An important figure in the Quebec poetic and musical counter-culture of the 1970s, but also a teacher and animator, Lucien Francoeur remains a difficult beast to define and is often reduced to his myths. So that the fresco of the life of “ freak de Montréal” is more complete, his only daughter, Virgini, decided to immerse herself in the documentary adventure. She and co-director Robbie Hart deliver Friday Francoeur. We finish off the rockers wella portrait that is both biographical and intimate against a backdrop of road trip Californian.
It is around her kitchen table that Virginie Francoeur, alongside her famous father, receives The duty. Lucien, dressed in a shirt from his own group Aut’chose, still has certain rocker habits — for example, he postponed drinking his morning beer to take it after the interview, which started at 10 a.m. But his health has deteriorated in recent years.
“My father had isolated himself a little with the pandemic, he had locked himself in his bubble,” notes Virginie, professor of management at Polytechnique Montréal, but also an author. Then he had a heart attack, then a double bypass…” “Details! » laughs the “sanctified rocker” now 75 years old. But you have to understand that time was running out to make this documentary. ” It was a last call “, she says.
My father had isolated himself a little with the pandemic, he had locked himself in his bubble. Then he had a heart attack, then a double bypass… […] It was a last call.
We finish off the rockers well, loaded with archive images, but also interviews with relatives and observers of Lucien Francoeur’s career, allows us to take a professional overview of his heterogeneous career. “It was a challenge,” explains Virginie, “because he has a fragmented life, he has multiple faces. He touched everything, he influenced a lot of people. » From Poetry Night to the stage, including the entertainment at CKOI and the burger ad, everything is there.
But the biographical section advances hand in hand with a whole section of life that only Lucien Francoeur’s daughter could bring, that of the intimate. Virginie Francoeur injected into the documentary a look at the man “as a father, as a friend, as a lover”, which in her eyes allows us to “make an authentic portrait of him”. And also to be based on a personal quest, adds the co-director.
The film, however, avoids the trap of hagiography and does not camouflage the bad sides that come with an uncompromising life like that of Lucien Francoeur. We discover a stubborn and free man, who thrives on excess and rebellion, even if it means harming the people around him. For example, we hear in the documentary the recording of a telephone message left by Virginie for her mother just after discovering her father lying on the ground, a needle in his arm.
“It’s not every day that we have the courage to challenge our father on drugs, on fatherhood, on all kinds of subjects like that, even if he and I are very close,” explains Virginie. I said to myself: we’re not going to do lace, it’s not authentic. I wanted to make a film that is true, and then represents his life, it couldn’t just be the beautiful sides. »
On the road
At the center ofWe finish off the rockers well is an adventure in a convertible Mustang on the roads of California, an essential place in the life of Lucien Francoeur. “We had some truly special father-daughter moments,” he explains. All my myths came back, but Virginie knew how to get around them, and then find a gap to get into them, then force me to no longer speak as Francoeur, the legend, but Francoeur, Virginie’s father. »
The two visit places where the family had its habits in the past, and in particular look for the lands where Lucien Francoeur’s parents had once settled. The passing landscapes lead to reflections and confidences, which at the same time illuminate the path of the man with the “broken and stuck heart”.
“It allowed me to forgive him or understand him for certain things, to understand the suffering he had experienced,” confides Virginie.
The title of the documentary comes from the song of the same name, recorded with Gerry Boulet towards the end of his life. “I wrote it on the model [du titre du film] We finish the horses well (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?). And that meant that there is a loss at a given moment in always living on the edge of excess, explains the poet. But that’s like a tank. If you always drive it with the pedal to the floor, at some point the transmission will blow or the engine valves will start to be harsh. »
Virginie Francoeur also believes that the title can have a complementary meaning: the pressure for the marginalized to fit the mold is very strong. “We try to put them in a box and then we kind of finish them off. We don’t want them to be avant-garde or to break the codes that we try to make other people into them. »
But mussels, very little for Lucien Francoeur. “I never denied who I was, that’s why people love me. »