I have always considered Pierre Falardeau to be an exceptional filmmaker. However, when I watch his films, which I love, I often feel uneasy. The party, October and February 15, 1839 plunge me into an overwhelming, tragic universe, mine, in a way, that of my people prevented from fully exercising their freedom, and I vibrate intensely in tune with the characters at bay, who are fighting. Suddenly, one of the heroes speaks, and I have the impression of finding myself in a militant conference of Falardeau; the tragedy becomes didactic, and it weighs down the work.
A similar phenomenon occurs when I read the texts of the pamphleteer. The style, square and caustic, even vitriolic, grabs me and the words, furiously combative, impresses me, but the permanent resentment and the absolute refusal of nuances strike me.
Despite these reservations, I retain a deep attachment to the man and to the work, which I admire. Falardeau, for me, is of the caliber of Félix Leclerc, Gaston Miron, Pierre Bourgault, Andrée Ferretti, Gilles Vigneault and René Lévesque, that is to say of these men and women who radically embody a Quebec in search of his freedom.
Without being perfect – no one is, obviously – they transcend our ordinary cowardice by the depth of their commitment, almost sacrificial, in the service of a cultural, social and political cause, that is to say national, which exceeds them. “Pierre probably had faults, well, I imagine, writes the film critic Georges Privet rightly.” But it would take a man who has less than me to try to inventory his. “
Conceived by his wife, Manon Leriche, and by one of his sons, Jules, theFalardeau album (VLB, 2021, 304 pages) does justice and homage to the late filmmaker larger than life. Magnificent collage of photos and texts taken from his work and his private collection, this beautiful book also contains essays by guest authors, which reiterate the unbroken power of Falardeau’s speech.
Discourse, yes, because, beyond his films and his texts as such, it is indeed his discourse, that is to say his general speech, which constitutes Falardeau’s true work. “Pierre, writes the essayist Robin Philpot to summarize the thought of the filmmaker, wanted to see the national liberation and social emancipation of the Quebec people take place, in solidarity with the other peoples of the world” who are fighting against imperialism, especially American .
It is, indeed, and it is more than that still. If Falardeau’s liberating words are so precious, it is not so much for its originality – it is, after all, part of a long militant tradition – as for its intensity, its radiating character, its sensitivity which make its content unmistakable. only necessary intellectually, but vital, humanly. Falardeau does not only propose political ideas; it is inhabited by a mission.
Less rowdy than his friend and colleague, filmmaker Bernard Émond understands Falardeau’s vehemence because, in his discreet way, he shares it. “Alive,” he wrote. He was alive. We are about to die. We are nationally, we are culturally dying, we die out in indifference, cowardice and Byzantine quarrels, preferring angelism to survival. […] He’s dead, but he’s more alive than us. He died standing, as he lived, and defeats never dented his determination. “
Falardeau, explains historian Éric Bédard, professed a decolonizing independence, inspired in particular by the ideas of historian Maurice Séguin. His Gratton, as Georges Privet also notes, illustrates the lamentable state of the mentality of the colonized; its tragedies on October and the Patriots sing the liberating revolt. Its nationalism, insists Bernard Émond, “was internationalist”, that is to say that it applied to all the peoples of the earth in search of their national liberation.
Falardeau did not support the accusations of intolerance made against Quebec nationalism. If he invited, without restriction, people from everywhere to join the Quebec people and their struggle, he spewed out the so-called progressives who, by instrumentalizing minorities in order to tarnish the independence project, play into the hands of the laminators of the Quebec nation.
“Was Falardeau a great filmmaker or a great pamphleteer? »Asks Georges Privet. “It was first and foremost a man – of words, of ideas and of action – terribly important and necessary in Quebec today, ”he answers correctly.
Thanks to the’Falardeau album, we can still, thank God, offer and offer ourselves as a gift this living being, so as not to die.