by Maurie Alioff

"Bring on a revolution/I wanr Bring on a revolution/I wanr

N AFTERNOON IN OCTOBER 1970. I was in a street, watching armored military vehicles rattling by while soldiers in helmets and battle fatigues clutched their rifles and sniffed at the threat of A anarchy in the air. Suddenly, I felt a finger jabbing at my shoulder. "Open it," said a cop with a potbelly and rumpled white hair. He meant my army surplus shoulder bag, which on this particular day happened to contain two or three Black Panther newspapers and other revolutionary tracts. Ah, hah! The cop thumbed through the subversion, lingering on images of leather-jacketed black men flaunting rifles. Then he tossed aside the papers and looked me over: hair puffed out long and frizzy, boots with Cuban heels, very Blonde on Blonde. I shrugged nonchalantly and told him I was a st t (true) researching an essay on American political extremists (false).

Pierre Laporte, provincial minister of labour and immigration, and . Jiries Cross, a British trade official, had been kidnapped by members of the Front de Liberation du , • • t s ization which advocated

PIERRE FALARDEAU directs DENIS TRUDEL (felquiste) in Octobre terrorist violence in the cause of Quebec's independence from Canada. In response to the kidnappings, numerous FLQ bombings, and a so-called "apprehended insurrection," the Canadian government had invoked the War (now Emergency) Measures Act and deployed the army in Ottawa and Montreal. The act gave Quebec police license to round up hundreds of men and women, often on flimsy pretexts, and throw them into jail incommunicado, without having to file charges. Then on the night of October 17th, the authorities found 's bloodied corpse in the trunk of a green Chevrolet sedan. According to the coro- ner, he had likely been strangled to death with the gold chain of his religious medal. During that crazy time, who can say what was inducing more paranoia: the feeling of living under a state of siege (chillingly dramatized in 's 1974 film Les ordres), or the ugly, pathetic death of a man who may not have been a model of virtue, but was far from being an agent of a murdering, totalitarian regime. I, and most people I knew, sympathized with the complaints of historically victimized French Canadians and

