| Between Salt and Sweet Water | |
| Native Name: | |
| Director: | Michel Brault |
| Starring: | Claude Gauthier Geneviève Bujold Denise Bombardier Robert Charlebois |
| Music: | Claude Gauthier |
| Editing: | Michel Brault Werner Nold |
| Runtime: | 85 minutes |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | French |
Between Salt and Sweet Water (French: '''Entre la mer et l'eau douce'''), also known as Drifting Upstream, is a 1967 Québécois film directed by Michel Brault, co-written by Brault, Gérald Godin, Marcel Dubé, Claude Jutra and Denys Arcand.
The film also features boxer Ronald Jones in a small role. Jones was one of the subjects of Gilles Groulx's 1961 documentary Golden Gloves.[1]
Claude (Claude Gauthier) leaves his small town on the Côte-Nord to go to Montreal, where he works several odd jobs and eventually falls in love with Geneviève (Geneviève Bujold), a pretty waitress who works in a local diner. Claude enters a singing contest that launches his career. As he gradually becomes more well known, he has a brief affair with a married woman and breaks up with Geneviève. He returns to his hometown but nothing seems the same. Back in Montreal, he becomes increasingly more successful as a singer. One night he meets Geneviève backstage, only to learn she is now married, and realizes one can be as lonely in a small town as in a big city.
This film has also been released under the following titles:
French: Entre la mer et l'eau douce is widely regarded as Michel Brault's most poetic and richly complex film.[2]
The film was screened in the Director's Fortnight stream at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.[3]