I couldn’t end the year 2023 without returning to the Quebec work that most divided the public and critics, Willby Denys Arcand.
I will spare you for yet another review of this film, contenting myself with telling you that I absolutely did not shy away from my pleasure, distributing my laughter in equal parts to the bedridden old PQ members, to the technocratic politicians, to the young activists in need of causes, to the vulture media, to the superficial cultural environment and to elderly people stunned by technology.
In Quebec, France and English Canada, Arcand’s film pitted all groups against each other: the young against the old, the woke against the anti-woke, the left against the right. I loved observing this division, because it emanated some rather enriching reflections and sometimes exciting discussions.
Everyone had an opinion on this film which garnered revenues of 1.8 million in Quebec. There was even someone around me who told me all the bad things he thought about the film before telling me… that he wouldn’t go see it.
And what about the resulting press coverage? Never seen ! All the critics and columnists in Quebec have spoken out on this. There was white, black, rarely gray.
Name me a book, a play or a film that achieved the same thing in 2023 in Quebec?
The one who has enough Genies, Caesars and Iris – without forgetting an Oscar! – to garnish a few mantelpieces gave dozens of interviews about his film. Of course we focused on his vision of wokism and cultural revisionism, two hot topics that are very present in the film.
In his responses, I never felt bitter, catastrophic or nostalgic. He defended his ideas in the tone that has always characterized him, half-serious, half-joking, punctuating his responses as he usually does with loud laughter.
Tirelessly, Arcand responded to the hosts and journalists by saying that he wondered if wokism would not be a “passing fashion”, a bit like Marxism-Leninism, or if it is really a paradigm shift.
The question arises, in fact. And creators must ask themselves this.
“The woke movement is not left-wing, but comes from an old religious background in the United States, which adopts a superior moral position against which we cannot fight. There are good ones and bad ones. It’s an orthodoxy that we can no longer question,” he told Figaro Magazine, further quoting Talleyrand who once said: “Everything that is excessive is insignificant. »
In several interviews, the 82-year-old filmmaker admitted that “like all old people”, he wonders “where we are going”. Arcand cannot be blamed for avoiding naming things and being clear.
Controversies and divisions mark the career of Denys Arcand. Of Champlain has WillPassing by We are in cotton, Comfort and indifference And Duplessisthe filmmaker has stamped his works with a strong personal vision, whether it shocks or not.
Never expect Arcand to be where you want him to be. You will waste your time.
The themes he addresses in Will mark our era. But one subject in particular caught my attention. As he has done in other films, Arcand uses our distressing intellectual laziness as a binding agent.
He repeats to us that we are content with little, that we burn books with the most extraordinary carelessness and that our lack of culture leads us to put a coat of white paint on a historical fresco.
The intellectual laziness that Arcand exhibits is also that which makes us believe in false news or which nourishes the absurd ideas of conspiracy theorists.
The character of Jean-Michel Bouchard, played by Rémy Girard, is a dinosaur who drags his heavy steps, telling himself that everything he has learned during his life no longer has any value. What is the point of storing up knowledge, reading Aristotle or visiting museums?
In this era of “common sense” (an expression I can no longer hear), we no longer need to enrich ourselves intellectually, because ChatGPT will take care of it for us.
Psychologists and neurologists recognize it: our brain is, by nature, lazy. When choosing between a parade of meaningless videos on TikTok or reading an essay by a medievalist, there’s a good chance we’ll choose the first option.
This denunciation of cultural poverty on the part of Arcand fills me with happiness. He is so right when he uses Einstein’s words: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. »
This Denys Arcand, I would like to see him again soon in another film. At the start of his promotional tour, he left the door firmly closed on the idea of a new project. And the more interviews there were, the more we had the impression that he was unlocking this door.
I heard him say recently that a director who makes films after a certain age risks less, therefore he enjoys greater freedom. On that point, I think he’s lying a little. This elusive fox has never been afraid to challenge freedom of expression. And to live well with your choices.
In 1986, while he was in his dashing forties, Denys Arcand was Denise Bombardier’s guest on the show On your mind. He came to talk about his film The decline of the American empire who triumphed everywhere. The host called the work a “return film” before asking him what he could do after that.
He replied: “Now I’m going to get lost!” »
He said that while laughing out loud!