Directors Jean-Pierre Roy and André Néron have made it their mission to free Jacques Parizeau—a “straightforward” man, who exulted in trust, respect and openness—from the “prison” of his statement on “money , then ethnic votes”.
To achieve this, they sign Jacques Parizeau and his imagined countrya biographical documentary to be released on Friday.
Monday, October 30, 1995. Montreal Convention Centre. The leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ) and leader of the Yes camp appears disappointed in front of the sovereignist supporters, who have just received the news: for the second time in 15 years, their option has failed. Quebec said no to the proposal to form a country.
The minutes that follow will go down in history. In the middle of a ten-minute speech, Jacques Parizeau utters the fateful words: “It’s true… it’s true that we were beaten, basically by what? By money, then ethnic votes, essentially. »
But Jacques Parizeau is much more than a sentence uttered at the turn of a post-defeat flight, says director Jean-Pierre Roy in an interview with the To have to a few hours before the film’s release Jacques Parizeau and his imagined country, developed in collaboration with former ADQ and Bloc political advisor André Néron. “We hope that the film will erase or make disappear the prison in which Mr. Parizeau was locked up with this famous sentence of defeat, which was taken up even at his death in the New York Times, he points out. Defeat is not just this sentence. »
Parizeau and modern Quebec
The film, which spans nearly two hours, is based on a series of archival footage and interviews with close associates of the former prime minister.
Presented chronologically, it recalls the role of Mr. Parizeau in several significant political events of the 20the century in Quebec, including René Lévesque’s “beautiful risk” — which he never swallowed — and the negotiations of the Meech Lake Accord — the failure of which generated a rare consensus between the Liberal Party of Robert Bourassa and the PQ.
“I thought it was important to pay tribute to this kind of character so that those who are in politics today can be inspired by this man of conviction, but also for future builders… Beyond partisanship, he is a man who built modern Quebec,” says André Néron, who had the idea of creating a documentary in 2015, after Mr. Parizeau’s state funeral.
The feature film took eight years to come to fruition. For a question of funding above all, then partly because of the pandemic. The film first places its camera on Jacques Parizeau the man. Based on long excerpts from interviews, he dwells in particular on the qualities of a financier and economist of the former prime minister, who studied at the London School of Economics, among other places, and who for several years occupied the post of Minister of Finance.
“Several, like Jean Campeau, said: “Mr. Parizeau could have had an international career.” So, if he had wanted to think only of himself, he would have had a career all over the world, possibly in the big European banks. So people were touched by his choice to stay in Quebec and help his people progress,” explains Jean-Pierre Roy.
Racist?
Even though he voted No in 1995, businessman Vincenzo Guzzo wanted to pay tribute to the leader of the Yes camp, which led him to co-produce the documentary and ask to appear in it. this.
“Every time I saw him, I took the time to go say hi. […] What I admired was its economic consistency. If Quebec is sitting on solid foundations, it is thanks to Mr. Parizeau and his economic decisions,” he told the To have to.
Quoted in the documentary, Mr. Guzzo, who has already considered the idea of entering politics for the Conservative Party of Canada, does not hold it against the former Prime Minister for his remarks on the evening of October 30, 1995. Making a statement about how the world voted in the last referendum does not make Jacques Parizeau someone… We took the liberty of saying that he was a racist. I don’t agree,” he tells the camera, his jacket riddled with pins, in front of his collectibles from the automaker Ferrari.
The film notably presents an excerpt from a PQ advertisement in which, when questioned by a worker on the fate of “ethnic groups” in a sovereign Quebec, the politician replies: “For me, there is no and there should never be anything other than Quebecers. In my case, my family arrived 330 years ago, and there are others who arrived five years ago. As citizens, we are all the same,” says Mr. Parizeau.
“I was very shocked, when we made the monument to Mr. Parizeau at the National Assembly last fall, to hear people say that we should not make a monument to a racist man. He wasn’t,” says André Néron at To have to.
Jacques Parizeau and his imagined country will be released in Guzzo cinemas across Quebec starting January 27.