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Maxime Gaudette, Sébastien Huberdeau, Karine Vanasse, Evelyne Brochu, Johanne-Marie Tremblay ... see more see more... , Pierre-Yves Cardinal

Inspired by the tragic school shooting that took place at Montreal's Polytechnique school on December 6, 1989, director Denis Villeneuve's melancholy docudrama portrays the events as seen from the per... read more read more...spective of two students, Valérie (Karine Vanasse) and Jean-François (Sebastien Huberdeau). When an armed madman enters the school with the intention of killing as many females as possible, the lives of every student involved are forever changed. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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75% liked it

1,213 ratings

Critics

83% liked it

12 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 17 min.

Directed by: Denis Villeneuve

Release Date: February 6, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (181)

  • MovieGeek13
    November 25, 2011
    MovieGeek13
    Man vs woman. Misogyny vs feminism. Gender warfare. Denis Villeneuve's Polytechnique doesn't try to make sense of the seemingly never-ending battle of the sexes. His film is simply about the way such hostility directed towards the opposite gender threatens to destroy the humanity... read more that connects us all. It's sad, tragic, and as objective as a film of this kind can be.
    The shooter: This nameless young student writes a letter condemning the feminist movement and how it's a propaganda tool to repress males. He decides to take his own life but not before taking out as many women as he can. He enters his school - a Montreal engineering tech school - armed with a rifle and many bullets. The film doesn't take his side, but it forces you to see his point of view, no matter skewed it might be.
    The victims: A young female student, Valerie meticulously preps herself for an internship. Her obsession over looking good suggests a vain attempt to manipulate the way her interviewer sees her, one that is quickly subverted when the male interviewing her makes sexist comments. And later, she, along with several other young women at her school are shot simply because they are women in the wrong place at the wrong time.
    The hero: Jean-Francois sees the shooter and several women being shot. He takes it upon himself to help as many of the wounded as he can. But as the year's go by, he's still traumatized by the incident, despite not even being fired upon.
    The aftermath: At the heart of Polytechnique isn't an examination into sexism or a psycho-analysis as to why this happened. It's an account of personal tragedy, how prejudice - in this case, prejudice between the sexes - destroys lives. It's a deeply personal, moving, and gripping masterpiece.
  • Alireza64ir
    September 15, 2010
    Alireza64ir
    If you are looking for context,better skip this one.Its a kind of movie it favors dazzling imagery over context.Like Elephant it tends to use few explanations and leaves the roots of new generations misbihaviourism as an enigma,and it realy works.
  • michaelcorleone
    October 22, 2010
    michaelcorleone
    Expertly directed recreation of some chilling recent history. Probes at some troubling issues without straying into heavy-handed territory. The cinematography is awe-inspiring.
  • HenrikSchunk
    May 26, 2010
    HenrikSchunk
    A minimalist "film" about the Montreal Massacre of 1989. As much as I appreciate any artist who discusses crucial and controversial events via his discipline, I am not sure what the reason for making this movie was. Unlike "Elephant" (A Gus van Sant film about school shootings), ... read morethe film does not elaborate, comment, alter, discuss or interpret any of the ongoings, on the other hand, despite is bleakness, the direction is far from being neutral to be understood as a silent testimony. Here and there, the film borderlines on existentialist visuals such as the falling snow within the monochrome cinematography, but all in all, the film is very formulaic and uninspired. The ending really ruined the film for me and I understand that the filmmakers had to create some sort of "happy" ending to appease the Canadian authorities and relatives, but the final statement feels like squeezing juice of a stone, deducing meaning from an incomprehensible act by falling back on cliches and empty phrases. Further film mechanics muddled the minimalist approach even more, such as the cheesy music and the bad acting by the "killer", which was terribly stereotypical and bland, another sign that the director feared to discuss the humanity of the killer, isolating him from the other people, which dumbs down the complexity of the issue that is students killing other students to the level of a survival horror.

    Don't get me wrong, I think what happened in Canada was terrible and I feel for everybody involved, but now that I saw the film, I ask myself why it was done. The film steered clear of offering an opinion on what happened but was too stylized to be a "neutral" documentation of what happened. All in all, it would have needed a stronger filmmaker to make this one have a meaning, either give it more meaning or deliberately deprive it of meaning, but just doing nothing and sticking to formulas and textbook techniques does nothing for me.

