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NEWSLETTER
April 2023

La conquête, 50 years later

One of the films inexplicably ignored in the history of Québec cinema is Jacques Gagné's La conquête (The Conquest), released in April 1973 to almost universal indifference. But 50 years later, Gagné's film deserves to be rediscovered.

Gagné started out as an editor at Radio-Canada and went on to make many documentaries on various subjects, including culture with his remarkable Situation du théâtre au Québec (1969). He was also a producer at Onyx Films and Productions Carle-Lamy. It was Carle-Lamy that produced La conquête, his first feature film, about two intellectuals from Montréal who have an encounter in Québec City. Laurent is a sociologist who is there for a demonstration in front of the National Assembly. Françoise is a teacher attending a conference. They have a torrid weekend love affair at the site of the conquest of 1759-1760. Then, instead of continuing their relationship, they part with a polite promise to get together again. It is a trenchant critique of the impotence of the Québec intellectual that draws its power from the historical resonances.

Shunned by the critics, most of whom ignored it rather than panning it, La conquête did not have a long run at the Cinéma Chevalier (on St-Denis, corner De Maisonneuve) where it had its theatrical release. It was described as verbose, literary, somewhat heavy-handed (an indirect way of saying it carried a left-wing message?) and too intellectual. These criticisms may make us smile today, knowing that the screenplay was written by poet / playwright Michèle Lalonde, the engaged artist to whom we owe the famous poem Speak White. Jean-Claude Labrecque filmed Lalonde reading it at the Nuit de la poésie poetry reading on March 27, 1970, which was hosted by Michelle Rossignol, who plays Françoise in La conquête. Labrecque was also the cinematographer on La conquête and is responsible for the magnificent images of his native Québec City. It was his first fiction film in his home town, two years before directing Les vautours (The Vultures) there. 

To play the two young lovers and deliver the lines penned by Michèle Lalonde, Gagné brought together two young actors who had lit up stage and screen in works diametrically opposed to the intellectual world of La conquête: plays and movies written by Michel Tremblay and directed by André Brassard. Rossignol had played Pierrette Guérin in Les Belles-sœurs (The Sisters-in-Law) and Renaud was Cuirette in Hosanna. They subsequently brought those characters to the screen in Il était une fois dans l'Est (Once Upon a Time in the East). It was a time when the language of the working class was being treated with new respect and the marginalized were being celebrated in Québec culture. La conquête didn't fit that mould. Could this explain its cold reception in 1973? It was probably part of the reason. But rediscovering the film today takes us back to a time when a new generation of Québec intellectuals committed to left-wing movements and political activism was coming into its own. As Quebecers have always had a troubled relationship with intellectualism, it is perhaps not surprising that, when La conquête came out, people were ready to throw the baby out with the bathwater. 

La conquête will be screened at the Cinémathèque québécoise on May 16.


Along with Marcel Sabourin, Rémy Girard is definitely the Québec actor with the longest filmography, having appeared in more than 60 films. His first movie role was a wonderful part in La conquête, when he was in his early 20s and a student at the Conservatoire d'art dramatique de Québec.
Rémy Girard's filmography
Full house for the screening of the film Les ordres at the Cinémathèque québécoise 

On April 4, to commemorate the recent passing of Jean Lapointe, Éléphant presented Michel Brault's Les ordres (Orderers), in which Lapointe plays his most memorable movie role as trade unionist Clermont Boudreau. We were delighted that the screening was sold out and the audience was made up of moviegoers of all generations. A show of hands indicated that between a third and a half of the audience had not seen the film before. Clearly, film-lovers are still eager to discover classic Québec films restored by Elephant on the big screen.

The October Crisis of 1970 was one of the pivotal historical events of the past 60 years in Québec. Many ordinary citizens were arbitrarily thrown into jail and an entire nation felt wounded and humiliated. The scars have yet to fully heal. In 2020, Éléphant marked the 50th anniversary of the crisis in the midst of the pandemic lockdown and couldn't screen Les ordres because of the public health measures. 

Half fiction, half documentary, Les ordres is based on the testimonials of some 50 people imprisoned following the imposition of the War Measures Act in October 1970. The film follows five fictional characters based on those accounts, from their arrest to their release. Director Michel Brault innovatively shot the fictional segments in colour and used sharply contrasted black and white for the documentary segments.

In 2020, Éléphant created a special portfolio featuring artists and cultural workers talking about the FLQ and the October Crisis. Two members of the film's cast, Claude Gauthier and Louise Forestier, as well as filmmakers Mathieu Denis and Félix Rose, discussed Les ordres. They shared their insights into the film, revealed some behind-the-scenes tidbits and gave us a sense of why this local human story with universal themes is considered an important film in world cinema today.

Go to the full October Crisis 50th anniversary feature

While the screening of Les ordres was originally planned as a tribute to Jean Lapointe, it was also dedicated to the memory of Claude Fournier who, with Marie-José Raymond, restored the film and worked hard to bring it to new audiences. In 1975, Les ordres was presented at Cannes, where it won the best director award. In 2015, the restored version was shown in the Cannes Classics section. For the occasion, Claude Fournier shot a video, Michel Brault revit à Cannes Classics, in which three great artists who worked on the film—Michel Brault, Claude Gauthier and Jean Lapointe—talk about the experience. The video was shown in the theatre before Les ordres and is a perfect complement to the film


Michel Brault revit à
Cannes Classics (2015)



Interview with Michel Brault, Claude Gauthier and Jean Lapointe about the film Les ordres


Watch the interview
Interviews by Claude Fournier: Preserving the history of Québec cinema

During the ten years that he directed Éléphant with Marie-José Raymond, Claude Fournier shot an impressive number of interviews with the makers of Québec movies. 

Many of these testimonials are of great value today, for their subjects are no longer with us. 

Here are a few interviews with some big names in Québec cinema:

Michelle Rossignol (questionnaire)
Jean Beaudin (questionnaire)
Denis Héroux (questionnaire)
Jean-Claude Labrecque (questionnaire)
André Melançon (questionnaire)

Michel Brault on his worst enemy: the sun 
Michel Brault on his anxieties behind the camera

Go to the full archive of get-to-know-them interviews

Go to the full archive of up-close-and-personal interviews
Coming soon
New restoration
Vidéotron / Apple TV
Kamouraska - Version intégrale
Summer 2023
Film fact sheet
Restoration
Vidéotron / Apple TV
Sous-sol
Spring 2023   
Film fact sheet
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