Une Histoire inventée

This bizarre farrago of Québecois humour raises a few laughs and just about makes sense, but rarely at the same time. It revolves around an arty production of Othello, staged by a manic director (Nardi) whose ex-mobster uncle has roped in the Palermo old folks club to attend every performance. Or around a boozy cop (Messier), first seen having a mild altercation with a rambunctious parrot; or a jazz trumpeter (Lapointe) whose on-the-skids trio is being rent asunder by sorrows romantic and religious; or a love goddess (Marleau) whose 40 ex-swains follow her around in a moonstruck cortège; or even her daughter (Laurier), agonising over a two-timing Othello. There's some of the flavour of an Alan Rudolph movie - the characters keep bouncing off each other in the same desultory way - but there's too much reliance on running gags that don't really run anywhere. The cast's great, though, and Forcier has a way of making bleak old Montreal look charmingly baroque.