Friday, May 7, 9:30 PM, Charles Theatre 5

Director: Jean-François Pouliot

Cast: Raymond Bouchard, David Boutin, Benoît Brière, Pierre Collin, Lucie Laurier, Bruno Blanchet

Country: Canada
Year: 2003
Running Time: 109 minutes
Format: 35mm, French, with English subtitles

The small island of Ste. Marie-La Mauderne in northern Quebec has seen better days. Long gone are the days when the citizens could put in an honest day’s work fishing the local harbor and then spend the evening enjoying the fruits of their labor. Now, with the fish depleted, there is no gainful employment available for the dwindling population, and practically the entire town is on the dole.

The last chance to save the town is to convince a new factory to open there. The problem is that for insurance purposes the factory requires that the town have a full time doctor, which it lacks. When Christopher Lewis, a doctor from Montreal, is sent to the town for a month, they resort to all sorts of chicanery to make the big city doctor believe that this small town is a paradise he doesn’t want to leave.

Seducing Doctor Lewis has pleased audiences around the world. On its release in French Canada, it grossed more at the box office than Return of the King, The Matrix Reloaded, and Pirates of the Caribbean. It is also the winner of the World Cinema Audience Award and Sundance and was the Closing Night of the Director’s Fortnight at Cannes.

-- Dan Krovich

Ken Scott began his career as a comedian and writer with the comedy group Les Bizarroïdes. He traveled the world with the group appearing at many prestigious festivals and winning the “Discovery of the Year” at Montreal’s Just For Laughs Festival in 1994 and the Frankfurt Slapstick Festival in 1996. His first feature as a screenwriter, Life after Love, won the award for best box office in Quebec at the Jutra Awards in 2001. He is also the writer and co-star of the sit-com, Le Plateau. Scott also appears in Seducing Doctor Lewis as Richard Auger, the owner of the town’s hideous “Heritage House.”

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