Themes: Twentysomething Life, Faltering Friendships, Serial Killers
Main Cast: Thomas Gibson, Ruth Marshall, Cameron Bancroft, Mia Kirshner, Joanne Vannicola
Release Year: 1993
Country: CA
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Based upon a play by screenwriter Brad Fraser, Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love, Denys Arcand's dark-humored drama Love and Human Remains follows the lives of a group of young Canadians, with a particular focus on their romantic and sexual experiences. The central characters are two roommates, David and Candy. The cynical, witty David is a former television actor turned waiter, the lonely, dissatisfied Candy a book critic; the two were formerly lovers, before David proclaimed his homosexuality. Candy is also questioning her sexuality, having begun a lesbian affair after wondering if her failures with men indicates she might be happier with a woman; meanwhile, David is becoming acquainted with Kane, a handsome, young busboy of uncertain sexuality who idolizes the older David. The other members of the ensemble are also somehow connected to the roommates, through friendship or romance, including Benita, a young dominatrix and part-time psychic, and Bernie, a boastful but insecure young businessman. The couplings and shifting relationships of these characters are intercut with the rather more severe story of a serial murderer who has been terrorizing the city's women, allowing Arcand to place the film's melodramatic elements in an edgier context. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
Matthew Ferguson - Kane; Rick Roberts - Bartender; Aidan Devine - Sal; Serge Houde - Cowboy; Barbara Jones; Gary McKeehan; Karen Young - Singer; Joan Heney; Maurice Podbrey - Theatre Director; Harry Stanjofski; Charles S. Doucet
Credit
Deirdre Bowen - Casting, Stuart Aikins - Casting, Lynn Kressel - Casting, Lucie Robitaille - Casting, Peter Sussman - Co-producer, Denis Sperdouklis - Costume Designer, David J.Webb - First Assistant Director, Denys Arcand - Director, John McCarthy - Composer (Music Score), Micheline Trepanier - Makeup, François Séguin - Production Designer, Paul Sarossy - Cinematographer, Roger Frappier - Producer, Louis Craig - Special Effects, Marcel Pothier - Sound/Sound Designer, Dominique Chartrand - Sound/Sound Designer, Brad Fraser - Screenwriter, Brad Fraser - Play Author
While the film was shot on location in Montreal, Quebec, the original stage play and the screenplay are both set in Edmonton, Alberta. There are attempts made in the dialogue, props and background film footage to identify the city as Edmonton, as in David's remark, "Let's order a Rosebowl pizza and discuss your sexual crises" (Rose Bowl Pizza is a well-known restaurant and bar in Edmonton). In another scene, the TV news reporter signs off from "CFR-" and gets cut off by the TV remote control before she can say "-N," the final call letter of Edmonton's CTV affiliate station. Sal's remark, "It's chicken night at Flash," is an allusion to Flashbacks, a long-gone Edmonton gay bar. There's also repeated use of a Sun newspaper (the Edmonton Sun is one of the city's major daily newspapers, although the city's name is not included in the masthead of the prop paper) and CBC-TV Canadian Football League footage of an Edmonton Eskimos game.
