Cinema of Quebec

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For organization that promotes and develops Cinema of Quebec, see Québec Cinéma.
Cinema of Quebec
No. of screens714 (2022)[1][2]
Number of admissions (2022)[1][3]
Total11,326,518
National films995,072 (8.8%)
Gross box office (2022)[1][4]
Total$108.5 million

The history of cinema in Quebec started on June 27, 1896 when the Frenchman 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 would emerge. Approximately 620 feature-length films have been produced, or partially produced by the Quebec film industry since 1943.

Due to language and cultural differences between the predominantly

Hollywood films, means that Quebec films are often more successful at the box office than English Canadian films — in fact, the top-grossing Canadian film of the year is often a French language film from Quebec.[5]

Before the Office national du film

From 1896 to the 1960s, the Catholic clergy tried to control what movies Quebecers could see. Two methods were employed: censorship and prohibition of attendance by children under 16. In 1913, the Bureau de censure de vues animées (Office of censorship for motion pictures) began regulating the projection of movies in Quebec. In 1927, the Laurier-Palace Theatre burned down, killing 78 children.[6] The church then almost succeeded at closing down all projection rooms in the province. However, the Parliament of Quebec passed a law preventing only children under 16 from attending movie projections. This law would be repealed only in 1961.

Nevertheless, some films were produced in Quebec during this period. Those were mostly documentaries, some of which were made by priests (

Fyodor Otsep, Paul Gury, Jean-Yves Bigras, and René Delacroix. Notable films of this period include The Music Master (Le Père Chopin, 1945), A Man and His Sin (Un homme et son péché, 1949), The Nightingale and the Bells (Le Rossignol et les cloches, 1952), Little Aurore's Tragedy (La petite Aurore l'enfant martyre, 1952), Tit-Coq (1953), and The Promised Land
(Les brûlés, 1959).

After the Office national du film

The National Film Board of Canada was established by the Parliament of Canada in 1939.[8] Its office moved from Ottawa to Montreal in 1956.[8] In 1957, the new commissioner, Albert Trueman, recommended the creation of a separately funded French production wing. Minister J. W. Pickersgill rejected Trueman's recommendation as Ottawa feared that two separate organizations 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 as the NFB's first francophone Commissioner in April 1957. The French branch of the National Film Board of Canada was established and the NFB became autonomous in 1959.

Direct Cinema filmmakers Michel Brault, Pierre Perrault and Gilles Groulx all made their debut at the NFB. That decade also saw the beginnings of directors Claude Jutra, Gilles Carle and Denys Arcand
.

The 1960s and 1970s

Two key changes in the late 1960s paved the way for a new era in Québécois cinema. First, in 1967, Quebec's (religious) censorship bureau was replaced by a film ratings system administered by the province. The other phenomenon was the introduction, in 1967, by the federal government, of its Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC, to become Telefilm Canada). This allowed a greater number of films to reach the screen through government subsidy.

Commercial directors such as Denis Héroux became known for his films Valérie and Deux femmes en or [fr], two comedies with erotic overtones showing popular success not seen in Quebec since Jean-Yves Bigras' La Petite Aurore l'enfant martyre (1952).[9]

The seventies also marked a high in national filmmaking seen from an artistic perspective, an assessment supported by

J.A. Martin Photographe was selected at Cannes where Monique Mercure, the female star of the film, won Best Actress (tying with Shelley Duvall for 3 Women
).

In 1971, a group of filmmakers in Montreal established the Association coopérative de productions audio-visuelles (ACPAV), which would play an important role in Quebec cinema over the next decades by funding and releasing the earliest films by many emerging Quebec directors.[10]

The 1980s

The victory of the "no" camp in the referendum on sovereignty association was a turning point in Québécois history and culture.

Le confort et l'indifférence, 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 The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'empire américain) and 1989's Jesus of Montreal (Jésus de Montréal).[11][12]

After 1980, a lot of artists felt that the struggle to build a nation that had animated early Quebec cinema was lost. Québécois filmmakers began to make movies that were no longer centred on the Québécois 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 movie industry tried to repeat Arcand's success with international co-productions, big budget movies and so-called "mass audience movies".

Meanwhile, director Robert Morin made himself known with personal movies like Requiem for a Handsome Bastard (Requiem pour un beau sans-coeur). Claude Jutra committed suicide in the 1980s after a struggle with Alzheimer's disease, and Gilles Carle became too sick to direct.

The 1990s and 2000s

1990-2002 saw the solidification of Quebec's movie industry. Independent films such as

Un crabe dans la tête caught the media's attention. In 1994, Pierre Falardeau's Octobre
told a fictionalized version of the October Crisis from the point of view of the Chenier Cell, the FLQ terrorist cell who in 1970 kidnapped and executed Quebec minister and Deputy Premier Pierre Laporte.

