 | | |
| | | |  | | Thanks for everything Claude
| | | | |
It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of the man who, with his wife Marie-José Raymond, created and co-directed the Éléphant project for 10 years: director, screenwriter, writer and cinematographer Claude Fournier.
More than 15 years ago, Pierre Karl Péladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor and film enthusiast, noticed that Québec films were no longer being shown in film clubs or arthouse cinemas and were often unavailable on the market. He discussed the problem with Claude Fournier and Marie-José Raymond, and asked them to help preserve Québec's film heritage— with the support of his colleague Sylvie Cordeau, Quebecor's Vice President, Philanthropy and Sponsorships— first by digitizing and restoring Québec movies and then by making them available to the public again. While the concept was Pierre Karl Péladeau's, it was Claude who gave the project its name: Éléphant: mémoire du cinéma québécois, a fitting name indeed.
From day one, Claude brought his boundless love of film, inexhaustible energy, infectious enthusiasm, keen intelligence, deep knowledge of the industry, vast network of contacts and sharp eye as a cinematographer to developing this unique project, with all its legal, logistical and technical challenges, together with Marie-José.
While Éléphant was officially launched on November 18, 2008, Claude and Marie-José had started working to turn the ambitious concept into a reality long before that date. First they set up a restoration studio in collaboration with Technicolor. Claude oversaw the digitization and restoration of the films from the negatives or other original materials that were available. By the time of the official launch, 25 restored feature films were already available to the public. When Claude retired as director of Éléphant 10 years later, more than 200 films had been completed under his supervision, a colossal task.
|
|
| |
| | | | |
| | | | | 
A website was created to accompany the film restoration project. Claude and Marie-José put together unique portfolios to enrich the site. They taped hundreds of interviews in which several generations of Québec filmmakers and artists reflect on their work, articulate their visions and look back on the highlights of their careers. Features such as 100 ans de musique pour le cinéma, Apprenez à les connaître, Confidences et chuchotements and Dialogues avec le public now form an essential archive of the makers of Québec cinema.
At the end of 2009, a year after the launch of Éléphant, Claude Fournier also started Dans la jungle, a blog about Québec cinema and the work of Éléphant. With his rare erudition and inimitable pen, Claude gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the work he and Marie-José Raymond were doing with the team of skilled technicians at Technicolor, and subsequently at MELS, where the films are now digitized. He told us about how they worked miracles, how they rescued films from oblivion, how they overcame the immense challenges that film restoration can pose. He also introduced us to the beginnings of Québec cinema, which he knew well as one of its pioneers, and traced its evolution through his own films and those of the filmmakers with whom he worked in the course of his career. Sometimes he would share rich and moving memories from his personal life.
Among his most memorable posts are the ones about Gilles Carle: his death, his legacy, the restoration of his masterpiece Les Plouffe and the history of the different versions of the film. Claude was very proud of the version restored by Éléphant. It was the one that had been screened at the Taormina Festival in Italy and was Carle's favourite. Some scenes had to be taken from a print with Italian subtitles and reworked frame by frame, because the negative was never found.
|
|
| |
| | | | |
| | | | |  Throughout his tenure, Claude spoke passionately about what he called Éléphant miracles: films in an advanced state of decay that were saved in extremis from oblivion. Under his watch, important films were given a second life, such as Le gros Bill (1949), which took nearly four years to complete, and Fantastica (1980), of which the only remaining print in the world was recovered just before it went into the garbage.
On the big screen
Screenings of restored films at local film fests have always been central to Éléphant's mission of dissemination and accessibility. Year after year, Claude and Marie-José brought members of the cast and crew of restored films to these screenings and were very actively present themselves. They worked hard to draw audiences to the events and used them to promote Éléphant.
In 2016, they came up with the idea of partnering with two major cultural institutions, the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montréal and the Musée national des Beaux-Arts du Québec in Québec City, to organize Éléphant sur grand écran, a monthly series of screenings of films restored by Éléphant. At the MNBAQ the series ended in 2018 but the screenings at the Cinémathèque québécoise continue today and are very popular.
|
|
| |
| | | | |
| | | | | 
International reach
Claude and Marie-José did a tremendous job of spreading the word about Éléphant throughout Québec, Canada and the world.
In 2013, Éléphant celebrated its fifth anniversary with a string of notable events. First, it published Les images que nous sommes, a magnificent book about Québec cinema written by Serge Bouchard with Marie-Christine Lévesque, and edited by Claude and Marie-José.
Éléphant was also very proud to announce that the films restored under the supervision of Claude and Marie-José, until then available only on illico, would gradually be made available by iTunes throughout Canada and in almost all countries in the world where French or English is an official language.
Thanks to their tireless efforts and the outstanding restoration work, films from Éléphant's catalogue were selected and shown at prestigious international restored film festivals in the following years, including Cannes Classics and the Festival Lumière in Lyon.
Claude and Marie-José built on those experiences to create the first restored film festival in Canada, Éléphant ClassiQ, which was held as part of the Festival du nouveau cinéma in 2014 and independently in 2015.
|
|
| |
| | | | |
| | | | | _2015_ENG.jpg)
Claude and Marie-José continued to raise Éléphant's international profile through efforts of all kinds. In 2018, in collaboration with the Cineteca Nacional in Mexico City, they organized a major event to celebrate the addition of 50 films restored by Éléphant and subtitled in Spanish to the iTunes catalogue in Spanish-speaking countries.
In December 2018, they organized an original and moving concert at the Cinéma Impérial for Éléphant's tenth anniversary. The best music from Québec cinema was performed by an orchestra composed of young musicians and some soloists from the film industry, accompanied by a montage of images from the films from which the music was taken. The event marked the final chapter in Claude Fournier and Marie-José Raymond's official involvement with Éléphant.
It is impossible to describe here all that Claude Fournier did to make Éléphant the great project it has become. Thank you Claude for your gigantic role in this endeavour that was so dear to your heart. It is a vital part of your enormous legacy to the Québec you so loved.
|
|
| |
| | | | |
| | | | | | Interviews and dialogues with Claude Fournier
| | | | |
 |
| |
| | | | |
| | | | | | | Subscribe to the Éléphant newsletter | |
| |
| Stay up to date! Follow all the news about Québec cinema on our web site.
| |
| |
 |
| |
| |
| | | | | | Sent by Éléphant
612, St.Jacques Street,15th floor, Montréal (Québec) H3C 4M8
| |
This email was sent to you because you subscribe to Éléphant's promotional emails.
| |
| | If you no longer wish to receive them, click on the link to cancel your subscription. | |
|
| | | | | | | |
|
|
