Veteran filmmaker Denys Arcand is having a change of heart.
鈥淢y energy comes from the public, which is absolutely wonderful,鈥� the 82-year-old Qu茅b茅cois director says in a video call from Montreal.聽
His latest film, 鈥淭estament,鈥� expands theatrically in Canada on Friday after proving a hit in Quebec.
鈥淚t makes me softer and more at ease with mankind.鈥�
The public is giving Arcand lots of energy, as 鈥淭estament鈥� earned an impressive $400,000 during its opening weekend in Quebec last month and has already crossed the $1.5 million mark. It鈥檚 the strongest opening for a Quebecois film since the pandemic began.
鈥淭estament鈥� marks another satire from Arcand after 1986鈥檚 鈥淭he Decline of the American Empire鈥� and 2003鈥檚 鈥淭he Barbarian Invasions,鈥� which represents Canada鈥檚 only Oscar win in the best international film category.
Arcand鈥檚 latest film roasts political correctness as septuagenarian archivist Jean-Michel, played by R茅my Girard, sees a group of protesters rally outside his retirement home. As the mob advocates for the removal of a mural that depicts Samuel de Champlain鈥檚 first contact with Indigenous people, Jean-Michel finds love with the home鈥檚 director, played by Suzanne Francoeur, as their struggle to understand the world unites them.聽
Arcand explains he was inspired by a controversy with a similar painting at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. He says that curators remedied the situation by placing commercial glass atop the mural and annotating its inaccuracies.聽
鈥淚 went to New York and saw it. I started thinking that, eventually, we could correct all western art like this,鈥� says Arcand. 鈥淭here's always something that you can do better, or correct, or offer a different point of view.鈥澛�
The director adds the event left him perplexed about the state of culture.聽
鈥淎s we change, of course things are different in our point of view,鈥� says Arcand.聽
鈥淏ut do you go back and correct the whole past? Do you behead every statue in every park of the western world? Do we change art? These are the questions that I thought were interesting.鈥�
Arcand hasn鈥檛 shied away from these questions, either. He playfully dropped an F-bomb on the talk show 鈥淭out le monde en parle鈥� recently when asked if he made cultural consultations during scripting. He was asked specifically if he consulted his transgender son Carter, who appears in the film, regarding jokes about pronouns.
Arcand reiterates that consultations are for government services, but not for satire.聽
鈥淎 work of art is something extraordinarily personal. It's something that comes from the deepest part of you. I don't feel that consulting would lead to anything,鈥� Arcand notes.聽
鈥淩embrandt didn't consult people to paint the 鈥楾he Night Watch.鈥� To me, it's abhorrent. Consulting is something that you do and it's absolutely valid. But it's in another field of society, not in art.鈥�
Consultations for 鈥淭estament鈥� would have proved exhaustive, too. Arcand lampoons people of all stripes: feminists, cyclists, vegans, Quebec nationalists and everyone in between land in the crosshairs.
鈥淚 have friends who are cyclists and they always want to put me to shame,鈥� laughs Arcand. 鈥淚 want to talk about everything that bugs me in life.鈥�
The film鈥檚 sense of humour comes in part through Girard鈥檚 performance as a man from a bygone era.聽
鈥淭estament鈥� marks Girard鈥檚 fifth film with Arcand and the actor shows a natural rhythm for the filmmaker鈥檚 literary dialogue.聽
鈥淗e shows up and he reads the line just one time. Then he says it, and it's exactly how I imagine it had to be said when I wrote it,鈥� says Arcand.聽
鈥淗e has this amazing knack for understanding perfectly how I write and how I want it to sound.鈥�
The casting of 鈥淭estament鈥� adds an inside joke to Arcand鈥檚 satire. Filmmaker/dramatist Robert Lepage, whose controversial plays 鈥淪L膧V鈥� and 鈥淜anata鈥� were both cancelled in 2018 amid charges of cultural appropriation, appears as the assistant minister of culture.聽
鈥淚t was a very, very difficult experience for him, so I thought it would be fun that he could have his revenge,鈥� Arcand laughs.聽
鈥淭estament鈥� sees Lepage鈥檚 character defend artistic expression, ridiculing Cirque de Soleil and C茅line Dion as barometers for Quebec culture while praising the controversial mural. 聽聽
Arcand, however, says that he hasn鈥檛 heard if Dion has seen the film.聽
鈥淚've met her a few times and I think she has a sense of humour, so she would go along with it, I guess,鈥� he laughs.
Arcand hopes that audiences share a laugh with 鈥淭estament鈥� and understand that the tough love he delivers is not that of a cynic, but an optimist.聽
鈥淎 cynic is hopeless. He thinks that things are going to turn from bad to worse, and he has absolutely no hope. Satire is something that you do hoping to change the way people behave,鈥� says Arcand.聽
鈥淭hat's been my motto forever: you underline stuff that you think should be changed. But at the same time, you make it in a light, entertaining way hoping that people are going to be better. There's hope. It's not despair.鈥�
鈥淭estament鈥� opens Friday in cities including Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax.
鈥� Pat Mullen is a freelance writer based in Toronto.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2023.
By Pat Mullen, The Canadian Press
