Synopsis
A Romanian caretaker orchestrates arrivals and departures; she decides who will be allowed access to this noisy and anonymous building. Who lives at 4125 Parthenais? Primarily men, not so young anymore, most of them welfare recipients. People who have, out of frustration or by choice, withdrawn from the Capitalist society. A fallen suburbanite, a caretaker who thinks he’s an Earl, a gay Jehova’s Witness, a man who considers his dog and passing time to be his loyal allies. A few women also live there, such as a Duplessis orphan preoccupied by the mystery of her origins. Despite the labels and lack of social recognition, behind the building’s façade hide individuals living in their own little world, piecing together a life of little joy and trivial moments, in spite of the “solitude disease” threatening them.
A word from Tënk
If a building could speak.
4125 Parthenais opens with a woman’s curious gaze. She draws her curtain back and looks across the street at the building at that eponymous address, inviting us to come watch this heartfelt film from Isabelle Lavigne.
The building’s modest and sun-bleached façade hides a series of apartments rented by the month, and behind them, a series of touching and unique stories, each of which is one short in a beautifully articulated whole, like an organically condensed depiction of the many facets of the human soul.
Lavigne, a former resident of the building, creates portraits of people living on the margins of society, who have so much more to give and share than their suffering or appearance may suggest, revealing the great dignity that lies beneath. They leave us with some powerful maxims: “You let time pass. You don’t think, you don’t dream. Just take life as it comes.” And from the super: “There are so many great characters to meet here. Who needs the carnival?”
At certain points, we’d like to learn more about these figures’ pasts and the reasons they’ve ended up here, but the editor’s choice not to dwell on this aspect is justified: the mystery adds an element of poetry to this mid-length film that stands the test of time—as both its social and economic climate remain current over 20 years later.
Christian Mathieu Fournier
Filmmaker
