In front of the TV, little Pierre-Luc Brillant traveled with a famous orphan, tore laundry like a popular green superhero and stored music that still serves as his inspiration. Back to childhood.
Pierre-Luc, which youth program marked you?
Remi without family showed us the life of a young orphan wandering through the joys and cruelties of life. Yes, people died, and yes the characters were very cruel, but the beauty of the story and the perfection of the animation bewitched us and took us into a world that made us dream as much as travel and reflect. Great art!
What are your fondest childhood TV memories?
Every Saturday, I sat in the living room with my toys in the morning to be sure not to miss Cosmos 1999, a sci-fi soap opera that was set on a moon base drifting through space after a nuclear explosion on Earth. The problem is that the show only played… in the late afternoon.
Did you watch a lot of TV when you were young?
When we were very young, at home, we had neither cable, nor videocassette, nor, of course, the Internet. Public television was therefore the only way out of the boredom. So, not too much TV, but when I listened to it, it was religiously.
Is there a character who influenced you?
The Incredible Hulk played by Lou Ferrigno. I “scraped” a lot of clothes trying to imitate him during his metamorphosis into a green monster, to the great displeasure of my mother…
Did a song from a show stick in your head?
The theme song of Mysterious cities of gold. In fact, the complete soundtrack of this animated series (of the first draft) is genius for me and still influences me today in my musical creations.
Is there a character you would have liked to play for children?
The bonhomie, the sense of burlesque and the magnificent singing voice of Jacques L’heureux in Passe-Montagne still make me want to. I’m jealous!
What universe would you like the children to discover?
The dreamlike and tragic universe of Remi without familyand the epic adventures of the three child heroes of the South American renaissance of the Mysterious cities of gold are for me great, great “must” to introduce children. None of this has aged a bit…
What do you think of today’s youth TV?
I would like us to relax the floodgates of well-meaning a little so that the programs are not only dedicated to transmitting “good feelings” to children. It seems that children’s television today is trying more and more to present a world to children in which all internal and social conflicts are eventually settled, whereas this is certainly not the case in the real life.
♦ Pierre-Luc Brillant is part of the youth series, among others tactic rebroadcast by Unis TV (tv5unis.ca). In addition, he and his lover Isabelle Blais recently unveiled nine covers of songs grouped on Flashbackan album born from their musical project Comme au cinéma.