Hold the pen Duty since the beginning of the 1990s in a sector as essential as culture has been a pleasure and an immense privilege for me. I so enjoyed looking for meaning beneath the music of words. In my little interior laboratory, I had fun recording sociocultural seismic tremors in an attempt to analyze them. Vain attempts perhaps. Perpetuated it is true based on magical materials: sentences, images, notes, lighting beams, paintings, staging discoveries, bursts of color… What an extraordinary playground!
One day there arises this need to recharge your batteries, to change pace, to take a step aside by taking leave of the stands. But do we ever leave our cultural loves? To my loyal readers, who have written and encouraged me over the years, I offer my gratitude. To my colleagues, a big greeting! My heart and my mind remain with those who seek poetry and meaning in this crazy world. “There are many of us who are not numerous,” said Bernard Émond.
I thank the Cannes Film Festival for teaching me how closely art and industry are woven together at the Palais du cinéma. All these stars in ball gowns, all these posters of commercial productions in front of the Croisette! On the other hand, so many wonderful films, otherwise unknown, find the opportunity to shine on its screens. Culture is a schizophrenic creature. A two-headed monster to be loved for its whims, its missteps and its fantasies, to be revered for its powerful or stammering intuitions.
The great artists that I have interviewed throughout my career, from Léo Ferré to Gaston Miron, from Michel Tremblay to Jeanne Moreau, from Pedro Almodóvar to Agnès Varda, will have revealed to me their psyche through their silences more than through their words. But their works proved even more eloquent than them, accessible to everyone. You don’t have to be a columnist or critic to love the arts. Everyone is entitled to the garnished buffet. The fact remains that the series on the platforms are very attractive and the shows are so expensive. But let’s also take our heads out of the hole to clear our minds.
Blessed were my journeys! So many explosions across the planet have helped me understand my society and that of others, through comparison games. Enough to deplore the fact that so many Quebecers feel intimidated by culture and unworthy of frequenting its highest echelons. Legacy of a long agricultural and working society, so be it. Populist tribunes, from Duplessis to clerical figures, once shamed free-thinkers and discouraged their flock from learning too much. Politicians and online cheerleaders are taking over. Culture remains suspect on our lands. And intellectuals get looked at askance. We don’t see them too much in public, these ones. And the whole planet is riding in the same memory erasing machine.
Let us therefore arm ourselves with revolt, memories, culture, open-mindedness and a healthy reserve to think for ourselves without following the herds. This is the wisest thing the profession has taught me.
Literature, cinema, performing arts, visual arts and digital arts attest to a world that is even more vulnerable than before. Precious perishable legacies, threatened by new censorships from the right and the left, ideological hostages, witnesses against their perpetrators of bad morals. Contemporary challenges call for repairing glaring injustices against women and minorities. Let artists pay for the crimes committed with their hands, with their mouths! Should we therefore ignore the jewels of art history, ignore their revelations and their warnings? Should we really remove from the airwaves films featuring Gérard Depardieu, whose crudeness dishonors his immense talent? Entire teams created these works, embedded in the heritage of the 7e art. Everything is so complex…
Cultural chroniclers face these issues head-on. But their answers vary. Wokes and antiwokes occupy the media field. The fact remains that each camp is partly right. Let’s fight misogyny, racism and all intolerance. But let’s stop asking the past to reflect the present time. He has so much more to offer: his own reminiscences with flickering reflections in today’s mirror.
I liked probing the nuance that sneaks in between two certainties to dynamite them. And weave links between yesterday and today. Because yesterday escapes us. Social media flashes without saving anything. The French language is fraying at the seams and losing words. Young artists explore in darkness or illumination.
How can we maintain the vivid traces of collective journeys without missing the train of the future? Burning ecological issues, wars, artificial intelligence, disinformation are distorting our horizons at an insane pace. To maintain anchors, documents and works preserve forgotten treasures. I would have liked to give the thirsty the desire to dive into it. It’s up to others to give it a try. The culture that has nourished me since my early childhood will accompany my steps. Yours too, I hope. May next year light up the paths! We need stars to guide us.