Pierre Falardeau on the plateau ofOctober, of Party, ofElvis Gratton. Falardeau cross-country skiing with Manon Leriche in the Chic-Chocs mountains. Falardeau with his football team at the College of Montreal, in a demonstration for the Palestinian people, visiting the island of Goree, crossroads of the African slave trade, in Senegal.
Pierre Falardeau? Multiple man. Filmmaker, writer, anthropologist, early independence activist and man of words delivering the depths of his thought, even if it means shocking. All these facets, very public, are known. There are others. Falardeau is also a spouse, a father, a photographer, a hunter, a sportsman, a boxing fan.
All of this is discussed in theFalardeau album, which can be described as a “beautiful book” and which feeds his memory, adding to other works devoted to him such as the documentary by German Gutierrez and Carmen Garcia as well asA very bad friend, collection of letters written to Léon Spierenburg that translated and presented by Jean-François Nadeau, from To have to.
Why this album of photos and writings now? “To celebrate his work and his life, of course, and to give images and documents rarely or never seen, on one or the other”, writes Manon Leriche at the beginning of the book.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Manon Leriche and Jules Falardeau in April 2012, at the book launch Molson’s gardener, new screenplay by Pierre Falardeau.
But also, and perhaps above all, to continue in another way the fight of a man who struggled like a devil in holy water, his life, for the cause of emancipation, national and collective, from Quebec.
Manon Leriche, in an excerpt from the book Falardeau album
Joined Thursday by Press, Jules Falardeau indicates that his mother had, for several years, this desire to make a “kind of biography by the images”. And not just images of Falardeau. “We wanted images from his films, behind the scenes and images taken by Pierre,” he says. Through this, it is certain that we wanted the word of Peter to be there. We therefore went through his writings to get out of the quotes that we find in certain chapters. ”
Range of documents
Jules Falardeau is visibly happy with the result. It evokes discoveries made throughout the project. “An example of which I am very proud is when Pierre tells the anecdote about the film The steak. He was Gaétan Hart’s corner man in his last fight. The next day, he will join Gaétan, whose face is all bloated. Pierre asks him if he can take some pictures. They had never been published. ”
Another moment of interest for Jules Falardeau, the publication of a photo of the letter from the Algerian Cinémathèque acknowledging receipt of a copy of the film The Magra, which Falardeau had filmed in this country.
“We had watched theMiron album I did a few years ago, and that gave us some inspiration, ”continues Jules, one of the couple’s three children, with Hélène and Jérémie. “It’s a pretty well done album. But Miron is more in terms of writing. In our case, we are fortunate that Pierre was a filmmaker, photographer, anthropologist. So we had a wide range of usable documents. ”
PHOTO NATHALIE MONGEAU, PROVIDED BY VLB EDITOR
The book makes room for Falardeau, the family man. Here with Manon Leriche in the Chic-Chocs mountains in 2007.
The authors also wanted to give the floor to third parties. Seven friends, collaborators and connoisseurs of the filmmaker sign texts. They are Éric Bédard, Sylvie Drapeau, Bernard Émond, Alexis Martin, Claude Palardy, Céline Philippe and Robin Philpot.
Directed by Jean-François Leblanc, the cover photo shows Falardeau on the set ofOctober with actor Pierre Rivard playing a hooded felquist. What does it represent? Jules Falardeau thought for a few moments before answering.
” October is one of his strong projects, ”he said after a while. “A project that Pierre carried out for a good part of his life and which resulted from his meeting with Francis Simard. He spent many years receiving refusals [pour le financement]. They were years of perseverance. But it gave him time to think about it. It is one of the great artistic projects of his life. ”
Falardeau album
Manon Leriche and Jules Falardeau
VLB
304 pages