The Phantom Image, a new film programming initiative, is joining forces with the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma for an event screening presented as part of its 55th edition, on Saturday October 17, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise.
Presented in the “History(s) of Cinema” section of the festival, this double program brings together two films which test our relationship with animals and invite us to rethink it. Two unusual works where humans and animals meet, get to know each other and form unusual relationships, with a resolutely intimate character.
On the program: Max mon amour by Nagisa Oshima (1986), a hilarious comedy in which Charlotte Rampling plays a diplomat’s wife in love with a chimpanzee, presented for the first time in Montreal in its restored version.
The film will be preceded by Wild Skin (2016), a fascinating short film by Ariane Louis-Seize, in which Marilyn Castonguay plays a lonely woman who develops a mysterious obsession with a python.
About The Phantom Image is a new film programming initiative founded in Montreal in April 2025. It was born from the collaboration between three film critics and programmers, Elijah Baron, Louis-Jean Decazes and Matheo Pino, united around a common desire: to enrich the Montreal film ecosystem with a unique proposition, combining international cinematographic heritage and contemporary Quebec creation.
The Phantom Image offers a regular cycle of screenings, and has presented programs at the Cinéma Public and the Cinéma Moderne. Each session brings together a recent Quebec short film, directed by an emerging filmmaker, and a recently restored international feature film, previously unreleased in Montreal in its restored version. The two films are thus brought together around a specific motif or theme; Among the themes covered so far are feminism through the ages, the imagination of childhood, isolated mountain life and even disability. The screening is followed by a discussion with the public, in the presence of the short film’s filmmaker and moderated by one of the members of L’image phantom.
Screenings at the FNC on Saturday October 17, 2026 at 7 p.m. at the Cinémathèque québécoise in the presence of director Ariane Louis-Seize and reptile specialist Joanis Boucher.