Jean-Philippe Duval

(On TV, December 2020) If there’s one folk tale that exemplifies historic French-Canadian culture, it’s la Chasse-Galerie. A story of lumberjacks making a deal with the devil to fly home in a canoe to see their family (and getting away with it), it blends Québec’s image of itself as a country of hard workers, vast natural expanses, innate bon vivants, fealty to religious icons and yet having the wily cleverness to beat the devil at his own deal. (At least in the versions of the tale I like best.) It’s one part of French-Canadian culture that I enthusiastically claim as part of my cultural heritage, and it brings me great joy to see it on the big screen as Chasse-Galerie, a big-budget film with a lavish recreation of historial period and the special-effect budget to do justice to the tale. Now, of course, this is not the canonical tale – such a film would be over in about fifteen minutes. No, this one fleshes out the legend by adding characters, motivations, backstory, specific motivations and everything else – including a generation-before prologue to further shore up the film’s distinct take. Is all of this necessary? Absolutely not, especially when it makes the film reach an unnecessary 106 minutes. But if you see it as a variation on the tale, executed to today’s specific tastes, then the film does become better. Still, it misses some of its marks by being too formal: with so much emphasis placed on characters, we get away from the myth itself. Director Jean-Philippe Duval does manage to find a few good moments, especially when the canoe takes flight and the fantasy aspects finally take their places. Perhaps this means that we’ll get another version of the tale in a generation, and I’m all for it. Until then, this Chasse-Galerie is perfectly serviceable, even when it meanders. Also: Having the Devil speak with an English accent may not be nice… but it is hilarious.