Gina (1975)
A film both human and brutal
After being sent to rural Quebec to perform at a seedy motel, exotic dancer Gina (The Silent Partner’s Céline Lomez) establishes a friendship with a group of visiting documentary filmmakers and becomes aware of a lecherous Ski-Doo gang hiding out on an abandoned ship. Keenly aware of one another’s presence, Gina and the gang develop an antagonistic relationship that eventually leads to a horrific assault. But what these ski-masked snow deviants don’t realize is that Gina works for some of Montreal’s most dangerous criminals, and they’re on their way to enact an ugly revenge.
Three decades before winning the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for The Barbarian Invasions, Denys Arcand started his fiction filmmaking career with an informal trilogy (Dirty Money, Réjeanne Padovani, and Gina) that remains the high-water mark for Canadian crime cinema. Improbably fusing labor politics with an explosive exploitation narrative, Gina has a conviction and assurance that resists easy categorization. Part frigid hangout movie, part vicious revenge saga, this is a one-of-a-kind powerhouse that builds to a gruesome climax and the greatest snowmobile chase in movie history.
Special Features:
• Scanned in 2K from a 35mm print by Éléphant - mémoire du cinéma québécois
• Audio commentary featuring author/film historian Kier-La Janisse and writer/film programmer Justine Smith
• The Exploitation of Gina (2022, 11 min.) – Video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Directing Gina (2022, 21 min.) – New interview with director Denys Arcand
• New audio interviews with cast members Gabriel Arcand (13 min.), Paule Baillargeon (8 min.), Dorothée Berryman (15 min.), and Marcel Sabourin (13 min.)
• Trailers for Arcand’s Dirty Money (1972), Réjeanne Padovani (1973), and Gina (1975)
• Booklet featuring a new essay by professor/author Jim Leach (The Films of Denys Arcand)
• Reversible cover artwork
• Alternate English language audio track
• English SDH subtitles