A few days before the 50the anniversary of the film’s release The orders by Michel Brault, the National Film Board (NFB) announced this Monday morning that it will now ensure the distribution of the restored version – by the Éléphant organization – of this flagship feature film of Quebec cinematography.
This agreement follows a request from the family of the filmmaker, screenwriter and director of photography who wanted to see this film returned to the bosom of a public institution.
“This approach was taken essentially to protect Michel’s heritage,” his daughter and producer, Anouk Brault, said in an interview. “We no longer wanted to entrust the family’s films to private companies that end up passing from hand to hand and are less concerned with protecting heritage.”
PHOTO DANIEL KIEFER, PRISMA PRODUCTIONS, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Michel Brault
The family had to first recover the property rights with the previous distributor, Filmoption International, which has been done, says M.me Brault.
Michel Brault was employed by the NFB from 1956 to 1965 as a director or co-director (For the rest of the world with Pierre Perrault, The snowshoers with Gilles Groulx, Children of Silenceetc.) and director of photography. He was subsequently a contract employee at the NFB, whether as director of photography (My uncle Antoine by Claude Jutra) or executive producer.
It was at the NFB that Brault (1928-2013) and his contemporaries launched “direct cinema”, a movement characterized by the direct capture of reality in documentary.
“This new distribution agreement allows the NFB to make its films ever more accessible, particularly to new generations. The 50th anniversary of Orders remind us of the importance of such works for our collective memory,” said Suzanne Guèvremont, government commissioner for cinematography and president of the NFB, in a press release.
As The Press recalled a few days ago, the original screenplay for the film, dated 1971, had been rejected by the NFB management. Michel Brault then turned to the private sector. The film was produced by Prisma with a budget of $260,000. It is one of the very few Quebec films to have reimbursed its expenses, says Anouk Brault. She adds that the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), the predecessor to Telefilm Canada, had accepted the screenplay.
Read “The Movie The orders at 50: still relevant »
Distribution and projection
The NFB intends to distribute the restored version of the Orders “at festivals, film clubs and other venues,” they say in a press release. But the film will not be broadcast on the onf.ca platform. It is available elsewhere, notably on the Éléphant — mémoire du cinéma québécois website (elephantcinema.quebec), a Quebecor organization that has restored more than 250 Quebec films since 2008.
The orders adds to other works by Michel Brault (Between the sea and fresh water, When I’m gone…you will still livethe documentary series The sound of the French in America) co-distributed by the ONF and Elephant.
The film’s world premiere took place on Thursday, September 26, 1974, at the Place Ville Marie and Rivoli cinemas in Montreal. This fiction, tinged with a strong documentary accent, tells, without ever naming it, the consequences of the adoption of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis of 1970. Very well received upon its release, the work won the prize for best direction at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975.
On Wednesday, a special screening of the film will take place in room 1, named Michel-Brault, at the Cinéma de Belœil, a town where the filmmaker lived for decades, in the presence of his three children (Anouk, Nathalie, Sylvain) and special guests, including Pierre Karl Péladeau, who oversaw its restoration. Finally, a documentary film on Michel Brault directed by Frédérick Pelletier (Diego Star) is in preparation.