Monique Mercure

Acting

Monique Mercure

Born — Died

1930-11-14 — 2020-05-17

Place of birth

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Known for

Acting

Credits

59 titles

Monique Mercure, née Émond, was born 14 November 1930 in Montreal, Qc and died 16 May 2020 in Outremont, Qc. The career of this distinguished actress, among the most visible on Quebec and Canadian stages and screens, has broad international appeal. Performing some one hundred major theatre roles in French and English, her spirit, intensity and hearty laugh made a mark on several television series and award-winning films.

Known for

Film credits

2010s · 3 titles

2000s · 5 titles

1990s · 10 titles

Naked Lunch poster
7.0

Blank-faced bug killer Bill Lee and his dead-eyed wife, Joan, like to get high on Bill's pest poisons while lounging with Beat poet pals. After meeting the devilish Dr. Benway, Bill gets a drug made from a centipede. Upon indulging, he accidentally kills Joan, takes orders from his typewriter-turned-cockroach, ends up in a constantly mutating Mediterranean city and learns that his hip friends have published his work -- which he doesn't remember writing.

Naked Lunch

1991

The Red Violin poster
7.3

300 years of a remarkable musical instrument. Crafted by the Italian master Bussotti (Cecchi) in 1681, the red violin has traveled through Austria, England, China, and Canada, leaving both beauty and tragedy in its wake. In Montreal, Samuel L Jackson plays an appraiser going over its complex history.

The Red Violin

1998

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

Whiskers poster
5.6

A friendless youngster (Michael Caloz) asks a cat goddess to help his feline friend.

Whiskers

1997

La fête des rois poster
10.0

Benjamin, a 10 year-old boy, lives with his mother Charlotte since his dad, Christophe, left. Charlotte is expecting a child from Henri, but is hesitant to tell her son, whom doesn't know about his soon-to-be stepfather. The day of the Epiphany, Benjamin accepts to go help his grandmother Flore prepare the house for the holiday, since the family celebrates Christmas on January 6th also. The boy has prepared a nice gift for his young cousin Simon, suffering from an odd congenital disease. The night of the party, many surprises await the attendees.

La fête des rois

1994

Conquest poster
10.0

British-Canadian light romantic comedy film set in a dying Saskatchewan town. Bank branch manager, Pincer Bedier, dreams of reviving the town when one day a beautiful young woman's car breaks down and she becomes stranded until it can be repaired. She is convinced by the banker to take on the duties at the local hardware store to pay for the parts for her car and soon a romance between the two develops.

Conquest

1998

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

Heritage Minutes: Pauline Vanier poster
NR

One of Canada's most remarkable families works tirelessly to aid displaced persons and refugees during the Second World War.

Heritage Minutes: Pauline Vanier

1995

When Justice Fails poster
5.1

A detective (Jeff Fahey) investigating the murders of two sex offenders gets involved with a beautiful district attorney (Marlee Matlin) who becomes a main suspect.

When Justice Fails

1999

No artwork available
7.0

No synopsis available yet.

La fenêtre

1992

1980s · 10 titles

The Blood of Others poster
5.2

In the German-occupied Paris, Helene is torn between the love for her boyfriend Jean, working for the resistance and the German administrator Bergmann, who will do anything to gain her affection.

The Blood of Others

1984

The Emperor of Peru poster
3.9

Toby and his sister Liz live with their aunt and uncle, who take in Cambodian orphan Hoang while he awaits foster placement. The trio become fast friends, and, as they explore a nearby wood, encounter a retired engineer living in an abandoned freight car. Playing off Toby's already active imagination, the kids and the engineer use the train car to make a fantastic journey to Cambodia.

The Emperor of Peru

1982

Dans le ventre du dragon poster
7.0

The title of this French-Canadian film translates to In the Belly of the Dragon, but don't assume that it's just another kung fu epic. Rather, the film is a likeable mixture of science fiction and humor, centered around the money-making schemes of star David La Haye. Unable to make ends meet with his minimum-wage job, La Haye hires himself out as a guinea pig to genially loopy scientist Marie Tifo. It is the doctor's contention that a person's intelligence can be artificially increased. La Haye proves her right...up to a point, that is. Extremely popular in Canada, Dans le Ventre du Dragon has yet to receive proper distribution in the States.

