Quebec filmmakers shine on international stage
‘ Stories we haven’t seen or heard from people with original voices’ are the secret to success, producer says
Monsieur Lazhar didn’t win the Oscar for best foreign language film Sunday night, but its presence at the biggest show in the movie universe underlines the astonishing resurgence of Quebecois film.
Films made chez nous are making waves right around the planet, and two consecutive foreign language Oscar nominations are just the latest proof of this renaissance. Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies made it onto the Academy Award short list last year, though it failed to nab the famed statuette, and the nomination of Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar marks the first time that Canada has nabbed foreign- language Oscar nods two years running.
This is a big deal. In the history of Canadian cinema, only five movies were nominated for best foreign- language film at the Academy Awards before Monsieur Lazhar. In addition to Incendies, three of them were Denys Arcand films: Le Declin de l’empire americain in 1986, Jesus de Montreal in 1989 and Les Invasions barbares in 2004, the latter being the only Canadian film ever to bring home the Oscar. The one other Canadian nominee was the only non- Quebec film ever to make the grade: Deepa Mehta’s Hindi- language Water in 2006.
It is not just by chance that Quebec films have been feted in Hollywood two years in a row. Our cinema really is making some noise in the worldwide film scene in a way it hasn’t since the golden age of local film back in the ’ 70s, when the films of Claude Jutra, Michel Brault and Arcand travelled the global festival circuit. I went to the Cannes Film Festival throughout the ’ 90s, and I can tell you from first- hand experience that Quebec film had almost no profile on the Croisette back then.
But that has changed at Cannes — and all the other major festivals — over the past couple of years. Denis Cote, who brings his films to more festivals around the world than any other Quebec filmmaker, told me recently that he’s seeing more and more Quebec movies on his festival travels. The world’s top fests — Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance and Toronto — all now almost invariably host the premieres of high- profile, madeinQuebec flicks.
Montreal filmmaker Kim Nguyen’s Rebelle, about child soldiers in Africa, had its premiere this month in the official competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the film’s 14- year- old Congolese star, Rachel Mwanza, won the Silver Bear Award in Berlin as best actress. Cote’s latest bigscreen head- scratcher, the Parc Safariset Bestiaire, also played the Berlin fest, after having its world premiere at Sundance.
Films like Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, Jean- Marc Vallee’s Cafe de Flore, Sebastien Pilote’s Le Vendeur and Anne Emond’s Nuit # 1 have attracted notable attention far from their home turf. Why is this happening now? It may partly be l’effet Xavier Dolan. Cannes fell big- time for this charismatic young man, and his first two features made their bow at the world’s most famous film fest — J’ai tue ma mere in 2009 and Les amours imaginaires in 2010. It’s a safe bet that his third film, the biggerbudget Canada- France co- production Laurence Anyways, will screen at this year’s Cannes fest.
But the real reason Quebec films are travelling is that our filmmakers have started making movies that deserve to travel. While local film has been on a roll at the box office here for a decade now, that boom has been built around movies that click with folks in la belle province but mostly haven’t had international appeal. Quebecers loved Les Boys, Maurice Richard, Séraphin and Le Sens de l’humour, but these are not films that are likely to turn on viewers in Paris, London or Tokyo.
There is indeed a new wave of Quebec filmmakers creating smarter, more intriguing flicks, and the poster kids for this nouvelle vague are producers Luc Dery and Kim Mccraw.
They run the boutique Plateau Mont Royal production house micro_ scope, the hip outfit behind Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar. That’s right: They’ve made it to the Oscars two years running. And they’re changing the film biz here. Before Incendies was released, almost everyone in the business thought local audiences would shy away from a harrowing drama about sectarian conflict in the Middle East. Well, it turned out the film insiders were dead wrong, and Dery and Mccraw knew what they were doing. The film made $ 3.7 million in Quebec and another $ 1 million in the rest of Canada, and was sold all over the world. The same thing’s happening with Monsieur Lazhar. Their movies even do well in Toronto, for heaven’s sake.
So what’s their secret formula?
“It’s about stories we haven’t seen or heard from people with original voices,” Dery told me.
You know what? That’s also a perfect description of the refreshing approach of Villeneuve, Falardeau, Pilote and all the other talented filmmakers spearheading this new Quebecois film movement.