{"id":1211,"date":"2010-05-24T17:07:51","date_gmt":"2010-05-24T21:07:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2010-05-24T17:07:51","modified_gmt":"2010-05-24T21:07:51","slug":"marcel-simards-last-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/2010\/05\/24\/marcel-simards-last-film\/","title":{"rendered":"Marcel Simard’s last film"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"MARCEL<\/a>
Director Marcel Simard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is a reason why I write this in English. Most francophones in Quebec who take an interest in cinema will already be aware of what I\u2019m about to tell you.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are adults who have antennas for the secret pain of our little ones \u2013 forms of suffering that are often taken to be unimportant.\u201d Those are the opening words of Marcel Simard\u2019s last film, spoken by himself. ‘Last film’, because Marcel is no longer with us. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Like the people he portrayed in his films, Marcel was incredibly sensitive<\/span><\/strong>. The sometimes overwhelming challenges of being alive and people who were close to the edge were not only his subjects, they were also an inescapable part of his own life.<\/strong> As he said in a statement read at his funeral, this suffering had become unbearable, and he wasn\u2019t able to face it one more day. He isn\u2019t here to enjoy the success of his film.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Le petit monde d\u2019Elourdes<\/strong><\/span><\/a>, the title of Marcel\u2019s beautiful film, is a play on words. It means Elourdes\u2019 children, or Elourde\u2019s little world. It follows the first- to third-grade students of a special Montreal school, and their incredible teacher Elourdes Pierre over a period of a year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Elourdes<\/a>
Montreal teacher Elourdes Pierre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

A woman of colour, Elourdes is beautiful, sensitive, intelligent and caring. With infinite patience she attends to all the seemingly small dramas that play themselves out among the children. Many of them revolve around the conflicts between the girls who often seek exclusive friendship (a father of two daughters, I am very familiar with this. Margaret Atwood<\/strong><\/a><\/span> has written about it<\/a>\u2026), but others have to do with the aggressiveness of some of the boys.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

For the children these are deadly serious issues, and Elourdes \u2013 just like Marcel \u2013 understands this. Her interaction with the children is beautifully filmed by Arnaud Bouquet<\/a> \u2013 and kudos to sound man Pierre Duplessis who doesn\u2019t miss one word of what the children say, or sometimes whisper. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In a very moving scene Elourdes explains her agenda: if she can teach these children to resolve their conflicts here, at this age, without violence or residual resentment, they will have learned a skill for life, and our world will be better for it.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

In following the class for a year, this film resonates with other French-language films like \u00catre et Avoir<\/strong><\/a><\/span> and La classe de Mme Lise<\/strong><\/a><\/span>. In its study of human motions as expressed at an early age, it is reminiscent of Claire Simon\u2019s La r\u00e9cr\u00e9ation<\/strong><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

I made three films with Marcel Simard and his wife Monique Simard, at Les Productions Virage<\/strong><\/a><\/span>. (For titles see my web site<\/a>.) Virage produced many of the best social-issue documentaries in Quebec. I loved Marcel\u2019s understanding of people (he seemed to see right through any kind of fa\u00e7ade or disguise, seeing people\u2019s soul\u2026) and of cinema. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Like a lot of Quebec filmmakers, social workers and people involved in fights for social justice, I will miss him enormously. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a reason why I write this in English. Most francophones in Quebec who take an interest in cinema will already be aware of what I\u2019m about to tell you. \u201cThere are adults who have antennas for the secret pain of our little ones \u2013 forms of suffering that are often taken to be … Continue reading Marcel Simard’s last film<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,12,11,3,29],"tags":[31,27,30,16,24,28,33,25,23,32,26],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atsa","category-documentary-debates","category-english","category-film","category-tribute","tag-arnaud-bouquet","tag-children","tag-elourdes-pierre","tag-films","tag-le-petit-monde-delourdes","tag-marcel-simard","tag-monique-simard","tag-montreal","tag-other-directors-completed-films","tag-productions-virage","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1227,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions\/1227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}