Historical Perspectives in Two Qu é b é cois Films

1. Historical Perspectives in Two Québécois Films “Seen from Elsewhere” – Starting Questions Background information NO Robert Lepage Starting Questions 3. Concluding questions

2. “Seen from Elsewhere”: Starting Questions (1) • How is the Québécois delegate presented? • How is Montreal viewed by the guests? • How is the woman’s passion presented? Can you understand/agree with it? Is it as unique as the woman sees it? • Who are the "Others“ in this film? Montreal? Montreal women? Or the aborigine?

3. “Seen from Elsewhere”: Starting Questions (2) • How is the Québécois delegate presented? Clumsy; cannot even rehearse greeting lines well; eager to please his guests. 2. How is Montreal viewed by the guests? Compared with Kenya, Two areas divided by ~; violence, language, women, Settings: present – 1990, past – 1963; conference and FLQ, both serving as a foil for the passion.

4. “Seen from Elsewhere”: Starting Questions (3) 3. How is the woman’s passion presented? Can you understand it? Is it as unique as the woman sees it? -- Love at first sight, filled with strong senses, not much talking, sense of urgency. -- marital constraint is not the primary concern. -- Male desire defined in terms of erection. 4. Who are the "Others“ in this film? Montreal? Montreal women? Or the aborigine? -- “He looked funny.”“the real story.”“His name is always with me.” -- Do we know his name or what he feels? (Ref. The Mohawk’s insurgence in 1990.)

5. Director: Denys Arcand (1941- ) Decline of the American Empire (1986); Jesus of Montreal (1988), Love and Human Remains (1993), Stardom (2000) Scriptwriter: Paule Baillargeon, director of Le sex des étoiles (星星的性別) “Seen from Elsewhere”: Director and Scriptwriter

6. FLQ: Front de Liberation du Québéc • Formed in the wake of Quiet Revolution in 1960’s. • While the majority of nationalists chose the democratic path of René Lévesque’s Parti Québécois, at the fringes more militant groups like the FLQ emerged. The FLQ’s campaign of bombings and robberies culminated in the kidnappings in 1970. . . • In 1963, shortly after the first wave of FLQ bombings, a group of francophone writers in their twenties founded . . .Parti pris, advocating a soveriegn and socialist Quebec.

7. October Crisis in 1970 • Oct. 5, 1970 -- kidnapped James Cross, the British trade commissioner • Oct 10 – kidnapped Quebec cabinet minister Pierre Laporte and killed him on the 17th. • soldier stands guard at Parliament Hill in Ottawa as security was stepped up because of terrorist kidnappings in Montreal during the FLQ crisis. Oct. 13, 1970.

8. October Crisis in 1970 • Trudeau invoked War Measure Act. • By noon of Oct 16, police officers arrested more than 450 people suspected of being FLQ members, even friends of FLQ members. • Cross stayed alive, in return his kidnappers got safe passage to Cuba.

9. Robert Lepage • born in Quebec City, Quebec, December 12, 1957. An actor, director of plays and films. • Characteristics: his bilingualism, his explorations into multimedia, his homosexuality, the act of creation itself. (source), double identity, guilt, father-son relationship, brotherhood. • * He looks at Quebecois issues from a broader—cross-cultural-- perspective. e.g. The Confessional and No. E.g. Pierre and the translators – the ones to link the East and the West.

10. Robert Lepage: Works • Possible Worlds (2000) • No (1998) • Polygraphe, Le (1996) • Confessionnal, Le (1995) • Starring in Stardom (2000) Montreal vu par... (1991) Jesus de Montreal (1989) Plays – Vinci, Hamlet, the Dragon Trilogy, and The Seven Streams of River Ota.

11. The Seven Streams and No • No -- the characters taken from Act 5, in which Sophie has an affair with Walter. • Seven Streams has the second World War (concentration camps and Hiroshima) Madame Butterfly, and 1970 Osaka Expo. as historical contexts, while No just used FLQ terrorism and Expo.

12. No: Starting Questions • How do the plays within the film function? • No play about a woman who finds her way back to life thanks to her hero lover. • Feydeau’s domestic farce (5)

13. No: Starting Questions about the Characters The Canadian characters in Montreal • How do Sophie and Patricia express their antagonism to each other? (6) What is Sophie’s problem and how is she looked at by Walter and Patricia? (8) • How do the Canadian expatriates in Osaka view themselves and Quebecois separatism? (7)

14. No: Starting Questions about the Characters In Montreal – the officers and FLQ members • How is Michel different from his comrades? Why does he insist on revising the communiqué? (9) Central symbols and themes -- • Why are the clocks and phone booths important? (10) • How are Hanako and her translator friend set as a contrast to her Canadian friends? (11-12)

15. No compared with “Seen from Elsewhere” • Both offer different views on Montreal, Quebecois separatism and esp. FLQ movements. But Arcand tends to idealize a white woman’s passion, while exoticize the aborigine. • Lepage, on the other hand, is both critical of and sympathetic with Quebecois nationalism. He put this nationalist issue in a broader context. Besides exposing FLQ’s faulty idealism, the film also deals with the problems in human communication and the issue of survival.

16. Histories in Le Confessionnal • Settings(1): Quebec city in 1952. • 1. 電視的盛行-- 魁北克現代化(modernity) • 2. Maurice Depulessis (1890-1959)再次當選魁北克省長 (1944-1959)﹐支持天主教教會保守右派屬於國家聯盟黨(Union National)。 • 3. Hitchcock's I Confess (The influence of American imperialism ) • Settings(2): Quebec city in 1989 –Tienanmen Square

17. Histories in Le Confessionnal (2) • Settings(3): the influence of I Confess & Catholicism • The seal of secrecy held by the priest; (Massicotte the young priest in the past.) • Upholding normality—at least in appearance. • The empty church in the present time.