Dans le ventre du dragon

1989

A Question of Loving poster
4.5

A drama of manners, spiced by light moments, describing the "love stories" of a mother and her daughter. The two women spend a summer together. Madeline, the mother, a professional, independent woman, begins a romantic relationship with an engineer after ending a previous relation. For her part, Renée, her 20-year old daughter, tries to see her father again and dreams of stable love.

A Question of Loving

1986

Les années de rêves poster
10.0

Continuing a saga that began with his previous, 1978 film, Vautours director Jean-Claude Labrecque returns with the French Canadian, Louis Pelletier and puts him in the context of the growing separatist movement in the late 1960s in Quebec. At that time, supporters of an independent Quebec began to consolidate their power under the Parti Québecois -- and the story of Louis and his wife Claudette are meant to illustrate this watershed in Quebec's history. As the film begins, Claudette and Louis are about to get married -- and their wedding day significantly coincides with preparations for the visit of Queen Elizabeth II. Years later, they are well-established in Montreal and are enjoying visits from their family -- and then their lives start to deteriorate. Louis is suddenly out of work, and as he faces the difficulties of finding another job -- and of living precariously -- he becomes more radical, less accepting of the status quo.

Les années de rêves

1984

The Lady of Colours poster
6.2

In Quebec 40s, orphans or abandoned children are placed in a gigantic psychiatric hospital where children were locked. Were they sick? No, they simply had no family. To escape this oppressive universe, they created a parallel world: the institution's basement where, in a maze of tunnels, they founded an independent company, with its rituals, spells. A young girl, Agnes, reigns over this underground world that adults seem to tolerate.

The Lady of Colours

1985

Tramp at the Door poster
9.0

A charming stranger changes a farm family in 1936 Manitoba after showing up, claiming to be a relative.

Tramp at the Door

1985

The Forties poster
7.5

A group of friends reunite after thirty years of separation.

The Forties

1982

The Red Kitchen poster
4.8

On a wedding day, women are confined to the kitchen to prepare the meal while the men wait to be served. While men talk politics and sports, women talk about their condition. A teenager observes the gap between the sexes. Co-directed by two actresses, Paule Baillargeon and Frederique Collin, The Red Kitchen is the birth of the Quebec women's cinema. The birth of the film was difficult, and funding has been largely achieved through donations from friends and a benefit concert. This war of the sexes takes place in a demanding formal research, based on the improvisation of the actors, whose preparation took place over long sessions in the workshop. The end result mixes black humour, horror and a very expressive fantasy that gave rise to heated debates.

The Red Kitchen

1980

Contrecoeur poster
6.0

Contrecoeur is a film using fantastic realism to talk about psychology, drift and love. Three characters must define themselves in an enclosed space, a truck trapped in a snowstorm, and dream of somewhere else to find each other.

Contrecoeur

1983

1970s · 20 titles

Quintet poster
4.9

During a future ice age, dying humanity occupies its remaining time by playing a board game called Quintet. For one small group, this obsession is not enough. They play the game with living pieces, and only the winner survives.

Quintet

1979

Stone Cold Dead poster
5.9

Sergeant Boyd's police search to find a sniper who has been shooting hookers.

Stone Cold Dead

1979

The Song of Roland poster
5.5

Roland des Roncesvalles is a legendary knight from the age of chivalry in France. In the 11th-century epic La Chanson de Roland, he is depicted as a key figure in halting the advance of the Arabs into France. In this story, the 10th-century legend is staged by a group of 12th-century pilgrims using the 11th-century poem. Their acting is interrupted by a violent peasant uprising, which kills many of the pilgrims. However, one of the survivors, is converted to the peasant cause and later speaks out in favor of more just treatment for the downtrodden.

The Song of Roland

1978

Two Women In Gold poster
4.2

Two bored Montreal housewives (Monique Mercure & Louise Turcot), with inattentive husbands (Marcel Sabourin & Donald Pilon), and lots of time on their hands, amuse themselves by paying the local tradesmen something extra to give them amorous attention. Their entertainment leads to frantic confusion, however, when one of the visiting gentlemen - shall we say - 'expires'. The housewives deal with their unpleasant situation quite energetically.

