The Heart Exposed

The Heart Exposed (French: Le Cœur découvert) is a Canadian drama film, directed by Jean-Yves Laforce and released in 1987.^[1] Written by Michel Tremblay as an adaptation of his own novel The Heart Laid Bare (Le Cœur découvert), the film centres on the relationship between Jean-Marc (Gilles Renaud) and Mathieu (Michel Poirier), two gay men who meet and fall in love despite a ten-year age difference and the complication that Mathieu is the father of a five-year-old son.^[2]

The Heart Exposed
French	Le Cœur découvert
Based on	The Heart Laid Bare (Le Cœur découvert) by Michel Tremblay
Written by	Michel Tremblay
Directed by	Jean-Yves Laforce
Starring	Michel Poirier Gilles Renaud
Music by	Michel-Charles Therrien
Country of origin	Canada
Original language	French
Production
Cinematography	Jean Pierre Lefebvre
Editor	André Daigneault
Running time	106 minutes
Production company	Société Radio-Canada
Original release
Release	November 1987 (1987-11)

The film's cast also includes Olivier Chasse, Louisette Dussault, Amulette Garneau, Louise Rinfret, Pierre Houle and Robert Lalonde.

The film premiered at the Montreal World Film Festival in 1987,^[3] but was distributed primarily as a television film broadcast by Télévision de Radio-Canada in November.^[4] It was later screened at the Frameline Film Festival in 1989, where it won the Audience Award.^[5]

Thomas Waugh, writing for Cinema Canada, stated that "It is a fine pleasure to see this warmhearted little gem, not only because of positive representation of gays in this year when everyone's gushing about Night Zoo, a violent misogynist derivative film that exults in queer-baiting and queer-smashing, but because one of our finest writers has made another all-too-rare visit to the screen."^[6]