The Merry World of Léopold Z (French: La vie heureuse de Léopold Z) is a 1965 comedy-drama directed by Gilles Carle that played a key role in efforts to create a popular national cinema in Quebec.
(Guy L'Écuyer), a snow plow operator for the City of Montreal, on Christmas Eve.
The film paints a portrait of a hapless Québécois little man, battling the winter elements as well as the demands of consumerism, sexual desire and the requirement at that time for French-speaking Quebecers to speak English to be successful.
It is also a film with a strong political point of view, with Carle intending his central character to be a "pre-revolutionary" figure, representing how the Québécois people were being exploited by a capitalist, English-speaking power structure.
[1][2] Ironically, while the film portrays a plow operator battling a traditional Montreal snow storm, an almost snowless winter meant that Carle had to film sporadically over 18 months.