Yes, of course, there is the celebrated filmmaker, Jean-Marc Vallée de CRAZY, Dallas Buyers Club, Wild, Café de Flore, TV series — we forget about them as they spiral, twist and turn over two crazy decades. There is inevitably the Jean-Marc infinitely missed by his family, whose departure in the middle of Christmas Day 2021 caused a shock which has not yet passed the esophagus, like a party too full for the belly. Yes Hollywood, yes Berthier-sur-Mer. And all the rest. The unspeakable of an impossible and unbearably short life.
How can we accurately evoke the intense friend, the pleasure-maker, with image and sound? How to offer an evening worthy of this organizer of such memorable evenings?
For Marc-André Grondin, the alter ego actor, the relative of the bombarded relatives, director of the show entitled Mixtape. A musical tribute to Jean-Marc Vallée, presented at the opening of the Montreal International Jazz Festival on June 27, it was clear what not to do. “There was no question of seating Wilfrid-Pelletier in front of a best of scenes. Jean-Marc’s films exist, we can find them and watch them. We weren’t going away from the views, we were going elsewhere. We were leaving before. Before the images. In the time of music. Hence the idea of recreating the spirit of mixtapes by Jean-Marc in a show with musicians. A soundtrack of the soul. »
A living Valley “show”
It’s in a way a return to the origins. Jean-Marc Vallée was a music guy: an editor of music videos, a nasty tripper. “He had drive, Jean-Marc, boundless energy, whatever he does,” summarizes Amélie Beyries, who shares the artistic direction of the show with Alex Vallée, the eldest of the two Vallée sons (the other being Émile). “I knew him at work, I knew him at his parties. When Jean-Marc entered somewhere, you knew it. He was rarely tired. »
How does a guy never get tired die? “To tell the truth, the only time I found him a little weakened was recently. But not enough to predict such a sudden end, far from it. »
Beyries will participate in the show, along with Maxime Le Flaguais, Pierre-Luc Brillant, Elisapie, Alexandra Stréliski, Martha Wainwright, Pilou, Patrick Watson and the Petits Chanteurs du Mont-Royal. Around fifteen musicians and singers, led by Jean-Phi Goncalves, will not be too much for the vast palette of colors of the mixtapes by the very electric Jean-Marc Vallée.
“We were neighbors for a few years,” emphasizes Goncalves. His passion for music was obvious and contagious. He knew and consumed much more than me and many people in my circle of musicians. ” THE mixtapes, we quickly understood from his contact, eternally imbued with excitement, were both offerings and testing grounds. “I was sort of the guinea pig in his montages. Through his tests, I discovered Leon Bridges, Michael Kiwanuka, The Acid, Alexandra Stréliski before it exploded, an unfinished piece from Half Moon Run, etc. »
A karaoke of strong emotions
This show will not go as far as these mixtapes : the palette is too diverse. And it is impossible to ignore the Space Oddity by Bowie, unimaginable not to invite a putative Patsy Cline to the evening. “Jean-Marc loved all kinds of songs,” Alex Vallée readily admits. Music is the language of emotions. Do you like it or don’t you like it? »
But once you’ve loved it to the point that movie scenes are now glued tightly to songs for life, even songs that had their own independence until then, you can no longer separate them completely. ” THE mixtape that we are going to offer, it is a splash tunes that make us think of this person. Not like a DJ setlet’s say,” says Goncalves.
In truth, the DJ set is preliminary. Jean-Marc Vallée comes from there: his father was at the nightclub of the popular radio station CKAC, the kid from the 1960s grew up in the rows of 45s and 33s. Radio at that time happily mixed yéyé, dance music, Motown, country and western, great French song, British pop and, as the decade progressed, the bubblegum of the Archies and the flourishing psychedelia of a Bowie.
” On a mixtape, he has already played Iron Maiden and Ferré. And it worked! All rebels! David Bowie was a completely “artist”CRAZY”. The links are everywhere, when you think about it,” says Maxime Le Flaguais.
The genius of juxtaposition
The Flaguais laughs quietly. He thinks of the missing friend, still present. There mixtape as its own creation. “For my part, saying Aznavour’s words to music by Sigur Rós can help us grasp the depth of Jean-Marc’s intelligence. He was capable of superimposing artistic elements that seemed incompatible, and of leading us to think about unknown dimensions of art and of ourselves, both as individuals and as a society. »
Alex Vallée says: “I have a beautiful memory of my father taking my brother, Émile, and me to Honduras to get our diving cards. One evening, after a good day underwater, we go to eat at the restaurant resort, which had installed a karaoke station for customers. Obviously, no one was using it. It was then that Jean-Marc left the ball rolling for the rest of the guests with a Let’s Stay Together by Al Green. »
That’s all Jean-Marc Vallée: an irrepressible desire to experience music AND a potential film scene. Music is most often the trigger, but cinema is never far away. There mixtape, in this, represents it completely. For Jean-Marc Vallée, everything is rhythm, everything is editing. Everything is connected ; everything feeds emotion. With the right music, you can express anything. And when we are aware of this, we can go very far and very high.
Also read, about the FIJM
Pierre-Luc Brillant testifies: the filmmaker knew it. “One of the first times I met Jean-Marc was to talk about the character of Raymond in CRAZY Among other things, he made me listen to several songs that were going to be part of the film. Just hearing that awesome pre-soundtrack, I knew I was going to star in a really good movie. But I didn’t have to keep this impression to myself for long, because Jean-Marc immediately pulled me out of my reverie by saying: “Are you aware that this film will mark the history of Quebec cinema?” Why play “false modesty” when you have clairvoyant talents…? »
Hear and see
The show could be experienced with your eyes closed. Mathieu Roy’s scenography will certainly be worth the trip, but we would nonetheless be in the presence of the man’s creative genius. It happens in the head. Elisapie says it well: “He had this gift for uniting artists and friends around fantastic artistic projects, and today, it is this friendship for him that brings us together around these songs. It is probably love and friendship that will give direction to this show and create artistic coherence. » This is what Jean-Marc Vallée always wanted from the parties he organized. “We often say it, but it’s true,” adds Beyries. Her dream was to be a rock star. »
This is the purpose of the tribute. Go to the end of the crazy dream of a beautiful, excessive and brilliant man. Everyone will mix on Mixtape to grant it.
Mixtape. A musical tribute to Jean-Marc Vallée
At the Wilfrid-Pelletier room at Place des Arts, Thursday, June 27, at 7:30 p.m.