His death blows a shock wave. The disappearance of Jean-Marc Vallée, carried away at the age of 58 on Christmas Eve by a cardiac arrest in his chalet in Berthier-sur-Mer, falls on us at the end of this dark year. “I have always hated Christmas”, called the voice of the hero in CRAZY, that was taking place that day. Cry from the heart or premonition. We don’t really know anymore.
This powerful director of Hollywood actors, however, leaves to those who knew him the memory of his profound simplicity. And while tributes rained down in the United States as elsewhere on the filmmaker of CRAZY and of Dallas Buyers Club, we thought to what extent the director was a nice guy, respectful, refusing the ego game so practiced in the United States. “Success, I take that with a grain of salt,” he told me, aware that the wheel can turn with dreams and expectations.
This great music lover, with such fine soundtracks, has never been able to make his feature film on Janis Joplin, who fell in battle over copyright issues. He had retained real pain for a long time. The filmmaker had a secret, modest, but generous side. He invested body and soul in his projects by winning the hearts of his teams, including his performers who mourn him today with unfeigned sincerity.
A bit like Denis Villeneuve, Jean-Marc Vallée has inspired many Quebec directors who felt the planetary dream within sight, when talent and will stick to it. In his eyes, the working language and the deep roots of a creator remained two distinct elements. “Take Iñárritu and Guillermo del Toro,” he told me in 2015, “they are now filming in English, but their heart and their imagination are Mexican. In Quebec, we are starting to do the same thing, with a desire to tell in English, but in our own way, stories from the world. His director of photography, Yves Bélanger, had accompanied him through his American film career.
In its powerful and overwhelming Dallas Buyers Club (2013), the truthful and fictionalized adventure of a homophobic and undrinkable Texan cowboy, played by Matthew McConaughey alongside Jared Leto in a big-hearted transvestite, was played out against the backdrop of the AIDS drama of the early 1980s. For this work produced with a meager budget of 4.9 million, while the big American productions were rolling around the triple digits, the consecration was due only to the immense quality of the independent film, to its emotional charge and to the strength of interpretations. McConaughey and Leto saw their roles crowned at the Oscars. Thus, the filmmaker saw himself dubbed in the South, soon sought after by the entire industry. And Quebec was celebrating together.
Jean-Marc Vallée liked to stage journeys of trials, resilience and reverses of fate to offer them enlightening outcomes. It also allowed great American performers tired of playing pretty hearts (McConaughey of course, but also Reese Witherspoon with his Wild (2014), equipped savage of a woman returned from hell taken from the account of the American Cheryl Strayed) to emerge from their consecrated jobs.
His first feature film, the thriller Blacklist in 1995, had been a commercial success, but it all really started for Jean-Marc Vallée ten years later with CRAZY, great home and international success. Michel Côté played there a father refusing the homosexuality of his son (Marc-André Grondin) who sang Aznavour songs with hellish ardor, while his son listened to David Bowie. This wonderful film of humanity set in the 1970s with imperfect characters in an average Quebec family was going to be covered with honors: 14 Jutra awards (an unparalleled record), eleven Genie awards, best Canadian film at the Toronto Film Festival, without count others. And a great success in France and elsewhere. What allowed him to turn Café de Flore in 2011 with Vanessa Paradis and Kevin Parent, on crossed destinies between Paris and Montreal and a rich musical track, of course.
This Montrealer will never really have left his cradle, where he came back to put his penates between foreign shoots. He who directed great series, including the first seven episodes of the excellent Big Little Lies, nourished by complex female characters (including that of Nicole Kidman), was aware of the strength of these productions which were growing in popularity. He refused to look down on VOD series and helped to give them its letters of nobility. His Sharp Objects, psychological thriller in miniseries also broadcast on HBO, with Amy Adams, was very noticed.
Strange fate than that of the former student of cinema at the University of Montreal, who was to unfold in such diverse universes. How could the antimonarchist have thought he could one day lead the very British movie The Young Victoria (released in 2009), on the youth of this queen? And this, according to an idea of the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, who gave him access to the private library of Windsor Castle? Jean-Marc Vallée had then become so tight on the label of the British court that he explained the nuances to the actors of his set …
Yes, life was full of surprises and explorations for him. Projects, he still caressed several. This Quebec film on which he promised himself to work will only live in his vanished dream. The creator who was also appreciated for his ability to find positive sides to the trials of life will no longer be there to inspire confidence in people. And his departure is distressing. All these promises broken in front of him … Yes, we plan to see you soon CRAZY