• Film Credits

  • Country: Canada
  • Year: 2008
  • Language: French
  • Runtime: 108 minutes
  • Format: Colour/35mm
  • Rating: PG

  • Production Company: micro_scope
  • Producer: Luc Déry, Kim McCraw
  • Screenplay: Philippe Falardeau, based on the novels C'est pas moi, je le jure! and Alice court avec René by Bruno Hébert
  • Production Designer: Jean-François Campeau
  • Cinematographer: André Turpin
  • Editor: Frédérique Broos
  • Sound: Claude La Haye, Sylvain Bellemare, Bernard Gariépy-Strobl
  • Music: Patrick Watson
  • Principal Cast: Suzanne Clément, Daniel Brière, Antoine L'Écuyer, Gabriel Maillé, Catherine Faucher

  • Canadian Distributor: E1 Films / Seville Pictures
  • International Sales Agent: Films Distribution

One of our finest young filmmakers, Philippe Falardeau ( La Moitié gauche du frigo ; and Congorama, a Canada’s Top Ten selection in 2006), delivers his most accessible yet most sophisticated work to date with C’est pas moi, je le jure! (It’s Not Me, I Swear!). Set in 1968,  the film focuses on ten-year-old Léon, an inveterate hellion whose favourite hobbies include failed suicide attempts, vandalism, running away and breaking and entering. The cause of his behaviour is fairly obvious: his parents are a truly horrific match. As their relationship deteriorates, Léon’s actions grow increasingly outrageous and self-destructive.

On one level, C’est pas moi, je le jure! is a touching and amusing meditation on changing mores and family structures. Falardeau constantly reminds us that the choices the characters make would not be possible today. Léon’s mother flees to Greece to start a new life, and his best friend Léa informs him that his mother has chosen to live in a dictatorship. In this case, the kids are more politically astute than their parents – and seem far more aware that there is a sea change taking place. Brilliantly acted and executed, C’est pas moi, je le jure! is one of the sharpest and most entertaining films of the year.

Toronto International Film Festival

- Steve Gravestock

Panel Statement
Acclaimed Québécois filmmaker Philippe Falardeau skilfully adapts two novels by Bruno Hébert to tell the disarming story of a charming ten-year-old trickster. Hellion Léon rebels against his dysfunctional family by indulging his morbid curiosity in a series of increasingly outrageous acts, all set against the glorious colours of late-sixties Quebec.
- Cameron Bailey 

 

Philippe Falardeau Philippe Falardeau was born in Hull, Quebec, and studied Canadian politics at the University of Ottawa and international relations at Université Laval in Quebec City. His films include the documentary Pâté chinois (97), the short film Jean Laliberté: A Man, His Vision and a Whole Lot of Concrete (01), and the feature films La Moitié gauche du frigo (00), Congorama (06) and C’est pas moi, je le jure! (08).