Every morning for 60 years, Marcel Sabourin has spoken to his old cassette recorder. Based on his confessions, but also archives and interviews, Jérôme Sabourin made a documentary about his father.
“Growing old means no longer understanding the world around you,” says Marcel Sabourin in At the end of nothing altogether. However, during the 90 minutes of the documentary dedicated to him by his eldest son, we feel the actor is still very young at heart and in spirit. The eldest still marvels at the beauty of the world around him. Failing to always understand it…
At the end of nothing tells the rich journey of this multi-talented actor: the star of J. A. Martin photographer – film by Jean Beaudin of which we see scenes with him and Monique Mercure – is also a talented improviser, a teacher, a screenwriter and a lyricist.
Under the intimate and tender gaze of Sabourin fils (he has three other guys), the actor reveals himself with all his sensitivity. Of course, Professor Mandible of La Ribouldingue is told with the verve and fantasy that we know. But its history is also that of local cinema and the cultural revolution of modern Quebec.
Marcel Sabourin is a true poet: a person who illuminates what is invisible to others. In You don’t have to die for that (1967), his character collects dead insects, which he picks up from the sidewalk, “out of respect for that which is smaller than God and men”. Then, half a century later, we find the actor, sitting on the lawn of a cemetery, still fascinated by the fate of insects. He talks to us about it delicately, while we see an ant slowly moving up his arm…
The joual
Actor in the theater, on TV and in the cinema (more than 50 films under his belt), the man likes to throw, here and there, a loud curse: “Tabarnak!” » is his favorite. He remembers that in the early days of television, we never heard sacred words on the small screen. In the soap operas, the actors spoke polished French that no Quebecer uses in life.
When he began teaching at the National Theater School in the early 1960s, Marcel Sabourin asked the management to add an improvisation course. So that future interpreters can perform in their language.
In 1968, Sabourin returned to live in Paris, where he had studied at age 21. This time with his wife, Françoise (to whom the film is dedicated), and his son Jérôme, still a baby. In France, ironically, he wrote his first song lyrics in joual – Egg Generation, Commitment, There you are, All spread apart –, for his former student at the National School, a certain Robert Charlebois. The latter is always grateful to his master and friend.
Director of photography, Jérôme Sabourin creates here a very successful and touching first feature film. His film constitutes a precious legacy. That of a veteran artist and visionary driven, at 88 years old, by his madness. Sweet, beautiful and eternal. A poet’s flame never goes out, they say.
Indoors
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Documentary
At the end of nothing
Jérôme Sabourin
With Marcel Sabourin, Robert Charlebois, Denys Arcand, Jean-Pierre Lefebvre
1:33 a.m.