Stunt People

Marcel Fournier, a French-Canadian patriarch who does stunts for a living, is the main interviewee in this offbeat look at four generations of Fourniers who smash cars, are set on fire, and leap off buildings for their paychecks. Directed by Lois Siegel, Stunt People combines Fournier's anecdotes about the lives of stunt people with segments which demonstrate how certain stunts are performed, and film clips which feature the Fourniers doing some of their stuntwork. The "hook" here is that stuntwork is a family affair for the Fourniers, since the stunts shown are neither that spectacular nor are they from notable films. The Fourniers, by and large, have been staples of the Canadian B-movie industry, appearing in such forgettable efforts as Red, City on Fire, and a host of action pictures. While the family slant is interesting, the film suffers from Marcel's broken English, which carries a heavy French-Canadian accent. Viewers are likely to miss some of what he says. Still, Stunt People is a well made look at an unheralded subject. It's just hard to say who the audience should be: off-color language from the film clips make the video unsuitable for junior and senior high school libraries, and the price puts it out of the range for most public libraries. We would recommend this, but we don't know who to recommend it to. (See BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA for availability.)