ALL OCTOBRE PHOTOGRAPHS: JEAN F. LEBLANC author Pierre Vallieres' characterization mactic moment in Quebec's of them as the "white niggers" of Ameri- turbulent history. For him, ca (in his seminal 1967 book Negres Simard and his comrades blanc d'Amerique). But the FLQ's "assas- were not sadistic psy- sination" provoked disgust and dented chopaths or misguided fools. those sympathies. Rene Levesque, They were idealists repre- founder of the peacefully separatist Parti senting a widespread and Quebecois, was outraged. passionate indignation, who In June 1994, I'm sitting in a tiny risked damning themselves apartment in Montreal, talking to a man for what they believed they who has dramatized the abduction and had to do. Octobre begins murder of Laporte in a way that has with a quote from Albert never been done on film before — from Camus' Les justes: "Nices- the point of view of the killers (unlike saire mais injustifiable."Nec- previous movies like Les ordres, Jean- essary but unjustifiable. Claude Labrecque's Les annies de reves The producer who finally [1984], and Robin Spry's excellent doc- committed to this vision of umentary Action: The of the event was Bernadette 1970 [1973]). Payeur of the Montreal Pierre Falardeau's Octobre, in post- company ACPAV (it made production as I write, began to take Falardeau's three Elvis Grat- shape in the early seventies when the ton shorts and his debut fea- director met Francis Simard, one of the ture Le party). Meanwhile, convicted men, and began visiting him C/FP agreed to distribute if regularly in prison. Falardeau recently the director came up with told the Quebec film magazine 24 another instalment in the Images that he .and Francis would get hit-in-Quebec Gratton se- together to discuss "politics, prison, ries, "a kind of an agreement pieces of ass," and the events of October. that I'm trying to forget," Simard and the other members of the Falardeau tells me during a FLQ's Chenier cell committed a bloody conversation. crime, but in Falardeau's view, there The one-and-a-half room were plenty of reasons for it. "It's not the apartment he uses for writing is located times, 'I could never justify killing a first time in history," he once said, "that on a tiny ruelle in the southeast of the man, but I did it.'" a bunch of poor people grab a rich guy city in a neighbourhood as far removed Falardeau acknowledges that like other to be done with it. And it won't be the from chic francophone Outremont as it rebel movements of the sixties, the FLQ last." is from Westmount, traditional symbol attracted its share of whackos with an In 1982, paroled after serving 11 years of English power. There is no computer, itch to play with guns and bombs. But of a life sentence, Simard offered or even a typewriter in sight. Falardeau he emphasizes that his movie is about Falardeau his co-operation in the mak- works in longhand on a battered old the Chenier cell, a particular group of ing of a movie about the crisis. The ex- desk. Tacked to the walls are black and men trapped in a situation where "you felquiste agreed to record hours of inter- white blowups and posters of his films, start something, and then it's bigger views with the director and longtime and in one corner an inevitable picture than what you started, and the whole collaborator Julien Poulin (Elvis Gratton, of Camus. society is pushing." Le parry). Falardeau has a lanky, wiry build. Like many journalists who covered the Since the early eighties, Falardeau has Wearing a sweatshirt, loose army-green crisis, not to mention politicians as been trying to get Octobre made. He pants and red deck shoes, he expresses diverse as the late and wrote and re-wrote numerous scripts, himself in raw, uncensored language Robert Stanfield, Falardeau sees the Lib- deals materialized and collapsed, he shot punctuated by shouts, wheezes, and dis- eral cabinet's imposition of the War other movies. From its earliest days, the dainful groans. He'll suddenly jump up, Measures Act as a move that was itself project was a tricky undertaking. eyes and mouth scrunched like a boxer hard to justify. Furthermore, he suspects According to the director, Jacques Bobet who's taking punches. cynical and Machiavellian strategizing of the NFB "trembled" when he read an I've just asked him why he has so on the part of the feds. early outline, even though the Board had much obvious respect and love for Fran- Instead of negotiating for Laporte's already purchased the rights to Simard's cis Simard. Jabbing out a Lucky Strike release, "I think that at one point, the book about his felquiste experiences, and lighting another, Falardeau talks feds said: 'If we push them, they're Pour en finir avec Octobre, for nine thou- about intelligence and down-to-earth fucked; if they stop, they'll look ridicu- sand dollars. humanity and then gets to the disturbing lous; if they kill him, they're lost.'" Falardeau persisted because for him, heart of the matter: "Francis took some- Backs against the wall, divided about the subject is not only important, it's one's life without hiding, without excus- their next move, the filquiste went — as virtually sacred. An unapologetic, old- ing himself by saying, 'I was young, I Falardeau puts it — au bout (to the limit) time separatist with few illusions about didn't know what I was doing.' Most of "of dreams, or an idea." Lucien Bouchard's designer nationalism, the others blame it on the errors of If this makes a group of men Rene Falardeau views October 1970 as a di- youth. In his book, Francis repeats 500 Levesque once called barbarians sound 10 TAKE ONE Falardeau has dramatized the abduction and murdet ei- __2 40 orate in ay the has never b ciDfiEJ or film fore m the point o

Octobre (from left): DENIS TRUDEL (felquiste) and SERGE HOUDE (the Minister); PIERRE RIVARD (felquiste); LUC PICARD (felquiste) from left: Le steak; performer and audience from Le party; JULIEN POULIN as his alter-ego k ‘,4 Bob "Elvis" Gratton

