Looking at the cultural news, one can only be struck by a strong feeling of déjà vu… Here come La Poune, Les Belles-soeurs and Les deux femmes en or, returning to haunt us. Not forgetting the duo Dodo and Denise. Symphorien, for his part, was already resurrected some time ago. The new tour of Patof and Capitaine Bonhomme will not be long in coming. But why, one might ask?
There is of course the pretext of the neo-feminist rereading of these works to justify their reinterpretation. La Poune, for example, now described as a pioneer who broke through glass ceilings, seems to have been brought back to the forefront mainly because of her homosexuality. Because let us remember that the cultural intelligentsia rather greatly despised her during her lifetime.
In connection with Two golden womenthis time we insist on (re)seeing the liberation of female sexual desire, instead of a 1970s uncle’s film, where all the reasons were good to talk about buttocks and show them. In the new version of Me and the otheranother drivel about women’s emancipation is being offered. And how many versions of the Sisters-in-law will we be able to see? Does a film version sung in a kitsch setting add anything to Michel Tremblay’s work? When will there be a version in the metaverse?
I have nothing against all these works or against the people who embodied or created them, but the question arises: what do we gain by reviving them again and again, when they have already enjoyed immense success with the public and significant distribution? Is cultural Quebec condemned to spin on itself like a merry-go-round at La Ronde in 1967?
Nostalgia and profitability
I dare to put forward another hypothesis on this creative recycling: a financial question mixed with a certain flattery towards an audience that never tires of revisiting its golden youth, and which also has the time and money to do so. We can therefore think that this is taken into account when choosing the works to present and the funding to grant. Nostalgia can bring in a lot of money and thus guarantee the profitability of cultural production.
In addition to the financial stakes and those of the target consumer public, I would add that it is also possible to consider recycling these very familiar creations with a view to collective comfort. Indeed, in an era of submission to the religion of well-being, Quebec needs to be reassured and comforted at all costs by harmless works that do good, a sort of comfort food cultural, in short.
Could it be that this trend also reflects a certain difficulty in describing a reality that is too unpleasant, very different from the so-called golden age of the 1960s and 1970s? Other generations have followed, however, and their story probably does not resemble an amusing one sitcom or a burlesque sketch… Would it be too painful, not profitable enough or too trying to produce new and striking works from it?