Suzanne Gervais

Le Seuil

A touching reflection on leaving home, this animation film is an impressionistic look at a son's departure from his mother's house. He hesitates in front of the chest of drawers and his old toy box. Objects turn back the clock, reminding him of childhood, his father's departure, adolescence... His mother also remembers while watching him through a half-open door. Will he succeed in wrenching himself away and crossing the threshold into a new life? An animation film made up of subtle touches that evoke emotion. A sigh, hesitant footsteps, a tinkling of piano notes, a tremor.

Les seins dans la tête

What place do breasts occupy in the identity of women? Intersecting several voices--adolescent girls, mothers, lesbians, dancers, bodybuilders...--this film draws a mosaic portrait of the breast, from childhood to maturity, from seduction to illness, from motherhood to surgery, from the tyranny of the image to self-acceptance. An impressionist documentary, funny and touching, against the backdrop of the beach and holidays.

The Irises

An animated recreation of Van Gogh's "Les iris" is juxtaposed with audio from the auction of the piece for millions of dollars more than the artist could have ever imagined.

The Studio

In the calm light of a studio, a man relaxes, a woman draws. They are two strangers for whom the process of creation awakens intimacy that touches their very being. For the artist it is the need to go beyond appearances; for the model it is the refusal to look at the self. From scene to scene the film progresses, transforms, reconstructs the human interior landscape. A dramatic confrontation ensues.

Still Point

Woman or myth? Dream or reality? Quietly searching the secret gardens of her mind, a woman explores her past and discovers her present. Man, child, cat--all are travellers through her life. Shimmering, opalescent, Still Point, an evocative voyage into an elusive soulscape, is an animation film that awakens feelings buried in one's own subconscious world.

Beginnings

An animated film created from pastel drawings by Clorinda Warny, Premiers Jours traces the complete cycle of life, from birth to adulthood, in four seasons, and through the evolution of earthly landscapes that become human bodies. Completed Postumously by Suzanne Gervais, Lina Gagnon

Chairmen

This short animated film presents an allegorical portrait of a society where men have lost their autonomy in the struggle to be recognized by the very society that restricts their freedom.

The Beach

An experimental animation about four people at a beach, three men and one woman.

Climates

The 'climates' of this film allude to the relationships of a couple. Atmosphere and moods are induced by watercolour designs, mostly washes, suggesting landscapes through which faces and figures appear. The effect is dreamlike, an ebb and flow of colour, form and line, to the accompaniment of music. The animation is largely of textures rather than of design, washes of colour that come and go to the bidding of the music or the whim of the artist.

Du coq à l'âne

This animated film, a small educational musical comedy, offers the viewer a proper enigma. He is very smart who succeeds in solving it the first time; because against this background of cold reasoning, fantasy and delirium retain all their rights.

Cycle

A film of free-hand line animation, where the movement as much as the designs reflects the artist's thoughts on the life of humans and their universe. What evolves is a stream of ideas about the elemental situation of humankind, poised midway between the primary dust and the measureless universe yet unplumbed.