jean-Pierre Cartier), her lover, Sam Washington (Larry Kent), and her boss, Peter Ottawa (Dennis Payne).

Shot in only two-and-a-half days at a cost of $25,000, Un succPs commercial was a rather surprising commercial success given its structural complexity and deliberately crude execution. It is a challenging exploration of the appeal of sexually titillating films (principally the "maple syrup porno" films popular in Quebec at the time) and the relationship between pornography and violence. The spelling of its title, Q-Bec, represents the two sexual obsessions that Lefebvre felt existed in Québécois culture: the ass (cul) and the mouth (bec). Lefebvre presents a profound analysis of pornography by examining the nature of cinematic imagery and the social roots of the voyeuristic tendencies of audiences.

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