Part of First Look 2014
Saturday, January 11, 2014, 7:00 p.m.

With director Denis Côté in person

Canada. Dir. Denis Côté. 2013, 95 mins. New York premiere. DCP from M’Aidez Films. With Pierrette Robitaille, Romane Bohringer. Vic + Flo Saw a Bear is the seventh feature in eight years for the prolific critic-turned-auteur Denis Côté, and an evolution of his distinctive visual style and artful play on generic conventions. Set in Côté’s native northern Québéc, the film follows its eponymous heroines—a pair of audacious lesbian lovers and ex-cellmates— after their release from prison and subsequent retreat to a secluded sugar shack to live with Vic's aged uncle Émil. Gazed upon by locals with increasing suspicion and derision, Vic and Flo soon find themselves haunted by past sins, and drift into a menacing state of danger and despair. Exploring remote northern landscapes and the marginalized characters that inhabit them, Côté paints a ruminative portrait of spiritual isolation and doomed love that is at once grotesque, darkly humorous, poetic, and oddly uplifting. The film won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for “a feature film that opens new perspectives” at the Berlin Film Festival. 

Tickets: $10 / $6 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above. Order online or call 718 777 6800 to reserve tickets. A First Look series pass, allowing the holder admission to the Museum and all First Look screenings for the run of the series, is available for $40 / $24 Museum members / free for Silver Screen members and above. For more information about becoming a member, please click here.