Trailer for Guidelines.
In La belle visite, a lyrical look at aging, Jean-François Caissy observed the solitude of a quiet seaside retirement home. Guidelines retains this patient, formal approach through a series of tableaux equally focused on subject and setting. This time his subject is teen life at a rural Quebec high school, and the tension between institutional confines and the uninhibited freedom awaiting outside. In scenes set behind closed doors that play out in real time, a fixed frame on adolescents being addressed by authority figures reveals the complexities of their daily lives. Conversely, seasonal outdoor activities like bridge diving, paintball and snowmobiling test unspoken boundaries of safety and beliefs of invincibility. Caissy masterfully allows silence to permeate scenes so that singular actions have great resonance. Almost half a century after Frederick Wiseman’s High School, Guidelines provides a fresh perspective on modern adolescents. The hairstyles have changed, but the rebelliousness remains.