Leaving Everything 1.3 - Pristine Forest

Leaving Everything - Pristine Forest

Director : Marielle Heller

Writer : Ann Morrow

Based on the novel by Anais Barbeau-Lavalette

Cast: Rebecca Hall, Robin Tunney, Tobey Maguire, Adam Brody, Oliver Platt, Colm Feore, Lance Henriksen, Odette Annable, Lucy Hale and Paul Sorvino

Plot: 1948
In a small, poorly lit apartment in downtown Montreal, Marcel Barbeau (Tobey Maguire) is painting in silence, with his girlfriend Suzanne (Rebecca Hall) watching. She distracts him a bit and he turn his attention towards her. He touches her a bit on the nose with his brush, coloring her nose with a dark green shade. She kisses him and he kisses her back, grabbing her by the tight. They sensually embrace and in their passion, she knocks over the candle lighting the room as he takes off her pants.

Jean-Paul Riopelle (Adam Brody) and Claude Gauvreau (Oliver Platt) pay their teacher a visit, but they are denied entry when they want to enter Paul-Emile Borduas (Colm Feore)’ apartment. He’s been living as a recluse ever since the government banned all forms of non-religious art. Riopelle forces his way in and he looks at what Borduas’ working on. He finds pages and pages of text, stapled to the wall, or piled up on a table. Borduas tears off the sheet Claude had in his hands and burns off the other half with his candle. Borduas urges them to get out. Riopelle and Gauvreau obey, they never saw him like that and they know he wasn’t kidding and whatever was going on in his life is serious.
Marcel and Suzanne are lying in the corner of their apartment hugging. They stare at Marcel’s partially finished piece, that he doesn’t know what to call it. Suzanne suggest to call it Pristine Forest. Marcel doesn’t understand why he should call it that, as the painting is colorful and not bleak the complete opposite of what a pristine forest is. She doesn’t agree with him and she thinks that it represents the current state of society. She believes a society without art is devoid of any creativity and doesn’t encourage pleasure, she compares it to a pristine forest, a metaphor of sorts. Marcel kisses her and tells her that he loves her. They are interrupted by a someone knocking at their door. Marcel answers shirtless, covering the rest of his body with a towel he normally uses to put on the floor while he paints. He’s surprised to see Borduas at his doorstep, as he hasn’t seen him since he disenrolled from the school. Borduas notices that he interrupted them at a bad time when Suzanne covers herself up. He berates Marcel from painting, as he knows what’s going to happen to him if he’s caught. He tells them he wants to reunite the whole group at a library a couple of blocks away from here, before leaving. 

Anna (Robin Tunney) was still a little shocked by the visit she payed her uncle a couple of hours ago. She’s back at the apartment and she takes a quick look at her grandmother’s belongings and she looks at her films and albums. Unsurprisingly, there isn’t a single photograph of her or of her mother. She grabs another box and she finds a drawing signed Mousse at the bottom. It’s a kids drawing and she wonders who’s Mousse, as she has never heard about it before. She thinks the only solution is for her to ask Francis. It’s a long shot, but it’s worth taking it, as if Suzanne had another child, other than Marge and Francis, he or she could be the key to learn why her grandmother completely eclipsed from her life like that. She takes a closer look at a picture and when she thinks about it, her grandfather isn’t in the picture either. She wonders what happened, as they both seemed so happy together in that bookstore.

Marcel and Suzanne are the first to arrive at the library, where they meet the owner, Harry (Paul Sorvino). He notices them looking around, like they are looking for someone, rather than for a book and he quietly asks them if they are here to meet up with Mr. Borduas and they answer affirmatively. They follow him in the backroom, where he opens a little trap and he asks them to take the stairs. Marcel is sure that this is a ruse and refuses to, until Borduas arrives and says it’s alright. He’s carrying a briefcase around and it’s filled with texts. They are shown a little room with a table and multiple paintings. Marcel and Suzanne can’t believe it, as they were sure that Borduas destroyed everything, but apparently not. As Harry pours them cups of coffee, they ask what’s in the suitcase, but he refuses to show them until the others arrive. 

Riopelle, Claude, Marcelle (Odette Annable) and Françoise (Lucy Hale) finally arrive and Borduas reveals to them his mysterious plan and what he’s been working on in the past few weeks. Riopelle is suspicious about Harry, who’s still listening to the conversation, but Borduas says it’s alright, they go back a long time and besides, he fully trusts him. He takes out a couple of sheets from his briefcase and presents to them his manifesto against the current society. He says that ever since arts have been banned, he really had to teach how to build furniture at the school and not arts and can’t live like that anymore, he can’t let his talents, or all their talents go to waste. He wants them to work on this manifesto together and he wants to criticize the Catholicism that’s overtly present today. He wants to show the people that by being held back by this situation, they are not developing as fast as the rest of the country and the rest of the world. The artistic community has been silent since the ban and he wants them to go out there and show that they don’t agree with this censorship. He organizes demonstrations of disagreement all over town and he wants them to do it. Harry opens a cabinet and takes out masks mocking the appearance of the current Prime Minister and he wants them to use these masks in the demonstrations. They agree unanimously and set the first one near the museum that has become a farce, filled with inferior religious painting. They all leave separately to avoid any unwanted attention. Borduas stays behind with Harry and they talk about what they’re going to do next, until a man enters the library and is all eyes for Borduas. Borduas welcomes in the library and leaves. The man waits a bit and follows Borduas in the streets.

Anna parks her sedan in the parking lot of the asylum where her uncle is kept. She checks if she has the drawing in her purse and she looks at herself in the mirror and applies lip balm and trims her hair a bit. She looks like a mess, but she has to keep going. She goes down halls and they wheel Francis (Lance Henriksen) in a secured room. After the incident the other day, they decided that all visits must be behind a glass window and by speaker phone, just like they do in prison. She shows him the drawing and points at the Mousse and all Francis can say is Mousse. He says it again and again and he starts to cry. Anna takes out her phone and she shows him pictures of her mother, Marge. Francis’ eyes light up and he screams : Mousse! Anna then realises that her mother was Mousse, there were no other sibling. She then shows him a picture of her grandmother, his mother, Suzanne. His look darkens and he closes his eyes. He beats on his chest and on the table. They wheel him out and back into his room. On her way out, Anna is told she’s not allowed to show him pictures anymore.

Suzanne is standing in front of the museum, with Marcel’s arms wrapped around her body and her friends by their side. They put on their masks and they take out their paintings, parodies of Christian art. They scream obscenities and scandalous claims against the Catholic institution and the Prime Minister at the top of their lungs. The public is outraged and soon, the police arrives. They run away in the streets, with policemen chasing them. Suzanne is separated from Marcel and we hear the sound of her heavy breaths as the screen fades to black.