The Countess of Baton Rouge

The Countess of Baton Rouge (1997) blends Romance and Comedy elements. Top cast includes Robin Aubert, Geneviève Brouillette, and Isabel Richer. The narrative builds around escalating stakes, urgent decisions, and action-driven momentum.

Actor: Robin Aubert • Genre: Comedy movies

In a style evocative of Fellini at his most surreal, this bizarre French Canadian fantasy follows the romance between a young filmmaker and a bearded lady from a local circus during the 1960s. The story begins in a contemporary theater where a projectionist describes, to movie director Rex Prince, the ghostly spirit that seems to be haunting his film. The story then races backward to the 1960s when a half-mad, idealistic Rex was busily making his first film, a Marxist tract depicting poverty in Montreal. Edouard Dore, a well-connected editor works with him and it is he who takes Rex to a carnival late one night to meet the performers in a freakshow. The first person Rex meets is Le Grand Zenon, a hulking one-eyed fellow with the amazing ability to use his eye to project movie images on a screen with neither a projector nor film.