Une Job Steady ... Un Bon Boss
1972 · 27m · Canada
Directed by Ian McLaren
Genres: biography, comedy, essay film
Tones: humorous, provocative, theatrical
Comedian Yvon Deschamps performs on stage and reflects off it on growing up in Montreal's inner city, embodying an irreverent style of Quebecois humour rooted in working-class life.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Most people see a stand-up special from '72 and file it away; Deschamps's refusal to perform *just* comedy—cutting constantly between stage and lived reflection—is formally perverse in the best way, treating autobiography like it's supposed to be messy and contradictory.
A masterclass in the essay-film form: McLaren uses the stage-and-offstage structure not as gimmick but as rigorous argument about class, language, and performance itself, positioning Deschamps within the lineage of Quebec's political theatre while remaining formally precise about every cut.
The decision to let the stage lighting bleed into the reflective sequences—never fully separating performer from person—is what unlocks the whole thing; it's a small technical choice that transforms what could've been a straightforward doc into something that actually *feels* like thinking out loud.