Léa Pool

Directing

Léa Pool

Born

1950-09-08 (76)

Place of birth

Geneva, Switzerland

Known for

Directing

Credits

37 titles

Léa Pool C.M. (born September 8, 1950) is a Canadian and Swiss filmmaker. She has directed several documentaries and feature films, many of which have won significant awards including the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, and she was the first woman to win the prize for Best Film at the Quebec Cinema Awards. Pool's films often opposed stereotypes and refused to focus on heterosexual relations, preferring individuality. She also taught film at Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM).

Known for

Lost and Delirious poster
6.8

After starting at an upmarket boarding school, a teenage girl forms close friendships with her two older roommates. However, when she discovers that her new friends are lovers she finds herself caught in a complicated situation.

Lost and Delirious

2001

We'll Find Happiness poster
6.7

Saad, a young Moroccan illegal immigrant, is planning a perilous journey to Canada with Reza, his Iranian lover. In Montreal, Saad is called upon to save his beloved from certain deportation to Iran, where inevitable punishment awaits.

We'll Find Happiness

2025

Dans un cinéma près de chez vous poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Dans un cinéma près de chez vous

2024

The Passion of Augustine poster
6.9

The nuns of a musical convent work hard in order to prevent the religious school from closing.

The Passion of Augustine

2015

Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's poster
6.4

in the summer of 1966, in Beloeil, Québec, where a young girl named Élise is enjoying summer vacation. Summer 1966. It's time to enjoy the summer holiday, total freedom. Suddenly her mother leaves her family to pursue her journalism career in London. Her urge to leave is triggered when she coincidentally listens in on a conversation between her husband and his male lover. Her brother Coco seeks solace in the garage, building a super racing car. Her youngest brother Benoît throws himself into his own inner world. The father seems absolutely knocked out by the situation. Élise decides to take control of her family, in an eloquent attempt to save them. With the assistance of flourishing nature around her, she stands on the threshold of an incomparable summer.

Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's

2008

Desire in Motion poster
4.7

During the long train ride from Montreal to Vancouver, a man and woman find themselves increasingly attracted to each other.

Desire in Motion

1994

Film credits

2000s · 2 titles

Series credits

Behind the camera

Lost and Delirious poster
6.8

After starting at an upmarket boarding school, a teenage girl forms close friendships with her two older roommates. However, when she discovers that her new friends are lovers she finds herself caught in a complicated situation.

Lost and Delirious

2001

We'll Find Happiness poster
6.7

Saad, a young Moroccan illegal immigrant, is planning a perilous journey to Canada with Reza, his Iranian lover. In Montreal, Saad is called upon to save his beloved from certain deportation to Iran, where inevitable punishment awaits.

We'll Find Happiness

2025

The Passion of Augustine poster
6.9

The nuns of a musical convent work hard in order to prevent the religious school from closing.

The Passion of Augustine

2015

The Passion of Augustine poster
6.9

The nuns of a musical convent work hard in order to prevent the religious school from closing.

The Passion of Augustine

2015

Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's poster
6.4

in the summer of 1966, in Beloeil, Québec, where a young girl named Élise is enjoying summer vacation. Summer 1966. It's time to enjoy the summer holiday, total freedom. Suddenly her mother leaves her family to pursue her journalism career in London. Her urge to leave is triggered when she coincidentally listens in on a conversation between her husband and his male lover. Her brother Coco seeks solace in the garage, building a super racing car. Her youngest brother Benoît throws himself into his own inner world. The father seems absolutely knocked out by the situation. Élise decides to take control of her family, in an eloquent attempt to save them. With the assistance of flourishing nature around her, she stands on the threshold of an incomparable summer.

Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's

2008

Desire in Motion poster
4.7

During the long train ride from Montreal to Vancouver, a man and woman find themselves increasingly attracted to each other.

Desire in Motion

1994

Desire in Motion poster
4.7

During the long train ride from Montreal to Vancouver, a man and woman find themselves increasingly attracted to each other.

Desire in Motion

1994

The Blue Butterfly poster
7.1

Based on a true story, The Blue Butterfly tells the story of a terminally ill 10-year-old boy whose dream is to catch the most beautiful butterfly on Earth, the mythic and elusive Blue Morpho. His mother persuades a renowned entomologist to take them on a trip to the jungle to search for the butterfly, leading to an adventure that will transform their lives

The Blue Butterfly

2004

Hôtel Silence poster
7.0

Jean, in his fifties, has lost his lust for life. He leaves Canada for a faraway country, somewhere in Europe. A beautiful place to end his days, he thought. But that was without counting on the formidable resilience of the inhabitants and residents of the Hotel Silence.

