Benoît Pilon: Dwelling in Québec: A Young Filmmaker's Gaze

Abstract

In this article, I propose to briefly review Quebecker filmmaker Benoît Pilon's (1962-) career in light of his unique gaze, in which the history of Quebec and the tribulations of daily life are comingled in compelling ways. Although still a young filmmaker, Pilon has already produced many international prize-winning documentaries and fictional feature films. Neither category of his work has, as yet, been thoroughly discussed and critically examined from within a literary and cultural studies frame. This article will explore Pilon's early days dedicated to short films such as the kieslówskien Regards Volés (1993), as well as his consistent background in writing and directing documentaries that question and impose their stories inspired by Quebec's recent history. In each of his works, Pilon revisits times in Quebec history, elaborating on the clash between language, culture, and the vicissitudes of life. Most recently, and by contrast with the proclaimed humanity hailed by his critics, Benoît Pilon proposes the newly released Décharge (2011) as his darkest fictional feature film yet, one that reveals the deepest, most suppressed conflicts of the urban subject in Montreal. This article will conclude with an analysis of this film in both its continuity with and departure from Pilon's past aesthetic.

Keywords:

• Benoît Pilon
• Contemporary Quebec Cinema
• Quebecker Filmmakers
• Décharge

Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the generous Faculty Research Grant received in 2011 from the Québec Government Office in Chicago. This grant allowed me to spend a summer in Montreal and therefore initiate the majority of my research on contemporary Québec filmmakers. Also, during the summer of 2011, I had lengthy conversations with filmmaker Benoît Pilon, who generously provided me with many ideas and the necessary background to initiate this article.

I am extremely grateful to Jennifer Herlein, based in the Québec Office in Chicago, for all her help through the grant process, in addition to her active presence during Benoît Pilon's visit to the Missouri State University campus.

I would like to deeply thank my editors, whose patience and detailed work deserve my gratitude, contributing to what became the final version of this article.

Notes

1. All translations from the French are my own.

2. To view Benoît Pilon's complete filmography and awards, please see: Pilon, Benoît. Filmography. http://www.agencegoodwin.com/sites/default/files/cv/pilon-b-en_0.pdf (accessed June 21, 2012).

3. At the time of the release of The Necessities of Life, the films by Benoît Pilon were, as quoted in the dossier for the release of Ce qu'il faut pour vivre: “Regards volés (1993, Golden Sheaf Award for Best Drama over 30 minutes, Yorkton); Rosaire et la Petite-Nation (1997); Impressions, autour du quatuor à cordes de Claude Debussy (1996–7, nominated for three Gémeaux); 15 episodes of the television series Réseaux (1998–99); and Trois soeurs en deux temps (2003), a documentary shown in the international competition at the Montreal International Festival of Films on Art in 2003. Roger Toupin, épicier variété (2003) earned many honors in Canada and abroad: a Gémeaux in 2005 for best social documentary; the 2004 Jutra award for best Quebec documentary; the Bayard d'or for best documentary at the Namur (Belgium) film festival; the best feature-length documentary at the Festival international du film Francophone de Moncton; and a special mention at Festival Visions du Réel in Nyon, Switzerland. Since then, Pilon has given us Nestor et les oubliés (2006), shown at the Montreal World Film Festival and the Namur Film Festival in the international documentary competition, and Des nouvelles du Nord (2007), shown at the Festival in Abitibi-Témiscamingue and the RIDM.”

4. Krzysztof Kieślowski's The Decalogue (1989) is fully summarized, including an interview with Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, on the facets site: http://www.facets.org/decalogue /synopsis.html. Released as A Short Film about Love, the film is part of the The Decalogue 6: Thou shall not commit adultery. The Decalogue is considered a masterpiece of modern cinema. It was released in his entirety at the 1989 Venice Film Festival.

