Here and Now (1970 film)

Here and Now
Poster for the 1970 theatrical release
FrenchL'Initiation
Directed byDenis Héroux
Written byYves Thériault
Produced byJohn Dunning
StarringDanielle Ouimet
Chantal Renaud
Celine Lomez
Louise Turcot
Jacques Riberolles
Gilles Chartrand
CinematographyRené Verzier
Edited byFilm House, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Music byFrançois Cousineau
Production
company
Distributed byCIC/CFP
Release date
  • 29 January 1970 (1970-01-29)
Running time
93 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench
Budget$200,000
Box office$2.5 million

Here and Now (French: L'Initiation) is a 1970 French-Canadian film directed by Denis Héroux. The film is seen as a sequel to Valérie also directed by Héroux. The film has been called maple syrup porn.[1] L’Initiation grossed more money than its predecessor, making it one of the highest-grossing Canadian films at the domestic box office.

Plot

Victoire (Renaud), A University of Montreal student, has an affair with a famous French author and professor Gervais Messiandre (Riberolles) after being disappointed with her first sexual experience with her boyfriend, Pierre (Chartrand). While Victoire is having the affair with Gervais, Pierre is seeing Victoire's friend and roommate Nadine (Ouimet). Victorie and Gervais spend a couple of nights together in a hotel in Montreal but return to their lives shortly after.

Production

Here and Now started filming in September 1969, and ended on October 18, with a budget of $200,000 (equivalent to $1,594,924 in 2023).[2]

Release

The film was released in Montreal on 29 January 1970, and grossed $2.5 million (equivalent to $19,347,291 in 2023).[3][4] The film grossed $1,883,000 in Canada making it the second-highest-grossing film of all time in Canada, behind Claude Fournier's Deux femmes en or, also released in 1970, which grossed $2.5 million.[5]

The film was entered in competition at the 22nd Canadian Film Awards in 1970,[6] although Cinepix Film Properties, the film's studio, subsequently withdrew it and Love in a Four Letter World from the competition after an article in Time implied that the Canadian Film Award jury was unsympathetic to the films' sexual content.[7]

References

  1. ^ "Maple Syrup Porn: The Secret History of Quebec Popular Cinema". Canuxploitation,com. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  2. ^ Turner 1987, p. 91.
  3. ^ Turner 1987, p. 77.
  4. ^ Melnyk 2004, p. 137.
  5. ^ "Canadian Films Grosses". Variety. November 24, 1976. p. 32.
  6. ^ Betty Lee, "Fourteen films in the running for Etrog's golden approval". The Globe and Mail, September 19, 1970.
  7. ^ "Two movies formally withdrawn". Edmonton Journal, September 29, 1970.

Works cited