On October 24, 2022, Radio-Canada ended the cinema gala that had been broadcast for 18 years.
An unjustifiable decision for a public broadcaster whose mission is to promote culture. The decision came at the worst possible time, as last year marked the first time since 2011 that six Quebec films grossed more than a million or more.
Our cinema seems to be entering a period as fruitful as it was in the early 2000s. In 2005, Quebec films accounted for 17% of Quebec's box office, a performance comparable to that of Australian cinema but much further removed than ours from the Hollywood steamroller.
To make up for it, Radio-Canada is showing a “Beautiful Sundays” of sorts, hosted by the very likeable actress Karine Vanasse, next Sunday night at 8pm at ICI Première in a theater near you.
In this 90-minute documentary, the actress goes behind the scenes of more than two dozen Quebec films coming to our screens this year. Ironically, their numbers and quality prove that the decision to cancel the annual gala came at an inopportune time.
KARINE LOVES CINEMAS
Frédéric Nassif, author of the documentary “Les cèdres du Liban”, directed this program, which owes a lot to Karine Vanasse's liveliness, curiosity and, above all, a very real attachment to cinema. Although the mission of “In a Cinema Near You” is to introduce us to films that are still in the script stage like “Two Women in Gold”, in production like “Ricardo Trogis 1995” or in post-production like “Sisters- in-law”, the special show still offers some Ru, a film that has been shown since November 24th is the focus.
I knew that Karine Vanasse and Kim Thùy had a long friendship, but I didn't know that the actress had been indirectly involved in the writing of her first novel. In the show, Kim Thùy says that after she returned from Thailand, Karine gave him a notebook that she signed with the following words: “It's time for you to stop offering your words to others and start writing .” This is how the novel Ru was created, with a circulation of 540,000 copies and translated into 28 languages.
Sunday's broadcast lets us discover the reaction of Kim Thùy and his entire family when they were shown Charles-Olivier Michaud's film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
KARINE AND ALANIS OBOMSAWIN
Karine's meeting with Alanis Obomsawin is another highlight. My old friend Alanis has made 65 films since 1967. She was able to almost single-handedly justify the existence of the National Film Board. The Algonquin filmmaker's two more films, The Light of Day and The Green Horse, are coming to theaters this year, but they won't be her last, swears Alanis, who is only 91!
The program of more than an hour (90 minutes of advertising messages) makes you want to discover the films of 2024, including Deux femmes en or, a remake secretly concocted by screenwriter Catherine Léger and director Chloé Robichaud, Hôtel Silence of Léa Pool, theirs In my opinion it could be her last film, and the Pauline Julien that Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette prepared with as much love as fever.
By the end of the show, I was almost ready to forgive Radio-Canada for skipping the cinema gala. A moment of weakness on my part!