In the Shadow of the Church: Irish and Quebec Cinema. Mary Gillan, M.A., M.Phil. This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. July, 2008. School of Communications. Supervisor: Professor Farrel Corcoran. I hereby certify that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD, is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my own work. Signed: ID No. 98971204 Date: Acknowledgements This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Leo and Nora (Daisy), and to my brothers, Simeon and Jerry (Diarmuid) Gillan, in loving appreciation. I am especially indebted to my supervisor Prof. Farrel Corcoran for his unstinting support on both a professional and personal level, especially when life threw up some unforeseen challenges in the course of this thesis. His cheery encouragement and critical and practical judgement ensured that I stayed the course in spite of them. Many people have assisted me in the research and preparation of this work. In many cases, the line between the professional and the personal became agreeably blurred: Dr. Diarmuid Ó Giolláin, Dr. Maeve Conrick, Prof. Jane Koustas, Prof. Linda Cardinal, Prof. Will Straw, Dr. Marlene Bonneau, Dr. Christina Quinlan, Prof. Tom Waugh, Prof. Mario Falsetto, Yves Lever, Pierre Véronneau, Dr. Éric Bédard, Prof. Michael Cronin. I would like to extend my thanks to the various institutions implied in the above whose faculties and libraries came to my assistance: University College Cork, University College Dublin, Brock University, University of Ottawa, McGill University, Concordia University, Cinémathèque québécoise, Université du Québec à Montréal, Dublin City University. I would like to thank the School of Communications, Dublin City University, for both financial and academic support. The staff of the DCU library deserves special mention for its general helpfulness and professionalism. The staff of the archive and library of the Cinémathèque québécoise, (Médiathèque Guy-L.-Coté), Montréal, helped me not just access relevant films but also gave me invaluable advice in relation to my selection. I am especially grateful to them for their kindness and patience in dealing with me and my French! I would also like to acknowledge Noeleen Peel and the staff of the Registry, DCU, for help in the final stages of this work. Research of this nature involved a substantial number of costly research trips to Canada and Quebec. In this regard, I am very grateful for the scholarships awarded me by the International Council for Canadian Studies and the Ireland Canada University Foundation. In the case of the latter, I would like to acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Craig Dobbin, RIP, Dr. Patrick Hillery, RIP and Prof. John Kelly, UCD, in the creation of this award and the fostering of Irish/Canadian friendship and scholarship. Prof. Vera Regan and previous presidents, notably Dr. Maeve Conrick and Prof. Helen O’Neill, and members of the Association of Canadian Studies of Ireland (ACSI), proved to be greatly supportive of my academic endeavours. Opportunities to present my work at conferences and seminars under the aegis of ACSI was most useful, and the advice and encouragement of members of the association was given freely and most generously. I would also like to thank Maria O’Reilly and the Canadian Embassy, Dublin, for assistance on a number of fronts. The management and staff of Hartstown Community School and ARC cancer support services are also gratefully remembered. Finally, and most importantly, my family and friends have provided me with a host of emotional and psychological supports, not forgetting physical sustenance and sheer entertainment! Simeon and Freya Gillan, Jerry Gillan and Mary O’Callaghan, Daniel Noske and the extended Noske family; Auntie Mary and the ‘Sligo Gillans’ and their partners; Auntie Phil, Geraldine and the Hearty/Danaher clan; Auntie Kitty; Auntie Mona and the Farrells - have held me in the warm embrace of family for more years than any of us care to mention. I am eternally grateful to them all. For friendship, I am lucky to count upon the following, and thank them for their encouragement and patience: Joan Woulfe, Jacinta and Steven Digby, Ann O’Reilly, Bernadette Sproule, Geraldine Cleary, Patricia Richardson, Pauline Hensey, Michael O’Dwyer, Paraicin Doyle, Jean Barrett, Una O’Kelly, Mary O’Connell, Mary and Harry McDermott, Mary McMahon, Noreen Fahy, Jackie, Chris, Grace and Daniel Maguire, Claude, Jean-François, Nathalie, Sylvie Mével and their families, Breffni McGuinness, Fr. Frank McAleese, Helena Kelly. Table of Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………..2. Chapter 1: Introduction ........................................................................3. Chapter 2: Quebec: the social, historical and political context…......15. Chapter 3: The growth and decline of the Catholic Church in Quebec and Ireland……………………………………………….36. Chapter 4: The emergence and consolidation of the Film Industries In Quebec and Ireland…………………………………..131. Chapter 5: Quebec Cinema and its relationship to its Catholic heritage……………………………………………….....173. Chapter 6: Irish Cinema and its relationship to its Catholic heritage……………………………………...