Tribute to Suzanne Gervais
Animation has always been at the heart of the Cinémathèque québécoise's conservation and programming activities. This program aims to rediscover some of our heritage, and to showcase recent productions.
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A film of free-hand line animation, where the movement as much as the designs reflects the artist's thoughts on the life of humans and their universe. What evolves is a stream of ideas about the elemental situation of humankind, poised midway between the primary dust and the measureless universe yet unplumbed. (NFB)
A fantasy that leaves the viewer free to speculate, this film touches on the theme of solitude. A woman drowns, unnoticed by three men sitting with their backs to the sea. Two of them are throwing dice; the third is drinking a glass of water. An animation film without words based on a short story by Roch Carrier. (NFB)
In the calm light of a studio, a man relaxes, a woman draws. They are two strangers for whom the process of creation awakens intimacy that touches their very being. For the artist it is the need to go beyond appearances; for the model it is the refusal to look at the self. From scene to scene the film progresses, transforms, reconstructs the human interior landscape. A dramatic confrontation ensues... (NFB)
A touching reflection on leaving home, this animation film is an impressionistic look at a son's departure from his mother's house. He hesitates in front of the chest of drawers and his old toy box. Objects turn back the clock, reminding him of childhood, his father's departure, adolescence... His mother also remembers while watching him through a half-open door. Will he succeed in wrenching himself away and crossing the threshold into a new life? An animation film made up of subtle touches that evoke emotion. A sigh, hesitant footsteps, a tinkling of piano notes, a tremor. (NFB)
Although when he was alive, Vincent Van Gogh hadn't enough money to pay for his art materials, a hundred years later his painting The Irises sold for an unprecedented sum at a New York auction. This animated short, excerpted from Jacques Giraldeau's 1989 film Le tableau noir, takes a loving look at the masterwork.
Suzanne Gervais
Suzanne Gervais, born in Montreal in 1936, is an artist who worked as an animation film director from 1969 to 1998. Trained at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal in the 1950s, she is considered one of the pioneers of Canadian animation cinema. From 1969 until 1998, she worked at the French animation studio of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), where she directed about ten films. Following her filmmaking career, she worked as a painter for several years.
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Suzanne Gervais : l’étrange tangibilité
Après avoir étudié aux Beaux-Arts où elle a développé une pratique en peinture et en illustration, Suzanne Gervais a travaillé près de trente ans au studio d’animation de l’ONF. Contribuant à la création de décors, de personnages et de séquences animées pour diverses productions, elle a aussi réalisé et coréalisé une dizaine de courts métrages d’animation avant de poursuivre sa carrière comme peintre.
