French Film Festival UK
15 November – 5 December 2004
Quebec Focus – the rebirth begins
The success of Denys Arcand's Les invasions barbares has given Quebec cinema a much needed shot in the arm but the industry still exists on a precarious balance. This year the French Film Festival UK throws a special spotlight on Quebec cinema in collaboration with the Quebec Government Office in London and the Societé de developpement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) in Paris.
Quebec cinema is achieving unprecedented box office success and international acclaim. In the summer of 2003, Quebec films accounted for 18% of total ticket sales in the province; to put that figure in perspective, English-language Canadian productions typically account for only about 1% of the Canadian box office.
In addition, box office for Quebec movies during the first four months of 2004 improved 113% on the year-earlier period, according to Alex Films, a tracking firm that compiles movie-ticket sales data. That increase is especially notable given that 2003 is the best year on record for Quebec cinema, with locally produced titles taking in 4.4 million Canadian dollars ($3.4 million US] in ticket sales. Yet when French cinema sneezes then Quebec cinema catches cold. If French films do well in Canada then the home-grown industry benefits from the roller-coaster effect.
The last few months have seen disappointing results by le cinema francais in Quebec compared to previous years. Hollywood commands the lion's share of the market with 78 per cent while films from France account for about four per cent of the total. One commentator Pierre Brousseau from Films Seville suggests that young audiences are not hooked into French films while a string of high profile comedies such as Chouchou and Les 11 commandements flopped disastrously at the box office.
French companies are accused of chasing the American dream of trying to sell their films for US distribution rather than cultivating the ready-made audience that exists in Quebec - which means that frequently they are pricing themselves beyond the potential return for distributors in the province.
Once upon a time the market for French films in Canada amounted to between 400,000 and 600,000 Canadian dollars - now companies had to be content with half that amount, yet the prices charged by sales companies had remained the same. "Tais Toi scarcely reached 500,000 Canadian dollars, whereas previous films by the same director Francis Veber scored 1.3 million and 1.2 million respectively. The market is no longer what it was and we have to scale down our expectations," said one source.
It's often said that Quebec films released beyond the province's borders are hampered by parochialism in which in-jokes abound - and that comedies in particular fare badly overseas, especially in France.
There are exceptions to the rule, notably La grande seduction which has become one of the highest grossing Canadian films ever, and has had an enthusiastic reception overseas on the festival circuit, starting off with the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
The history of cinema in Quebec started on 27 June, 1896 when the French Louis Minier inaugurated the first movie projection in North America in a Montreal theatre room. However, it would have to wait until the 1960s before a genuine Quebec cinema industry emerged. The National Film Board of Canada was established by the Parliament of Canada in 1939. Its office moved to Montreal in 1955. In 1957, the new Trueman commissioner recommended the creation of a separately funded French production wing. Minister J.W. Pickersgill rejected Trueman's recommendation as Ottawa feared that two separate organisations would develop under the same roof. This decision intensified the campaign of the Quebec French language press for an autonomous French language branch. Guy Roberge was appointed Commissioner in April 1957. The French branch of the National Film Board of Canada was established and the NFS became autonomous in 1959. Cinema-verite ("truth cinema") auteurs such as Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault made their debut. For most of the 1960s, Quebec films were about the country. Other important filmmakers of the 60s include Gilles Groulx and Claude Jutra. That decade also saw the beginnings of Gilles Carle and Denys Arcand.
The seventies marked a high in national filmmaking. Commercial directors such as Denis Heroux were making hugely profitable movies for the first time since La Petite Aurore with such fare as Valerie and Deux femmes en or, an erotic movie. Arcand and Carle had critical (especially at Cannes) and some commercial success with films such as Gina (Arcand) and La vraie nature de Bernadette (Carle). In 1975, director Claude Jutra released one of the most critically praised Quebec film to date, Mon oncle Antoine. However, his next movie, an adaptation of Anne Hebert's Kamouraska, was a failure.
The victory of the "no" camp in the referendum on Sovereignty-Association was a turning point in Quebec history and culture. Denys Arcand made one of his most acclaimed picture with the NFB, Le contort et l'indifference, about the result of the referendum. He then proceeded to direct two movies that were nominated for best foreign picture at the Academy awards: 1986's Le déclin de l'empire americain and 1989's Jésus de Montréal.
After 1980, most felt that the struggle to build a nation that had animated early Quebec cinema was lost. Quebec filmmakers began to make movies that were no longer centred on the Quebec identity. The 1986 success, at home and abroad, of Le déclin marked another turning point in the movie history of the province. The government-funded "industry" tried to repeat Arcand's success with international co-productions, big budget movies and so-called "mass audience movies" to muted effect. Last year was called "the year of Quebec's cinema's rebirth" with Arcand finally winning the foreign film Oscar for his Le déclin sequel Les invasions barbares, and with Gaz bar blues and La grande seduction gaining critical and public acclaim.