Louise Portal | Tribute to a bearer of emotions

Of Bull at confessions, Louise Portal now has 50 years of cinema. From the young girl discovering the seventh art in her twenties to the mature woman who grows old playing an octogenarian in front of Luc Picard’s camera, the actress assumes all her ages, one decade at a time. On Sunday, the Iris Tribute will be awarded to him as part of the Gala Québec Cinéma.

Marc-Andre Lussier
The Press

A club cheap from the depths of the Beauce. When Bull begins, a young girl performs a striptease on an approximate stage in front of a few customers with lustful eyes. His mother, a prostitute from the village, is amused. In this harsh film, written and directed by Clément Perron, co-screenwriter of My uncle Anthony, Louise Portal holds her first important role on the big screen. Fifty years later, the actress still has a very emotional memory.

“It’s Beauce, the real world, a real farm, a real river,” she recalls during an interview with The Press. I’m 22, I find myself there, I have to do a striptease, my character is raped. I am with Monica [Lepage], André Melançon. We are in the real matter. I already had television experience, but filming in a Radio-Canada studio really has nothing to do with it. It’s because of Bull that I discovered what cinema really was. It was extraordinary ! »

A bit of patience

For the young woman from a family where the need for artistic expression was as great as the Saguenay Fjord, cinema would now play a crucial role. However, the course was not as smooth as that which was emerging at the start. After Bull, the proposals received by Louise Portal were less interesting in her eyes, especially since they often included scenes of nudity. A few years of patience led her to Anne Claire Poirier (die loud) and, above all, Jean Beaudin and his Cordélia. In the skin of this woman with a tragic destiny who really existed, the actress holds one of her greatest roles.

“It was also an extraordinary experience, but, again, I hardly had any other offers afterwards because I was cataloged in the roles of romantic heroines of the period. It was at this time, which corresponds to my thirties, that I started to write novels, songs too, to make records. Until Dionysius [Arcand] suggests me The Decline of the American Empire. This role changed my life. And the cinema has never left me! »

The 1980s were particularly fruitful. So in love with a musician, Louise Portal also took up singing, recorded discs – four albums – and even collected a few quotes at the ADISQ gala. This fruitful aspect of his career was, however, abruptly put to a halt, by his own decision, at the turn of his forties.

“I put on a show called The striptease in the soul, as a kind of first assessment of life. I often say that in our twenties, we clear the land of our future and that in our thirties, we sow what we will harvest in our forties. »

“I made a clean sweep. The important movements in my life always go through writing and creating,” she adds.

The queen of little words

A parenthesis here is in order. In addition to the twenty books she has written, Louise Portal has kept a diary that she has been updating every day for nearly 60 years. The sum of all the collages made by “the queen of little words” (as Denys Arcand affectionately calls her) is so colossal that an archive collection has been created.

“When I was very young, I already had a fascination for actresses,” she confides. In my scrapbooks from the 1960s, there are photos of Brigitte Bardot, Marilyn Monroe, Gina Lollobrigida and Jeanne Moreau. in my novel The actress, Jeanne Moreau, for whom I have boundless admiration, is present from the first pages. She was my icon. What a remarkable actress and what a great lover! In addition, she sings, she writes, she is a free woman. And then, Jules and Jim… »

No to exile

Let us close the parenthesis here to follow up on the exceptional international influence that The Decline of the American Empire. Which also earned Louise Portal an important role in my best buddiesa feature film that Jean-Marie Poiré (Santa Clause is garbage, Visitors) made in 1989. This presence in this cult film could undoubtedly have imposed the actress in France, but it was not really the case.

“I had already filmed there The beasts [Jean-Louis Daniel] in the early 1980s with Philippe Léotard and Daniel Auteuil, she explains. At the same time, I opened for Maxime Le Forestier at Bobino. A great agency [Artmedia] wanted me to sign, but I did not feel capable of going into exile. I came home and my life turned around. »

“Then,” she continues, “when came my best buddies, in 1989, I was not ready to leave everything for France either. In fact, I realize that in my nature as a Quebecer, I have never been ready to sacrifice everything for success, notoriety, to want an international career at all costs. »

The desire to transmit

At 72 years old, Louise Portal believes that the homage that the people of cinema will pay her during the Gala Québec Cinéma, although unexpected, could not come at a more beautiful moment.

“I feel not only proud, but above all privileged. I shot 47 feature films and 17 short films, do you realize? I have a good participation in confessionsthe film by Luc Picard [à l’affiche le 20 juillet], and I also played at the theater last winter in Saguenay. My literary career keeps me busy, I give writing workshops and a lot of conferences. I’m still trying to find a word that can define a decade of my life and I believe the one that will apply to my 70s is the word transmission. I’m there. »

24^e Gala Québec Cinéma will take place on June 5 at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ICI Télé.