Retro-biography
Melora Koepke
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K-way's the way: The young Trogi (Boucher) and his gang
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Ricardo Trogi's 1981 is a year in the filmmaker's own life story
Nineteen eighty-one is the year young Ricardo Trogi moved with his parents and young sister into a big house in Ste-Foy. For the family, this was a big move because they owned the house instead of renting, and while Ricardo and his sister changed schools and started new lives, they brought along their old obsessions. Ricardo's sister, Nadia, is obsessed with her cat Caramel, and Ricardo (Jean-Carl Boucher) has a yen for several items displayed in his beloved Consumers Distributing catalogue, along with a minor interest in girls. Their parents are mostly interested in figuring out how to pay the newly minted mortgage.
Trogi, a beloved hometown filmmaker whose movies always seem vaguely autobiographical (Québec-Montréal, Horloge biologique), tells these and other vaguely entertaining stories about his coming of age in his autobiographical 1981, and it makes for cute, affectionate storytelling.
One gets the sense that this film also allowed Trogi to live out a common fantasy about writer-directors of a certain age: making a wry, sentimental comedy about his own life, complete with slow-mo shots of his childhood love object jumping rope, long bike rides through the woods and rides with his dad in the family sedan. One imagines that he had a lot of fun, especially in the props department, digging up Star Wars sheets, original Sony cassette Walkmans, a circa-1980 goalie helmet and a red K-way in the bargain bins of God-knows-where to add nostalgic texture to
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his film.Thing is, though, those very props and more are most likely housed in a warehouse somewhere, so often are they dragged out for a Quebec filmmaker's wry, sentimental look back at the childhoods of a generation. Most recently, Un été sans point ni coup sûr and C'est pas moi, je le jure!, Maman est chez le coiffeur, C.R.A.Z.Y., Borderline and countless others have conjured up the not-so-distant '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s to be picked over, endlessly.
Trogi's own coming-of-age story about being a materialistic little liar who learns the error of his ways is nothing if not sweet and atmospheric, and contains his customary tongue-in-cheek stylistic flourishes. But at a full two hours, it goes on a little long and meanders a little slowly - could it be that someone else's past, rendered painstakingly in faithful detail, is never quite as interesting to us as it is to him?
1981
| The Consumers Distributing catalog era; you had to have been there. |
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Ricardo Trogi, inspired by his own personal experience, stitches together a storyline based on his coming of age that is both comical and faintly touching at the same time.
Whimsical black and white daydream sequences are highly effective in pulling in the viewer and contribute to the comical quality of this movie but the cliché set design, costumes and props produce feelings of nostalgia that are at times overpowering an already feeble storyline.
Although Trogy sets out to produce a movie indicative of the classic "Stand By Me", the plot falls short and will satisfy only a very narrow spectator base.
If you were a teen in the early 80's and still long for a K-Way, a Sony Walkman or a calculator-watch you will enjoy the walk down memory lane which is 1981.
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Ronald Robichaud
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