The dictatorship of ratings, clicks and other markers of collective enthusiasm seems very cruel and fickle to me. Changing like the weather, uprooted like dry wood. It is so sweet to stick out your tongue in the name of invigorating imperfection, of art that wants to live, of legacies anchored in us. So, Sunday evening, on the 25the Gala Québec Cinéma, a wind of resistance was blowing.
Taking refuge at the Noovo canal, without great means, without spectacular effects, her ceremony touched us more than most previous editions. Creators, performers and producers suddenly seemed fragile, more tender towards each other. Uncertain times awaken solidarity. The ostentatious side of the party gave itself the unpretentious air of a family reunion.
However, Radio-Canada got rid of this ceremony as a tribute to Quebec’s seventh art, after having relegated it to the thankless box of the month of June. The audience was crumbling, its sap was diluted. The state channel, which often suffers the criticism of misplacing its cultural mission in favor of commercial entertainment, missed the opportunity to regain its reputation by reprogramming it anyway, improved, even if it meant absorbing the losses. By bravely defying the ratings steamroller.
The proof is in evidence: it was necessary to hire host Jay Du Temple to lead the way with this humor, this class, this acrobatic grace. By adding Antoine Bertrand in his funniest vein, by concocting a good initial collective sketch, full of self-deprecation. No blunders, no palpable discomfort.
That didn’t prevent the lengths, nor the high-pitched cries of a few winners surprised at their luck, nor that tenacious scent between us. Humor, sometimes agreed thanks, small shows, mini-capsules collecting testimonies from celebrities, tributes. The usual recipe, even more spicy.
The vulnerability of the silver wedding gala surrounded them with grace. In the control room, no one had dreamed of the immense audience success. Several Sunday viewers were going to watch at the same time Everybody talks about it at the SRC: it was understood! At the gala, there was relief on stage and in the audience at having been able to repeat this annual celebration. This pleasure of meeting again, without messing up, passed the ramp and the screen. The love of Quebec cinema was all the more sincere as its creators feared for its future despite the theatrical successes. The envelope for Telefilm subsidies for the French-speaking component remains to be determined. And how to see far away?
Over the course of this gala, I will have known Jutra, then renamed with great horror, some inspiring editions, others heavy or lame. For a long time, the nominated films revolved around identity quest scenarios ad nauseam. In this year which saw the triumph of the unusual and brilliant viking by Stéphane Lafleur, the eclecticism of subjects and the panoply of genres illuminated new horizons. Without losing the memory chest.
When Rémy Girard received the career award that he had long deserved, we could feel his emotion pulsing. This tribute almost fell through due to lack of a gala to carry it. But here it is! When the performer spoke of the joys of his profession and his passion for the public, extracts from his films gave his face the changing features of our modernity: “Cinema is not an ephemeral art,” said the actor of the Decline of the American Empire and boys. The fact remains that if the flagship works shine in the firmament of popular or radical classics, so many others, sometimes precious, pass by in a breeze. The pace of cultural consumption has accelerated. But the national filmography persists in unearthing the roots of a people and capturing the passage of trains.
When the public laurel was renamed the Michel-Côté prize on Sunday, it pleased a lot of people. The actor of Cruising Bar and D’In the moonlight was adored by the large audience, for his talent, his generosity. Also for the flaw that everyone felt touched on in this sensitive man. Closing the loop, CRAZY by Jean-Marc Vallée, in which he played his unforgettable role as a father, has won the public prize over the last 25 years. Enough to reconcile critics and spectators of all kinds one evening. It’s this need to stick together in troubled weather that really moved me on Sunday.
These days, we learned that the magnificent Imperial cinema was threatened with closure due to lack of funds for its renovation. The next galas will reflect other troubling precarities. So let them live to bear witness to it, to free themselves from it.