Hôtel Silence

2024

Hôtel Silence poster
7.0

Jean, in his fifties, has lost his lust for life. He leaves Canada for a faraway country, somewhere in Europe. A beautiful place to end his days, he thought. But that was without counting on the formidable resilience of the inhabitants and residents of the Hotel Silence.

Hôtel Silence

2024

Worst Case, We Get Married poster
6.3

Aïcha is a troubled teenage girl who cannot forgive her mother for kicking out the stepfather she adored. Aïcha longs for him to come back and take her away. When she meets Baz, a man twice her age, it’s love at first sight for her; the real kind, the one that hurts. Baz wants to help this lost little girl, but she wants much more from him, and is ready to do anything to get it.

Worst Case, We Get Married

2017

Worst Case, We Get Married poster
6.3

Aïcha is a troubled teenage girl who cannot forgive her mother for kicking out the stepfather she adored. Aïcha longs for him to come back and take her away. When she meets Baz, a man twice her age, it’s love at first sight for her; the real kind, the one that hurts. Baz wants to help this lost little girl, but she wants much more from him, and is ready to do anything to get it.

Worst Case, We Get Married

2017

Set Me Free poster
5.7

A coming-of-age tale centered on Hannah, a young girl who is living a troubled family life. Set in 1963, Hannah develops a fascination with Jean-Luc Godard's then-recent film "Vivre sa vie". As she begins to model herself after the film's lead role, Hannah slowly begins to explore the confusing nature of her sexuality.

Set Me Free

1999

Set Me Free poster
5.7

A coming-of-age tale centered on Hannah, a young girl who is living a troubled family life. Set in 1963, Hannah develops a fascination with Jean-Luc Godard's then-recent film "Vivre sa vie". As she begins to model herself after the film's lead role, Hannah slowly begins to explore the confusing nature of her sexuality.

Set Me Free

1999

Montreal Stories poster
5.0

Six stories about Montreal. 1: A young housewife from Toronto samples the nightlife using basic French. 2: The tale of a painting of Montreal's first mayor, Jacques Viger. 3: During a hockey game, Madeleine tries to tell Roger she wants a divorce after forty years of marriage. 4: A visitor to a conference on pictographs arrives at the airport, where the female customs officer steals a momento from each person. 5: As she is being driven to the hospital in an ambulance after an auto accident, Sarah recalls her life. 6: At a diplomatic reception, an older woman reminisces about her grand love in Montreal.

Montreal Stories

1991

Montreal Stories poster
5.0

Six stories about Montreal. 1: A young housewife from Toronto samples the nightlife using basic French. 2: The tale of a painting of Montreal's first mayor, Jacques Viger. 3: During a hockey game, Madeleine tries to tell Roger she wants a divorce after forty years of marriage. 4: A visitor to a conference on pictographs arrives at the airport, where the female customs officer steals a momento from each person. 5: As she is being driven to the hospital in an ambulance after an auto accident, Sarah recalls her life. 6: At a diplomatic reception, an older woman reminisces about her grand love in Montreal.

Montreal Stories

1991

A Woman in Transit poster
5.8

Even though the protagonist of the Canadian Femme De L'Hotel is a female filmmaker, one would think twice before suggesting that this effort by Swiss-born director Lea Pool is autobiographical. Paule Baillargeon portrays a well-known director who returns to her home town of Montreal to film a high-budget musical drama. At her hotel, Paule has a brief but unsettling encounter with a suicidal elderly woman (Louise Marleau). This element of the plot is briefly forgotten as we get to know the actors in Paule's current project. Then she meets the old lady again, and with mounting incredulity Paule discovers that the actual events in the woman's life mirror the fictional events in the director's film.

A Woman in Transit

1984

A Woman in Transit poster
5.8

Even though the protagonist of the Canadian Femme De L'Hotel is a female filmmaker, one would think twice before suggesting that this effort by Swiss-born director Lea Pool is autobiographical. Paule Baillargeon portrays a well-known director who returns to her home town of Montreal to film a high-budget musical drama. At her hotel, Paule has a brief but unsettling encounter with a suicidal elderly woman (Louise Marleau). This element of the plot is briefly forgotten as we get to know the actors in Paule's current project. Then she meets the old lady again, and with mounting incredulity Paule discovers that the actual events in the woman's life mirror the fictional events in the director's film.

A Woman in Transit

1984

Anne Trister poster
5.2

After the death of her father, Anne — a brilliant but emotionally unstable painter/sculptor — returns from Switzerland to her home town in Quebec. Setting up a studio, she becomes obsessed with her work, to the extent that she grows farther and farther from her Swiss lover.

