He has difficulty walking since a recent operation on his right hip. But the handshake is firm. The look, frank. And he has clear ideas. At 95 years old, Fernand Dansereau welcomes us to his home to chat about his projects. Because this eternal creator thrives on projects.
“Life and vitality are desire. The important thing is to find a desire to maintain. And I’m not talking about sexual desire. I always had projects,” summarizes this man with 1000 passions, born in Montreal a year before the stock market crash of 1929.
Director, screenwriter, producer, journalist (including Duty, in the 1950s), poet, novelist and painter, Fernand Dansereau witnessed the history of the last century. He covered the asbestos strikes in Asbestos and the textile strikes in Louiseville, he saw the birth of direct cinema by participating in flagship works like For the rest of the worldby Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault, then he contributed to popular series like Caleb’s Daughters, The Park of the Brave Or Barracks 24.
This tireless worker is incapable of twiddling his thumbs. He is preparing an exhibition of his recent paintings, he is finishing a film that looks like a testament and he is writing the second volume of a romantic fresco which will span the entire 20th century.e century.
Fernand Dansereau gets carried away when we mention the slogan “Liberté 55”, this dream of retirement in the prime of life, fueled by an advertisement from the early 1990s. “Liberté 55? This is insurance company business. It leads straight to the cemetery. You are going on an all-inclusive trip. You come back home, what do you do? You wait for something to happen. You’re waiting for death, ultimately. »
The choice of optimism
When asked why he insists on working at an age when 99% of people still alive only think about resting, the answer falls like a hammer blow: “I have never worked! No, I always had fun. I wake up in the morning and I say to myself, “What am I going to create today?” »
For a dozen years, the filmmaker has been interested in what he calls “old age”. He made three documentaries which focused on humor, then sexuality and finally hope among the elderly. For his trilogy, he brought in some of his long-time accomplices, including the late Jean Beaudin, Denys Arcand and Marcel Sabourin. They talked about what keeps them alive. Of what turns them on despite their declining faculties.
The filmmaker retains the formula of his cousin Pierre Dansereau, another wise old man, who devoted his life to ecology: “Optimism is a decision. » For Fernand Dansereau, optimism is even an ethical posture. He believes in a form of karma that gives him peace of mind. He fears nothing. Above all, don’t fail.
“Age has freed me from the desire to succeed. I don’t care! I do what interests me,” he says, taking a sip of what looks like a glass of scotch. “Not at all, it’s a ginger herbal tea,” he explains.
This vitality allowing him to remain active at 95 years old, Fernand Dansereau attributes it to “luck”. About growing up in a wealthy family. And to the love of his partner, Francine Beaudry, a musician of the same age as his eldest son (he has seven children aged 29 to 72, eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren).
The couple lives in a charming country house where a grand piano sits. The walls are covered with colorful canvases by the almost century-old artist.
The cycle of change
“Karma” also prevents him from worrying about the future of Quebec. He encourages political mobilization to safeguard the French language and culture, but the destiny of Quebec does not deprive him of sleep. “The French language has evolved and will evolve. I have confidence in life. Nations evolve, transform and sometimes die,” says Fernand Dansereau.
Half a century after the Quiet Revolution, he remains amazed by the dazzling transformations that hit Quebec during the 1960s. “Catholicism was the foundation of the life of Quebecers. In two years, everything fell apart. In my photo of the classical course at Sainte-Marie college, there are 70 students. About forty took the cassock. They all defrocked in 1969! »
Age has freed me from the desire to succeed. I don’t care! I do what interests me.
In a society in turmoil, the filmmaker smiles when thinking of certain editorial choices he has made throughout his creations. The heroine of the series Shehawehwhich tells the story of a young Indigenous woman uprooted to make her lose her original culture, was played by Marina Orsini.
“It was definitely cultural appropriation. It couldn’t work today,” recognizes Fernand Dansereau, who nevertheless had an indigenous advisor for this series broadcast in 1993. Times are changing…
Vertigo and indignation
Optimism, zenitude and joy of living do not prevent lucid observations: Fernand Dansereau deplores the inertia of humanity in the face of climate change. Of course, the climate has always evolved over millennia, but human action accelerates changes exponentially, he points out. Poor countries will have enormous challenges in adapting to heat and extreme climatic episodes of which 2023 has given a foretaste.
“We’re heading into the wall at full speed,” says Dansereau.
The war between Israel and Hamas also despairs him. Peace must come from the creation of a Palestinian state so that both peoples can live in dignity, but Israel continues to eat away at Palestinian territories and bomb thousands of civilians under the complicit eye of Western powers, deplores Fernand Dansereau – which is also sensitive to the massacre of hundreds of Israeli civilians by Hamas.
The phenomenal progress of artificial intelligence makes him dizzy. The artist admits to being unable to imagine where this so-called progress will take the world. For now, he looks out his living room window. Soft snow falls on the trees. It’s beautiful. Peaceful.
“Do you realize how lucky we are to be here?” There is no war, people generally have enough food and shelter, despite the housing and cost of living crisis. It is unique in the world. We must savor our luck. »