Les maudits
Le recueil Lumières vives (éditions Boréal, automne 2022) contient de nombreux textes publiés dans le journal de Saint-Hyacinthe Le clairon, à un moment où René Lévesque était journaliste et aussi critique de cinéma. Ces articles passionnants ont passé l'épreuve du temps et permettent de découvrir un auteur clairvoyant, n'hésitant pas à en découdre s'il le faut et à porter aux nues, comme il se doit. La programmation permet de redécouvrir les films de 1948 qui ont marqué ce spectateur hors du commun.
En 1945, alors que le 3e Reich est à l'agonie, un groupe de nazis et de sympathisants tente de rallier l'Amérique du Sud par sous-marin. Les fuyards se sont assurés par la force le concours d'un jeune médecin. Pour tous les passagers - du chef de la Gestapo au couple d'industriels italiens, du journaliste compromis au savant collaborateur - l'odyssée finira mal. Le médecin va se retrouver seul sur le navire, heureux d'être recueilli par les Américains.
René Clément
René Clément is the only French director to have won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film twice, for Beyond the Gates (1951) and for Forbidden Games (1953). He directed his first film, César chez les Gaulois, an animation, in 1931. In 1934, he met Jacques Tati and started working with him. He did his military service in the Army's film department. He directed his first short film with Jacques Tati, a light comedy, Soigne ton gauche in 1936. Then, during the thirties, he made documentary films. In 1937, he travels with the archaeologist Jules Barthoux to Yemen to shoot a documentary. During the Second World War, he continues to devote himself to documentaries. His documentary Ceux du rail, a short film released in 1943, interests the general cooperative of French cinema which chooses him to direct La Bataille du rail. A year later, this first feature film released in theaters was a success, which launched the career of René Clément. The film depicts the resistance of railroad workers during the German occupation, earning its author the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1943. Clément then became one of the most prominent French directors of the post-war period. Six years later, his probably biggest success, Forbidden Games (1952) won the Golden Lion in Venice and the Oscar for Best foreign language film. His reputation extends to the US, where he finds some of his stars, such as Jane Fonda for The Felines (1964), Charles Bronson for The Rainy Day Passenger (1969) and Faye Dunaway for The House Under the Trees (1971). He remains, to this day, the most awarded French filmmaker of the Cannes Film Festival with five awards obtained between 1946 and 1954.
