In his new film, Testament, the director of Jesus of Montreal pulls out all the stops. He caricatures young “woke” activists, old sovereignists, feminists, the media, the entire political class.
Even the cultural environment is affected. In a laughable scene at the Quebec literary awards gala, we want to honor the author Michel Marc Bouchard, by presenting a trophy to the archivist Jean-Michel Bouchard (arcand’s alter ego, played by Rémy Girard) and the only man of the audience. In general indifference.
Denys Arcand likes to quote Einstein: “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. » And he seems to take great pleasure in holding up a mirror for us to gaze into the latter’s desolate reflection. For half a century, in his fiction as in his documentaries, the director has taken an uncompromising look at the multiple forms of alienation in society. Over time, the octogenarian becomes more and more “perplexed” about our times. To the point of looking a little overwhelmed; not to live in the present.
In an era of evolving identity, Jean-Michel Bouchard, a 70-year-old single man, has lost all his bearings. He lives in a retirement home located in a heritage building, run by a psycho-rigid civil servant (Sophie Lorain). On the wall of a common room, we can see a fresco representing Jacques Cartier and his armed guard, facing a group of Mohawks in Hochelaga.
He considers this painting hurtful and insulting to the First Nations. “Then the media picks up on the controversy, the government is informed and the shit breaks out,” summarizes Denys Arcand, to whom we spoke.
However, Jean-Michel has the idea of going to Kahnawake to ask the opinion of the Mohawks on the fresco in question. He will discover another side, another perception of History and its injustices.
“Of course, it’s justified to campaign and protest,” Arcand said in an interview. But there are a million causes and disasters. During the affair of the creation of Kanata at the theater, Robert Lepage was criticized for not having consulted members of the indigenous peoples. But who exactly should you consult? There are around a hundred clans on the continent, grouped among several very different nations, who have already been at war with each other, who are not unanimous. Additionally, I think First Nations have more pressing issues than the fate of a theater show. »
According to Denys Arcand, we are experiencing the end of Western culture as we have known it. “To borrow a philosophical phrase, we are witnessing a total paradigm shift. In the near future, Shakespeare will become unplayable; we will denounce that God is represented by a white man in The Last Judgment, by Michelangelo. I don’t know how far it will go and what it will be replaced by. But that’s in the order of things. The Roman Empire fell and something else came after it. »
In fact, Testament (which he does not know if it will be his last film or not) remains a fairly harmless satire of the excesses of an era that he considers “opaque and very complex”.
This is not the first time that Denys Arcand has the impression of being misunderstood by his contemporaries. In the 1970s, he was accused of betraying the working class after directing We Are in Cotton. “I spent three years in textile factories making my film. Afterwards, I said that I did not see a proletarian revolution on the horizon… I was accused of crushing the hopes of the working class. »
Rebelote at the exit of Confort et l’indifférence, in 1981. “I was accused of being cynical, of despising the Quebec people, because I affirmed that independence would probably not happen… Today, when I see that we are demonstrating all over the planet, every day, and on all possible issues, I wonder: what does this mean for the future of the world? »
Alarmist, the filmmaker of The Decline of the American Empire? “Denys is not a creator who tries to please at all costs. He’s one of the rare directors here to make true auteur cinema,” says Sophie Lorain, who was surprised to see the director give her a leading role in his 15th feature film. “He has a thoughtful and precise statement, with a real personal perspective. The one that an 82-year-old man has on the society around him. Whether we agree or not, there is a strong word that runs through all of his work. »
For actor Rémy Girard, who is collaborating with Arcand for the seventh time, the filmmaker questions the “disarray” of our time with the right words. “I often say as a joke, I play in English, in French and… in Denys Arcand. Denys has a language of his own. A way of thinking with which I am perfectly comfortable. »
“The world began without humanity and it will end without it,” says Robert Lepage’s character, in Jesus of Montreal, about the Big Bang and the mystery of the Universe.
Is Testament Denys Arcand’s most optimistic work? “I no longer believe in collective solutions. What we are left with are individual solutions, he replies. The last collective utopia was Marxism… And it wasn’t a big success [laughs]…”
Isn’t this observation a bit… cynical? “I believe that today’s society is too fragmented and ungovernable. The United States is on the brink of a second civil war! So, we have to find a little space of happiness, a little corner of our own, with family, with our loved ones, our friends, each in their own way. There is no panacea. »
