On March 26, the Hotel Indigo St. Petersburg-Tchaikovskogo and St. Petersburg International Festival of Festivals film festival invited their partners and friends to a private screening of Denys Arcand’s new film, An Eye for Beauty (Le Regne de la Beaute).
The film enjoyed its world premiere at the International Film Festival in Toronto in 2014.
French-Canadian director Denys Arcand, who won the prestigious Oscar prize for his film The Barbarian Invasions in 2004, is this time treating his audiences to a thrilling love triangle drama.
“The protagonist, Luc (Eric Bruneau), is a wealthy, renowned thirtysomething architect, who inhabits an impeccable house in a marvelously photogenic rural area near Quebec City,” reads a review at the variety.com. “He’s outlandishly handsome and fit, married to the statuesque blond bombshell Stephanie (Melanie Thierry), knows his wine, grows bushels of his own Humboldt County pot in the nearby woods, drives a flashy T-Bird, sings tenor in the church choir, and has plenty of time to indulge in a spot of tennis, golf, ice hockey, skiing or hunting whenever the mood strikes. Though he implies it’s beneath his dignity, he sometimes accepts easy $1,200-per-day gigs to sit on an architectural panel in Toronto because he “can use the money.”
Yes, Luc seems to have everything, but as Charles Montgomery Burns once said, “I’d trade it all for a little more.” For one, although he’s handsomely compensated, Luc doesn’t feel his designs get enough credit, and complains that he’s rarely invited to the grand openings of his buildings. He also allows himself to be drawn into an affair with an English-speaking Torontonian (Melanie Merkosky), who seduces him by abruptly stating, “I married my high-school sweetheart. He’s been the only man in my life until now. I want you to spend the night with me.”
The evening was attended by actors from the Baltic House Theater Festival, who star in one of the company’s most exciting recent premieres, Natalya Indeikina’s rendition of Leonard Bernstein’s Westside Story. We organized a raffle draw among the guests of the screening, and the prizes included tickets to the show.
The screening was hosted by Tatyana Troyanskaya, a popular radio presenter, whose live show, Art Lunch, comes out at the St. Petersburg Echo radio station.
