Just to disprove the theory that Canadian cinema is all downers, dementia and dispossessed, director Richard Roy gives us Cafe Ole, a ‘smiling inside’ movie. A romantic comedy set in Montreal and shot en anglais, it’s the simple story of a man who finally finds the incentive and courage and seizes upon his right to say ‘no’ amid a life of bending to the will of others.

Cafe Ole is a low-budget film ($1.3 million) with big talent, a big script and a big heart. ‘It is a love story,’ says Roy, ‘where we love the love in the story.’

Andrew Tarbet stars as unlucky-in-love Malcolm, who’s longing for the right match but is unlikely to meet her since he sees women, says Roy, ‘through a Hollywood lens.’ This makes it hard for him to meet or even recognize a real woman and sustain a relationship.

Eventually, of course, a good match – Laia Marcull of Barcelona as Alicia – does turn up. But Malcolm’s inexperience at communicating with living, breathing women, as opposed to the celluloid variety, provokes a sad and sunny climax in which he finally does say ‘no.’

Other cast members hanging out in Cafe Ole include Macha Grenon, Dorothee Berryman, Stephanie Morgenstern and Harry Standjofsky. Written by Emil Sher, the 92-minute film was produced by Pierre Laberge through Ficciones Films.

Marc Charlebois shot the picture on 35mm, and Michel Rivard composed what Roy describes as a ‘beautiful’ score.

Equinox is distributing Cafe Ole. Roy says the film was financed by Telefilm Canada, sodec, federal and Quebec tax credits, plus some screenwriting assistance from The Harold Greenberg Fund.

Cafe Ole is a decided change of pace for director Roy, whose last feature, Caboose, was a ‘cop-killing film noir’ about a bad cop who hires a female cop-in-training to find out who’s trying to kill the bad cop.

On the other hand, next up on Roy’s schedule is another romantic comedy, a feature scheduled to go before the cameras next June in Newfoundland. *