Tu dors Nicole

August 23, 2015 · Knoxville Museum of Art · 2:00 p.m.

A critical hit at Cannes, the third fiction feature by Stéphane Lafleur once again displays his trademark absurdist humour and sense of ennui, honing in on twentysomethings at an existential crossroads. Nicole (Julianne Côté) is adrift after college graduation, working a dead-end summer job in her small Quebec hometown and spending evenings with her best pal, Véronique. When her older brother Remi (Marc-André Grondin, C.R.A.Z.Y.) unexpectedly returns with his bandmates in tow, disrupting the girls’ half-baked summer, it becomes clear to Nicole that something must — and will — change. Shot in luminous black and white and infused with a sultry melancholy, Tu dors Nicole brilliantly captures that liminal stage where the fading yet familiar attachments of childhood still seem far more appealing, precious, and real than the sterility of the grown-up world. — TIFF program description

“Mostly, I connected to its gentle melancholy, the sense of a life changing in almost imperceptible ways.” — A. A. Dowd, AV Club

“Nothing happens, but everything thrums.” – Mike D’Angelo, The Dissolve

About the Filmmaker

Stéphane Lafleur was born in Quebec. His directorial debut, the short film Karaoke (99), won Best Canadian Short at TIFF. Along with editing films, he has directed Continental, A Film Without Guns (07), which was awarded Best Canadian First Feature at TIFF, Familiar Grounds (11), and a segment for the National Parks Project (11). Tu dors Nicole (14) is his latest film.