As promised, here is a summary of Cap Tourmente. It is a scene by scene description, sometimes with excerpts from the dialogues ( French québécois in regular style, English in bold). Hoping that it will help those who don’t speak French and did not understand the whole story. Perhaps, one day, someone will produce an English version or at least sub-titles...

Alex is back home in Charlevoix. He is waiting, at the crossroads for his sister to pick him up. But Jean-Louis ( an O’Neil ‘s family friend) arrives at the same time after being away for 9 years. Both men seem happy but Alex fears that their returns will stir up conflicts and he tries to convince him to go away. Then, the two women arrive in a car.

Jeanne and Jean-Louis talk about the Inn and of the last 9 years gone by.

Meeting of a guest and her daughter. Jean-Louis and Jeanne come in. Alex says that he will prepare dinner.

A very nice scene in the kitchen, where Alex speaks out loud of a dream where the four of them would look after the Inn. He assures his mother that she can not go on like this all by herself.
Alex : T’es en train de te faire crever, là !
You’re killing yourself !
He says, sticking his knife in the carving board.

Jean-Louis and Alex are on the balcony. Alex speaks about the stars and he notices that Jean-Louis remains silent.

Alex : Juste ceux qui parlent pas qui disent pas des niaiseries hein ?
Only people that don’t speak that don’t tell stupid things, eh ?

Jean-Louis is yawning.
Alex : Va dormir. Fais toi s’en pas, tu feras pas de cauchemars, j’vais toutes les faire à ta place.
Go to bed, and don’t worry, you won’t have bad dreams. I will have them all for you.

Jeanne is combing her hair and Jean-Louis retires in his room. Alfa is waiting for him. She wants to talk about the old days, when they were in love. He replies that it was Alex that she always loved. That makes her mad and she sits away from him.

Alfa : As-tu trouvé ça tout seul ? Je pense que mon frère est malade. Je pense qu’il est en train de mourir. Des fois, j’aurai le goût de le prendre dans mes bras pis de l’étouffer.
Did you find out all by yourself ? I believe that my brother is sick. Very sick, dying. Sometimes, I wish I could take him in my arms and choke him.

Alex is alone in the kitchen, finishing a pyramid of glasses, he then knocks it down.

Alex gets his mother out of her room. He wants to take her away, far away. He tells her not to worry, that he will protect her. He embraces her, almost choking her, Jeanne is horrified. Jean-Louis rushes in to separate them and Alex will go away.
Jeanne is trying to explain to her guest her son’s behavior, but refuse to talk about what has happened with Jean-Louis.

Alex in the attic with his cello. You can tell that Roy is familiar with the instrument ( he studied cello in his childhood) Look how easy he makes the instrument revolve and place it right in front of him. It is very natural for him.

Alex is swimming in the river. The St.Lawrence’s water is icy, between 50 and 55F ( 16 and 17C) in the summer. I find Roy most courageous to venture in these waters.

Jean-Louis joins him, asking him if the water was cold. Alex throws his cello in the river, hoping that a Newfoundland boy will find it and make his dream to make music, come true. It is one of Alex poetic dream.

The men are now standing on the schooner’s wreck. Alex says that he could have been a sailor like his father.

Alex : Sais-tu que j’me suis jamais fait casser la gueule...A force d’essayer, ça pourrait m’arriver.
Nobody as ever knocked my block off...but if I keep asking for, it’s gonna happen.
Jean-Louis : Si c’est ça ton but dans la vie...
If it's your goal in life...
Alex asks Jean-Louis what’s happening to him. Jean-Louis says that he had sold out everything and that now, he has money and freedom.
Alex : C’est où ça la liberté ? En tout cas, la mienne a coûte cher.
Where do you find freedom ? Anyway, mine is pretty expensive.
Alex tells him of his money problems mostly because of drugs. He says lots of people are after him. Hugging Jean-Louis, he asks him what is life all about ?

Alex : La vie ça peut pas juste être ça ? Hein! Es-tu d’accord? Ça se peut pas que ça soit juste ça ! On s’est trompé quelque part...C’est pareil partout ! J’te jure c’est pareil partout !
Is that what life is all about? It can't be only that! Someone made a mistake...It is the same all over! I swear it's the same thing!

Then he tells Jean-Louis not to bother with him and let himself fall off the wreckage.

Jean-Louis comes back with the cello. He meets Alfa who is leaving for work. They talk about her job and of her feelings regarding her brother who she is protecting.

The paint job. Jean-Louis and Alex painting the Inn.

Alfa is doubtful of Alex’s intentions of staying and working at the Inn. Jeanne says that if the building gets a face-lift, it will be easier to sell.

