Special Issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies on Québec Cinema
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This article was downloaded by: [Washington State University Libraries ] On: 27 July 2015, At: 10:33 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG American Review of Canadian Studies Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rarc20 Special Issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies on Québec Cinema Miléna Santoro a , Denis Bachand b , Vincent Desroches c & André Loiselle d a Associate Professor of French, and core faculty of the Film and Media Studies Program , Georgetown University b Professor with the Department of Communication, and Vice- Dean of Governance and Secretary of the Faculty of Arts , University of Ottawa c Associate Professor of French and coordinator for the Canadian Studies program at Western Michigan University d Professor of Film Studies and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies , Carleton University , Ottawa Published online: 14 Jun 2013. To cite this article: Miléna Santoro , Denis Bachand , Vincent Desroches & André Loiselle (2013) Special Issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies on Québec Cinema, American Review of Canadian Studies, 43:2, 157-162, DOI: 10.1080/02722011.2013.795026 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2013.795026 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be independently verified with primary sources of information. 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Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms- and-conditions Downloaded by [Washington State University Libraries ] at 10:33 27 July 2015 American Review of Canadian Studies,2013 Vol. 43, No. 2, 157–162, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02722011.2013.795026 INTRODUCTION Special Issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies on Québec Cinema Guest Editors: Miléna Santoro, Denis Bachand, Vincent Desroches, and André Loiselle Québec cinema has arrived. In a way reminiscent of the emergence of Québec literature in the 1960s, it has crossed a threshold. Québec’s literary history during this period can be illustrated by a list of important indicators, spurred by what was perceived as a national cultural emergency: small publishing houses started to grow and became more ambitious; the educational curriculum and literary canons were established; academic and journalistic criticism became institutionalized; literary prizes were endowed; and international recogni- tion of a few particularly successful novels and plays followed. Somewhat later, new forms and genres, such as science-fiction novels, mysteries, and children’s literature, began to appear. AsimilarprocesshasnowtakenplaceforQuébeccinema.Forbetterorforworse, the period of initial effervescence and experimentation, often artisanal and idealistic if not ideological, is past. There was once mostly goodwill and imagination (and very little money), but the industry has consolidated throughout the last decade. Cultural models of development borrowed from Europe include state funding and agency screening processes; those borrowed from United States include a growing awareness of market imperatives and investment value. Producers and distributors alike are thinking ahead about digital platforms. New genres, such as action thrillers and horror films, are reaching larger audi- ences. The public recognizes its favorite actors and follows them from film to film. Québec films often figure on the list of winners at prestigious festivals. Indeed, a Québec film has been a finalist in the Oscar category for Best Foreign-language Film for three consecutive years (Incendies in 2011; Monsieur Lazhar in 2012; Rebelle in 2013). Perhaps the most glamorous sign of Québec cinema’s emergence on the interna- tional scene was Denys Arcand’s winning the 2003 Best Foreign-language Oscar for Les Invasions barbares.Aftertwounsuccessfulnominationsinthe1980s—Le Déclin de l’empire américain (1986) and Jésus de Montréal (1989)—Arcand’s Academy Award win in the early 2000s signaled that the Québec film industry had finally arrived. With a 22-minute standing ovation at Cannes and two of its most prestigious awards (best actress Downloaded by [Washington State University Libraries ] at 10:33 27 July 2015 and best screenplay), rave reviews at home and abroad, more than $35 million at the box office worldwide (a record for a Québec film), a César for best French film (Les Invasions is a Canada–France co-production), and of course the Oscar, Arcand’s sequel to Le Déclin de l’empire américain can safely be hailed as the greatest success of Québec cinema. This isn’t to say that Les Invasions barbares is considered the supreme artistic accomplishment in French–Canadian film history. Generally, the classics of Québec cinema—Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine (1971), Michel Brault’s Les Ordres (1974), and Francis Mankiewicz’s Les bons débarras (1980)—rank higher on lists of “best Québec films ever made” than Les Invasions barbares.NorisitthemostpopulardomesticfilmamongtheQuébécois ©2013ACSUS 158 Introduction themselves. Charles Binamé’s Séraphin, un homme et son péché (2002), Jean-François Pouliot’s La grande séduction (2003), Éric Canuel’s Bon Cop, Bad Cop (2006). and Émile Gaudreault’s De père en flic (2009), all surpassed Les Invasions barbares at the box office. However, considering its overall critical and commercial achievements, its cultural reso- nance in Québec and Canada, as well as its unprecedented succès d’estime in international film circuits, Arcand’s bittersweet look at generational reconciliation in the face of death represents the culmination of Québec cinema’s evolution over the last 50 years and stands as undeniable evidence of its maturity. To be fair, Hollywood and the world did not discover Québec cinema just 10 years ago. Montrealer Arthur Lipsett is one of the very rare 1960s avant-garde filmmakers who could claim to have influenced both George Lucas and Stanley Kubrick. Since 1963, when Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault’s landmark feature-length documentary Pour la suite du monde became the first Canadian entry in the official competition at Cannes, Québec films have regularly won prizes at international festivals and enjoyed some commercial success abroad. Mon Oncle Antoine won the top prize at the Chicago International Film Festival in 1971. Denis Héroux’s soft-core melodrama Va l é r i e (1968) traveled far and wide as a “blue movie” and made Danielle Ouimet an international star for a brief period of time in the early 1970s, appearing most memorably in Harry Kümel’s masterpiece of vampire erotica, Daughters of Darkness (1971). Gilles Carle’s Les Plouffe (1981) became a hit in France in the early 1980s. Michel Poulette’s clever critique of reality television, Louis 19, le roi des ondes (1994) was remade by Hollywood A-list director Ron Howard as EDtv (1999). And, more recently, the international success of Starbuck (2011) led Dreamworks studio to hire director Ken Scott to do an English version of his original film, which he co-wrote with Martin Petit. In spite of significant achievements preceding this most recent generation’s success, it is only since the turn of the millennium that Québec cinema has managed to produce a sustained flow of both critical and commercial successes that consistently earn more than 10 percent of the box office receipts in the province. By contrast, a comparable film industry such as Australia’s has earned on average only 4.2 percent of domestic film revenue over the first decade of the twenty-first century. The Québec film industry’s share of domestic revenue even reached over 20 percent in 2005, when an unprecedented five home-grown films grossed more than $3 million in the province. Jean-Marc Vallée’s coming-of-age “dramedy” C.R.A.Z.Y. led the way that year, grossing more than $5.2 million.1 Given the extraordinary vitality that Québec cinema has demonstrated since 2000, it seemed both timely and important to attempt to trace its growth and understand and identify the varied voices and visions that have come to inhabit and contribute to this exciting new cinematic landscape. Downloaded by [Washington State University Libraries ] at 10:33 27 July 2015 This special issue of the American Review of Canadian Studies brings together eight critical perspectives on Québec cinema from leading Canadian and American scholars, as well as two fascinating interviews with the directors of the key governmental funding agencies for the film industry, Telefilm and SODEC, on the federal and provincial levels, respectively. As these interviews show, leaders of funding agencies are acutely aware of market forces and are searching for ways to maximize commercial success and distribution even while affording opportunities for new talent to emerge. Despite a stringent fiscal envi- ronment, agencies such as Telefilm and SODEC are responding to the new digital media revolution, or what some have called convergence culture, by developing new initiatives and fundraising efforts to assist in leveraging their own budgets and those of film producers in Québec and Canada, more generally.