Film historian and filmmaker Daniel Kremer once told me that Mon Oncle Antoine” is “Canada’s Kane” (as in Citizen Kane) and I’d have to agree. It is considered one of the greatest Canadian films of all time. An absolute masterpiece.

I first saw the film in 2021 and I initially felt that it was dull. That’s until Uncle Antoine (Jean Duceppe) breaks down in front of his nephew, Benoit (Jacques Gagnon) after the dead body in a coffin that they are carrying on a sleigh falls off (Antoine is an Undertaker). Once the film ended, I wondered where this emotional breakdown came from in Antoine. I couldn’t get the film out of my mind and I realized that there was a lot going on before Antoine’s meltdown that I overlooked.

I’ve seen it three times since then and each time I see it, I pick up on so many details. The film is full of nuanced human behavior which it does with subtlety . One has to really pay attention to the way in which the characters interact in order to fully experience the richness of what is expressed. 

The movie is essentially a coming of age story from the point of view of Benoit, a teenager, who lives with his Uncle Antoine. The suggestion is that he’s an orphan, but it is never explicitly said. Antoine works in the couple’s general store with another young girl, Carmen, who we do find out is an orphan, whose father only comes to visit to take her pay cheque. 

The fact that the film takes place at Christmas is even more devastating. Carmen is left crying after her father comes, takes her money and doesn’t even wish her a Merry Christmas. Fortunately for Carmen, Antoine insists that she keep $5 of her pay, despite the fact that her father wants her entire cheque.

As much as Christmas is a time to see family, share gifts and have a wonderful time, it can also be a time of real struggle and pain for many people who may be alone or are struggling financially to scrape up enough money to buy gifts for their children. The film shows a balance of joy and tragedy during the Christmas season. We have the death of a 15 year old boy on Christmas morning, who started to feel sick on Christmas Eve, crosscutting with people having a party at Antoine and his wife’s general store. This is all done seamlessly with a rich blend of comedy and drama.

Mon oncle Antoine is full of life with various characters. But at the forefront is Benoit who begins to see his uncle and aunt in different lights, which changes his life. We all have those moments as children, or even as adults, when we begin to see our parents as humans with real life problems instead of simply our parents.

Claude Jutra, who directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay with Clement Perron (the film is based on his life) also appears in the film as Fernand, who works at the store. He has a crush on Antoine’s wife and flirts with her when Antoine isn’t around, which she clearly likes. There’s a suggestion that Antoine is suspicious of all of this, but Jutra doesn’t make it obvious. He often takes an objective approach by having all of the characters in the frame, which lets the audience see the way in which they interact and provides a way for the audience to make their own judgement calls to how the characters are behaving. 

It’s only when Antoine is around that we see things from his point of view by using a POV shot. This is beautifully done by the cinematographer, Michel Brault. Jutra shoots this scene in a documentary style and the on-location shooting, non-professional locals playing various roles (with the exception of some professional Actors) makes the film feel truly lived in.

In one scene the head of the local mine, where many people in this rural part of Quebec work, strolls through the town on his horse and buggy and throws Christmas stockings on people’s doorsteps, as if he was feeding a bunch of animals. Someone makes a comment about not getting a Christmas bonus again this year. We see the faces of everyone in the community as they look on helplessly. Antoine and his friend throw snow at the boss’s horse and as they walk through the street, feeling victorious, we cut to Benoit’s POV as he looks at the various people in town, who are not sharing in his joy of amusement at humiliating the corrupt boss of the mine. Benoit is confused by all of this. He is too young to understand that these people are clearly so sick of being taken advantage of in the mines, that even seeing their corrupt boss get humiliated isn’t going to spread much Christmas cheer.

These are the moments of social consciousness that come up from time to time during the film. The movie starts with one of the miners leaving town and his family on Christmas just to get away from a job he hates. You’d have to be pretty unhappy to leave your family during the holidays.

When the call comes in with the tragic news that a young boy has died and they need Antoine to come and get the body, Benoit wants to go along on the journey. It’s a chance to ride on the horse and buggy. Antoine enjoys having Benoit come along, but once they get to the house, Benoit is appalled by the way his Uncle Antoine is behaving in front of the mother. Antoine offers sympathy, but is very casual about it. After having done this time and time again he has become desensitized to death. Jutra cuts to Benoit’s POV of his Uncle eating dinner that the mother of the boy has made for everyone, and from Benoit’s POV Antoine is eating like a pig. This is when Benoit begins to see that his Uncle has a side to him that he doesn’t like. 

Once they get the body in the coffin and leave, the film cuts to them in the middle of their trip heading back home and Antoine is asleep. He drank too much at the house and got drunk. Another part of Antoine is being shown to Benoit, which is that his Uncle is an alcoholic. Antoine has an emotional breakdown and confesses to Benoit that he hates the country, is afraid of corpses and wanted to run a hotel in the States, but his wife didn’t want to live there, as well as not have any children with him. Benoit gets angry and calls his Uncle a drunk, which was shocking to me. Is this because his image of his nice Uncle has now been destroyed and he finds that too hard to take? It’s up to the audience to decide.

When Benoit and Antoine return home, Benoit finds his Aunt and Fernand cuddling after having sex. Not only has the image of his Uncle been destroyed, but the image of his Aunt has as well.

The film also has moments of Benoit seeing things through windows, which is an ongoing motif of Benoit observing certain realities people don’t want him to see. He looks at his Uncle through the window of his office as Antoine looks stressed, but doesn’t know why. At the end of the film, Antoine and Fernand go back to find the corpse Antoine and Benoit failed to put back in the sled after it fell. They get to the house and Benoit sees that the coffin is back inside as the entire family surrounds it. 

It’s an image of great beauty as well as tragedy. The family all together in harmony mourning the death of a loved one. Benoit has learned that life is more complex than he thought, but at least he has his family, which may not be perfect, but what is?