
Acting
Denise Filiatrault
Born 1931-05-16 · Montréal, Québec, Canada
Denise Filiatrault (born May 16, 1931) is a Canadian actress and director. She attained star status on TV in the 1960s, co-starring with Dominique Michel in the Radio-Canada television series Moi et l'autre (1967–71) and in many editions of Radio-Canada's annual New Year's special, Bye Bye. She had further success in Chez Denise (1978–1982), Le 101, avenue des Pins (1984–85) and Denise... aujourd'hui (1990–91). In addition to her television career, Filiatrault also performed in films and on stage, notably in works by Michel Tremblay. She was known to perform both comic and dramatic roles, such as Gilles Carle's The Death of a Lumberjack (La Mort d'un bûcheron) in 1973, André Brassard's film version of Tremblay's Once Upon a Time in the East (Il était une fois dans l'Est) in 1974, Denys Arcand's Gina in 1975, Claude Fournier's Far from You Sweetheart (Je suis loin de toi mignonne) in 1976, Fantastica in 1980 and Carle's The Plouffe Family (Les Plouffe) in 1981, playing the tormented Cécile. Following Les Plouffe, Filiatrault took a break from film, concentrating more in writing and directing for theatre and summer comedy. Filiatrault then decided to take the leap to directing cinema by adapting Tremblay's novel C't'à ton tour, Laura Cadieux into the 1998 film It's Your Turn, Laura Cadieux, presenting the world of overweight women yearning for love and affection. Filiatrault opted for a simple yet effective style that showcased the talents of the film's strong female leads. This dramatic comedy scored such success that Filiatrault wrote and directed the 1999 sequel Laura Cadieux II (Laura Cadieux... la suite), in which she further developed the characters and their world. In 2002, she produced a new comedy fantasy, Alice's Odyssey (L'Odyssée d'Alice Tremblay), which received a lukewarm response from critics and moviegoers. In 2003, taking advantage of the success of her motion picture characters, Filiatrault produced a television miniseries for TVA, Le Petit monde de Laura Cadieux (2003), before tackling a new film Bittersweet Memories (Ma vie en cinémascope) (2004), a dramatic biography of 1930s-1950s singer Alys Robi (played by Pascale Bussières). As artistic director of the Théâtre du Rideau Vert, she and the theatre were criticized in January 2015 by a coalition of Montreal arts groups for a year-end production in which a Caucasian actor portrayed hockey player P.K. Subban in blackface. Filiatrault responded that she was "shocked, outraged, and humiliated" by the reaction, saying that she had been in show business for 60 years and was the first person to hire a black Quebecer on television.
Acting credits
7.6The story of an impossible love between a woman named Fred and a transgender woman named Laurence who reveals her inner desire to become her true self.
Laurence Anyways
2012
6.3The story of Germaine Lauzon, a housewife who wins a million stamps which, she believes, will allow her access to happiness and a new world that she has dreamed of for so long. But her joy will make some people jealous...
Sisters and Neighbors!
2024
4.0During a robbery that goes wrong, Valentin Tralande kills his accomplices and bank customers.
Effraction
1983
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Les indrogables
1972
6.4A middle-aged businessman faces bankruptcy after his partner's suicide and a rival's unscrupulous offer to buy his company. Determined to avoid the trap, he finds an unexpected solution through a prostitute.
Mado
1976
6.4Samar, a child of the war, finds relief from the chaos around her through Egyptian movies she watches on television. Karim, an artist in retreat from life, remains in his apartment in war-torn West Beirut, confident that he is safe in his familiar neighborhood. An unlikely bond is formed between the two as they face the devastating civil war.
The Razor's Edge
1985
6.1A beautiful stripper hires renowned criminals to exact revenge on those who raped her in her motel room.
Gina
1975
5.2In a little French town everything goes on as usual and people seem friendly and good-natured, until the day two women arrive from Paris. A man gets off the same bus, and that very night he seizes the two women and asks for the most beautiful woman in town as their ransom. After the initial shock, the mayor, his brother, the prefect, the police, and the gendarmerie gather around the house where the two woman are imprisoned. It will be a test for everyone and each of them will show his/her real stuff: hypocrisy, meanness, or humanity concealed under their provincial respectability.
By the Blood of Others
1974
4.1A large bed recounts stories from its brief existence. Clumsy burglars, adulterated husbands and wives, homosexuals, lesbians, a lady, and her gigolo, a doctor who tries an erotic measurement machine on his assistant.
