“‘Testament’ represents my current perplexity at the state of the world”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Wednesday November 22, 2023: Quebec filmmaker, Denys Arcand. His new film, “Testament” is released in theaters.

Denys Arcand is in the vein of committed and engaging Quebec directors, screenwriters, authors and producers. The definition of all his passions is filmmaker. For 60 years his cinema, which above all remains his view of the world, not to mention society and its inequalities and contradictions, has motivated him to use film. His two greatest successes are The Decline of the American Empire (1986) and Barbarian Invasions (2003) which was rewarded with a César and an Oscar. Will his new film, released Wednesday November 22.

franceinfo: Will opens the doors to us that lead to the values ​​that constitute you and that have guided you. What does this film represent?

Denys Arcand: It represents my current perplexity at the state of the world. The character is a little younger than me, but he is someone who suddenly realizes that the civilization to which he belonged is disappearing. It’s like someone having the rug pulled out from under their feet. He’s not outraged by that. He’s not angry. It’s just that he’s trying to understand and it’s very, very complicated. Which is my case too.

Does that scare you?

No, because I’m going to leave this world soon, so I won’t suffer from anything that happens. I just want to say: this is a new universe that nothing has prepared us for.

Your character quotes a phrase from his mother and I wondered if it wasn’t yours who said it: “Life is a valley of tears. We are not here to be happy.“So why are we here?

My mother, when she was 18, wanted to become a Carmelite. She entered Carmel and was a novice. She came out afterwards and we never quite knew what the reasons were. She said : “This life is a valley of tears. We are not here to be happy. We are here to earn our place in heaven. And so the more unhappy we are, the more beautiful our place will be. We will be close to Jesus, close to God. Angels are in heaven“She really believed in that and so I was raised in that atmosphere which must explain lots of psychoanalytic problems from which I still suffer.

You inevitably approach death, already just in the title Will, and then you always approached it over time. What is your outlook?

I don’t know. I was afraid of death for a long time. I feared death for a long time when I was young because I loved living so much.

“I had a relatively happy life, I was easy to live with and when I was young, I was afraid that death would deprive me of this life. Now that I am in my eighties, I have no no longer afraid, all that makes me indifferent. I can disappear tomorrow, that doesn’t bother me.”

Denys Arcand

at franceinfo

Is it hard to realize your whole life?

No, it’s a job that I really like, in which I was immediately happy from the first day. The only thing that’s hard is that it’s a job in which it’s difficult to grow old because it’s physically hard, quite simply. Particularly in North America, where hours are very long and in Canada, daylight is not that long! You have to get up at 5:30 in the morning for two months and you’re up a lot because I don’t shoot in the studio, sometimes I have scenes in the studio, but usually it’s somewhere outside, n anywhere. So, we’re up until 7 o’clock in the evening. It requires physical fitness which ultimately disappears with age.

Your work reflects the transformation of Quebec cinema. You have always had an engaged cinema with nationalism and trade unionism as themes, its importance. Has cinema allowed you to have personal emancipation since the referendum for Quebec sovereignty in 1980?

Making films is my way of living. The films follow one another. I don’t have to ask myself the question: am I going to make another film? Or at least, I wasn’t wondering about it. There you go, I make films and they help me to understand myself, to understand the people who are close to me, to understand reality and understand the economy. All.

Will seems to be your last film. Is he?

This could be my last film. If this is my last film, I won’t be unhappy. I want to live happily. But hey, if I’m in good health and in two years or in a year, all of a sudden, I say to myself: oh shit, I should shoot this thing… So maybe you’ll see me again still here, even older and more miserable in a few years!

How do you view these 60 years of career?

“I was able to make small films in relative freedom in a small country, with small budgets.”

Denys Arcand

at franceinfo

How are you. I’m quite happy with the life I’ve led. I was happy to make films. I had the chance to make films, which was a great opportunity. I have seen many people in my life who fell along the road and were unable to continue. And I was always able to continue. But I was satisfied, it’s okay, it’s a good life.