A distinguished and passionate film critic and educator, Gilles Marsolais was a pillar and champion of Quebec’s film culture. He established the film studies program at the Université de Montréal, co-founded the Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma, and contributed to numerous publications, most notably the magazine 24 images. In addition to his writings on cinema, including the seminal work L’aventure du cinéma direct revisitée, he also authored several collections of poetry. As he passed away last June, we wish to pay tribute to him by presenting two films by directors who were particularly close to his heart: Michel Brault and Theo Angelopoulos.
Winner of the Best Director Award, 1975 Cannes Film Festival
Blending fiction and documentary, Orders is based on the testimonies of ordinary citizens who were arrested and imprisoned without charge following the adoption of the War Measures Act during the October Crisis in 1970 in Quebec.
Michel Brault
Born in 1928, Michel Brault first devoted himself to photography. He joined the National Film Board as a cameraman in 1956. He collaborated on several films of the famous series Candid Eye, produced by the English team. He gradually turns to directing, a field in which he distinguishes himself, with the help of a portable camera, with which he captures the changing landscape of identity in Quebec during the Revolution tranquille. In 1958 he made the seminal film Les raquetteurs with Gilles Groulx and Marcel Carrière. In 1963, Brault and Pierre Perrault made Pour la suite du monde, which became the first classic of Quebec direct cinema. He also directed the film Les ordres in 1974. In addition to his work as a director, Michel Brault was the director of photography for such landmark films as Entre tu et vous (Gilles Groulx, 1969), Mon oncle Antoine (Claude Jutra, 1971), Kamouraska (Claude Jutra, 1973) and Les bons débarras (Francis Mankiewicz, 1980). His career will total more than 200 films, as director or director of photography.
