2002 82M Prod NFB, CBC, Fox—Fire Films, Production Docu 2, Exp

playful, but not a sanitized object of cultural veneration. A free—spirited provocatrice since her days in drama school, Baillargeon confronts the turbu- lent messiness of Jutra's private world. "Who was this man McLaren, Francois Truffaut, Jean born in the spot- Rouch, Bernardo Bertolucci, and light, and yet full during a teaching stint at UCLA, of shadows?" she Jim Morrison.) asks in the narration she voices herself. Baillargeon tracks Jutra from his restless new wave films to Mon oncle Claude Jutra's life Antoine (1971), the formalized and is one of the few elegiac period piece that tops many Canadian film stories to take on best Canadian movie lists, to a mythic proportions. The privileged string of commercial disappoint- child of wealthy and cultivated ments, including the dark romance of Montrealers, he was a doc- Kamouraska (1973), and some 2002 82m prod NFB, CBC, Fox—Fire movies made in English Films, Production Docu 2, exp tor who never practised, Canada (Surfacing, 1981; Robert Sherrin, p Nicole Lamothe, abandoning medicine By Design, 1982). She Yves Bisaillon, Anne Frank, Andre to play out a fascina- traces his mounting Theberge, d/narr Paule Baillargeon, tion with movies difficulties in funding scJefferson Lewis, ph Michael Savoie, that began in his early teens. A natu- projects in Quebec, ed Dominique Sicotte, s Alain and his dissatisfac- Letourneau, Marie—France Delagrave, ral talent who throughout his tion with the entire ad Bruno La Haye, mus Yves Canadian film Laferriere, Blanche Baillargeon, career directed, system. Uncertain Didier Dumoutier; with Claude filmed, wrote and about his future, Jutra, Michel Brault, Saul Rubinek, acted, Jutra fed Jutra began suffer- Genevieve Bujold, Ralph Thomas. his own myth with his debut feature, ing from memory lapses that led, in the Director/writer/actress Paule A tout prendre (1963). early 1980s, to a diag- Baillargeon's documentary Claude A wired, kinetic improvisation, the quasi— nosis of Alzheimer's Jutra, portrait sur film embraces disease. He directed his the drama and mystery of the late autobiographical movie f NFB. last picture, 1984's La Dame en o moviemaker's life. Baillargeon gets shows Jutra racing around tesy r couleurs, struggling to recall what he personal, and although she clearly Montreal, trying to exorcise his cou demons and stabilize his identity. had filmed an hour earlier. And then es loves Jutra as a friend, neighbour and At the movie's heart is his real—life on a November day in 1986, the Imag professional collaborator, she doesn't increasingly impoverished 56—year—old sanctify him. He comes through as affair with Johanne Herelle, a filmmaker wrote "I am Claude Jutra" brilliant, original and irrepressibly Haitian model who cajoles him into acknowledging to himself that he on a sheet of paper and, according Mon oncle Antoine"' "likes boys." At times self—conscious- to legend, slipped a bottle of ly eccentric, A tout prendre is a cine- Courvoisier into his coat pocket. ma—verite psychodrama whose fans Some time later, Jutra jumped off the included John Cassavetes and Jean Jacques Cartier Bridge into the St. Renoir. (Other luminaries Jutra Lawrence River. Until his body was either befriended or worked with on found five months later, his tragic his zigzagging path include: Norman disappearance was the focus of intense public speculation. covered home movies, much of them film's English title—Claude Jutra: An in colour, Jutra took of himself and Unfinished Story—implies, was snuffed "Water calls out to Claude Jutra," his family. out long before it reached its final act. says the eloquent narration written by Jefferson Lewis for this elegant The amateur footage, in excellent Maurie Alioff documentary. "Its mystery, beauty, condition and surprisingly accom- Maurie Alioff teaches screenwriting at sensual quality, its deadly appeal, its plished, reveals precocious attempts Vanier College, Montreal, and is Take One's secrets and shadows...characters in at Cocteauesque film poetry. It's all associate editor. his movies are always jumping into double exposures, oblique angles, a water." For instance, as early as Le sense of the world as a fleeting place Dement du lac lean–jeunes (1948), that could, at any moment, become a nightmarish short Jutra directed as unhinged from reality. And in some a teenager, an insane child kidnapper of the images, we glimpse the formi- plunges to a watery death. And as dable presence of Jutra's mother many point out, A tout prendre ends on Rachelle, a cigarette–smoking, overly an image of Jutra himself walking off protective sophisticate whom he once a pier into a river dancing with light. called "the only one in the world that I love deeply." Baillargeon does not enlist a platoon of talking heads to analyze Jutra's Rachelle had a passion for her son that fascination with water, or his other is right out of Tennessee Williams's fixations and idiosyncrasies. The film play, Suddenly, Last Summer, with its presents a man who is both melan- Venus flytrap mother and hypersen- choly and fun–loving, serene and sitive son. She tried to stop her boy angry, introverted and bonded to from leaving home and did her best longtime friends like cinemato- to sabotage his romantic relation- grapher Michel Brault and actor Saul ships. When he lived in Paris for a Rubinek. Jutra is contradictory, couple of years, she assailed him with Fil he's complex, he's an enigma that obsessive letters implying his absence The True Meaning Baillargeon chooses to only partially was killing her: "My head throbbed," rcury unravel. She gives the audience the she once wrote, "until I was sure I of Pictures: f Me o threads to continue the process, had a brain tumour." Shelby Lee Adams' tesy imagining his unspoken secrets, cour stormy emotions, depth of creative This relationship, which Baillargeon Appalachia es power and the simplicity of his thinks probably kept Jutra in perpet- Imag yearning for love. ual childhood, tormenting and 2002 75m prod Mercury Films, p inspiring him as an artist, is at the Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, The film evokes the magic and the crux of her film. But for whatever d Jennifer Baichwal, ph Nicholas de loss with evocative montages of the reason, she drops it before it's fully Pencier, ed David Wharnsby, s Jane locales that were part of Jutra's every- explored. Then as the film progresses, Tattersall; with Shelby Lee Adams, day life: Carre Saint–Louis and his talking heads multiply, diverse the Childer family, the Nappier fam- home at its north end, St–Denis aspects of the story are conveyed ily, the Riddle family, Hort Collins, Street cafés like Les Gateries where he more explicitly and the narrative gets Dwight Billings, A.D. Coleman, would sit by the window every morn- a little choppy. In the end, however, Vicki Goldberg, Wendy Edward, ing. Moreover, Baillargeon stages Baillargeon refocuses on Jutra's fate Mary Ellen Mark. images of a Jutra double in silhou- and his sadly heroic choice to end a ette, leaning back in a rocking chair, life that had become intolerable. He "You photograph the natural lift, but you writing the final letter, methodically knew that his spirit was closing in on also, by your juxtaposition of detail, create putting on winter clothes the day of itself, and his once irrepressible crea- an interpretation of it. " John Grierson his suicide. The stylized shadow play tive energy was shutting down. The gives Jutra an elusive presence that film tantalizes viewers with clues that "I'm pushing you, the viewer, and chal- intersects fluidly with other visuals, hint at a solution to its mysteries and lenging you. That's why I'm in there including rare clips from Le Dement fades out on the straight–to–the–heart with the camera six inches away from du lac Yean–jeunes and recently dis- pathos of a unique life that, as the Selena's face. I think you need to be TAKE ONE 37 .

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