Jacques Godbout – YUL 871 AKA Montreal Flight 871 (1966)
YUL is the closest thing to a French New Wave title simply by virtue of the casting of lead actor Charles Denner, a regular Truffaut mascot (The Bride Wore Black, The Man Who Loved Women) as well as a familiar face in films by Claude Lelouch and Costa-Gavras. The title refers to a flight number of a French engineer who arrives in Montreal only to find that the man he’s supposed to meet isn’t in his office. After a bus ride through the city he wanders the streets to kill time, crossing paths with a young girl, striking up a potential romance, and diving into Montreal culture ranging from bowling alleys to a “ye ye” performance in Arab drag to a quirky shooting gallery and even a moment of unexpected tragedy.
He also decides to track down info on his parents, who were separated from him during World War II; the fact that he’s Jewish (including visual commentary from archival newsreel footage) adds an extra layer of meaning to his journey as well. Stylish direction by Jacques Godbout (who went on to helm the Quebecois crime film The Mob) is the real star here, YUL 871showing off a number of moods throughout the city including a spooky nocturnal passage an hour in that feels like a borderline thriller. The ending is an interesting artistic choice as well, featuring what looks like a tip of the hat to YUL 8711962’s La Jetée.
Montreal.Flight.871.1966.FRENCH.1080p.BluRay.x264.AAC1.0-PTP.mkv
General
Container: Matroska
Runtime: 1 h 10 min
Size: 5.59 GiB
Video
Codec: x264
Resolution: 1440x1080
Aspect ratio: 4:3
Frame rate: 23.976 fps
Bit rate: 11.0 Mb/s
BPP: 0.295
Audio
#1: French 1.0ch AAC LC @ 144 kb/s
#2: English 1.0ch AAC LC @ 132 kb/s (English Dub)
Language(s):French, English
Subtitles:English