Brendan Kelly takes look back at Quebec culture
The top story of 2017 in Hollywood was also the top story of the year in the Quebec entertainment milieu.
In the American showbiz world, it was the year of often shocking allegations of sexual abuse, aggression and impropriety on the part of power brokers in film and TV. Here in Quebec, the entertainment scene was also rocked by a slew of allegations of sexual misconduct levelled at a number of high-profile figures, most notably Juste pour rire/ Just for Laughs founder Gilbert Rozon and TV host and producer Éric Salvail.
Several women came forward to allege that they were either harassed or assaulted by Rozon, who very quickly stepped down from the top position at Juste pour rire. But he still hasn’t sold his majority stake in the private company, which has caused a real malaise in the comedy industry here. A number of Quebec’s top comics — including Martin Petit, Mike Ward and Anthony Kavanagh — set up a new festival to rival Juste pour rire because they didn’t want to work with Rozon. (In a classic only-in-Quebec twist, some nationalists have objected to the name of the new event, Le Grand Montréal comédie fest, suggesting it sounds too anglo.)
It was also all about Leonard this year in Montreal. Following Leonard Cohen’s death last year, the city unveiled two murals paying tribute to the Westmountborn singer-songwriter, one a small-scale affair near his old house in the Plateau, the other a larger-than-life portrait on Crescent St. that looms over the city.
There was also a star-studded tribute concert at the Bell Centre in November, a series of smallerscale tribute shows at the Gesù that is still going on, and a major exhibition at the Musée d’art contemporain, Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, which continues through April. One does wonder how comfortable Cohen would be with all this attention, but the breadth of the homage underlines his importance in the cultural history of our city.
The Plateau live-music scene got some bad news in November when St-Laurent Blvd. indie showcase spot Divan Orange announced it will close its doors in the spring, after 13 years and more than 10,000 shows. The bar has been a key spot for emerging artists, hosting early concerts by acts such as Patrick Watson, Fleet Foxes and Coeur de pirate.
Other small venues, including Les Bobards and l’Inspecteur Épingle, have also closed in recent years, and the new Projet Montréal administration says it will set up a committee to look into why these establishments are in such difficulty.
The folks who run Divan Orange said the closure is the result of a number of factors, including higher taxes and rents, frequent noise complaints from nearby residents and the lack of government support.
In the world of bigger concerts, the major development was the opening of the 10,000-capacity Place Bell in Laval. Music fans will now have to go off-island for some shows that will only touch down in Laval. That was the case for LCD Soundsystem a few weeks back and will be again when the Killers headline there on Jan. 6.
Promoter Evenko also added a new festival in 2017: ’77 Montréal pulled in punks of all ages in late July for a day of hard-edged fare at Parc Jean-Drapeau. The first edition featured Dropkick Murphys, Rancid and X, and Evenko promises the event will be back next summer.
FM rock station CHOM lost two well-liked hosts in recent months. Listeners were none too happy to learn in July that seasoned DJ Tootall was set to retire at the end of September, and indie-music types were equally bummed out when Jay Walker revealed that his Sunday night alt-rock show, Montreal Rocks, was being cancelled.
On the film front, homegrown French-language cinema bounced back big time at the box office, almost entirely thanks to two hit sequels: Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 and De père en flic 2. It was nice to see them do well at the ticket wicket after years of declining sales for Quebec films, but it’s still an uphill battle for homegrown movies that are not sequels to big successes.