Two Women In Gold

1970

Mon oncle Antoine poster
6.9

Set in cold rural Quebec at Christmas time, we follow the coming of age of a young boy and the life of his family which owns the town's general store and undertaking business.

Mon oncle Antoine

1971

Finalement... poster
9.0

A young snack-bar waitress is propelled to supermodel status after meeting a photographer for a French fashion magazine.

Finalement...

1971

Québec fête juin '75 poster
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Québec fête juin '75

1976

J.A. Martin Photographer poster
6.6

At the turn of the century, Rose-Aimée, the hard working wife of photographer J.A. Martin, decides to leave her children with an aunt to go with him on his annual tour of the Québec countryside. She hopes the intimacy will rekindle their marriage.

J.A. Martin Photographer

1977

Once Upon a Time in the East poster
5.3

Two women and a transvestite gay man cross paths in this French Canadian drama. The transvestite is preparing for a drag-queen beauty pageant, and has decided to present himself as Cleopatra. Of the two women, one was just fired from her waitressing job and seeks to go back to work at the nightclub where the beauty pageant is to be held. The other woman's mother has just won one million food stamps.

Once Upon a Time in the East

1974

Les vautours poster
7.0

Although he is something of a layabout, and is still living with his mother, her death comes as something of a shock to Louis Pelletier (Gilbert Sicotte). Still, he has hopes of some sort of legacy and believes that his relatives will help him find a job. All his hopes are dashed when, before the funeral, his three aunts come to Quebec City to settle their sister's estate. As grasping and efficient a crew as ever strode a parlor, by the time they leave, the estate has been cleaned to the bones, as if by vultures.

Les vautours

1975

Talk About Love poster
9.0

A television host tries to react to the process of alienation that the public is subjected to from variety shows.

Talk About Love

1976

No artwork available
6.5

Short film about the underground part, both geographical and social, of the city of Montreal, through the obsession of a business magnate for a young woman.

Marie-Christine

1970

For Better or For Worse poster
6.2

An acerbic and surreal comedy about marriage and married life.

For Better or For Worse

1975

No artwork available
8.0

A lonely divorced woman spends her evening in her apartment listening to a phone-in radio show. As she listens to strangers talk candidly about their personal problems, she has to come to terms with her own.

L'amour blessé

1975

Backyard Theatre poster
7.0

Backyard Theatre is a documentary about playwright Michel Tremblay and director André Brassard’s flavourful brand of Quebec theatre, which captured the earthy wit and joual (slang) of Montreal's East End working-class neighbourhood. The film features impromptu improvisation by the cast of Les belles-soeurs and Demain matin, Montréal m'attend, two genre-defining plays.

Backyard Theatre

1973

The Time of the Hunt poster
6.2

A young boy learns the rituals of what his father and his friends perceive as manhood on a weekend hunting trip.

The Time of the Hunt

1972

L'absence poster
9.0

Louise is a professional photographer and very successful in her job. But her father who had disappeared for many years resurfaced. He is very sick and would like to see his three daughters again. At the request of her father, Louise hesitates and then slips away. The reappearance of his father poses problems even in her life as a couple.

L'absence

1976

Françoise Durocher, waitress poster
6.3

Fictional character played by 24 different actresses, Françoise Durocher is altogether small time waitress, hostess and barmaid. Together, according to the author, they represent the archetypical Québec waitress that everyday waits on us with a smile, despite whatever problems she faces in her personal life. First cinematographic experience of the Brassard-Tremblay tandem, this film full of ironic joy details all the nuances of the waitress living conditions.

Françoise Durocher, waitress

1972

No artwork available
4.5

Twins Etienne and Andrew are separated at birth--an error that years later will wrench apart two loving families.

The Third Walker

1978

No artwork available
3.7

A family have become disillusioned with one another. The father has an affair and is caught by his daughter, who has already hooked up with the free-love hippies who live next door. When her mother realizes, she too travels next door.

Love in a 4 Letter World

1970

1960s · 5 titles

Series credits