>` like heroes, he claims that No car crash, no blonde. Just a human both an anglo and a Jew. Denying that a.) ..a a0 simple-minded heroics are being about to die in two hours eating this character was written as Jewish, 73 the last thing on his mind. spaghetti. I said to the cameraman, Falardeau mutters impatiently: "It was a .0 1:3 Falardeau even draws an 'don't move, stay there, look at him.'" boss, an English boss. It was like that S. a) c analogy between his charac- Falardeau claims that he was so moved during the sixties." Expressing simple 0 '4'j ters and the pitiable murder- by Serge Houde's portrayal of realities, the director believes, is getting ..i)(' ca ers Truman Capote wrote Laporte, he worried that the audience tougher every day in a milieu intimidat- about in his non-fiction would have no emotional energy left for ed by a stifling combination of bureau- () p 0 novel, In Cold Blood. Argu- the felquistes. "That's why it made me so cratic control and political correctness. (1) s. ing that Octobre is a tragic, angry when the senator was running The repression is so complete, movie- S. E 4.j rather than a dramatic work, after me, saying the film was all good makers have become their own watch- Falardeau explains that in guys and bad guys. Fuck, it's not a cow- dogs, one of the reasons why, says C drama, the hero must choose boy movie, man." Falardeau, Quebec cinema "has disgust- between good and evil. On The senator is Liberal Senator Phillipe ed me for more than ten years." (1).0 00 the other hand, "in tragedy, Gigantes who, in the winter of 1993, Probably one of the few movie direc- ..0 there's no good or evil. No received a draft of the Octobre script tors in the world who detests Fellini's .-i•J P (...) one wins, no one loses. from an anonymous source at Telefilm 8 1/2, Falardeau says he responds to ... kV "4...) There's a choice that doesn't Canada. (The agency had yet to commit movies where "people are in extreme 1/) make sense. That's the to the production.) conditions, so you can see what they a.) . "Cla essential subject of the film." Gigantes was shocked by what he have inside," movies like the Kurosawa- No simple heroes, no interpreted as glorification of murder, scripted Runaway Train in which a char- 0 cardboard villains either, racist perpetuation of the myth of the acter tells Jon Voight that he's a beast. Ca = Falardeau emphasizes that Evil Anglo, and insinuations that Voight replies, "No, more than a beast. CZ CZ the film does not turn Pierre Laporte had Mafia connections. Human." "How come," wonders Fa- g i •) C (1) Laporte into a dehumanized (Falardeau does claim he's examined a lardeau, "do Quebec films always have c s. symbol of corrupt power "mountain" of documents, including stupid, fucking bourgeois filmmakers liv- z and oppression. When he transcripts of police buggings, which ing with a writer, having problems with 1) > talks about the final scenes suggest that the deputy prime minister their masculinity?" He raises his arm . 0 of his movie, all of which of Robert Bourassa's 1970 government helplessly and groans. 44... were shot in long takes and had links to organized crime.) How, The Quebecers in Falardeau's pictures without visual pyrotechnics, Senator Gigantes asked in the media, don't live in the same universe as the E >„ o his mood becomes quiet and could institutions like Telefilm and the smug neurotics of 's S..... somber. "At one point, NFB even consider investing in a project Decline of the American Empire, or the (/) w C Laporte eats spaghetti know- like Octobre? Irate editorials and head- shellacked, comatose ones who float rnrn ing that he might have only lines mushroomed in the English-lan- through Lea Pool's work. For instance, C3) > 0 hours left to live. I did a guage press as Falardeau, supported by Le party (1990) is a prison film about C a) +...)e shot of him on his bed. He Quebec's francophone media, accused one day in the lives of horny, desperate s. CZ plays with his spaghetti. Senator Gigantes of trying to muzzle inmates and the low-rent comedians and (i) a) C "Then" — Falardeau begins him. Inevitably, the storm waned, feder- strippers who put on a show for them. (f) to mime the actions — "he al (but not Quebec) agencies came Jacked up with lines like "violence shows C]) -C h puts down his plate and through, and in October 1993, the you have feelings," the movie champions s.... C5) looks at his watch. He mas- unannounced shoot of this controversial the ordinary guy, portrayed as repressed sages his neck, takes off his picture began. and smoldering under the control of the Q = tie, looks at it, looks back at One of the script details that incensed heartless authorities who watch the X 0 the spaghetti.0 I liked that a Gigantes was dialogue about a vicious show, a kind of populist ritual from a LU •....) (.,) lot because there's nothing. foreman whom he misunderstood to be balcony on high.

