The Wind at My Door

Quebec actor-filmmaker Pierre Goupil might not be a household name, but his work includes such well-regarded Canadian movies as Robert N. and Celui qui voit les heures. Goupil and Rénald Bellemare's The Wind at My Door is a sad documentary about Goupil's severe struggles with bipolar disorder at the 1980s peak of his career, a condition that still affects him today. Now in his 60s, Goupil is seen at the beginning of this film being evicted from his longtime home (which is in visible disrepair and full of garbage). Goupil moves to an apartment and, over time, establishes it as a viable base, while also meeting with people from his past, including old collaborators, artists, and his mother. Goupil talks a lot about the reality-bending effects of being bipolar, including a bizarre episode when he almost completely disrobed outdoors and believed himself to be at one with ants. But Goupil also feels a healthy ambivalence about constantly finding himself subject to legal and medical authorities, displaying a general cynicism about a self-serving, Orwellian system that controls everything and everybody. Interestingly, the documentary—filmed in 2010—finds resonance with that view on the streets of Montreal as the Occupy movement takes over a section of the city core. An interesting portrait of a metaphorically square peg artist struggling to fit into a societal round hole, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)