Fleur bleue (The Apprentice)

"Fleur bleue" is a 1971 Quebec-made comedy/drama film starring Susan Sarandon and Steve Fiset. Although the title literally translates to English as "Blue Flower", it is better known in English as "The Apprentice", which is a better translation of the idiom used in the title. It is one of the very few Canadian films that is functionally bilingual, shot in both English and French, with the appropriate dialogue dubbed for the appropriate audience.

Jean-Pierre (Fiset) is a working class young Francophone with big dreams. He comes under the tutelage of his older best friend, a con-man and bank robber named Dock (Jean-Pierre Cartier), who starts teaching him the secrets of his trades, and making him an accomplice in his crimes. He is dating Dock's virginal sister, who is also active in the Quebec separatist movement.

To make ends meet, Jean-Pierre works a series of menial jobs. While doing clean-up on a commercial shoot, he meets Elizabeth (Sarandon), a beautiful Anglophone model. After he is fired from the shoot for explaining the English meaning of the French name of the product she is supposed to be selling, she starts going out with him out of a sense of guilt, and they soon become lovers. However, she is a sexual libertine with no intention of being monogamous, and this soon strains their relationship.

Eventually, the strain of keeping up with his two girlfriends wears on him and he decides to break up with Elizabeth. However, his clumsy attempts to break up in English (of which he does not have a fluent command) merely results in their spending the night together. He then decides to break up with Dock's sister, who realizing that he is going back to Elizabeth because of their sexual relationship, throws herself at him.

Eventually, Jean-Pierre's criminal activities catch up with him, and everything ends tragically.

Place in Canadian film history

"Fleur bleue" is one of the very few films to deal with the strain between Anglophone and Francophone relationships in the city of Montreal in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At the time the film was made, Montreal was largely segregated into French speaking areas in the east, and English speaking areas in the west, with the two groups rarely interacting with each other. Jean-Pierre and Elizabeth both are from Montreal, but neither has a working command of the other's language - Jean-Pierre's English is non-fluent, and Elizabeth's French is non-existent.

In addition to the strain of his relationships and his criminal career, Jean-Pierre is also dealing with a society which, while marginally under French political control, was largely under English economic control. This film was made just after department stores such as Eaton's required their Francophone clerks to converse with customers in English only, even if the customer was a Francophone as well. Jean-Pierre, rightly or wrongly, blames his economic circumstances on Anglophones, who are the only ones who can provide him with an honest, but low paying, job. His girlfriend has come to the conclusion that separation from Canada is the only solution to the problems plaguing Francophones. Dock is convinced that it doesn't matter who is in charge - people like him will suffer nevertheless, so it's everyone for themselves. Elizabeth, who is relatively well off, doesn't acknowledge the problems that exist for all the Francophones she shares her city with.

Montreal has notably changed since the film was made. French is now the dominant language in the city even though the English population is largely the same, primarily due to strong language laws. Montrealers are more likely to be functionally bilingual. Shops deal with customers in the language of their choice. The Quebec separatist movement is largely rejected in Montreal (where even only a bare majority of Francophones support separation), but the movement has left Francophones in effective control of the political and economic life of the city. Finally, Montreal is no longer functionally segregated, and English and French speakers can be found in neighbourhoods throughout the city.

"Fleur bleue" is also not without humour. At one point, Dock is shot by rival criminals and is locked in a trunk to expire. Miraculously, when a used car salesman opens the trunk the next morning to show it to a customer, Dock crawls out, calmly confirms the customer is English-speaking, and then politely asks for five dollars to take a cab to the hospital. In another scene, Jean-Pierre goes to an English language learning centre, but is frustrated by attempting to learn at a beginner's level. He finally asks the Anglophone director of the center for help in crafting a way to break up with Elizabeth, she suggests the sentence "it is time for us to end our liaison". Jean-Pierre points out that "liaison" is a French word, but the director notes that it works well in English as well.

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