Defenders of democracy or stubborn investigators, journalists are also fictional characters. Their multiple incarnations have often changed the public’s view, but what about that of the main people concerned? In series 7e art and 4e power, The Duty gives the floor to journalists from all walks of life to find out their perception of the profession through cinema.
Some people spontaneously associate it with the newspaper. The Pressbecause she spent a large part of her career there. Others remember her passion for the world of catering and gastronomy. And since she is not afraid to take on new challenges, Marie-Claude Lortie became, in 2021, editor-in-chief of the newspaper The Law from Ottawa-Gatineau.
Miscellaneous news, politics, international reports, columns and portraits, almost nothing has escaped Marie-Claude Lortie, who has long defined herself as a “consumer vigilante”, refusing to let them be cheated, as in restaurants. This true jack-of-all-trades and proud feminist – her coverage of the Polytechnique tragedy on December 6, 1989, only reinforced her convictions – is also a film buff with eclectic tastes. She frequented movie theaters at a very young age, and not just to see films her age, proof of a precocious curiosity.
What kind of film buff were you, and how has your relationship with cinema changed over the years?
It’s really not as intense as I’d like. When I was young, I remember going to the Montreal World Film Festival, and I saw The drum [de Volker Schlöndorff, 1979] at the age of 13! Afterwards, I mainly attended the Festival du nouveau cinéma, and I even went to the one in Venice. When I was a parliamentary correspondent in Ottawa for The Press In the 1990s, I went to the ByTowne cinema a lot, and I never missed a single screening of Italian films organized by the Italian Embassy, because I wanted to speak Italian. It was thanks to the cinema that I learned it. Over the years, and the pandemic has not helped, I no longer see as many films. I watch them more at home, but I still travel to see the films that interest me the most.
Did your early cinephilia have an influence on your choice of career? And on your vision of the profession of journalist?
Cinema had no influence on my desire to become a journalist: I would be unable to name a film or a TV series that would have made me want to do this job. In fact, in my family, journalists were already considered important, respected figures, just like artists, writers and intellectuals. At home, we read The Dutyand I admit that I had great admiration for Nathalie Petrowski and Lise Bissonnette. However, when I told my father that I wanted to become a journalist, he reacted badly, because I had enrolled in law and he thought that I was going to become a lawyer. Finally, I worked at The Press for 33 years!
Besides, your first years at The Press correspond to the broadcast of the series Scoop (1992-1995), written by Réjean Tremblay and Fabienne Larouche and drawing heavily on what was happening in that newsroom. Did you feel like it was a fair representation of your profession, and especially of your workplace?
It wasn’t at all a copy-paste of our reality, but a concentrate of the best stories, real and dramatic, that took place in the room. In addition, there were many things attributed to certain characters that were in fact an amalgam of all sorts of situations experienced by others. I remember that at the time, Réjean Tremblay had given an interview, and designated which character corresponded to which person in reality. I would have inspired the one played by Charlotte Laurier [Gabriella Salvatore]parliamentary correspondent, but mixed with situations that I did not experience. I enjoyed watching the series a lot, but as a simple viewer. I do not think it is a very accurate representation of our profession.
Can you name a few that seem more accurate to you?
If I Were a Journalism Professor, the book by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey [She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement, Penguin Press, 2019] would be required reading. Both the book and the film [She Said, de Maria Schrader, 2022] moved me by the way they represent the hard work of two journalists from New York Times about the sexual assaults of producer Harvey Weinstein. There is something fascinating in the construction of this alliance between women journalists, and their way of persuading victims who did not want to be identified to find the courage to testify. It underlines the importance of having tact in these kinds of situations, of understanding human psychology. What I also like a lot in She Saidas well as in Spotlight [de Tom McCarthy, 2015]it is the importance given to the work of editors, editors-in-chief. It is not because we do not see their signature in the newspaper that their role is less important: they put things into perspective, ask questions and push journalists to surpass themselves.
Conversely, do some portraits bother you because of their lack of accuracy?
I spent a lot of time in New York in the 1990s for personal reasons, and I was a keen reader of Cadence Bushnell’s columns. [dans le New York Observer]. On television, it has become Sex and the Cityand the character of the journalist, Carrie Bradshaw [interprétée par Sarah Jessica Parker]exercises this profession in a completely incidental way: it seems as if she never works… Honestly, I have never understood this character. Otherwise, among the most detestable journalistic figures, the prize goes to Rita Skeeter in the series Harry Potter [interprétée au cinéma par Miranda Richardson]. It seems that the writer JK Rowling decided to inject everything she hates about British journalists and paparazzi into it. She is not a vigilante, she is a character in the form of a settling of scores. Or the embodiment of the ” gotcha journalism “, this petty, low-level journalism, which completely forgets the public interest. In short, Rita Skeeter is perhaps the worst journalist character in all of popular culture!
Many people spontaneously associate you with the pleasures of the table and gastronomy because you have explored this universe for a long time as a journalist. What are the films that make you salivate?
Among my favorites, I would spontaneously cite Eat Drink Man Woman [Salé, sucré, d’Ang Lee, 1994], Babette’s Feast [de Gabriel Axel, 1987]and you won’t believe me: The wing or the thigh [de Claude Zidi, 1976] with Louis de Funès! After almost 50 years, this comedy has not aged a single day, still disturbingly relevant, still a very relevant critique of the industrialization of French cuisine. Recently, even if I have several reservations, because it is too long and too excessive, I still liked it The menu [de Mark Mylod, 2022]especially for its premise: the film denounces the abusive power of chefs, as well as the gastronomic cult. On television, like many people, I loved the series The Bearand like many people, I liked the third season less.
In 1979, when you were a teenager and in the company of an equally young Stéphan Bureau, you had the chance to interview the Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone (Once Upon a Time in the West, Once Upon a Time in America), passing through Montreal. What memories do you have of this meeting?
My mother worked at Radio-Canada, and a colleague was a researcher for the show Telejeans was looking for young people who were on the edge — I guess I was exactly what she was looking for! I remember first of all that there was a misunderstanding about the meeting place with him; we were afraid that he would decide to cancel the interview. But he was really charming, adapted to our language, because he understood the idea of having young people in front of him asking him questions. Obviously, it was impressive, and it was an experience, among others, that planted the seed in me of the idea of becoming a journalist. Finally, he gave me a very nice absence note, which I keep carefully: “Please excuse Marie-Claude for not coming to school, otherwise I will send Clint Eastwood with his revolver. A word to the wise, goodbye! Sergio Leone.”