Le Québec en images: cinéma québécois / Cinéma québécois

Quebec films offer a rich and diverse repertoire of works which delve primarily into the social identity of the largest French speaking culture in North America. Other predominant themes to be discussed focus more on the social and historical particularities of Quebec. These include: British colonization, Catholicism, winter, large families, the north, etc. This course will follow the evolution of filmmaking in Quebec, since its conception at the beginning of the 20th century, and focus primarily on two defining decades. The first, known as the Quiet Revolution (1960-1980), is considered as the starting point of contemporary Quebecois cinema. From this period emerged the National Film Board of Canada, several of Quebec’s most influential film producers: Jutra, Brault, Perreault, Carle, Arcand, etc., as well as various styles of cinematography, most notably, "cinema direct" or candid eye. The second part, the New Generation (1990-2000) will show how a group of young filmmakers provided a second wind to an ailing industry. Through the use of more modern filming techniques and a post-modern approach to script writing which focused less on social and political themes, they were instrumental in gaining international recognition for Quebecois cinema. For each period, we will discuss and analyze several filmmakers and their selected works.

Text : Yves Lever, Les 100 films québécois qu’il faut voir, Québec, Nuit blanche éditeur, 1995, 284 p.