…………..239. Chapter 7: Conclusion........................................................................298. Reference List....................................................................................307. Filmography.......................................................................................315. Appendices.........................................................................................318. 1 In the Shadow of the Church: Irish and Quebec Cinema . Mary Gillan, M.A., M.Phil. Abstract Ireland and the Canadian, largely francophone, province of Quebec share many similarities. Issues of religion, language and cultural identity have marked their history and influenced their relationship with their former English colonizer. The Catholic Church was a formidable force in both societies and shaped the public and private spheres. Quebec’s ‘Quiet Revolution’ of the 1960s sounded the death knell of this Catholic state as rapid secularization shattered Church power. Social change and the erosion of Church influence had a more belated arrival in Ireland by comparison. It was not until the 1990s, amid unprecedented economic growth and revelations of serious and far-reaching clerical transgression, that the Church’s influence receded and it became a target of sustained media critique. This thesis will examine the historical and political reasons for the growth and decline of the Catholic Church in Quebec and Ireland, and highlight important differences in religious adherence. The cultural industries, especially film, were harnessed by both states to promote national self-expression while also attentive to the economic benefits of a film industry. However, film as it reflects national realities also problematises them, and it can be exploited to serve particular discourses. Through an analysis of key films, this thesis will track the evolving relationship of the Quebec and Irish populations with the Catholic Church. The core concerns of the thesis are the cyclical and relatively benign nature of Quebec’s relationship with its Catholic heritage in contrast to Irish cinema’s more troubled, and often bitter, one in films largely produced in the nineties. Ultimately, the trajectory of Quebec cinema’s relationship with the Church provides an intimation of the direction Irish society and its cinema is likely to take, as the full import of the loss of this grand narrative hits home. 2 Chapter 1: Introduction. The Republic of Ireland and the Canadian province of Quebec share many parallels. In both states we find a similar ferment of Catholicism, nationalism, a vibrant cultural life and strong economic growth. In both states religion and language were key components in the formation of modern collective identity. There is also a complex and unresolved post-colonial relationship with the former dominant group. Both national cinemas, at various stages of their development, have demonstrated an interest in representing and often interrogating the position of the Catholic Church in each society. The colour and tenor of their representation of the Church and the key figure of the priest, however, indicate a contrasting historical and devotional attachment to the Church which this thesis aims to tease out. Why Ireland and Quebec? Garth Stevenson’s (2006) ground-breaking comparative work on the development of Irish and Quebec nationalism has appeared recently and Kathleen O’ Sullivan See (1986) in the 1980s examined class and ethnic conflict in both Quebec and Northern Ireland. In the 90s Ronald Rudin (1992, 1994) in discussing nationalist and revisionist historiography found many interesting intersections and divergences in relation to both states, yet there has been no direct comparison of the Catholic legacy alone and there is a dearth of comparative studies on Irish and Quebec cinema and nothing, to my knowledge, on the fictional cinema. Also, little has been written in English about Catholicism in Quebec. This thesis will place a greater emphasis on Quebec cinema as it assumes a greater knowledge of the Irish context on the part of the reader, and aims to introduce a cinema produced by a state that has