The Woman of Ahhs: A Self-Portrait by Victoria Fleming (a.k.a. The Woman of Ahhs) is a 2008 dramatic comedy from Canada by filmmaker B. P. Paquette

B. P. Paquette

Benjamin Patrick Paquette , is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and academic.-Background:Born in London, Ontario, Paquette spent his childhood and adolescence in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. He graduated from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Quebec,...

, starring Darryl Hunter, Holly O'Brien, and Stephanie Dixon. A parody

Parody

A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...

 of The Wizard of Oz

The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)

The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...

, The Woman of Ahhs features the performance of original songs wherein the lyrics comment upon and propel the narrative, as do a triad of contemporary dance

Contemporary dance

Contemporary dance is a genre of concert dance that employs compositional philosophy, rather than choreography, to guide unchoreographed movement...

 performances by Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil

Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...

 choreographer Debra Brown. The Woman of Ahhs is the second panel in Paquette's triptych on "the psychology of romantic love," preceded by A Year in the Death of Jack Richards (2004), and followed by The Anonymous Rudy S..

Plot

A struggling musician in Toronto, Jude Garland, 33, has developed feelings for a beautiful young woman whom he has never met, but only observed via the Internet. Disheartened, Jude is encouraged to track her down by his friend Victoria Fleming, a sly documentary filmmaker whose ulterior motives are only gradually revealed as the film progresses. His quest eventually takes him to Montreal where his friend Billy (who also has ulterior motives) introduces him to Raymonde, Jacklyn and Bertie, three musicians (who also have ulterior motives) with whom he will have three conversations about romantic love. Although clues abound that the beautiful young woman from the Internet is within his reach, Jude's frustration mounts as he discovers that his reality is anything but what it seems.

Interpretations and allusions

The Woman of Ahhs has been described as "a weirdly insightful film about romantic love and the nature of media and consciousness itself, a kind of mockumentary with the added complication that the documentarian on-screen is not the director. Helen Faradji, film critic, and editor-in-chief of 24 images

24 images

24 images is a French-language film magazine published in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1979 by Benoît Patar, 24 images changed editors in 1987, with Marie-Claude Loiselle and Claude Racine assuming control. Loiselle and Racine improved the stature of the publication, adding such writers as Philippe...

, wrote that The Woman of Ahhs is “mysterious and bizarre [...] Mixing reality, documentary and fiction but also having fun scrambling all reference points to time, the film takes as its starting point the classic The Wizard of Oz, and then layers in stylistic effects, mirror-within-mirror constructions and fantastical sequences to better puzzle us while we wander through this loveably bizarre dream world.”

Festival recognition

Premiering at the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma

Festival du Nouveau Cinéma

The Festival du Nouveau Cinéma was known as the Montreal Festival of New Cinema and New Media until 2004. Founded in 1971, by Claude Chamberlan and Dimitri Eipides, it is an annual independent film festival held in Montreal and features independent films from around the world...

 where it was nominated for the Grand Prix Focus, The Woman of Ahhs was an official selection at numerous film festivals around the world, including Cinefest

Cinéfest

Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, also known as Cinéfest is an annual film festival in Sudbury, Ontario. It is the fourth largest film festival in Canada....

, the Sofia International Film Festival

Sofia International Film Festival

Sofia International Film Festival gathers together in Sofia films, guests, stars, journalists and cinema fans. Featured in Variety’s Top 50 of cinema festivals, the event presents Bulgaria to the world as the host one of the important film festivals in Europe and takes place annually in March...

 in Bulgaria, the European Independent Film Festival in Paris, France, where it was presented at the Bibliothèque nationale de France

Bibliothèque nationale de France

The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...

 and was nominated for Best Non-European Feature Film, and the Mexico International Film Festival where Paquette received the Bronze Palm Award.

Awards

• 2005 B. P. Paquette
  B. P. Paquette
  Benjamin Patrick Paquette , is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and academic.-Background:Born in London, Ontario, Paquette spent his childhood and adolescence in Greater Sudbury, Ontario. He graduated from Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema in Montreal, Quebec,...
  
  won the Bronze Palm Award at the Mexico International Film Festival