Lilies (1996)

Truly Dreadful Film

Thanks for the memories!

People are voting emotionally.

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

This film exceeds expectations on so many levels. The acting was a little stiff to start with but as you proceed into the film you pay less and less attention to it and begin to become enfolded in a different world. The fact that the other parts are all played by men seems to enhance the film once you've got over the initial shock of seeing them. I think both of the two leads (Young Simon and Vallier) played their parts admirably and deserve to go on to greater things.The screen play was fantastic for me but I would like to read the book to see what I missed out on. I think that I agree with another poster in that the biggest disappointment for me was that the older Simon looked and sounded nothing like the younger version which was a shame. The Bishop Bilodeau was very believable and the supporting role of the Countess De Tilly where both played with eloquence and style. The music that accompanies the film enhances the experience, particularly towards the end of the film. But for me, the one thing that stood out above all of these was a one line sentence spoken my Simon as he holds Vallier in his arms after the death of the Countess De Tilly. He whispers "I got you" That was all but with the music of the Hillard Ensemble behind it, it proved to be the most simple and most powerfully moving line I think I've ever heard. It still brings me to tears even now and I will always remember it.I love this film and I think its one that my family should watch for its uniqueness and moving portrayals.Thank you to everyone involved. You did a stunning job.

This is the sort of pretentious crap that has killed art-house cinema. The fact that the players speak English makes it more criminal to hear dialogue that appears to have been written in French and then sloppily translated. The actors speak like they are reading bad subtitles and are therefore forced to speak some very idiotic sentences indeed. The young actors are pretty but surprisingly sexless. They come across like twelve year old girls, not mature enough to pretend they have any of these feelings. This is stressed even more by the casting of older men in female roles, at once an insult to women and to gay men. Any film in soft focus is considered "beautiful" today and this one is particularly ugly with fantastic scenery badly photographed and endless shots of lakes and cottages that add nothing to the setting. The prison scenes are strictly 1960's bad theater of the absurd. This play on film presents a convoluted jilted lover plot worthy of a daytime soap pretending it is saying something important about homophobia. Indeed who is the true villain here? The jealous lover who killed for his love and became a priest in his atonement or the selfish and closeted Simone, who was dumping his true love after one beating from dad. It is Simone who is the sinner here but the writer would rather not see that and blames some smitten waiter for all the crimes of humanity. Apparently Simone paid for his real sins by ageing really badly, a punishment only a gay man would understand. Even with it's drag queen women and naked girly-boys, LILIES is not good gay cinema. But it sure is queer.

A beautifully made film. The way the movie flowed like quicksilver between the prison and the past was unbelievable. It was also great how the male actors, a la mode Shakespeare, played all the female roles. What was so good about that was that they didn't do so as hyper-female drag queens but simply as actors. after a while the viewer forgets that sex of the actors and focuses on the characters. I was surprised that this illusion held up despite several removals from the narrative when we are transported back to the present and the prison chapel and we see the actors as they really are. somehow the film keeps us from being jarred out of the movie and we once again are transported back to 1912. a profoundly moving story.

When I first heard my friend tell me that the fourth play my seminar class had been made into a movie, a good movie and a Canadian one at that, I decided that this would be a must-see. After much effort I was able to borrow the movie from the Library, and was ready to throw a fit if it wasn't as good as the play script. It was.Granted, there are some deviations, but on the whole, this is a beautifully made movie with wonderful scenery and effects. I especially liked the additions made to the stage play. It made the whole story that much more understandable, although the prisoners' reactions were a bit odd. The scene changes were smoothly done and had meaning in and of themselves. It also explained some of the things in the play that I had to wonder about, such as, just how does Simon get Bishop Bilodeau captured anyways? I did NOT like Matthew Ferguson as Bilodeau. He was a little too weird here for my taste, but I suppose his effect in the role has been ruined by his turn as Birkoff in La Femme Nikita. There are also awkward moments when the acting is as bad as Lord of the Rings, but some of them are forgivable. Jason Cadieux is amazingly good as the very beautiful Simon, he's even good at acting badly, and Danny Gilmore is great as the delicate Vallier. Neither of these actors flinch at their roles. Lilies has definitely made me a fan of these two.All in all, Lilies is exceptionally good for a Canadian film made with young actors in leading roles, especially since all of those actors are relatively unknown and new to movies. I would have preferred the movie to have been done in French, the original language for the play, and use subs, but nothing is perfect. I would see this movie anytime.