The guest and Jean-Louis are talking of the past and of the sketch of the Inn that the guest had done and which was still hanging on the wall.

Jean-Louis, Jeanne and Alfa are in the kitchen, discussing Alex’s idea to form a coop to manage the Inn. Alfa is against it. She claims that in order to succeed it needs an investment and that her mother had no money. She’s got money but she will not put a penny if the Inn does not belong to her.

Jeanne and Jean-Louis at the crossroads. Jeanne tells him that she never went further up. She says she has changed her mind and does not want to sell the Inn. She gets mad at Jean-Louis because he addresses her as " vous " and she is not that old.

Jean-Louis joins them at the hotel. Alex is at the bar. He asks Alfa for a beer. She refuses telling him that just one and he will blow up...she tells him to have one of his old girl friends to buy him one. Wilfred, his sister’s boyfriend will buy him a beer. ( Wilfred is played by Luc Picard, who was playing the role of Roy’s brother in Un oiseau vivant dans la gueule) Jean-Louis sits near them. Alfa is asking him to take Alex back home. Alex introduces Wilfred to Jean-Louis and starts talking about love. That Jean-Louis is his guardian angel, who is in love with him. Wilfred says :

Wilfred: Toi ton problème dans la vie c'est que tu parles trop pour ce que tu as à dire. Tu te prends pour un autre. Mais dans le fond, t'es plus trou de cul que toutes nous autres. T'as-tu dis à ton ange-gardien quel sorte de trou de cul t'étais? Comment t'es pas capable de bander, que c'est pour ça que tu fais le coq.
The problem with you is that you talk too much for what you have to say. You think you're somebody else. In reality, you're just an ass hole, the biggest ass hole. Did you tell your guardian angel about it? That you can't raise a hard on and that's why you boast that much.

Alex jumps on him, holds him down but saying he was right.

The owner of the Bar wants to kick him out, saying that Alex is only good for throwing the shit around. He punches Alex in the face. While Alfa tries to help Alex, " Oh, we can't lay the hand on her darling" replies the owner, " you're a whore" he adds. And then she quits her job.

Alex, Alfa, Wilfred and Jean-Louis are in the parking lot. Alex leaning against a car, pushes Jean-Louis back as he doesn't want to be seen. He asks Alfa for a dance, promising her that he will not look at other girls. He refuses when Alfa wants to hold his hand, saying; " You should not take anyone's hand."

Alfa takes him away

Jeanne and the house guest are sitting in front of the fireplace. He would like to talk to her; he is a widower and I think he is in love with her. As she is avoiding him he then decides to leave the next day.

Jean-Louis sees Alex and Alfa kissing in the car.

Alfa goes to her room. Jean-Louis is there, waiting for her.

Jean-Louis : Je vous ai vu dans la voiture tout à l'heure...Vous étiez beaux.
I saw you in the car...It was a nice scene.

Alfa : A la place de qui t'aurais voulu être, à la mienne ou à la sienne?
If you had been there what place would have you enjoyed most: his or mine?

Jean-Louis : Vous avez de la chance....
You're both lucky....He says that he wants to make love to her and she replies that it's easier with her ( intimating that it's easier with her than with Alex)

Jeanne is lying on the couch. Getting up she sees Alex asleep in front of the fireplace. She notices that he is wounded. She goes up to her room to find Alfa and Jean-Louis in the same bed.

Alex is lying with his cello.

Alfa and Jeanne in the kitchen, where Jeanne is fed up and would like to sell the place and go away. She wants to know what has happened to Alex. Alfa says " that again he knocked himself against all the stupid people in the world". Jeanne wants also to know if her relationship with Jean-Louis is serious, Alfa says: "not really".

Jeanne and Alfa go to Jean-Louis bedroom. Alfa tells him that from now on all the staff must sleep in the attic, except Jeanne, in order to rent all the room. Then the two women start emptying Jeanne's husband cupboard and drawers. Alfa comes across a picture of her father and turning to her mother says: " Your son is just like your husband". Jeanne replies: " I told you before: he belongs to his father." Then she walks out.

Alex enters the room and comes out bringing his father's captain's jacket. When his mother sees him coming down the stairs dressed up that way, she tells him: " Take it off please!"

When halfway up the stairs, she tells him not to look at her, as she doesn't want to see him in order to tell him what's on her mind:

Jeanne : Tu sais mon garçon, si je m'étais écoutée, il y a bien des fois où je serais rentrée le nez en sang moi aussi. Mais je suis presque jamais sortie. Ça m'a pas empêchée de voir que la vie était mal faite. Mal faite pour tout le monde. Pour certains plus que pour d'autres. Je regarde la télévision et j'ai pas envie d'aller ailleurs.
You know son, if I had followed my instinct, I would have come back home also with a bloody nose. But I never went out. Still I know that life in no good. It is not good for everybody, and for some it's worse than for others. I watch TV and I don't feel like going anywhere.

