Jean-Claude Lauzon's film LÉOLO returns to Cannes

MONTREAL, April 30, 2014 /CNW/ - Telefilm Canada proudly announces that the late Jean-Claude Lauzon's acclaimed 1992 film LÉOLO will screen as part of Cannes Classics at the 67^th Festival de Cannes (May 14 to 25, 2014).

Generally considered one as Canadian cinema's seminal films, it tells the story of Léo Lauzon (Maxime Collin), a young boy living in a Montreal tenement with his dysfunctional family. He uses his active fantasy life and the book L'Avalée des avalés by Québécois novelist Réjean Ducharme to escape the reality of his life.

LÉOLO has been digitized and restored by Éléphant, a major philanthropic initiative by Québecor that restores and archives Quebec movies and makes them accessible to the public via most notably illico and iTunes. The project will create the largest existing online database and information source on Quebec cinema. Visit www.elephant.canoe.ca. Since its launch in 2008, more than 200 fiction films have been added.

Jean-Claude Lauzon, director, screenwriter (born 29 September 1953 in Montreal, died 10 August 1997 near Kuujjuag, Quebec). Often considered the enfant terrible of Quebec cinema, Lauzon had a brief career as one of Canada's most talented and truculent filmmakers before he was killed in a plane crash at age 46. His two feature films, UN ZOO LA NUIT (Directors' Fortnight, Cannes, 1987) and LÉOLO (Official Competition, Cannes, 1992), earned international acclaim and multiple awards.

LÉOLO joins the historical selection of Canadian directors in this year's Official Competition.

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SOURCE: Telefilm Canada

Andrea Grau, Touchwood PR, [email protected], [phone] x201; Douglas Chow, Telefilm Canada, Manager, External Communications, [email protected], [phone] x2225