5. Marcel Jean's interview with Benoît Pilon was published in the collection of interviews of filmmakers, Métier réalisation in 2006. In it, Pilon admits: “C'est un désir de cinéma qui est arrivé assez tard [ … ] En fait, c'est quelque chose que je ne croyais pas vraiment possible. [ … ] C'est donc devenu une possibilité après avoir vu, en fait, L’état des choses de Wim Wenders [ … ] J’étais en biochimie à McGill, [ … ] mais je n'avais aucune passion pour ça. [ … ] Je me suis donc inscrit à l'Université de Montréal comme étudiant libre, aux cours de Michel Larouche: cinéma expérimental et cinéma documentaire” [It was a desire for cinema that happened rather late ( … ) In fact, it's something that I did not really feel was possible. ( … ) It thus only became a possibility after having seen, in fact, The State of Things by Wim Wenders ( … ) I was a major in biochemistry at McGill University ( … ) however I had no passion for that. ( … ) I then registered at the Université de Montréal as an independent student in the classes of Michal Larouche: experimental and documentary cinema] (Jean 2006, 229).

6. In his interview with Jean, Benoît Pilon touches on this important aspect of his filming. If some may wonder if the social, economic, and historic background are all a coincidence, Pilon demystifies this image when talking about his documentary situated in Radisson, Des Nouvelles du Nord (2007), a film that addresses the lives of people living in an artificial city, part of the Cree territory, constructed to house the giant hydroelectric LG-2 and LG-2A dam in northern Québec. Pilon states all the problems that he found at this place, problems that, according to him, represent all of the Québec nowadays: “J'ai l'impression qu'on retrouve là-bas, en concentré, l'ensemble des problèmes du Québec d'aujourd'hui: les régions éloignées, les relations avec les Autochtones [ … ] les questions du jeu pathologique (il y a dix machines à vidéo poker à Radisson et ce sont celles qui rapportent le plus dans tout le Québec … et de loin)” [I am under the impression that one finds up there a concentrated number of problems from Québec today: the distant regions, the rapports with the Indigenous Peoples ( … ) the questions of the pathological game addiction (there are ten video machines for poker in Radisson and those are the ones that make the most money in the whole province of Québec … and by a wide margin] (Jean 2006, 236).

7. In addition, Benoît Pilon explains his idea of documenting and demonstrating his involvement with the subject in question, as he says: “Alors il y a là des enjeux importants au niveau social dont on peut difficilement faire l’économie. Puis dans le type des films que je fais il y a souvent des questions sociales. Les questions de cet ordre-là sont souvent un peu en arrière-plan, comme une toile de fond. Je n'attaque pas ça directement” [There are important issues at the social level that one cannot mention. In addition, in the kind of films I make, there are often social questions. These questions are often a little in the background, as a backdrop. I don't treat these directly] (Jean 2006, 236, emphasis added).

8. Regarding the cinematographer Michel LaVeaux (Montréal, 1955), Le Dictionnaire du cinéma québécois describes his career by introducing him as a defender of the cinéma d'auteur; he is a “défenseur d'une conception artisanale du cinéma [ … ] Surtout réputé pour son travail en documentaire, [ … .] il trouve en Benoît Pilon le réalisateur qui saura, mieux que quiconque, mettre à profit la passion avec laquelle il scrute le réel” [defender of an artisanal idea of the cinema ( … ) Above all, renowned for his work in documentaries ( … ) he will find in Benoît Pilon the director who understands better than anyone else how to make the most of the passion with which he scrutinizes the real”] (Colombe and Jean 2006, 435).

9. An interesting live interview with Benoît Pilon and his actors during the shooting of Décharge is available at http://fr.video.canoe.tv/video/divertissement/arts-et-culture /2045321001/decharge-nouveau-film-de-benoit-pilon/82957196001 (accessed June 21, 2012).

10. Quoted from a segment with the thinker used by Astra Taylor in her documentary Examined Life, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-203DytblOM (accessed June 15, 2012).

11. http://www.city.iqaluit.nu.ca/i18n/english/ (accessed on June 21, 2012).