Bittersweet Memories (film)

Bittersweet Memories (French: Ma vie en cinémascope; lit. My Life in Cinemascope) is a Quebec, Canada film released in 2004. This biographical drama depicted the career of Quebec singer Alys Robi, as portrayed by Pascale Bussières. The film makes use of flashback sequences in order to connect her childhood, adolescence and adulthood to her later emotional crisis.

Bittersweet Memories
FrenchMa vie en cinémascope
Directed byDenise Filiatrault
Written byDenise Filiatrault
Produced byDaniel Louis
Denise Robert
StarringPascale Bussières
Michel Barrette
CinematographyPierre Mignot
Edited byYvann Thibaudeau
Music byJean Robitaille
Jean-Sébastien Robitaille
Paul Bisson
Distributed byAlliance Atlantis Vivafilm
Release date
  • December 2004 (2004-12)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

Plot

Alice, later Alys, is a teenager who wants to go to Montreal to have a career as a singer. She receives an offer to join Jean Grimaldi's comedy show, and begins an affair with his married son Olivier, despite her Catholic upbringing.

Canada joins the Allies in the Second World War, with protests in Quebec against conscription. Alys begins touring Quebec's military bases, giving her a successful career as a pin-up girl. She eventually meets Lucio Agostini, a composer and married man, who gets her a job with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She wants him to marry her, which her refuses, which triggers her descent into addiction and depression.

Her condition worsens when her little brother Gerard is diagnosed with spina bifida, a birth defect that will later take his life. She is eventually diagnosed with hebephrenia, a form of schizophrenia. She spends five and a half years in an asylum, receiving multiple electroshock therapies and a lobotomy. The treatment is successful, and she returns to her career.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.