Alex : Pourquoi tu me dis toute ça maman?
Why are you telling me all that, mom?

Jeanne : Tu me dois rien mon garçon. J'ai pas été malheureuse, tu sais.
You owe me nothing, son. I wasn't unhappy.

Alex : Moi non plus, j'suis pas malheureux.
I don't either.

Jeanne : Dépêche toi de trouver ta vie. Je suis assez grande pour trouver la mienne.
Hurry up to find your way. I'm big enough to find mine.

In the attic: Jean-Louis and Alfa are in bed together. Alex stretches in the hammock. Alfa goes away. Alex goes near Jean-Louis. He wants to warm up and says that he is not used to sleep alone. He asks Jean-Louis if he loves him. He asks him to take him in his arms. Jean-Louis doesn't want. Alex will insist. Jean-Louis refuses and Alex leaves in a bad mood.

During dinner, there is a storm. Alex is up the apple tree installing some loud speakers. Then, Barbara arrives, she's a stranger. The brakes on her bike are broken. Alex offers her to fix them.

On the beach, near the wreckage, Alex and Barbara get acquainted. She tells Alex that she has a felling that he wants to make love to her. He replies that he doesn't even know her name. She said her name is Barbara. Alex sings a song from the repertoire of the singer Barbara.

Alex, Barbara, Jean-Louis, Alfa et Jeanne are in the kitchen. When Alfa sees her brother together with Barbara, she says there is romance in the air. Barbara makes a remark in English saying that the Inn looks like a ship. Jeanne doesn't understand English very well so Jean-Louis will translate to her. Barbara will notice that everybody seems to be in love with one an other. Jean-Louis will translate that everybody seems to loving a lot each other. Alex corrects him and says that she said " in love" but not "loving a lot". He asks Jean-Louis if he had given a wrong translation because he did not agree with this or because he didn't understand English any more.

A young boy at the ship's bow. This is Alex.

Jean-Louis and Alfa are in a small boat. She remembers him when Alex was a child. She says that he would have pursued his cello lessons. Also that her mother should have continued to play the piano and her signing. Alfa admits that she's jealous, that she would like to be in love. But Jean-Louis did not love her. She writes down a few love words on a piece of paper, puts it in a bottle and through it out in the river, saying that it is the only love letter she'll ever write.

Barbara tries to make love with Alex, but he is not really inspired.

Alfa and Jean-Louis are in bed. Alfa fells sad and joins her mother, who opens up to her. Alfa asks her if she loves her. Alfa says that although she had slept with Jean-Louis, he did not belong to anyone.

Alfa : M'aimes-tu maman? M'as-tu déjà aimé? Pourquoi tu pleures jamais maman?
Do you love me mom? Did you ever? Why don't you ever cry, mom?

Jeanne : Parce que j'ai plus de larmes. Je les ai toutes brailler pour ton père...
Because I have no more tears. I cried them all for your father...

Alfa : Tu l'aimais tant que ça?
You loved him that much?

Jeanne : Je serais peut-être arrivée à le détester, mais il m'a fait le coup de mourir.
Perhaps, I would have got to hate him, but he tricked me when he died.

Two men show up at the door. They are bailiffs. Jeanne has 30 days to pay the arrears on the mortgage. Jean-Louis is nervous and wants to know who these two men are. Jeanne will lie to him as she doesn't want him to know that she has money problems. So he believes they are visitors for Alex.

Barbara and Alex are on the wreckage. Alex plays the cello, voluntary on the wrong notes. Barbara didn't want him to play like that. He says their relationship are absurd, that they are in the wrong track, as he thinks out loud in French, she does not understand what he's talking about. She wants him to speak English. He answers back in French, saying that he speaks from the heart so she should understand him. Then Barbara starts speaking to him in her maternal tongue which sounded like a language from Eastern Europe. To cover her voice Alex plays louder and louder.

Jean-Louis arrives. Alex meets him on the beach. Jean-Louis Tells him that two men came around as they were probably looking for him. He then gives him all his money asking him to find the men and pay his drug debts. Alex goes around Jean-Louis asking to look at him...Barbara watches Alex from the wreckage.

A ship sails down the river.

Barbara tells Jeanne that she is leaving.

Jeanne and Barbara are sad. The got along well together.

