Dream of Light
Pierre Jutras worked at the Cinémathèque québécoise for 33 years, first as curator of Quebec and Canadian cinema, then as director of programming. He recently passed away, and to honor his memory, we were fortunate enough to prepare a carte blanche with him, reflecting on his highlights as a programmer and film-lover (the rediscovery of Jean Epstein and Ivan the Terrible, the revelation of Wang Bing and the extraordinary retrospective devoted to Manoel de Oliveira...).
Jury Prize & International Critics' Prize, 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
In autumn 1990, the painter Antonio López, one of the leading representatives of hyperrealism, takes out his brushes to capture a quince tree planted in his garden. Erice follows the artist's creative process, showing the evolution of his thinking as he is frequently disturbed by visitors.
Víctor Erice
Víctor Erice is a Spanish filmmaker and screenwriter. He studied at the Official School of Cinematography (ECAM) in Madrid, earning a degree in directing. He began his career as a screenwriter before moving on to direct commercials. Erice made his debut as a director in 1969. His first feature film, The Spirit of the Beehive (El espíritu de la colmena, 1973), earned him the prestigious Golden Shell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, bringing him significant public and critical acclaim. The film later gained international recognition when it was showcased at the Critics' Week during the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. In 1983, he directed El sur, based on a novel by his then-wife Adelaida García Morales. This work continued to explore themes central to his earlier film: childhood, individual identity in a crisis-ridden society, the cinematic experience, father-child relationships, and exile. Nearly a decade later, in 1992, Erice collaborated with painter Antonio Lopez-Garcia on The Quince Tree Sun (El sol del membrillo), which was presented at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won both the Jury Prize and the International Critics' Prize (FIPRESCI). His fourth feature film, Close Your Eyes (Cerrar los ojos), was selected for the Cannes Premiere section at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Pierre Jutras
Born in 1945 in Saint-Marcel-de-Richelieu, Pierre Jutras studied filmmaking at the Institut des arts de diffusion in Brussels in the 1970s, where he was introduced to documentary, fiction and experimental cinema. In 1978, he was hired by the Cinémathèque québécoise as Head of Quebec and Canadian Cinema and co-director of the Copie Zéro from 1979 to 1988. He was also behind the first restoration of the film Kamouraska, by Claude Jutra. In 1997, he became Director of Conversation and Programming at the Cinémathèque, a position he held until his retirement in 2011. Parallel to his professional activities, he directed Lamento pour un homme de lettres in 1988 and Petites chroniques cannibales 1 in 1997, the first segment of a trilogy that was never completed. He died in Montreal on June 22, 2023.