Home-made blockbusters came in 2000s and begin to dominate their home market, putting American blockbusters in second place.

Séraphin: un homme et son péché, directed by Charles Binamé, was a major success at the box office in 2002. The next year, 2003, was called "the year of Quebec cinema's rebirth" with Denys Arcand winning the foreign film Oscar for The Barbarian Invasions (Les Invasions barbares), the sequel of The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'empire américain), and with Gaz Bar Blues and Seducing Doctor Lewis gaining both critical and public acclaim. In 2005, C.R.A.Z.Y. was released, grossing a considerable amount in such a small market, and garnering widespread praise from critics. In 2006, the Quebec-made action-comedy Bon Cop, Bad Cop, a film with dialogue in both French and English, took over the title of most popular Canadian film at the Canadian box office. Sales for Bon Cop, Bad Cop have totalled $13 million across the country. The previous Quebec film to hold this honour was Les Boys. In 2007, Arcand's Days of Darkness
(L'Âge des ténèbres) was selected as the closing film for the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2009, De père en flic (English: Father and Guns) matched the movie Bon Cop Bad Cop to become the highest-grossing French language film in Canadian history.

The 2010s

The 2010s were marked by three consecutive Academy Award nominations for Quebecois films in the

University of Berlin film scholar Claudia Kotte wrote Incendies, Monsieur Lazhar, Inch'Allah (2012) and War Witch, represent a break from focus on local history to more global concerns.[14]

In May 2016, Xavier Dolan became the first Quebec filmmaker to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival, for It's Only the End of the World.[15] It also later won Best Film at the inaugural Prix Iris,[16] which replaced the Jutra Awards for Quebec films, with new categories for Casting, Visual Effects, Revelation of the Year and Documentary Editing and Cinematography, and a Public Prix, chosen by viewers' votes.[17]

Bibliography

Books

Fradet, Pierre-Alexandre and Olivier Ducharme, Une vie sans bon sens. Regard philosophique sur Pierre Perrault, foreword by Jean-Daniel Lafond, Montréal, Nota bene, 2016.

Evans, Gary. John Grierson and the National Film Board: The Politics of Wartime Propaganda. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1984.

Evans, Gary. In the National Interest: A Chronicle of the National Film Board of Canada from 1949 to 1989. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.

  • Pallister, Janis L. The Cinema of Québec: Masters in Their Own House. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995.

Issues

Films

  • Canadian Film Development Corporation
    in 1968
  • Rubbo, Michael (1972). "OK ... Camera" (Documentary film about the Quebec film industry). NFB.ca. National Film Board of Canada. Retrieved 11 January 2012.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c https://statistique.quebec.ca/en/fichier/frequentation-cinemas-2022.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  2. ^ "Chiffres clés de l'exploitation cinématographique, Québec, 2008 à 2012". Institut de la statistique du Québec. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  3. ^ "Résultats d'exploitation cinématographique selon le pays d'origine des films, Québec, 2008-2012". Institut de la statistique du Québec. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  4. ^ "The Economic Contribution of the Film and Television Sector in Canada" (PDF). Motion Picture Association - Canada. p. 29. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 9 November 2013.
  5. ^ James Adams (February 1, 2011). "Resident Evil: Afterlife is top-grossing Canadian flick". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved August 19, 2011.
  6. S2CID 146643958
    – via Project Muse.
  7. ^ Véronneau, Pierre (2014-01-30). "Quebec Film History: 1896 to 1969". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  8. ^ a b "National Film Board of Canada". The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2011-11-03. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  9. ^ "Canuxploitation Article: Maple Syrup Porn: The Secret History of Quebec Popular Cinema".
  10. ^ "Les 50 ans de l’Association coopérative de production audiovisuelle (ACPAV)". CTVM.info, February 6, 2021.
  11. ^ "The 62nd Academy Awards | 1990". Oscars.org. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  12. ^ "The 59th Academy Awards | 1987". Oscars.org. Retrieved 2020-06-01.
  13. ^ a b Chris Knight, "Canadian director Kim Nguyen on his Oscar nomination for War Witch (Rebelle): ‘We’re clearly the underdog’ Archived 2013-02-16 at archive.today," National Post, 10 January 2013, URL accessed 6 August 2013.
  14. ^ Kotte, Claudia (2015). "Zero Degrees of Separation: Post-Exilic Return in Denis Villeneuve's Incendies". Cinematic Homecomings. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 288.
  15. ^ Bélanger, Cédric (22 May 2016). "Dolan passe à l'histoire". Le Journal de Québec. Retrieved 17 August 2016.
  16. The Montreal Gazette
    . Retrieved 4 June 2017.
  17. ^ Lussier, Marc-André (4 June 2017). "Gala Québec Cinéma: remise en jeu". La Presse. Retrieved 4 June 2017.

External links

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