Jeanne goes to the wreckage where his son stands naked. She tells him: " What do you want to destroy? Who are you trying to harm?

Alex : C'est un cadeau de Jean-Louis. Tu savais pas. Jean-Louis est en amour avec moi, c'est pour ça qu'il est revenu. Hein, Jean-Louis?
It is a gift from Jean-Louis. You didn't know. Jean-Louis is in love with me. That's why he came back. Right, Jean-Louis?

Jeanne :Ta gueule Alex!
Shut your mouth Alex!

Alex : Dis-lui Jean-Louis pourquoi tu baises avec ma soeur...parce que tu sais que je l'aime ma soeur. Tu trouves pas ça malade, Maman?
Go ahead, Jean-Louis. Tell her why you're making love to my sister....because you know that I love her. Isn't sickening, Mom?

Alex : Jean-Louis si je rachète l'auberge, tu vas tu passer la moppe?
Eh Jean-Louis, if I buy the Inn will you mop the floor?

Jean-Louis jumps on Alex.

Jean-Louis : Toi de qui t'es amoureux ? Ah...C'est vrai tu sais pas ce que ça veut dire...Tu nous fais chier avec tes états d'âmes !
And you, who do you love?...Of course, you don't know what it means...You pissed us off with your soul searching!

Jean-Louis : T’as tu déjà dit à quelqu'un que tu l'aimais ? Tu vas me le dire à moi que tu m'aimes ! J'vas te le faire cracher!
Have you ever said to someone that you love her? Well, you will tell me that you love me! I'll make you spit it out! Holding Alex by the neck, he shakes him out saying:

Jean-Louis : Ça te fera juste une menterie de plus !
It will just be another lie! Alex will reply with two blows from his right, one at the abdomen, the other on the chin.

Jean-Louis :Vas-y tue moi ! C'est ça que tu veux ! Manque moi pas, parce que moi j'te jure que j'te manquerai pas!
Go ahead, kill me! That's what you want? Don't miss me, because I won't!

Jeanne must throw her son out once more. Alfa comes in and notices that Alex is not there. She goes out after him.

Alfa : Où tu t'en vas?
Where are you going?

Jean-Louis gets out of the house still being held back by Jeanne and gets near Alex.

Jean-Louis : Si tu savais comme j't'aime. C'est toi le plus beau, le plus fort...tu ne t'es pas assez regardé avec les yeux des autres.
You don't know how much I love you. You're beautiful, strong...You never look at yourself with the eyes of a stranger.

Alfa goes to her mother and in sorrow she suggests that she should leave with the men. Jeanne stands sill. Alex and Jean-Louis leave in the car.

Jean-Louis : Débarque, t'as tu chemin à rattraper. Moi je ne peux pas te reconduire plus loin. Va-t-en, va-t-en, vas-y dans ta vie, le monde est là juste pour toi. Faut juste que tu y ailles. Yé pas trop tard. J'ai jamais trop tard. Go!Go!"
Get out, there is a long road ahead. I can't go any further. Go away, go away! Go and see your life, the world is right there. You just have to go. It's not too late. It's never too late. Go! Go!

Jean-Louis leaves. Alfa arrives.

Alfa : Viens t:en. j'pars avec toi. On va aller où tu veux. J'ai toute sacré là. Je suis libre moi aussi...Ok...c'est Barbara que tu veux,...Ok, on va la retrouver...
Come back, I will leave with you. We'll go anywhere you'll want to go. I left everything behind me. I'm free. Ok, you want Barbara...Ok , we'll get Barbara...

He goes away. She hangs on to him.

Alfa : Alex, on va se défoncer. OK, on va toute flamber...j'te jure...viens-t'en...
Alex, we'll have fun. Ok, we'll blow up everything. I swear...come back...

She still hangs on to him.

The the Bar owner arrives. He asks her if she wants him to get rid of Alex.

Alex : Traverses-tu le Parc?
Do you go through the Park? ( The Park is Le parc des Laurentides, a large area leading to Lake St-Jean and to regions further North of Québec)

Bar owner: Tu veux te perdre dans le bois ce coup là?
You want to get lost in the bush this time?

Alfa hangs on desesperatly to him, hoping that he will stay. Alex to Alfa: " Ça va être mieux de même. Y'aura pu de tempête, j'amène le cheval " " It's better that way. There will be no more storms, I'm taking the horse with me.

And he leaves. Alfa's crying: " Un cheval de tempête....fuck you...fuck you...A storm horse...fuck you...fuck you...

Jeanne is sitting on the car. She's having dreams, seeing herself at the bow of a ship. Finally, she will sail away.