| 2 Seconds | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Manon Briand |
| Producer: | Roger Frappier |
| Music: | Dominique Grand Sylvain-Charles Grand |
| Cinematography: | Louise Archambault Pierre Crépô James Gray |
| Editing: | Richard Comeau |
| Studio: | Max Films Productions |
| Runtime: | 100 minutes |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English and French interchangeably |
2 Seconds (French: 2 secondes) is a 1998 Canadian drama film. This film premiered in 1999 at the Sundance Film Festival.[1] Written and directed by Manon Briand, 2 Seconds stars Charlotte Laurier as Laurie, a bisexual woman who takes a job as a bike courier in Montreal after being fired from her previous job as a professional downhill racer.[2] Laurie is forcefully retired as a downhill racer when her concerns about her signs of aging cause her to lose her last race by 2 seconds (hence the name of the movie). Laurie and the one bike she was allowed to keep then move in with her geeky, physics-loving brother who is trying very hard to find a girlfriend. While putting her bike together, Laurie discovers that she is missing a gear on her bicyclette so she makes do with what she has. Because of this, she breaks the chain on her bike one day, leading to her meeting with her soon-to-be best friend Lorenzo. Lorenzo is an ex Italian professional racer who currently works as a bike mechanic in his own bike shop. offered her a job at the bicycle company, but one of her co workers, Willie, tries to make her life miserable. After talking to Lorenzo, Laurie figures out what she needs to do to help herself and try to resolve things.[3]
Brendan Kelly of Variety praised the film, saying "there is no shortage of nifty visual flourishes. . .Soundtrack is an appropriately cool urban mix of jazz and modern-rock sounds."[4] The Melbourne International Film Festival called it "An understated film with an extraordinarily simple premise"[5]
| Year | Award | Category | Recipients | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Montreal World Film Festival[6] | Best Canadian Film | Manon Briand | |
| Best Director | Manon Briand | |||
| Montréal award of the best First Fiction Film | Manon Briand | |||
| Grand Prix des Ameriques | Manon Briand | |||
| FedEx Award of the best Canadian Film | 2 secondes (Manon Briand) | |||
| 1998 | Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film | Best First Screenplay | Manon Briand | |
| 1999 | 1st Jutra Awards | Best Picture | Roger Frappier | |
| Best Director | Manon Briand | |||
| Best Actor | Dino Tavarone | |||
| Best Actress | Charlotte Laurier | |||
| Best Screenplay | Manon Briand | |||
| Best Sound | Yvon Benoît, Martin Pinsonnault, Hans Peter Strobl, Louis Hone | |||
| Best Editing | Richard Comeau |