Clemence, once again | Rediscover Clémence DesRochers

After his works on the life of Renée Claude, Aznavour and Quebec and the creation of sisters-in-law, our colleague Mario Girard continues his fruitful endeavor to harvest the golden nuggets of our cultural memory. This time, he recounts with sagacity the exceptional career of Clémence DesRochers.

In Clemence once again, a beautiful book which will be launched on Thursday, Mario Girard pays tribute to the legendary author, singer and actress. The journalist also highlights the sensitive, endearing and mischievous woman. The Press joined our National Clemence at her home last Friday in a nice telephone conversation, interrupted by the arrival of her two cats… Grujot and Délicat!

The Press : Mario Girard dedicates this book “to young authors, actors, comedians and singers” so that they know that “Clémence cleared the path before them”. How do we feel when we are told that we are the pioneer of humor in Quebec?

Clémence DesRochers: It’s very flattering. However, I know very well that the younger generation does not know me. It sometimes happens that my face tells them something… As this young Hydro employee told me, who came to my house the other day. So much the better if the book can help introduce my work to the youngest.

You are a woman of words, stage and set. With thousands of shows, tours and TV shows. For 50 years, Clémence has been in the public eye, in the public’s love. Do you miss the whirlwind of public life today?

Yes I feel [un temps]…it’s hard to replace. You are in front of 800, 1000 people who are there for you, with you; they applaud you when you arrive alone on stage. Sometimes, I went backstage and came back to ask them for a second “lovely welcome”. For two hours, you manage to bring people from different backgrounds, with their moods, into your world. That’s wonderful ! There’s not a lot of profession that manages to do that. But you know, you become an artist because you crave love.

At the start of your career, you worked in an all-male world, or almost. You collaborated with Jacques Normand, Raymond Lévesque, Paul Buissonneau, Claude Léveillée, Jean Besré, Jean-Pierre Ferland, Yvon Deschamps… I imagine that it was difficult to take your place, for a woman, in this “boys club »?

No, it didn’t bother me at all to be the only girl in Les Bozos, for example. Besides, there was no question of boys or girls; we just wanted to put on a good show. And I arrived in rehearsal with my texts. My gear could be stronger than the guys. There were quite a few who courted me, but it didn’t really hurt (laughs). But I didn’t know my sexual orientation at that time…

The book devotes a chapter to your beautiful love story with Louise Collette, which has lasted since 1968. On the other hand, you have always refused labels, such as feminist, lesbian, homosexual… You say, in the book, “I am not lesbian, I love Louise”. Why refuse labels?

Because I am a free woman above all. Like my father [le poète Alfred DesRochers] taught me: “Your life is yours! “, he said. I don’t want to be told that I am this, that I am that. I stopped going to church because the priests told us what to do. I hated school because the nuns treated the girls all the same, lining us up in tight rows.

What do you think of activism in today’s society? The fight for diversity, among others, within the LGBTQ+ community?

It doesn’t look like me at all. I may be selfish, but politics don’t interest me. At the same time, I respect the causes and struggles of others. I knew a woman who changed sex, it surprised me! But I know it comes from suffering, from a deep need. I can’t judge. It’s their life.

Among all your work (songs, records, poems, monologues), what makes you most proud?

to have written Two old. It was Pauline Julien, a very long time ago, who suggested that I do a song about the love between two women. But I was afraid of the reaction of the public. It took me many years to write it. I waited until Louise’s mother was gone because she didn’t know we were together…

Your work constantly navigates between the comic and the tragic, you make “the serious and the laughter waltz”, writes Mario Girard in the book. What would you like people to remember about you: the comic Clemence or the melancholic Clemence?

Both. In the 1960s and 1970s, I wanted to name these women who weren’t sung in songs. Because “someone has to name her, the one who always speaks low”. I’ve always had admiration for the women in Quebec who ran the boat at home, with lots of children and little money; while the fathers, at the time, were not very present. I think of young people today. And I tell myself that it must be difficult to be humorous in a world as disturbing as ours…

In bookstores March 16

Clemence once again

Mario Girard (preface by Nathalie Petrowski)

Editions La Presse

312 pages