Bedmania
1974
9.0No synopsis available yet.
Alisée
1993
6.8Simon Aubert runs his entire life on lies. An executive at an aviation company, he lies about everything… Simon’s self-serving lies are so abundant that the universe (governed by a handful of Buddhist monks, it seems) decides to right a wrong by teaching him a lesson and making all of the lies reality on the eve of his company’s crucial meeting with a Russian businessman that Simon absolutely needs to impress in order to prevent the closure of the small-town plant where his twin brother Phil works.
Compulsive Liar
2019
6.6No synopsis available yet.
Les beaux dimanches
1974
6.9The lives of the average Quebecois Plouffe family during the final years of the depression and through World War II.
The Plouffe Family
1981
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Les Tisserands du pouvoir
1988
6.0Ovide Plouffe has married Rita. She still tries to attract other men even after their marriage. Unhappy Ovide feels for Marie - a young French woman he had met. But his catholic background and surrounding can't let him love another woman or divorce from his wife. So Ovide finishes with Marie and plans a trip with Rita hoping for reconciliation. At the last instant he announces to Rita that he can't make the trip. She goes alone. The plane explodes, and Ovide is suspected and arrested for this horrible crime.
The Crime of Ovide Plouffe
1984
6.2In this French–Canadian oddity of music and drama, an actress in a traveling musical revue is involved with the show's director until she meets and falls for an aging ecological activist. He too is drawn to her, and together they try to stop a factory from being built over an old-growth forest.
Fantastica
1980
6.8At 47, Julien is an eternal misfit with no real job. But now that he has published an autobiography recounting his childhood memories, a complicated relationship with his mother and troubling family secrets, success is knocking on his door. Julien and his mother have cut ties a long time ago and she doesn't know about the book. Living a sad and miserable life in a retirement home, she renews contact with her son to make up for lost time. But is that all there is to it?
It's the Heart That Dies Last
2017
8.0No synopsis available yet.
Le p'tit vient vite
1972
10.0An Irishman falls in love in turn-of-the-century Quebec (in Canada).
The Horse Trader’s Daughter
1990
9.0No synopsis available yet.
Les Tisserands du pouvoir 2, la révolte
1988
4.5Lucie the Quebecker and Nicole the Frenchwoman with the "funny accent" are both twenty-six, single and share their Montreal apartment as they share their joys and sorrows. The first works in radio, the second in an airline company, and both have a married lover who, every Friday evening, rushes off to a home that has been forsaken for a while, saying: "Bye, see you Monday"...
Bye, See You Monday
1979
5.0In 1940, two sisters work in an ammunition factory, but dream of marriage.
Far Away From You, Darling
1976
5.3Two 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
8.030-year-old Quebec City native Gisèle lives a quiet life as a secretary without happiness with her parents and siblings. One day, tired of being teased by her office mates, she decides to consult a marriage agency to find her soul mate.
The Late Blossom
1977
Behind the camera
5.0Laura Cadieux and her friends are taking a cruise on the St. Lawrence River to celebrate Laura's 50th birthday.
Laura Cadieux II
1999
5.0Laura Cadieux and her friends are taking a cruise on the St. Lawrence River to celebrate Laura's 50th birthday.
Laura Cadieux II
1999
5.4After reading a bedtime story to her daughter, Alice Tremblay leaves her daughter's room and enters her own fairytale.
Alice's Odyssey
2002
6.41952, Québec - Alys Robi, vocalist at the top of her popularity and recognized worldwide, was interned in spite of herself, by her father. Medical authorities prescribe her the only cure for a possible cure: the lobotomy. Under the bright lights of the operating room, Alys sees her 28-year life flash before her eyes.
Bittersweet Memories
2004
6.41952, Québec - Alys Robi, vocalist at the top of her popularity and recognized worldwide, was interned in spite of herself, by her father. Medical authorities prescribe her the only cure for a possible cure: the lobotomy. Under the bright lights of the operating room, Alys sees her 28-year life flash before her eyes.
Bittersweet Memories
2004
5.0In 1940, two sisters work in an ammunition factory, but dream of marriage.
Far Away From You, Darling
1976
5.4Large women with a zest for life gather weekly at a Montreal doctor's office to receive diet injections.
It's Your Turn, Laura
1998
5.4Large women with a zest for life gather weekly at a Montreal doctor's office to receive diet injections.
It's Your Turn, Laura
1998