Gaz Bar Blues

{{Infobox film | name = Gaz Bar Blues | image = Gaz Bar Blues poster.jpg | alt = | caption = Poster | director = [[Louis Bélanger]] | producer = [[Lorraine Dufour]] | writer = | screenplay = Louis Bélanger | narrator = | starring = [[Serge Thériault]] | music = Guy Bélanger<br />Claude Fradette | cinematography = [[Jean-Pierre St-Louis]] | editing = Lorraine Dufour | studio = | distributor = | released = {{Film date|2003}} | runtime = 115 minutes | country = Canada | language = French | budget = | gross = }}

'''''Gaz Bar Blues''''' is a 2003 Canadian comedy-drama film written and directed by [[Louis Bélanger]]. The film is set in 1989 in the outskirts of an unspecified Québécois city.

==Plot== François Brochu ([[Serge Thériault]]), named "the boss", is the owner of a [[Filling station|gas station]]. He manages his relationships with his sons Réjean, Guy, the 13-year-old Alain, with which manages the station; and his daughter Nathalie ([[Fanny Mallette]]). The Gas Bar is also regularly attended by his friends as Gaston Savard ([[Gilles Renaud]]), Jos, Normand Party, Yves Michaud, Claude, Nelson and Ti-Pit.

Mr. Brochu, widower and suffering an initial [[Parkinson's disease]], would like to keep his family united by the work at the station; but the dissatisfaction of the boys with the routine seems to send them away. Guy ([[Danny Gilmore]]) is a harmonica player that plays with a band and is often lacking during the turns, Réjean (Sébastien Delorme) is the most responsible but angry by rising crime and unhappy with his father's way to manage the station. He is an amateur photographer and decides to reach Berlin to see the imminent fall of [[Berlin Wall|the wall]]. The film shows the incoming [[Revolutions of 1989]] in background but life goes on normally around the ''Gaz Bar'', which problems are the transition from [[gallon]]s to [[litre]]s, the construction of new [[self-service]] stations and the arrival of Gobeil (Daniel Brière), inspector of the company ''Champlain'' that owns the station.

During the absence of Réjean, Alain starts working alone at the station, helped by Mr. Savard. Guy disappears for 3 days because of a car accident. When he come back, he has a quarrel with his father and leaves the home. Réjean writes quite often at home, telling of his experience and disillusion about the [[German reunification]] process. He sees the way in which the transition is managed as a kind of forced modernization, which suddenly clears the everyday life of [[East Germany|East Germans]], as well as the new self-services will replace filling stations.

Arrested in [[East Berlin]] while attempting to rebuild the [[Berlin Wall]] (a symbolic gesture), and repatriated to [[Canada]], Réjean starts again working. One day he faces the inspector Gobeil, telling him he's a madmen and threatening him if he continues to torment his father. During the nth robbery, Alain is taken hostage and then exchanged with his father. Mr. Brochu, saved by police, begins to reflect on the fact that his desire to keep the family together with the work in the gas station is dismembering it. So he decides to start therapy against Parkinson in the hospital and to attend a concert of his son Guy in a pub. One day he decides to close the activity of the gas station and retires to be closer to his 4 kids. The day after Jos and Ti-Pit read the "End of Business" message of "The Boss": first perplexed, immediately go in search of the other friends of the group, sure to find them at ''the convenience store''.

==Cast== {{cast listing| * [[Serge Thériault]] as François Brochu * [[Gilles Renaud]] as Gaston Savard * Sébastien Delorme as Réjean Brochu * [[Danny Gilmore]] as Guy Brochu * Maxime Dumontier as Alain Brochu * [[Fanny Mallette]] as Nathalie Brochu * Gaston Caron as Jos * Gaston Lepage as Normand Patry * Daniel Gadouas as Yves Michaud * Roger Léger as Claude * [[Claude Legault]] as Ti-Pit * [[Réal Bossé]] as Nelson * Yves Bélanger as Coyote * [[Vincent Bilodeau]] as Mononc' Boivin * Daniel Rousse as Dan * Marc Beaupré as Yoyo * Daniel Brière as Inspector Gobeil * [[Emmanuel Bilodeau]] as Jocelyn }}

==Awards== *2003 Special Grand Prix of the Jury of the [[Montreal World Film Festival]]<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20120307073421/http://www.ffm-montreal.org/palmares/en_2003.html Awards of the 2003 Montreal World Film Festival]}}</ref> *2004 [[Jutra Award]] for the [[Jutra Award#Best Actor (Meilleur acteur)|Best Actor]] to [[Serge Thériault]]<ref name=imdb>[https://www.imdb.com/event/ev0000381/2004 2004 Jutra Awards] at the [[Internet Movie Database]]</ref> *2004 [[Jutra Award]] for the [[Jutra Award#Best Music (Meilleure musique)|Best Music]] to Guy Bélanger and Claude Fradette<ref name=imdb />

==See also== {{Portal|Film|Canada}} *[[List of Canadian films of 2003]]

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb title|0379298|title=Gaz Bar Blues}} * {{Rotten-tomatoes|gaz-bar-blues|title=Gaz Bar Blues}}

[[Category:2003 films]] [[Category:2003 comedy-drama films]] [[Category:Canadian comedy-drama films]] [[Category:Films directed by Louis Bélanger]] [[Category:Films about the Berlin Wall]] [[Category:French-language Canadian films]] [[Category:2003 Canadian films]]