TIN FLUTE, THE

A journalist, poet, screenwriter, cameraman and TV producer as well as a filmmaker, Claude Fornier broke all box-office records in Canada with his first feature “Deux Femmes En Or” in 1969. THE TIN FLUTE is his 8th film and like all his films it is both directed and photographed by the multi-talented Fournier, who also co-wrote the screenplay, adapted from Gabrielle Roy's prize-winning and best-selling classic novel, “Bonheur d'Occasion.” Roy died at 74 during the film's premiere at the Moscow Film Festival, where Marilyn Lightstone won an Award of Merit for her role as Rose-Anna Lacasse in THE TIN FLUTE. The large Lacasse family lives in a poor working class district on Montreal. It is the winter of 1940, the end of the Depression, yet Rose-Anna and Azarius Lacasse can barely make ends meet. The central figure is their oldest daughter, Florentine, a waitress in a Five and Dime. Seduced and abandoned, she is left pregnant by a smooth-talking opportunist who pushes her into the arms of a friend. The Lacasse family is forced to live in a hovel closer to the wrong side of the tracks when Azarius loses his job – and now both mother and daughter are pregnant. Florentine arranges a better future for all the only way she can – through deception. Outstanding acting and an authentic recreation of time and place make THE TIN FLUTE a deeply moving human drama. -USA Premiere-