Arrived in Quebec in 1975, at the age of 25, Léa Pool was unaware that Quebec cinema was in complete upheaval thanks to Mireille Dansereau who, three years earlier, had become the first woman to sign a Quebec fiction film, The dream life of angels.
“I came from Switzerland and I didn’t know Quebec cinema at all,” recalls the filmmaker, met at the Cinémathèque québécoise where the retrospective will be presented. Lea Pool. moving figures, which brings together his 13 fiction films. “I started studying communications at UQAM in 1975 and I saw this film long after I had decided to make films. I made films without asking myself whether or not there were women making films. Maybe it saved me. »
In 1980, the director made a remarkable entrance with Rhinestone Coffee, his first fiction feature film, praised by some, decried by others during its screening at the Parallèle cinema. Then The woman of the hotel (1984) and Anne Trister (1986) allowed her to establish herself as one of the figureheads of women’s cinema with Mireille Dansereau, Paule Baillargeon, Anne-Claire Poirier, Micheline Lanctôt and Brigitte Sauriol.
” The woman at the hotel and Anne Trister immediately did well at festivals: the two went to Berlin. In 1988, Body lost was in competition in Venice. In Quebec, on the whole, they received good reviews. It definitely put me at the start of my career and allowed me to be on my way for a little while. »
However, it was only after the success ofAnne Tristerwhich will run for 26 weeks at Le Parisien, that Léa Pool drops the term audio-video technician to fully assume her status as a filmmaker.
“There is this little negative voice that we have been so well put in mind for generations that makes a woman wonder if she has the right to be in society. The impostor syndrome is still something that is there, but at the same time, I am a fighter. »
Twenty times on the job
The one that will turn in the fall Hotel Silencebased on the novel by Icelandic Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir, and who hopes to be able to shoot two other fiction projects – the first screenplays by Michel-Marc Bouchard and Sybille Pluvinage – knows that she is one of the privileged ones.
“We were still a few women filmmakers when I started. For some, the course stopped for various reasons, including difficulties in financing their films. I remember, at the time, the Fair Trade Directors were studying; they said that the women had 7% of the budget and that I alone took 4%, which made no sense with all the talent we have here. »
Although she is delighted that we are getting closer to parity in the cinema, Léa Pool is aware that there are still battles to be fought: “It is not yet the same budgets. I think the institutions are making a real effort to get there, but it’s not won. There are a lot of women working in documentaries; and documentaries are underpaid. »
There is also the issue of ageism, for both men and women… “For me to go back to festivals as I did in my 30s and 40s, there is almost no chance . I would have had to lead a permanent high-level career — which I didn’t do since I shot major films and minor films. Until my late forties, I was a filmmaker who could score points for women’s cinema. It’s normal to bet on someone younger; I benefited from it myself. »
“Institutions are a bit the same,” she continues. They try to find new winners. I find that we don’t respect enough the work of those who paved the way. Each time, you have to start from scratch. At Telefilm, not long ago, they said that it was a pity that I did not provide the color chart for my film as if I had just graduated from UQAM. They may wonder if the film will be profitable, but the color scheme and the type of frames, how does that concern them? I find that a bit discouraging at times. »
A life to turn
If there is a portrait of a man (Body lost), a family drama (the last escape2010) and a film for young audiences (The blue butterfly2004), the work of Léa Pool, nourished by poetry, painting and music, comprises essentially portraits of women who go to the end of their desires and of young girls who emancipate themselves, such as the young heroine embodied by Karine Vanasse in Bring me (1999), her most personal film and of which she is most proud. In these portraits tinged with both modesty and sensuality, as in the memorable unveiling scene in Augustine’s Passion (2015), Léa Pool addresses the condition of women, marginality and homosexuality, while signing an x-ray of Quebec society like no other local filmmaker.
Saying to herself both proud and partly embarrassed by her filmography, Léa Pool affirms that she wishes to shoot as long as she is allowed. “In everything I do, whether I look at the city, read a book, listen to music, there is always a part of my head that is in the process of looking for what could be interesting for a film. . I think I will never stop framing. I frame the universe, I listen to conversations, I take notes, I read quotes, poetry, I note the music that inspires me. It’s like second nature. I’ve been doing this for 40 years. It’s a big part of my life. »