Laurent Vaillancourt

Created by Joanne Arseneau

Okay, so he's not really a P.I., but I'm gonna press the home rink advantage for this Montreal cop conducting his own little private investigation, and that's all there is to it!

In the 1999 Québecois thriller Le Dernier souffle (Dead End in English), Montreal Urban Community homicide squad member LAURENT VAILLANCOURT is going through a pretty rough spot in his life. His wife has left him, and he finds he has little in common with his father, an ex-militant from the FLQ, or his brother Martin, a white supremist.

But when Martin is murdered, Laurent decides to take the law into his own hands, make like a P.I., and conduct his own private investigation. The trail soon leads him to Nazareth, Arkansas, where he soon finds himself against assorted skinheads, the Russian mafia, and militia groups.

Overly complicated, but still a solid and entertaining film, generally very well-received in Canada, with some unexpectedly nasty moments, some relentless pacing and a genuinely creepy soundtrack.

FILM

• LE DERNIER SOUFFLE...Buy the DVD
  (aka "Dead End")
  (1999)
  In French
  Screenplay by Joanne Arseneau
  Directed by Richard Ciupka
  Produced by Jacques Bonin, Claude Veillet, Lucie Veillet
  Executive producer: Sylvie Roy
  Starring Luc Picard as LAURENT VAILLANCOURT
  Also starring Julien Poulin, Serge Houde, Michel Goyette, Linda Singer, Lorne Brass

RELATED LINKS

• C'est ma ville, aussi...

A listing of Montréal eyes.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith (original report, October 1999).