    HX
  • KLFilmmaker
    May 5, 2010
    KLFilmmaker
    Cleaned up at the genies this year. Hard to watch at times, but well executed.
  • Parannoyed
    March 10, 2010
    Parannoyed
    SUBLIME! Loved the black and white style, the acting, the tension all throughout the film. Disturbing and thought-provoking. Makes third-wave feminists like me react and go bonkers after seeing this film.
  • mvieaddict
    February 6, 2010
    mvieaddict
    Several female students were murdered by a male student at the Canadian university École Polytechnique in 1989.I did not know what to expect of this movie, was it a documentary,a true story?After watching the movie I was figuring out if the director had stayed close to reality w... read moreith this movie. Did we learn anything about the shooter? What about the victims? What made him do such a thing? Nothing was clear about that in the movie.The film was filmed in black and white which made it seemed more depressing.There was some scenes which was jumping back and forth in time, before and after the tragedy, and that made it a bit confusing for me.This movies lacked on dialogue so you must rely on your own senses to understood what this was all about. It was good for a one time watch.
  • liquidstone14
    August 22, 2009
    liquidstone14
    Arguably the best picture about the 1989 Polytechnique Massacre that could ever dream of being shot, Polytechnique is a rough but thankfully minimally exploitative watch. I suppose that its most valuable reason for existing is because it conjures visuals on an atrocity that, beyo... read morend having taken away the lives of several young women, has shocked an entire nation and wrecked the minds of many survivors. There's nothing really softened about the way the horrific event is presented, but the proceedinds remain both tasteful, convincingly acted and very effective.

    Denis Villeneuve lenses the film with an unusual elegance, one that smartly contrasts with the aberrant ongoings but still provides a few iffy symbolic images-- ones that I presume the film could have done fine without. Most importantly, Polytechnique is a film of few words, and even if I am not completely convinced there had to be a film like this one produced, that decision of letting the visuals speak for themselves works a lot in its favor. I really wouldn't call it essential viewing (hearing about it is enough, thank you very much), but I'm relieved this one didn't end up as the mawkish catastrophe I was seriously dreading.

View All Polytechnique Reviews

Critic Reviews

A.O. Scott
June 28, 2011
A.O. Scott, New York Times

The virtue - and also the limitation - of this movie is that it confronts senselessness and insists on remaining calm and sane. Full Review

Melissa Anderson
June 28, 2011
Melissa Anderson, Village Voice

Polytechnique smartly exposes the spectrum of misogyny without overplaying the connection between the two incidents. Which makes the concluding flash-forward scene all the more disappointing. Full Review

Peter Howell
July 7, 2010
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

The tragic art of Polytechnique isn't what it shows or reveals but rather the contemplation it inspires. There are moments in life when nothing makes sense and sadness descends; this is one of them. Full Review

Rob Nelson
September 1, 2009
Rob Nelson, Variety

Lensed in black-and-white, the 77-minute film is plenty arty and only arguably constructive in its tasteful fictionalization of a violent tragedy. Full Review

Ray Bennett
May 20, 2009
Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter

Filmed in black and white, the French-language film does not set out to comprehend the crime other than to suggest that the shooter (played with a vacant stare by Maxim Gaudette) was a pathetic loser ...

David Fear
June 29, 2011
David Fear, Time Out New York

Nicely anticipates Villeneuve's 2010 masterpiece, Incendies, another story of forgiveness in a cruel, cold world. Full Review

Ed Gonzalez
June 26, 2011
Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine

Denis Villeneuve's unnerving abstraction of the subject matter daringly relays his view of the human cost of gender warfare. Full Review

David Nusair
December 11, 2010
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

Villeneuve does a superb job of slowly-but-surely building the tension in the time frame before Lépine begins his assault... Full Review

Bruce Kirkland
July 7, 2010
Bruce Kirkland, Jam! Movies

The pure emotion and the truths layered into the film Polytechnique are raw, real and devastating. Full Review

Kevin N. Laforest
April 26, 2009
Kevin N. Laforest, Montreal Film Journal

Almost from beginning to end, we're filled with dread and, I must say, a morbid sense of anticipation. Full Review

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