12 TAKE ONE with the 1990 Mohawk standoff at Oka and Kahnawake. In fact, he still feels incensed about events in Kahnawake, where the Mohawk blockade of the Mercier Bridge forced residents of adja- cent Chateauguay (his childhood home) to take long, tortuous routes into Mon- treal. "If the problem hadn't been solved by the army, the people would have solved it themselves. The rifles weren't far away," says Falardeau, launching into a critique of the Indian strategy. He argues that if the Mohawk warriors were really against the government and not the French people, they would have blocked "the water routes on the St. Lawrence. But if you create 5,000 new enemies, even if you're right, you won't Years ago, studying anthropology, ers." It's not surprising for Pierre Fa- win, man!" Falardeau began to believe that the true lardeau that an independent Quebec — When I point out to Falardeau that heart of a culture is less books and paint- run either by Jacques Parizeau or Lucien the warriors — like the FLQ assassins of ings than the ordinary rituals of "the way Bouchard — would be like "changing Pierre Laporte — might have felt they people live, eat, arrange their families, four quarters for a dollar." Nothing sig- were doing something "necessary but the way they marry." Anthropology also nificant would change. "What's the big unjustifiable," he sinks his head and led him to see the Quebecois as a tribe, deal about Bill 101," he laughs ruefully. mumbles an agreement. But a few min- analogous to the ones he was reading Before it was Kentucky Fried Chicken, utes later, he says "Indian lovers don't about and observing, a fragile tribe that now it's Villa du Poulet. The same fuck- make me shed tears for two seconds." As could easily disintegrate. er is there." But despite his cynicism and a member of a group that was once Bob "Elvis" Gratton, the anti-heroic disillusionment, he wants independence oppressed, Falardeau compares himself garage owner of three short films the to happen. "It has to be done. And I'll to Spike Lee's homeboys in Do the Right director made during the 1980s, is a fight until I die for it. Even if I'm wrong, Thing, who freely vent their hostilities as betrayer of the tribe. Gratton (hilariously I still dream." a normal part of the give-and-take of played by co-creator, Julien Poulin), Obviously, Falardeau's dream of Que- daily conversation. "I'm not a racist," he lives to practise obsessively ersatz Elvis bec is the old vision of an alternative, tells me. "If in your article it comes out body moves and gorge himself on cheap maverick society. He doesn't just yearn that I sound like a racist, then you'll be sensations. A racist, sexist, fascist, not to for a split from English Canada. He wrong." mention anti-nationalist, he is the polar wants distance from the entire multi- The director of Octobre is not a man opposite of real-life boxer Gaeton Hart national/American mass media lolla- to iron out his various contradictions (1992's doc Le steak), Falardeau's projec- palooza. into a tasteful package. Honest about tion of a hero. If Falardeau's ideal Quebec is utopian, everything from his moments of intoler- Throughout Le steak, the skull-shaved, it's also deeply and unfashionably tribal. ance to his doubts about himself as an joual-talking Hart fights, trains, labours When I ask him now he feels about a artist, he leaves himself open to attack. to refine skills that earned him respect, rapidly growing multi-ethnic population But self-censorship is anathema to but didn't quite take him to where he that's likely to alter the way people in his Falardeau. Like Brian Moore in his vir- wanted to be. Near the end the film society live, eat, and arrange their feel- tually lost novel The Revolution Script, reveals that Hart's career almost derailed ings, he talks about the diluting of Falardeau has told the story of the FLQ completely when he accidentally killed Quebecois identity and the final victory assassins in a way that humanizes rather an opponent in the ring. Trapped in the of the shopping mall, as if the two were than demonizes them. Moreover, he says under-class, this boxer will never eat the synonymous. He thinks Quebec must that he wants Octobre to be a tragic story figurative steak of the title, but he'll also control immigration to be able to transcending politics. never lose his determination. achieve a workable proportion of new- However, Falardeau is a man with a In 1994, an illiterate prize fighter is comers to native francophones. At his political agenda. He is fully aware that not exactly the image of Quebec today's son's school, where one quarter of the Octobre will appear just as Quebec and cool, business-oriented nationalists are kids are immigrants, "the mix is very English-speaking Canada gear up for eager to promote. Falardeau is a person good because these people become like another showdown. In 1993, he released who grew up on the crest of the sixties, us." Falardeau adds, "I don't give a a vitriolic video called Les temps du bout:- an era when the U.S. had the Weather- damn about colours — black faces, yellow fons. Narrated by himself, he scoffs at men, Italy the Red Brigade, and Quebec faces. For me, a Quebecer is someone colonizing "bourgeois full of shit," and the FLQ. French Canadian poets of the who decides that he's a Quebecer." their lackeys, "the French Canadians in time blasted out lines like, "I machine- As he ventures into this thorny area, service." His movies are more ambitious gunned the dawn." Falardeau says things that he knows will and complex, but they do sometimes get But today, there are no revolutionar- sound inappropriate, but he says them polemical and on-the-nose. When this ies. The feeling in the air is, "We can anyway. For example, when it comes to happens, his work loses the power of its compete worldwide. We are major play- native people, he did not sympathize raw yearning for freedom • FALL 1994 13