Anne Trister

1986

Anne Trister poster
5.2

After the death of her father, Anne — a brilliant but emotionally unstable painter/sculptor — returns from Switzerland to her home town in Quebec. Setting up a studio, she becomes obsessed with her work, to the extent that she grows farther and farther from her Swiss lover.

Anne Trister

1986

Rispondetemi poster
4.5

As the paramedics pry her hand apart from her dead lover's grip a woman's life flashes before her eyes. Racing to the hospital the stunning skies and rooftops of Montreal from the back of the ambulance are inter-cut with the most exquisitely cinematic memories.

Rispondetemi

1992

Rispondetemi poster
4.5

As the paramedics pry her hand apart from her dead lover's grip a woman's life flashes before her eyes. Racing to the hospital the stunning skies and rooftops of Montreal from the back of the ambulance are inter-cut with the most exquisitely cinematic memories.

Rispondetemi

1992

Straight for the Heart poster
4.7

Pierre is a Montreal photojournalist who returns from Nicaragua to find that his ten-year menage a trois is over. Haunted by his mid-life crisis, he becomes obsessed with trying to find out why his two lovers, Sarah and David, have left him.

Straight for the Heart

1988

Straight for the Heart poster
4.7

Pierre is a Montreal photojournalist who returns from Nicaragua to find that his ten-year menage a trois is over. Haunted by his mid-life crisis, he becomes obsessed with trying to find out why his two lovers, Sarah and David, have left him.

Straight for the Heart

1988

The Savage Woman poster
6.0

Marianne, a young Canadian nurse living as an expatriate in Switzerland, is traumatized by a violent incident and becomes lost in the Alps. In time, a Swiss engineer working in the mountains discovers her; he gives her a place to stay and slowly gains her trust as she regains her health. However, he soon discovers she's wanted by the law, and circumstances become difficult for him as he tries to hide her from the authorities.

The Savage Woman

1991

The Last Escape poster
6.6

Christmas approaches and the Lévesque family has once again gathered for their traditional celebration. But this time there is a mixture of emotions running through each person. The patriarch of the family suffers from a combination of Parkinson’s Disease and heart failure. His life reduced in every way, the end approaches and there are unhappy memories of his once violent and authoritarian past. But his wife, ten children and many grandchildren try to maintain a semblance of the Christmas season.

The Last Escape

2010

The Last Escape poster
6.6

Christmas approaches and the Lévesque family has once again gathered for their traditional celebration. But this time there is a mixture of emotions running through each person. The patriarch of the family suffers from a combination of Parkinson’s Disease and heart failure. His life reduced in every way, the end approaches and there are unhappy memories of his once violent and authoritarian past. But his wife, ten children and many grandchildren try to maintain a semblance of the Christmas season.

The Last Escape

2010

Pink Ribbons, Inc. poster
6.6

Breast cancer has become the poster child of corporate cause-related marketing campaigns. Countless women and men walk, bike, climb and shop for the cure. Each year, millions of dollars are raised in the name of breast cancer, but where does this money go and what does it actually achieve? Pink Ribbons, Inc. is a feature documentary that shows how the devastating reality of breast cancer, which marketing experts have labeled a "dream cause," becomes obfuscated by a shiny, pink story of success.

Pink Ribbons, Inc.

2011

Hotel Chronicles poster
8.0

A woman travels across the United States, confronting memory while observing American culture through its hotels and motels.

Hotel Chronicles

1990

Double Sentence poster
NR

Most women in prison are mothers. When a mother is imprisoned, her newborn or her young child can remain with her in prison or they can be separated and taken in by a family member or by the State. These situations aren't without risk for the child. The film takes the child's point of view and its goal is to cast a light on them: too often they are forgotten, invisible and bare scars for their entire life. The filmmaker follows the daily lives of some of these kids in Bolivia, Nepal, New York and Montreal.

Double Sentence

2017

Strass Café poster
NR

Cinematographic poem. On grey images, in familiar yet unknown streets, Strass Café tells the story of the hopes and disappointments of a woman who speaks to herself, who also speaks to us. Another woman is mute, is she alone? Is she the same one? Maybe. And then there is a man who appears here and there. Is it her man? One night, in a deserted bar, a couple is slow dancing. But despite their proximity of circumstances, they never meet.

Strass Café

1980

Gabrielle Roy poster
9.0

Gabrielle's universe, one of Canada's most important French-language writers.

Gabrielle Roy

1998

Gabrielle Roy poster
9.0

Gabrielle's universe, one of Canada's most important French-language writers.

Gabrielle Roy

1998