The Apprentice (1971)
In Montréal, Jean-Pierre is fired on the set of a TV commercial where he's an apprentice technician. He's penniless, behind on his rent, with a thin resume and no college units. He has a fiancée, Michelle, but his head is turned by a free-spirited model, from the U.S., who saw him being fired and comes to his flat to apologize. She's Elizabeth, a combination of feckless innocence and sexual freedom. Jean-Pierre borrows money from his outlaw friend, Dock, and buys clothes to impress Elizabeth. Soon he's sleeping with her, and he pulls a theft with Dock to get money to take her to Acapulco. Michelle tries to bring him back to her orbit. Is there a way out for Jean-Pierre?
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Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
This is not a great film, but it is very interesting historically and sociologically. It is an interesting slice of life 35 years ago during a very unsettling time in Quebec politics when separatism was very popular. Also it takes you back to the sexual revolution of the times, with Quebec questioning the catholic church and accepting the freedom of the times with gusto. The English/French conflict is dealt with in a stereotypical way but still the film reminds me a little of what it was like many years ago and reminds me of how things have changed for the better. For those of us that like Susan Sarandon this is an early work of hers, and probably one film she would like us not to discover! Find out why for yourself by watching!
Before the censors got a hold of it, this one was on late night Canadian TV a number of times. As Canadian late night pushed the bounds of nudity, this half-decent effort got a lot of airplay to help with the then fledgling Global network get its start.PLOT POINTS TO FOLLOW - WARNINGMind you, there wasn't a lot of nudity in this film. Moreover, the story is a good one. A French Canadian young man without a direction lives a life of crime with his girlfriend's brother. On a temporary job on a commercial shoot, he meets a beautiful young English Canadian woman (Susan Sarandon in a very early role) and they enter into a relationship. He tries to break it off with his old girlfriend, but she won't let him go. When he then tries to turn away his new girlfriend, he can't bring himself to do it. There is a tragic end to this love triangle as his life finally catches up to him. Don't expect a happy ending. Come to think of it, this is one of the few films in Canada to explore the difficulty of being a French Canadian from a political and economic standpoint, but how we all wind up getting along in the end.