{"id":87,"date":"2008-05-06T22:42:05","date_gmt":"2008-05-07T02:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/2008\/05\/06\/a-beautiful-film-my-fathers-studio\/"},"modified":"2008-05-06T22:42:05","modified_gmt":"2008-05-07T02:42:05","slug":"a-beautiful-film-my-fathers-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/2008\/05\/06\/a-beautiful-film-my-fathers-studio\/","title":{"rendered":"A beautiful film : ‘My father’s studio’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image\"<\/a>
\nJennifer Alleyn with her dad Edmund. <\/em><\/p>\n

Not long ago I had the chance to see ‘My father’s studio’<\/a><\/strong>, a beautiful film by Jennifer Alleyn produced by Jeannine Gagn\u00e9 at Amazone Films<\/a><\/strong>. The opening screening will be at ExCentris<\/a><\/strong> in French and at Cin\u00e9ma du Parc<\/strong> <\/a>in English starting May 9th. Excellent editing by Annie Jean. It’s one of those films one should see on a big screen. It won the award for best Canadian production at the Festival des films sur l’art (FIFA) in Montreal.<\/p>\n

He was a great artist, Edmund Alleyn<\/a><\/strong>: a master colorist, very creative and original. We learn from Jennifer’s movie that her dad made many new departures during his career. Every time he had a real success, he let go of whatever style he’d been working in, and started again in a new uncertain adventure.<\/p>\n

Creative, original, but not talkative. Jennifer did one interview with him which is placed right at the top of the film. What he sais is heartfelt and full of meaning, but she had to work really hard to get just a few sentences from him. He died not long after. The movie is a testimony about his life and his art.<\/p>\n

Beyond the cinematic qualities of the film, I found myself in familiar territory, because my dad Arne is an artist. He lives in Sweden and he still painting and teaching at age 91. My uncle Torsten, who died one year ago, was a painter and sculptor. My sister Eva paints watercolours and does drawings. Watching Jennifer’s film, I almost could smell the oil paint of the artist studios of my childhood.<\/p>\n

I am sure it was not easy for Jennifer to make a film about her dad, and I asked her some questions.<\/p>\n

How came up the idea to make a movie about you’re dad?<\/strong>
\nI’ve been wanting to do a film about my father for a long time. His double identity intrigued me. Born to an English family in Quebec City, he liked to say he was “French to the skin, English to the bone”. I feel connected to that reality. I was born in Paris in May 1968 and we immigrated back to Quebec in 1971. His life span covers recent Quebec history.
\nBut it took me years and his departure, to find the approach that would allow me to plunge into his universe, his imaginings, while remaining respectful of his privacy. Can we ever access the soul of another being? During the research, I discovered he was quite a free thinker, and a philosopher as well as a painter. But the film doesn’t resolve or explain anything. It offers images to the viewer’s own interpretation. One mustn’t forget it is a posthumous dialogue, taking place in the silence of painting.. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What are, do you think, the big themes in the movie?<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>I was very inspired by his work & notes . The fact that I started filming while he was alive and persued the shoot in his absence, gave a particular tonality to the film. In a way, it gave me the opportunity to follow some of his privileged themes: movement and stillness.
\nLife and death coexist in the film. But it was a celebration of life that I wanted to put on the screen. The title of the film refers to the physical space in which he worked for 40 years, but also to the creator’s mind, constantly processing images, memories, ideas, hopes or unfinished projects.
\n\"image2\"<\/a><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a really personal film, did you hesitate before starting the process?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never hesitated, but I went to television to see if the subject could interest others. Surprisingly, the French CBC immediately agreed to the voyage I was proposing. I knew my father was not a celebrity in Quebec, like Jean-Paul Riopelle or Borduas. But his path was very inspiring. He was as free spirit. Now that the film is finished I wonder what will be the next project that will drive me with such strength. It was so dense and deep.<\/p>\n

Could you have done the movie while you’re dad was still alive? Do you regret that you didn’t ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My only regret is that he couln’t be at the premiere of the film!<\/p>\n

But had he still been around, it would have been impossible to do this film . He was quite a director himself. He would have called the shots and hired me as his assistant! So I waited for my turn. After his departure, I could revisit his life, question his trajectory, search for the missing fragments. Inheriting his studio gave me a dramatic starting point. The idea of structuring the film according as a stream of consciousness imposed itself very soon. Knowing my father’s love for Virgina Woolf, I would’nt be surprised if she whispered from the darkness…
\n <\/strong><\/p>\n

In the narration,you decided to talk to you’re dad. Is it mainly a choice you made to communicate with the public, or is it because you had things to tell him, to clear up between the two of you ?
\n<\/strong>During the scriptwriting process, I wrote short texts to my father. Like Haicu’s. Some of them were too personal, but some made their way to the final narration.Through this very intimate dialogue, the father-daughter relationship is offered up. I though people could enter more easily into this intimate space if it was raw. No detour, no mask. Bluntly intimate!. The father figure has always been one of knowledge for me. His absence made me realise I had to turn to other sources to find answers. I guess I had a few unanswered ones I needed to bounce at him. I hope people can interchange characters and address their own parent, in the anonymity of the cinema!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jennifer Alleyn with her dad Edmund. Not long ago I had the chance to see ‘My father’s studio’, a beautiful film by Jennifer Alleyn produced by Jeannine Gagn\u00e9 at Amazone Films. The opening screening will be at ExCentris in French and at Cin\u00e9ma du Parc in English starting May 9th. Excellent editing by Annie Jean. … Continue reading A beautiful film : ‘My father’s studio’<\/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":[11,10,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-festivals","category-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87","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=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.socialdoc.net\/magnus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}